The EE braggers thread!!!

[rhs7111]

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Promoted is right! Beautiful coloring!!

 

[crash0330]

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oh she is so beautiful. I have one that looked like that when it was little and right now at 13 weeks old her feathers are all white, I'm still waiting for some changes as she matures tho

 

[SteveH]

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I had a breeding pen with a White Ameraucana over 3 White hens and 4 B/B/S hens.............................. no way of knowing with certainty who the mother was/were. An unknown, recessive, dilutant gene has surfaced before in both black and wheaten Ameraucanas.

Buffalo gnats are also called blackflies or turkey flies; in normal numbers the chickens eat them. During a plague hatch, they become so numerous that they crawl in the chick's or chicken's nostrils and kill them; it appears unclear to experts whether it's out right suffocation or a reaction to the toxins in the gnat's bites. I've found out since, from people living long term here on the river bottoms and through the internet, that this has happened before during plague hatches. The gnats require flowing water to hatch, will only be found in large numbers near streams and rivers, and a wet, warm spring is advantageous to them reaching plague populations. Unlike mosquitoes, the buffalo gnats are a daytime problem, but most of my flock was dead before noon. I burned out 4 of these bug zappers in two weeks with a combination of mosquitoes and buffalo gnats.

The best defence prooved to be a high velocity fan placed in the coop; insecticides [safe enough to use] and repellents were not very effective. Once in place, the eight survivors nearly instantly discovered that the gnats could not attack them if they huddled behind or in front of the fan; before that they hid in the darkest places they could find to escape the hoard....... the gnats do not like dark places.

 

[flower]

Well Steve H you are now an expert on buffalo gnats !!! But it nice to see that your survivors are breeding interesting and healthy birds. Are they LF. I have the same birds in their early state of development but they are bantams. I might breed then together but I am not sure yet.

 

[puredelite]

SteveH- Talk about pest and pestilence of Biblical porportions! I do know what black flies are, have been bitten by them while up in Canada. Never encountered them in the numbers you describe tho. We have a few gnats here but no mosquitoes. Left them behind in Louisiana with the fire ants and other pest. I have a chick out of my only Ameraucana( blue hen) and my silver EE roo that looks completely Ameraucana. I haven't checked the skin color yet and am hoping it is a pullet so I can hopefully breed so color variation into my flock of EE's. Iwasn't aware that the dilutant gene was a possibility in Ameraucana's other than in the lavender's. The chicks are an interesting and attractive color tho.

 

[SteveH]

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No mam, the eggs were hatched from eggs from the now mostly dead flock; I had only 6 hens and two pullets that survived. The bator was full plus a few waiting to go in at the time.

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Yes, they were large fowl. The cross of White on B/B/S produces splits for Whites; resulting offspring would ideally be either black or blue, but produce 50% whites when crossed back to a white. However, the genotypes on Ameraucanas are often carrying masked colors that show up in a breeding of this type; or in linebreeding.

 

[SteveH]

On the day my losses, I threw 3 dead birds in a cooler and dropped them off at a nearby IL State Animal Disease Lab; but called them back later to call off the necropsies and reported the cause of death to them. [I was told by a vet the service was free.]

To add both insult and injury:
I just opened a letter from the IL Dept of Agriculture................................................ it states they found no cause of death for my birds................................. and that I will be billed $137 plus assessments.

 

[flower]

Maybe you could make a few additional call and tell them that you were misled by information by so and so. I did that with a bill not to laong ago and asked for a more itemized invoice and made a fuss so to speak and I never heard from them again. It would not hurt you know.

I think I will use my bantam Ameraucanas to make some differnt type of EEs.

 

[phasianidae]

SteveH, sorry to hear about your loss. What a disaster. Are you still breeding for a bird like the one you posted a modified picture of a while back?(The bearded Chantecler rooster?)

 

[SteveH]

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Yes, but all 4 bearded cockerals and the 1 clean faced are lost; a real setback because they had just developed into what I had envisioned. They were Ameraucana x CX crosses, and huge. I only hatched 1 pullet; she survived but is both clean faced and much smaller. [The Ameraucana roo I was useing prooved to have only one copy for muffs/beard.] I do not have any pics of them after they developed the broad breasts, but here's one at a younger age. {I'll edit in his age after I look it up...... ETA: 13 1/2 weeks, and already much larger than the adult EEs and Ameraucanas}

This spring I had purcheased a quad of very nice white Ameracaunas for this project, and had two, show quality Dark Cornish over two Ameraucanas and three EEs in a breeding pen. I lost them all also, but hatched one DC x Black Ameraucana chick last night from the very last set of eggs from the deceased chickens. Also lost was a small group of Coronation Sussex that figured to be bred into this also.