Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[Prairie Fleur]

Here's a pic of Lacey, my lav Am pullet from @TaraBellaBirds. She's still a little wary of my but will eat out of my hand if I have something really nice. I have several more younger lavs from Tara and a few from Paul Smith. I'm loving them so far!

 

[sssharon]

Lacey is just beautiful. I have nine Ameriaucana eggs in an incubator right now and I hope I get some really pretty ones too. That and seven Olive/Eggers. I'm going to candle my eggs on Friday and can't wait to see and hope to see that a lot of them are fertile.

 

[MrsBachbach]

What method do most breeders use for record keeping?  I'm used to dog breeding with very detailed pedigrees where every dog is named.  I'm guessing this doesn't work for chickens!  Is it pencil and paper (I have seen breeders who do that) or is there some software or app that breeders prefer? 

I'm just getting started in Ameraucanas so apologies if this is a super dumb question!

Well, if you're not going to have multiple lines and multiple pens I have found colored zip ties or leg bands are good for a quick visual without having to go dig out the paperwork to see who this number is related to, or having to pick up chickens, clean their feet off and see how many toe punches they have. Roosters get assigned their color and that color goes on their left leg. Hens get assigned a color and that goes on their right leg. So, their offspring will have the color of the father on their left and color of their mother on their right. This is pretty good if you are only dealing with a few roosters and hens. It can get a bit complicated if you have seven or eight different lines going, especially a few generations down the road, so paper records would be necessary then. But just looking at their color legband I know which rooster they came from and which hen they came from.

 

[PapaChaz]

Well, if you're not going to have multiple lines and multiple pens I have found colored zip ties or leg bands are good for a quick visual without having to go dig out the paperwork to see who this number is related to, or having to pick up chickens, clean their feet off and see how many toe punches they have. Roosters get assigned their color and that color goes on their left leg. Hens get assigned a color and that goes on their right leg. So, their offspring will have the color of the father on their left and color of their mother on their right. This is pretty good if you are only dealing with a few roosters and hens. It can get a bit complicated if you have seven or eight different lines going, especially a few generations down the road, so paper records would be necessary then. But just looking at their color legband I know which rooster they came from and which hen they came from.

you're incubating them all separately or letting the hen hatch them? I'm trying to figure out figure out what chick came from what egg after hatching, LOL

 

[Gentry1350]

Feed stores and hatcheries don't usually print their signs from an ipad.......

ok so a hatchery advertises online, on a computer that could incorrectly spell something because of an unrecognized word in spell check. If I am the boss and have an employee who posts something that represents my business like it's run by uneducated people because he was too lazy to correct a spell check error, that guy might not last long working for me. Lot of difference in representing a business and typing on a message board.

on the other hand, as already pointed out, they'll also purposely misrepresent to be able to get a little more money by making the uneducated consumer think he's buying a purebred. It happens all the time, we see it here a LOT

not trying to be a snob about it, nor the grammar/spelling police either, BUT the uneducated appearance of this country becomes more predominant every day through the things I read and hear. It's really become sad that we've either become a nation of people who didn't pay attention in 3rd grade grammar class, or too lazy to fix the obvious errors. It used to be things like to, two and too, their, there or they're.....now I even see people put 'are' instead of or.....that one really just bugs me, LOL

ok off my soap box. It could be a dishonest company, or one that has lazy employees. Either way not someone I want to do business with 

There is a lady from my town that always puts "Rebecca an I", "Jason an I" on her selfies on FB. It drives me nuts! I just want to say "AND!, AND!, AND!"

 

[Reyvaughn]

you're incubating them all separately or letting the hen hatch them? I'm trying to figure out figure out what chick came from what egg after hatching, LOL

Since most of my pens are pretty identifiable, I don't normally bother separating eggs at hatch. But, this year I will have to with my chocolate pens. I have suet cages I put my eggs in to keep them separated. Sadly, the bantams can get through them. I used strawberry containers last year for the bantams. Once they hatch, I have the rubber bands that DMRippy sells here on BYC that I mark them with. I suggest multiple bands since chicks like to peck at everything.

 

[RangeChicks]

Help please in determining sex of these little guys. Hatched 4/17/15, so 6 weeks now.

 

[little-hen]

I'm thinking they're all male... someone better at sexing should chime in.

 

[junebuggena]

Yep, those are three very cute boys.

 

[RangeChicks]

I'm thinking they're all male... someone better at sexing should chime in.

Yep, those are three very cute boys.

Oh Joy! I really only needed one blue boy from this crew..... I guess I have 2 "very cute boys" available if someone is interested........