Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[speckledhen]

I'm having rooster trouble.

I have one Ameraucana rooster who just turned a year old. He's a great free range rooster, very observant and he manages to hustle his hens to safer areas whenever he perceives a threat. However, he is a lousy rooster with people, taking his protective duties too far. He's destined for freezer camp whenever I have another to replace him. My current group of 12 from the same breeder that I am growing out should have a cockerel that is as nice looking as he is and hopefully has a nicer temperament. They are almost 8 weeks old.

I grew out four cockerels from the same breeder last year. The two--one I still have--who assumed the "leadership" roles were both a real pain around people. The other two were subordinate to the nasty two, so who knows if they would have been problematic had they been the sole roosters. Three of the four ended up in the freezer.

I think part of the problem is my fault--I didn't recognize his behavior for what it was right at the beginning. I had too many cockerels for the number of pullets and it took me a long time to get around to culling three of them. In my back yard, I have another flock of mostly Silkies with two roosters--a Silkie and a bantam Cochin--and don't have people aggression problems with them, so it isn't completely my doing.

The flock with the nasty rooster free ranges on almost two acres out front. It is treed and fenced, dog proof but not fox proof. There are fox very near me. My neighbor has lost a lot of chickens to fox and this spring, one to a Red Tailed hawk.

I want to keep this rooster around until my 12 Am chicks are grown up and integrated into the flock. I'll let them out with the flock when I get back from a trip at the end of the month; they will be 10 weeks old.

How "safe" is it to have hens and 3-month old Ameraucanas outside without a rooster to watch over them? I'm out in the country.

Do LF Ameraunas "tend" to be people aggressive? Is people aggression something that runs in certain lines?

Last, but not least, I would appreciate some advice so I don't create a new group of younger monsters.

Thanks.

Human aggression can run in lines and you can breed for temperament. I do. I had one LF black Ameraucana male and he was aggressive. Never had another so can't say what it was, if it was his line or not. Temperament is heritable. I do not breed from human aggressive males and I tend to have folks come to me because of the reputation of the birds that I have for easygoing roosters.

 

[johnderosa1]

I'm having rooster trouble.


I have one Ameraucana rooster who just turned a year old.  He's a great free range rooster, very observant and he manages to hustle his hens to safer areas whenever he perceives a threat.  However, he is a lousy rooster with people, taking his protective duties too far.  He's destined for freezer camp whenever I have another to replace him.  My current group of 12 from the same breeder that I am growing out should have a cockerel that is as nice looking as he is and hopefully has a nicer temperament.  They are almost 8 weeks old.

I grew out four cockerels from the same breeder last year.  The two--one I still have--who assumed the "leadership" roles were both a real pain around people.  The other two were subordinate to the nasty two, so who knows if they would have been problematic had they been the sole roosters.  Three of the four ended up in the freezer.

I think part of the problem is my fault--I didn't recognize his behavior for what it was right at the beginning.  I had too many cockerels for the number of pullets and it took me a long time to get around to culling three of them.  In my back yard, I have another flock  of mostly Silkies with two roosters--a Silkie and a bantam Cochin--and don't have people aggression problems with them, so it isn't completely my doing.

The flock with the nasty rooster free ranges on almost two acres out front.  It is treed and fenced, dog proof but not fox proof.  There are fox very near me.  My neighbor has lost a lot of chickens to fox and this spring, one to a Red Tailed hawk.

I want to keep this rooster around until my 12 Am chicks are grown up and integrated into the flock.  I'll let them out with the flock when I get back from a trip at the end of the month; they will be 10 weeks old.

How "safe" is it to have hens and 3-month old Ameraucanas outside without a rooster to watch over them?  I'm out in the country.

Do LF Ameraunas "tend" to be people aggressive?  Is people aggression something that runs in certain lines?


Last, but not least, I would appreciate some advice so I don't create a new group of younger monsters.


Thanks.

I have two comments... First, i dont think aggressiveness is breed wide. I have had 5 adult Am roosters over the last 3 years and none have been aggressive at all. I dont free range them but go in to there pens regularly without issue. As for three month olds... I would be worried about hawks at this age. I put some out at two or three months when i first got mine in a fenced garden and they didnt make it through the first day. A hawk killed and ate one and injured another. Just my two cents.

 

[chickee]

What exactly would be a pure blood EE? Not trying to be rude or anything, just curious, here there's no such thing...lol

She is out of my pure Meredith buff Ameraucana hens and a pure Pips&Peeps Wheaten Ameraucana rooster. To avoid confusion, we call her an EE because she is not a recognized color.

 

[PeckPeckChick]

My ameraucana Rose, can anyone tell me what color she will be?

