Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[pips&peeps]

The female looks as though she may have yellow skin. The beak appears yellow.

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

The female looks as though she may have yellow skin.  The beak appears yellow.

I agree. I would like to see a close up of her beak

 

[ashtree]

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, john

I love this! The passion put into preserving and enhancing this breed is something I really appreciate. Thank you for explaining everything in a pretty simplified way! Sounds like finding pure chicks will be a greater challenge than I anticipated. I'm new to ameraucanas and so blindly went forward, but I do wish I'd checked out this thread first! I'm planning to get fertile eggs from a reputable breeder when the weather cools down. At this point they would be incubating on a ups truck!

 

[summersfarm]

After finding out my Ameraucana pair were considered Easter eggers a couple days ago I did tons of research and found a breeder on the Ameraucana Breeders Association near me. Because my young boys are going to show chickens I picked that young black pair up last night. They are both from John Blehm and Paul Smith Breed lines. Both of them have parents that have won national shows.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I love this! The passion put into preserving and enhancing this breed is something I really appreciate. Thank you for explaining everything in a pretty simplified way! Sounds like finding pure chicks will be a greater challenge than I anticipated. I'm new to ameraucanas and so blindly went forward, but I do wish I'd checked out this thread first! I'm planning to get fertile eggs from a reputable breeder when the weather cools down. At this point they would be incubating on a ups truck!

You can order chicks for next year from a reputable breeder. Paul Smith is near you in Texas. They can be mailed.

 

[ashtree]

You can order chicks for next year from a reputable breeder.  Paul Smith is near you in Texas.  They can be mailed.

Thank you. I'm going to look him up now. I did see someone in Windom Tx (maybe that's who you are referring to?) looks like they have quality ameracaunas. But I will have to wait some time before taking a long trip as I have a newborn. But shipping is always an option when the weather is permitting.

 

[tigercreek]

Might be the wrong place to ask this, but I am not a member of the breed club yet, so.... can you trust that a breeder listed on the ABC breeder's list is a breeder of quality birds??? Or do you just know that they are members of the club? Is there any feedback given to those who sell eggs or chicks from the club site???........thanks

 

[hotlipshens]

Wish you were closer - I'd give your boys some cockerals to have some fun with...have you asked your local 4H group - lots of people donate birds to them for the kids?

 

[johnderosa1]

Might be the wrong place to ask this, but I am not a member of the breed club yet, so.... can you trust that a breeder listed on the ABC breeder's list is a breeder of quality birds??? Or do you just know that they are members of the club? Is there any feedback given to those who sell eggs or chicks from the club site???........thanks

Its a good starting place but you should still do your homework...

 

[JackieandChicks]

So I got these three boys today - and when I told my husband, his eyes glazed over. So I thought I'd share here!






Not the best shots as they are terrified of me. I can't believe I took all three, but look at them! I'll have to figure something out with them. They are John Blehm lines, his "reject" chicks that a friend got that ended up crowing. I'm not planning on big time breeding, but I have a few nice EEs that I'l like to improve for my own personal flock, and then I do have another John Blehm gal...



I am happy that I have some nice quality birds, that, while not necessarily show quality, are fancy enough for me!

Oh, and did I mention they were all gifted to me?