Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[AuntNomi]

Anyone that has Paul Smith's Ameraucanas has surely gotten lucky. He has the best you can have! And I must agree with others, we understand you are judging the breed by the 3 you had, I guess those 3 include EE's tho so that's not really fair judgement. I'm just confused why you continue to post on this thread how dissatisfied you are of the AM's?? Why not just brag of the bredas on one of their threads? We all like our birds!

 

[Sylvester017]

Not to mention, Sylvester, your sample size is WAY too small to come to a sweeping conclusion that ALL blue egg layers are poor producers. I've got a EE laying 3-4 eggs a week as a 3 year old. Statistically speaking, it would appear that your experience was an outlier.

I wish I could have that kind of luck. Having lost 2 out 3 Am's of different varieties from different breeders kinda discouraged me - and my friend - especially when a couple of our birds stopped laying. I keep hoping my Am will start laying again but it's been almost 6-mos w/o eggs

 

[Sylvester017]

You must have just had bad stock. I've had nice Ams as well as half Am EEs that lay blue or aqua eggs and have great production, 5-6 eggs a week even through Michigan winter. In fact, my EEs are laying better than my production reds right now, and the eggs are very easy to distinguish. Isn't there a Breda forum you could brag up about your girls? I came here to read about SOP Ams.

I only wanted to share that after the fiasco I had mixing dual-purpose production birds with our Silkies and Ameraucana that we finally found a decent LF breed that didn't terrorize the gentle Silkies and Ameraucana. It's been difficult finding good LF breeds to put together with Silkies and Ameraucana. We're hoping that if stress is an Ameraucana stressor that having a better LF breed added to the flock will improve it production-wise. Hey, we're trying anything we can to get our Amer on track again and sorry if I can't share that to everyone's satisfaction.

 

[WalnutHill]

Originally Posted by Sylvester017

If I've been repetitive I've only been answering the posts that asked me questions or I had questions. I keep hoping someone will come up with an explanation or something I may not have thought of as a fix. I have no intention of "putting down" any bird unless it is vet recommended. I really do love my only Ameraucana but how can some people have hardy birds, have good layers, or at least decent layers and we here in the SoCal SGV don't have any luck with them. I know Am's hate the heat and seem to have fun on cooler or rainy days because mine pants like crazy in humid weather which unfortunately we had for several weeks. Now that it's been cooler and even raining she's been out and about but her comb shows no sign of deepening. Is that a sign she'll never lay again? She layed through winter before so I'm stumped. I've also been posting what breeds seem to be a good match in the flock for the Amer since not all LF are good flock matches with our timid Am as we found out having her with some other assertive LF breeds. I hoped my experience would help others who may have had or have a similar dilemma and that's what posting is all about - sharing - I thought. This thread is entitled "Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds" -- so I'm discussing

. Sorry you were ruffled as it's never predictable what emotions are evoked from people who read someone else's posts. I was hoping to get some encouragement or get a handle on some constructive feedback that I might have missed somewhere along the way.

All I really heard was an advertisement for Bredas, which I am sure are fine birds but are not Ameraucanas. I could just as well talk about my challenges and successes with my turkeys but I won't bore anyone on this thread on that topic.

Constructive feedback: all hens are subject to slow down laying if they eat high calorie junk food, or if they are too timid to eat enough to do more than sustain themselves. Ensure they are healthy, no abdominal masses that may indicate reproductive tumors, feel the rear of the abdomen to determine if it is pliable, and check the pelvis to see if perhaps they are just hiding eggs on you. Ams, like most hens, lay best with 14+ hours of day length every day, when healthy, well fed, and without parasite load. My Am and Am crosses have a commercial productive life (over 70% annual average ROL) for three years, and are still fine backyard layers after that.

 

[Miss Ameraucana]

If I've been repetitive I've only been answering the posts that asked me questions or I had questions.  I keep hoping someone will come up with an explanation or something I may not have thought of as a fix.  I have no intention of "putting down" any bird unless it is vet recommended.  I really do love my only Ameraucana but how can some people have hardy birds, have good layers, or at least decent layers and we here in the SoCal SGV don't have any luck with them.  I know Am's hate the heat and seem to have fun on cooler or rainy days because mine pants like crazy in humid weather which unfortunately we had for several weeks.  Now that it's been cooler and even raining she's been out and about but her comb shows no sign of deepening.  Is that a sign she'll never lay again?  She layed through winter before so I'm stumped.  I've also been posting what breeds seem to be a good match in the flock for the Amer since not all LF are good flock matches with our timid Am as we found out having her with some other assertive LF breeds.  I hoped my experience would help others who may have had or have a similar dilemma and that's what posting is all about - sharing - I thought.  This thread is entitled "Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds" -- so I'm discussing .  Sorry you were ruffled as it's never predictable what emotions are evoked from people who read someone else's posts.  I was hoping to get some encouragement or get a handle on some constructive feedback that I might have missed somewhere along the way.