 

[HaplessRunner]

I have two comments... First, i dont think aggressiveness is breed wide. I have had 5 adult Am roosters over the last 3 years and none have been aggressive at all. I dont free range them but go in to there pens regularly without issue. As for three month olds... I would be worried about hawks at this age. I put some out at two or three months when i first got mine in a fenced garden and they didnt make it through the first day. A hawk killed and ate one and injured another. Just my two cents.

My experience with ameraucana roosters has been uniformly bad. The ameraucana pullets and hens are some of the nicest and friendliest you ever find. The ameraucana roosters are not only strikingly beautiful but also strikingly aggressive to other chickens and in particular other breed roosters. I have had to intervene on more than one occasion to save another breed cockerel in the bachelor pen when a bunch of ameraucana boys decided to gang up on that rooster. They would chase him relentlessly trying to finish him off. One of my wheaten cockerels likewise turned people aggressive; a fatal mistake on his part.

At this time, I no longer have any ameraucanas except some blue wheaten/wheaten eggs that are due to hatch this week. This is due to a forced refocusing due an unanticipated disaster that resulted in the loss of all my adult chickens.


The following is the story line of what happened to my adult chickens.

*************************************

Unfortunately, I have to be the bearer of bad news. The following information was provided to some friends and customers and includes several updates along the way.

In early February, I was searching for a splash ameraucana rooster to pair with my black ameraucana pullet. I found one that a backyard person had acquired from a reputable breeder. In observing his flock near Gainesville, VA, the flock appeared to be healthy and well maintained so I purchased this rooster and his brother. After keeping these roosters in quarantine for 3-4 weeks and not noting any problems, they were transitioned into my flock.

Early in March, I began to note some respiratory problems with my layer flock. I cleaned out the built up manure in the coop and sanitized the area. The brother of the desired rooster began to have problems (continuously picked on and deteriorating) so he was culled three weeks ago and the remaining acquired rooster was placed in the bachelor pen. Respiratory problems continued to spread and worsen over the last week even while administering meds in the water.

Wednesday, March 26, I drove 2.5 hours to the State Vet lab in Harrisonburg, VA and delivered this rooster and five of my sickest hens for euthanasia and subsequent necropsy.

Thursday afternoon, March 27, I got the word from the State vet lab, my chickens were positive for both MG and MS. My chickens were completely healthy prior to the introduction these two birds. As it turns out, those two birds had overcome their illnesses but were carriers for MG & MS and would be carriers for life. I will now have to cull my entire flock which includes a BB black ameraucana cockerel, a RV black ameraucana pullet, a BV blue wheaten ameraucana cockerel, a BV wheaten ameraucana pullet and a RV ameraucana cockerel (Virginia Poultry Breeders Association show, November 23,2013) . I will also lose my Swedish flower hens, my entire layer flock, and my bachelor pen. I am hoping that I do not lose my cream legbars as well since they were in a separate pen which was adjacent to the layer flock. But the odds are not with me.

My cream legbar chicks that I have hatched were pre-exposure. I am watching my cream legbar pen them like a hawk for any sign of respiratory issues. I would hate to lose my one pure cream girl but it is not worth keeping her if there is a problem.

****************************************

An update, Friday night, March 28, I went out into my cream legbar coop and two of the three breeders had rattles in their breathing. So as of that Saturday morning I have no adult chickens; all have been culled. In all, I culled almost 50 chickens. Moving on it will be time to clean up, learn from this experience, and prepare for the new chicks that were not exposed to grow out.

I do appreciate the support that the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) has provided. They euthanized, performed necropsies, and paid for some additional laboratory testing at no charge to me.

So it looks like I am starting over. Sometimes it feels like that you can do everything right and still suffer horrendous consequences.

****************************************

The lesson learned going forward for me is a changed quarantine protocol. Prospectively, when acquiring birds for stock:

Place them in quarantine for 3 weeks
Add one of your own expendable chickens to the newbies in quarantine for an additional 3 weeks.
If your chicken gets sick, then have all birds tested to identify and have them culled accordingly.

That way even if they are asymptomatic carriers, the expendable chicken you add with them would be the determining factor.

****************************************

Monday March 31 update: I spoke with VDACS today, both the poultry vet and the NPIP staff person. It looks like Kimberly, the vet tech will be coming to Loudoun County to support an event on Saturday April 12th. Once she is done there she will swing by and test all my chicks so I can have a final clearance regarding being free of this blight in my chickens once and for all.

