Ameraucana bred to SOP

[kurby22]

Sorry for the delay! Classes started back this week!

I have to ask, I never heard the term HAL. I assume H stands for hatch. I been trying to guess the rest. I have two Nurture Right 360 and a cheap Amazon incubator back up (my very first one) if I need more space. I use dividers for lockdown in the 360 for dividing breeds. I hope for a cabinet one day!

I wish there was more 4-h promotion to get kids interested when I was younger. I never even know things like that existed until being on chicken forums. That’s such a nice experience for your child! I looked up the d’Anver. I never seen that color. I have a new appreciation for the Belgian Bearded chickens. They look like a tiny version of ameraucana in a way. I can’t wait to see the photos of the new hatchlings as they grow! Your going to deft have a beautiful showing with your birds!

I got a text from Kim saying the eggs will be shipping soon, so I hope in the next week dragonfly will ship them. I am sad over the spectrum eggs. Fertility was not good. Only four seem to be developing out of the 12. I cracked a few open that looked like yolkers when candles and there was no bulls eye to them. So from the local breeder, I got five ameraucana (four blue, and one splash) about three weeks old now, the four possible Hatchers in nine days time from spectrum, and the dozen coming in from dragonfly. Hopefully I will get a good hatching from dragonfly. Then I’ll pick the best quality when they mature. I am using the elastic bands for keeping track of what line they are from.

Those birds are so beautiful. That beard is so majestic. That is deft a dominant beard and muff gene!!

Nice! Schools started here two weeks ago! Summer was really short! Are you teaching or being taught?

HAL is short for Hatch-A-Long basically you start a thread and people can follow your eggs as you wait for them to hatch! I join the monthly ones generally but I’d love to see how things go with her eggs for you and the chicks that make it to hatch! :-D

I always wanted to do 4-H as a kid but figured I couldn’t because we didn’t live on a farm. So I’m living vicariously thru my kids now And trying to convince my husband we need goats and cows too haha It really is such a neat way to teach kids about animals, the realities of meat and products we consume, not to mention responsibility!

I chose d’Anver chickens for that reason too haha. I just love bearded birds and these guys are so little and cute! Bantam Ameraucanas have been really hard to come by in colors I want, so I chose d’Anvers! Namely because d’Uccles are so much more work to keep in show condition with their gorgeous feathered legs!

Thank you! I agree about Amy in all the ways! Plus she has a great personality. She’s friendly, visits me every day, and HATES being in isolation cages when she doesn’t feel well So much yelling

Just had to share my d’Anvers for a second hehe

This is Squeakers Squeakers has a DQ comb but his type is pretty perfect, so I may keep him for breeding to see if his comb issues can be corrected. Pip Pip seems pretty close to standards although not all her toes are dark. But her color is nice and even, her feathers are not shredded, and her beard is nice and full.

This is Pip Pip

And this is Jack, he also has a DQ comb but perfect type…I’m hoping his brothers gain a bit of his confidence and flair, because they are closer to SOP

This is Jager

Apparently these colors in d’Anver are not common in the show circuit so hopefully I can get some decent stock to work from

 

[TwoShepherds]

For those of you with Ameraucanas, just wondering at what age they began to lay.

I have six blue/splash Ameraucana pullets that hatched around April 1 this spring. One was laying for a while—I’ve found about 4 blue eggs, but there hasn’t been any more blue eggs for several weeks. They don’t free-range, so it’s not really possible for them to hide eggs.

The black copper marans that I hatched at the same time as the Ameraucanas have been laying consistently for a month or so. Is it normal for Ameraucanas not to be laying at almost 7 months?

 

[kurby22]

For those of you with Ameraucanas, just wondering at what age they began to lay.

I have six blue/splash Ameraucana pullets that hatched around April 1 this spring. One was laying for a while—I’ve found about 4 blue eggs, but there hasn’t been any more blue eggs for several weeks. They don’t free-range, so it’s not really possible for them to hide eggs.

The black copper marans that I hatched at the same time as the Ameraucanas have been laying consistently for a month or so. Is it normal for Ameraucanas not to be laying at almost 7 months?

Yes, I believe it can be pretty normal, especially if you got them from a breeder and not a hatchery. Mine were born in February and just started laying this month. I got a few pullet eggs and then nothing for a bit...and I know the shorter days also impact laying with new layers too. My Marans are clockwork layers, most reliable, most productive, but the rest of my flock is a bit pickier and more impacted by outside influences like weather, molting, stress, daylight length.

 

[TwoShepherds]

Yes, I believe it can be pretty normal, especially if you got them from a breeder and not a hatchery. Mine were born in February and just started laying this month. I got a few pullet eggs and then nothing for a bit...and I know the shorter days also impact laying with new layers too. My Marans are clockwork layers, most reliable, most productive, but the rest of my flock is a bit pickier and more impacted by outside influences like weather, molting, stress, daylight length.

Thanks! It's my first time with Ameraucanas and not Easter eggers. I usually hatch or buy chicks in May and they are laying or mostly laying by October. I started a month earlier this year, hoping for September layers. They did come from a breeder, and I'm quite pleased with them, but I figured a few of them at least would be laying by now.

 

[Alaskan]

I find my Ameraucanas do NOT like to lay in the winter. They lay well the rest of the year.

 

[TwoShepherds]

I find my Ameraucanas do NOT like to lay in the winter. They lay well the rest of the year.

Thanks! Usually my hens stop laying in the fall/winter, but so far my pullets that have matured in the fall have mostly laid through their first winter. This is my first year with Ameraucanas though, so it’s good to know what to expect.

 

[Poultrybonkers]

For those of you with Ameraucanas, just wondering at what age they began to lay.

I have six blue/splash Ameraucana pullets that hatched around April 1 this spring. One was laying for a while—I’ve found about 4 blue eggs, but there hasn’t been any more blue eggs for several weeks. They don’t free-range, so it’s not really possible for them to hide eggs.

The black copper marans that I hatched at the same time as the Ameraucanas have been laying consistently for a month or so. Is it normal for Ameraucanas not to be laying at almost 7 months?

When I had ameraucanas the hen didnt start laying until 42 weeks.

 

[I Like Turkeys]

Yes, I believe it can be pretty normal, especially if you got them from a breeder and not a hatchery. Mine were born in February and just started laying this month. I got a few pullet eggs and then nothing for a bit...and I know the shorter days also impact laying with new layers too. My Marans are clockwork layers, most reliable, most productive, but the rest of my flock is a bit pickier and more impacted by outside influences like weather, molting, stress, daylight length.

I’m intending to start breeding and showing bantam ameraucanas at some point, does this late-to-lay tend to hold true for the bantam versions as well? Or, if you know, do they start laying even later than that?

 

[kurby22]

I’m intending to start breeding and showing bantam ameraucanas at some point, does this late-to-lay tend to hold true for the bantam versions as well? Or, if you know, do they start laying even later than that?

I’m not sure about the bantams yet. I have one bantam wheaten pullet and she’s 16 weeks…I think in general bantams are a bit slower to lay than large fowl. My bantam EEs that are 1/2 Ameraucana and they started laying two weeks ago, and they were hatched on Easter! So 24+ weeks and they’re the cutest tiniest blue eggs

 

[Alaskan]

My bantams lay similar to my full sized.

(I used to have full sized, now only bantams)