I agree the B/W Amer and Blue Amer are the sweeties. We lost our Blue Amer before POL - so sad. My Blue Wheaten Ameraucana (my avatar) is 3-yrs-old and very nice to our two Silkies. Amers, and EEs, seem to have a non-combative nature. They prefer to flee rather than fight if possible. One of my Silkies went bonkers on our B/W Amer fighting her and the Amer defended herself but she was not retaliatory -- only defended herself. Any other chicken breed would've drawn blood on the squirrely Silkie. The B/W Amer kept away from the Silkie while the Silkie was in her hormonal jag. Silkies are sweet birds but they have a bad day too once in a while. Amers are wonderful birds to have around other so-called gentle breeds. Amers are more like the sentinels of the flock rather than the alpha leaders. They are so wary, skittish, and alert, they spook at any hawk, mylar balloon, or plastic bag that floats across the yard. My girl is never snoozing if the coop door or egg door is opened at night -- all the others are not moving but the B/W Amer stands up and murmurs/talks if there's disturbance in the roosting coop. I don't know how these Amers or EEs get any sleep the way they always seem to be in a hyper-tense mode. The only thing that bothers us about the B/W Amer is that she is an unreliable layer and has extremely noisy egg songs. Quirky too -- her suspicious nature keeps her from rushing into new things in the yard. She waits several days before trying a new feeder or waterer. She went in and out of the new coop several times a day to scope things out, test the perches, sniff the nestboxes -- like I say, she's our sentinel. A really sweet bird to have in the flock. I keep following the Bielie thread because so many say they are such gentle natured birds. The only thing keeping me from trying Bielie is that they get so heavy. Since the assertive Leghorns and aggressive Marans beat up on the Silkies I keep all my breeds 5-lb-&-under around the Silkies.
