Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds - Page 1575

It's just in the line.  I bred wheatens and blue wheatens for five years and suddenly got stubs too.  I ended up culling the cock bird and starting with a new one.  I lost every one of my new cock birds over the past two years in that pen because they commit suicide.... (they jump up under the nest boxes and break their necks.)

Anyway right now I am down to using a bird that is full brother to "Geoffrey".  He has one little stub on the front of his leg.  I am only keeping the chicks without stubs, since this is what I have to work with. 

I also got eggs from another breeder and one of the chicks has stubs.  So just try to correct it.

Poo poo happens.......

Quote:

Originally Posted by Christie Rhae 

Just had to post this pic somewhere...

All these eggs have a Splash Ameraucana daddy so thought here was as good a place as any.  

I have here:

black copper marans eggs (olive eggers)

black ameraucana, (for some blue ameraucana chicks)

blue andalusian (practice chicks for my laced blue ameraucana project)

Nothing like an almost full incubator!  

 

I see veins in the andalusian eggs!  One of the nice things about white eggs...you can see everything!  What a treat compared to the marans.  I am just happy if the egg looks dark on lockdown day with them.  Lol

New Bantam Ameraucana chicks.

My older guy is still doing fine in there.  He must be a little brighter than the rest.

No stubs can happen on just about every variety.  I had a blue or black pop out several years ago with them, culled the bird, and haven't seen it since.

I am currently having an issue with my whites and stubs.......I outcrossed to a blue cock bird (to get rid of the barring gene), so those chicks don't have any issues.

Cindy and Walt make some excellent points.  And Walt your post scared the dickens out of me!  A closed flock for 30 years and now you get this pop up??  Ouch! 

Having said that, both Cindy and Walt's post - but especially Walt's - add a great deal of merit to why I say that one should maintain a closed flock AND linebreed while keeping meticulous records.  I know of no other way to identify the culprit that is the contributing factor to a problem that rears its ugly head.  If you know who each parent is and keep track of each subsequent mating, you can go back and identify where the problem is originating.

This requires a lot more time and effort but I believe it's worth it in the long run.  And even linebreeding isn't the best because I've seen where breeding one male to four or five full blood sisters can result is an oddity and then the only recourse is to get rid of the entire line of females if the male is ruled out as the problem maker.  Single mating or in other words 1 on 1 is probably the best but I have neither the time, space, or energy to do that.

God Bless,

Yep, got this feathered legged blue wheaten chick in one of my recent hatches. I sold this chick, and when I saw a picture of it at 4 weeks of age the feathers were gone  This chick was SUPER fluffy with a very large beard and muff. It was adorable!