The person sent me the pictures of the breeders (the 2 pictures from the original post Im referring to) in a text. Those pictures were never posted on their Craigslist add. I picked the chicks up tonight (day after her post and response from others). And, a little rant here, as the mom of 5 kids under 8, leaving the house and driving for 2 1/2 hours to get chickens is not THAT easy….alright, my rant is over. I will check out the breeder in McCloud Oklahoma! Thanks for all your help. I don't want to focus on the negative, thats no way to go to bed.Ameracaunas are a beautiful breed and I hope to own some one day.
thanks everyone for your help!
Ok. I apologize for creating drama! I sincerely hope the discussion ends or moves in a friendlier direction.thanks everyone for your help!
Ashtree, nothing wrong with your questions. People who have spent a lot of time working with Ameraucanas tend to be a bit passionate on this subject. It seems that just about every one who is on here got burned in the beginning just like you and it is frustrating to see all the misconceptions just keep perpetuating. Most newbies wind up posting pictures of their beautiful "Ameraucanas" here only to find out that they have "EEs" and thats when the fun begins.... I bought my original Ameraucanas aka EEs going on 4 years ago and only now am I getting to a place where I have some birds that i am proud to own. I think for the most part casual "breeders" really just dont know the difference between a true ameraucana and an EE. In other cases they just dont care. There are others that know exactly what they are doing and purposely mislead... Unfortunately it happens just like with anything else in life. I am going to try my best to explain the differences between true ameraucanas, project ameraucanas and finally EEs. "True" Ameraucanas are birds that conform to the SOPs AND belong to one of the eight recognized colors AND breed true to that color at least 50% of the time. All except for blue/blue wheaten should breed true to color 100% of the time, imo. It gets trickier with splash birds as they are not one of the recognized colors but are generally considered true ameraucanas... To be a legitimate "project" bird the goal of the breeding program is to produce a color that breeds true AND the bird meets the SOPs AND the goals is for acceptance of this color into the SOPs in the future (Lavenders). Any random crosses between two colors of ameraucanas or ameraucanas and anything else produce blue/green egg laying barnyard mixes affectionally know as the easter egger.... Anyone who advertises the random crossing of ameraucanas as true or pure ameraucanas or even project ameraucanas is doing a great disservice to the unsuspecting buyer and to the breed. I got my first true ameraucanas (after my ebay EEs) from a listed breeder but have come to realize that my "pure" Ameraucanas were hiding some nasty little secrets. I finally have some really beautiful lavenders from someone I met on here and have just added some black am chicks from someone with an excellent reputation. To summarize... The level of passion you see here regarding random crosses is that the amount of time and effort it takes to fight the battle and attempt to eliminate all the confusion surrounding this breed can be exhausting for both the experienced and the newbies alike. I hope my explanation is helpful. Kindest regards, johnOk. I apologize for creating drama! I sincerely hope the discussion ends or moves in a friendlier direction.