****************************************

MG - mycoplasma gallisepticum and MS - mycoplasma snynoviae are related and are lifetime carriers. Additionally, once the birds were weakened, infectious bronchitis also set in. When the chickens were sick, I was researching like a madman trying to get as much information as I could. Once I got a bit a of a handle on the symptoms, I was actually hoping for infectious bronchitis which can be treated. I definitely had some misshaped eggs which were a symptom of infectious bronchitis. MS and MG can be treated but they are forever diseases and both can transmit through eggs.

The following were some of the actions taken followed up by a listing of my remaining stock that needed testing which was sent to VDACS prior to VDACS visit:


Coop and Equipment Cleanup Activities:

• All adult chickens were culled by Saturday morning, March 30, 2014 and disposed at a local landfill.
• On April 5th, I pressure washed both chicken coops and all equipment used in chicken operations.
• On April 6th, I sprayed and completely soaked both coops and all equipment used in chicken operations with a solution of bleach (2.5 cups of bleach/1.5 gallon of water bleach mixture - greater than a 10% mixture).
• All equipment and storage bins have been placed outside in the sun and weather.

Chicks to be tested:

These were hatched from eggs that I believe were pre-exposure and have been isolated from other chicks:

• Hatch Date of February 28: 4 cream legbar chicks
• Hatch Date of March 8: 4 cream legbars and 2 Swedish flower hen chicks
• Hatch Date of March 18: 6 cream legbar chicks

The afore identified chicks have been brooded together and have had no outward signs of illness.

• Hatch Date of April 5th: 5 cream legbar chicks – These have been isolated from all other chicks. These chicks came from potentially exposed eggs.

• Hatch Date of April 5th: 2 jubilee orpington chicks – These eggs came from another breeder and have been isolated from all other chicks. These have not been exposed.

The following eggs are scheduled to hatch on April 14. They came from another breeder and have been isolated from all other chicks and eggs.

• Projected Hatch Date of April 14: 11 blue wheaten/wheaten ameraucanas
• Projected Hatch Date of Apriil 24: 24 Swedish flower hens

8 jubilee orpingtons

This completes the summary of cleanup/recovery activities and the listing of all chicken stock currently held.

VDACS has since come by and taken swabs of every chick that I have. So I should hear something regarding status by the middle of the week. Further discussions with VDACS indicate that the State may be willing to do some periodic blood testing. There is a possibility that she may send me some red cap vacuum tubes for which I can inject blood samples and have them shipped for testing. More info on that to come.

As you will note from above, I am moving forward with hatching, refocusing, and rebuilding. I have been fortunate. Many friends, chicken friends, and customers have been very supportive of me and the decisions that I had to make (culling the birds). Several chicken friends have provided me and offered me some eggs for restarting. From that perspective, it has been gratifying the support and care that has been forthcoming.

In terms of refocusing, I really enjoyed the beauty of my basques and particularly the ameraucanas. The hens and pullets of both were some of the nicest and friendliest. The males of these two breeds were not only striking beautiful but also strikingly aggressive to other chickens and particularly other roosters. In the case of the basques and ameraucanas , one of each became aggressive with me which was a fatal mistake on their part. I found that I had to intervene several times when the ameraucana boys in the bachelor pen decided to gang up on another cockerel and would chase it relentlessly to finish him off.

So even though I am hatching some blue wheaten/wheaten ameraucana eggs I will probably sell all of these chicks. If I cannot sell them, I will keep the females for layers and caponize the males. I had committed to purchase these eggs before the outbreak so I fulfilled my commitment.

I am also cutting back to just three breeds plus some projects. I really love my cream legbars and enjoy the SFH. The jubliee orpingtons are interesting and orpingtons I have had before have been fairly docile. There is a good market where I live the legbars and SFH. So this seems to make the most sense for now.

****************************************
So bring a long story to closure, I will not sell any chicken, chick, or hatching egg which has been exposed to a disease. This has been an emotionally wrenching experience and a very expensive lesson. I had done well for starting out selling chickens, chicks and hatching eggs when this happened. So I am basically set back a year in my plans.

With respect to the ameraucanas, it is a breed that I really liked, admired, and with which I had done well. But I do not have the time, energy, and resources to deal with an aggressive breed that creates problems with other breeds.

Best regards to ameraucana breeders and owners. Ameraucanas truly are beautiful chickens. May be someday I will try them again.

 

[lualshannon]

I'm having rooster trouble.


I have one Ameraucana rooster who just turned a year old.  He's a great free range rooster, very observant and he manages to hustle his hens to safer areas whenever he perceives a threat.  However, he is a lousy rooster with people, taking his protective duties too far.  He's destined for freezer camp whenever I have another to replace him.  My current group of 12 from the same breeder that I am growing out should have a cockerel that is as nice looking as he is and hopefully has a nicer temperament.  They are almost 8 weeks old.

