Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[tatinatimom]

I thought she was an EE. Thank you for your explanation. It is helpful especially since I am still learning.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

That is very good to know, as I was thinking I'd be able to do simultaneous hatches of Marans and Ameraucanas next year. Although, my friend told me once that her shells were actually quite thin because it is a closed line of Marans (I suppose from inbreeding). Any thoughts on that? Do you really think it's the eggs themselves, or simply the breed?

also Dirty Ankle Acres is in Madison Virginia I think. Joshua raises Silver Ameraucana not sure how far that is from you.

 

[sssharon]

I actually thought that the shells being strong depended on the food. I never heard before about the other. I think calcium is the factor.Just my opinion.

 

[rainbowchick]

I actually thought that the shells being strong depended on the food. I never heard before about the other. I think calcium is the factor.Just my opinion.

My friend says she gives them calcium supplements, so I do think she's probably right about the closed line... She says she has horrible luck shipping this line's hatching eggs, and has stopped doing it. I know she takes every precaution shipping and only has trouble with that line.

 

[sssharon]

I wonder if she tried using bubble wrap and wrapping them individually. Probably so. That's what I use when I ship my sister produce from my garden. I'm in Nebraska and she's in Texas. One year I shipped two fruit cakes I had made. It cost me 26 dollars to send them. Pretty funny. They were the real good ones that you soak in alcohol. It took about 4 weeks to finish them.

 

[dstokely]

Yesterday I lost a gorgeous splash pullet right at the point of lay. She was a really pretty bird with a lot of substance. A really nice bird. I don't know what happened. It was a cooler day than we have been having (in the mid 90s) but it was very humid. I turned on the mister at noon as I always do in the hot weather. (I have bantam Cochins as well and they DO NOT do heat.) I have misters set up along the Cochin pen and in the bushes for the free range flock. There are two areas where the free range flock can stand in the shade in the cool from the misters. I found her dead behind a piece of plywood I have propped on the west side of the Cochin pen to keep the sun out. The pens and the misters are under a grove of 25 foot oak trees.

My Ameraucana's have taken to climbing up into the trees and I often find them 15 or 20 feet up. They are too heavy to fly down and if they jump rather than climb down they land hard.

Normally I check them a few times in the afternoon--this year found one bird seriously overheated even with the misters on this year--but I was out all day.

I am so angry to lose that pullet. Maybe she died from overheating. Maybe she jumped out of a tree and broke an egg internally. Maybe it was something else. She was the picture of health and vitality the last time i saw her and then she is dead.

This happened two days after a fox took one of my backyard Silkie hens. The fox took the hen about 20 feet from my patio. Where were those useless roosters???? Didn't they read where the purpose of a rooster is to lay his life down for the hens???? The only reason they aren't in the freezer is so they could watch the little bantam backyard flock. Two useless roosters and the fox takes a hen. Grrrrrr.

I am so sorry. I know how that feels. I lose most of mine to a predator, primarily hawk, but last year I lost my favorite, not AM, to drowning! I just lost one of my 20 wk old splash to a predator, last week or the week before that. They are my favorites of the AMs and I had 3 hens....now 2 hens. Maybe soon, the weather will break. For us, beginning this weekend, we are moving to early fall weather. I guess we just have to ebb with the flow, however frustrating.

 

[dstokely]

also Dirty Ankle Acres is in Madison Virginia I think. Joshua raises Silver Ameraucana not sure how far that is from you.

Do they have a website. I really like the looks of the Silvers. Never mind that I am still figuring out If I am only going to raise BBS.

 

[dstokely]

also Dirty Ankle Acres is in Madison Virginia I think. Joshua raises Silver Ameraucana not sure how far that is from you.

I see they are on FaceBook

 

[rainbowchick]

I wonder if she tried using bubble wrap and wrapping them individually. Probably so. That's what I use when I ship my sister produce from my garden. I'm in Nebraska and she's in Texas. One year I shipped two fruit cakes I had made. It cost me 26 dollars to send them. Pretty funny. They were the real good ones that you soak in alcohol. It took about 4 weeks to finish them.

Yes, she not only wraps them with bubble wrap individually, but also as a group, and also double boxes them with padding between the boxes. So I'm pretty sure she's doing it right...

 

[sssharon]

That is to bad about your splash. My grandson's birthday chicken was dead when he went out to their coop one day and it was real healthy. They haven't had good luck with their chickens either. They have had two different attacks that wiped out half of their birds. At one time they had fourty and now maybe after the second time they have maybe 12. They bought a few replacements and I hatched 4 of their eggs for them and rehomed one of mine to them also. Their Polish white crested roo ran and hid in their garage when a fox attacked them. I can understand that I guess since he was so small himself. But same thing. Where were the protective roosters at. I hate foxes and at my house I have raccoons and I live in town. It's cold here, enough that I could turn on the heat but it's way to early. Supposed to be in the 70's tomorrow. Sorry about the Splash.They are so pretty.