:you did come down pretty hard on the Ameraucana,,,& the breeders. If you are getting out of the breed & like u said u found a new bird that you love more then that's great! Thank God we live in a free country! I would like to hear if you get any more Ams as I'm sure everyone would. I'm new here...but I know people, its a people thing, a matter of showing respect and being curtious & kind. I'm sure you didn't mean to come off that way but you did. I'm here for answers too! I love the Ameraucana bird. I'm captivated by them & want to learn all I can about them. Because I am that impressed with the Ameraucana and with the people here ! Its a passion!!!

 

[Sylvester017]

All I really heard was an advertisement for Bredas, which I am sure are fine birds but are not Ameraucanas. I could just as well talk about my challenges and successes with my turkeys but I won't bore anyone on this thread on that topic.

Constructive feedback: all hens are subject to slow down laying if they eat high calorie junk food, or if they are too timid to eat enough to do more than sustain themselves. Ensure they are healthy, no abdominal masses that may indicate reproductive tumors, feel the rear of the abdomen to determine if it is pliable, and check the pelvis to see if perhaps they are just hiding eggs on you. Ams, like most hens, lay best with 14+ hours of day length every day, when healthy, well fed, and without parasite load. My Am and Am crosses have a commercial productive life (over 70% annual average ROL) for three years, and are still fine backyard layers after that.

We know externally she has no parasites, she eats well as I feel her crop, the flock is on a health care calendared regimen. Of course internally there's no way of my telling if something's going on. Once a year I take a fecal sample to the vet for testing for worms or cocci. I may ultimately take her to the vet for some more testing as he worked in the poultry industry and has a better handle on health things I couldn't possibly guess for myself. She layed through winter with low daylight hours her first year so this year stumped me. My friend had an EE that didn't lay for a year so I'm hoping that means our Am will resume one day again. She is excessively submissive and non-confrontational and so are our friend's Am and EEs. We noticed a real drop of laying as soon as we were hit with weeks of humidity. Am I to assume the blue-egg gene breeds are ultra-sensitive to humidity? All she did was sit under the water mister in the shade almost the entire day while the other breeds might've been panting but still moving about and foraging and laying.

 

[WalnutHill]

We have humid summers and they lay just fine even when combined with moderate (80-90F) heat. All first year layers will lay better through the winters. They won't molt until the second fall/winter and egg production stops or drops. Without supplemental light they will be slow to recover.

 

[Sylvester017]

:you did come down pretty hard on the Ameraucana,,,& the breeders. If you are getting out of the breed & like u said u found a new bird that you love more then that's great! Thank God we live in a free country! I would like to hear if you get any more Ams as I'm sure everyone would. I'm new here...but I know people, its a people thing, a matter of showing respect and being curtious & kind. I'm sure you didn't mean to come off that way but you did. I'm here for answers too! I love the Ameraucana bird. I'm captivated by them & want to learn all I can about them. Because I am that impressed with the Ameraucana and with the people here ! Its a passion!!!

One can never 100% know how one's posts will be evaluated by others and I appreciate your kind response. I thought I was clear about how sweet kind and non-combative Ameraucanas are if I could judge the breed by the one survivor we have. My friend confirms the sentiment. We are just exasperated by the weird molting patterns and inconsistent egg-laying and can't figure it out except that the problems seemed to have started with the onslaught of our SoCal humidity. We just may not have climate conducive to the well-being of this breed?

 

[AuntNomi]

We know externally she has no parasites, she eats well as I feel her crop, the flock is on a health care calendared regimen. Of course internally there's no way of my telling if something's going on. Once a year I take a fecal sample to the vet for testing for worms or cocci. I may ultimately take her to the vet for some more testing as he worked in the poultry industry and has a better handle on health things I couldn't possibly guess for myself. She layed through winter with low daylight hours her first year so this year stumped me. My friend had an EE that didn't lay for a year so I'm hoping that means our Am will resume one day again. She is excessively submissive and non-confrontational and so are our friend's Am and EEs. We noticed a real drop of laying as soon as we were hit with weeks of humidity. Am I to assume the blue-egg gene breeds are ultra-sensitive to humidity? All she did was sit under the water mister in the shade almost the entire day while the other breeds might've been panting but still moving about and foraging and laying.

You should not ASSUME anything of the BLUE EGG GENE because you have ONE Ameraucana that will not lay. Every chicken I have (and I have multiple breeds) have continued to lay thru their first winter. That is quite normal. However by the time the next winter comes around and they have molted a lot of chickens will not lay again until the days get longer, or even spring. That's quite normal as well. I have read enough on here that I have came to realize that in every breed nearly you can come across a hen that lays only a few eggs, stops laying early and does not start again ever, or simply never lays an egg. I have a 9 month Australorp that has never laid an egg yet. It does not say anything to me of the breed tho, as I only have ONE so I could never judge the breed by her. Plus she's cute. Maybe there is a hidden nest??

 

[Ravynscroft]

I am in Middle TN and we had a super hot, extremely humid, awful summer... all of my Am's, Cream Legbars, Araucanas and bantam Araucanas laid like champs the whole way through... in fact 1 Ameraucana hen brooded 3x's very successfully even...

I also have a Cuckoo Marans living with my flock of Silkies, no issues whatsoever and used to have a BCM in there too...