I grew out four cockerels from the same breeder last year.  The two--one I still have--who assumed the "leadership" roles were both a real pain around people.  The other two were subordinate to the nasty two, so who knows if they would have been problematic had they been the sole roosters.  Three of the four ended up in the freezer.

I think part of the problem is my fault--I didn't recognize his behavior for what it was right at the beginning.  I had too many cockerels for the number of pullets and it took me a long time to get around to culling three of them.  In my back yard, I have another flock  of mostly Silkies with two roosters--a Silkie and a bantam Cochin--and don't have people aggression problems with them, so it isn't completely my doing.

The flock with the nasty rooster free ranges on almost two acres out front.  It is treed and fenced, dog proof but not fox proof.  There are fox very near me.  My neighbor has lost a lot of chickens to fox and this spring, one to a Red Tailed hawk.

I want to keep this rooster around until my 12 Am chicks are grown up and integrated into the flock.  I'll let them out with the flock when I get back from a trip at the end of the month; they will be 10 weeks old.

How "safe" is it to have hens and 3-month old Ameraucanas outside without a rooster to watch over them?  I'm out in the country.

Do LF Ameraunas "tend" to be people aggressive?  Is people aggression something that runs in certain lines?


Last, but not least, I would appreciate some advice so I don't create a new group of younger monsters.


Thanks.

We have occasional Fox, and Bobcat problem, therefore I never allow the chicks to free range until about 6 mos. old., and even then, they are in a protected area. I have 4 LF roosters who are very protective, and take their job quite seriously, but would not be able to fight off a Fox, or a Bobcat. Last year, a Bobcat killed my very courageous and feisty 14 lb. head rooster. In our place, I would not be able to rely on my roosters to be able to protect the juveniles from the large predators such as Fox, Bobcat, or Raccoons, etc..

I have witnessed my roosters work in a team and attack hawks and falcons; but, still, after loosing couple of my 3-4 mos. old chicks to these birds of prey, realized that I have to be quite diligent about providing extra protection for them. Even the big, large fowl chicks and juveniles are easy prey for these winged predators.

Lual

 

[Nikon]

Ahhhhh...see here an easter egger is just any mixed bird that carries the blue egg gene but doesn't necessarily lay a blue egg...could be different shades of green (exception being the olive egger), pink, or blue. An Ameraucana is a pure Aamarucana as long as the line is pure regardless of color, though certain colors are only recognized as show colors. I could breed 2 pure blue Ameraucanas, get a splash and it's still a pure Ameraucana, it's just not a recognized color so therefore not show quality. Kind of like poodles....you breed a purebred black poodle with a purebred white poodle and you could get black, white, silver, or even a black/white mix( doesn't happen very often though) it's still a purebred poodle but the black/white mix isn't a recognized color. This is why I love BYC...you get a wide range of people from different places and honest answers when you ask and I always learn something new...lol Thank you.

Yes, it took me so long to figure that out a year ago when we got our first chickens and the fact that all the feed stores were selling "Americanas" that have the blue-egg gene as actual Ameraucanas does NOT help. Then I learned about Easter Eggers. Then I learned you can have a pure Ameraucana of an unrecognized color which makes them..... chickens.

I had a German Schnauzer like that, he was "parti" colored, but was a pure-bred schnauzer. Not show quality as the AKC doesn't recognize that color pattern in schnauzers, but nothing can make him anything but a Schnauzer.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

it really doesn't matter how old a Chicken or Rooster is a hawk can kill and eat it. Your only hope is alertness if they free range. A alert rooster goes along way

 

[jajeanpierre]

At this time, I no longer have any ameraucanas except some blue wheaten/wheaten eggs that are due to hatch this week. This is due to a forced refocusing due an unanticipated disaster that resulted in the loss of all my adult chickens.


The following is the story line of what happened to my adult chickens.

• All adult chickens were culled by Saturday morning, March 30, 2014 and disposed at a local landfill.

YIKES!! I am so sorry. What a disaster. Good luck with your new chickens and thank you for taking the time to answer some of my questions in the middle of all your turmoil.

 

[FLF]

I've been raising Ams for about 6 years now. I have never had a mean or aggressive rooster until recently. I've always had LF, but several months ago I acquired the meanest little black bantam rooster. So mean. However, definitely not the norm in my experience!

My worst rooster experiences were from when I used to raise bantam cochins. Shudder. I had so many mean ones, different breeders and lines. It was a big factor in focusing only on Ams. They are really great with my kids!