Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[WalnutHill]

 

Well then theres your answer!

Cross your fingers for me, or pray, or chant, or something, so we have a laying Amer again!!!!
[/quote]

Sometimes the best action is to cut your losses and get birds that better fit your needs. She may be a good pet if you want a pet chicken.

I have about 125 laying hens that have to earn their keep along with about 8 F1 Fancy EEs and 9 breeding turkeys. If I am lucky, 10% of the offspring will show early promise ro be better than the parents, and of those that are raised to maturity I will be happy if one in ten grows out to have great color, conformation, temperament and production. That's 1%. With only a few birds, chances are slim that you have the cream of the crop.

 

[Sylvester017]

Cross your fingers for me, or pray, or chant, or something, so we have a laying Amer again!!!!

Sometimes the best action is to cut your losses and get birds that better fit your needs. She may be a good pet if you want a pet chicken.

I have about 125 laying hens that have to earn their keep along with about 8 F1 Fancy EEs and 9 breeding turkeys. If I am lucky, 10% of the offspring will show early promise ro be better than the parents, and of those that are raised to maturity I will be happy if one in ten grows out to have great color, conformation, temperament and production. That's 1%. With only a few birds, chances are slim that you have the cream of the crop.[/QUOTE]

Yep, heard these kind of figures from breeders before and I made up my mind already not to re-home our Amer. She gets along so well with the existing group that she's coming out of her shell and back to trusting her flockmates again. I think the other assertive LF breeds we had in the flock before contributed a lot to the stresses coupled with the onslaught of several weeks of unusual humidity plus we're going through front and backyard renovation tearing down old chainlink and putting up new block wall, patio slabs, and roofs. If I'M stressed - in hindsight - it probably is taking a toll on animals too.

 

[Miss Ameraucana]

 me. Even if you don't know why, I'm sure I deserved it for something. Like bringing frogs to the breed thread
Each rooster has 4 girls. I set 28 eggs last Friday, and I'm not much of a candler, but I'm dying to know what is going on in there so I will probably candle this weekend

SC how are you doing tonight? Are you & the Mrs. Doing anything this weekend? I hope your eggs are doing good! Hope their all alive & thriving! You have been so excited about this first generation of little sc flockers! Don't drop any when u candle them! Your Ameraucanas are laying really well & right on schedule! Can't wait to see the little boogers when they start hatching!

 

[EastNashChick]

Cockerel bred out of my hens and @EastNashChick previous cock... she graciously offered him back to us when she couldn't keep him any longer... thank you, he is doing well!

He looks so good! I'm glad!

 

[Saris]

My choc split boy. He has a tiny dab of brownish red on a couple feathers, would that be the choc gene leaking or red leakage? Or nothing since it's his juvie feathers?

My girl, I love her silvery underfluffs. So pretty!

Some of her feathers have black streaks, normal for juvie feathers?

 

[MrsBachbach]

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.

If a bird is stressed, they generally won't lay. Between the heat and humidity and the intimidation from other less gentle flockmates you may have your answer. Maybe a more pleasant spring and summer and the new, more friendly flockmate may turn things around next year. Another possibility is something went wrong internally. E-coli infections, for example, can happen and they can mess up the reproductive tract of hens and cause them to lay internally.

 

[MrsBachbach]

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?

If I remember correctly, California did have a very extremely hot summer. Seems like high 90's and 100's were the norm. Those temps coupled with humidity could be too much for a pea combed breed. I know my birds slow way down when the temps and heat indexes exceed 100. I think you could actually lose them when temps start reaching 105. So, good thing you had your mister. Chickens combs are their cooling devices and those with small to no combs do suffer in heat.

 

[Miss Ameraucana]

He looks so good! I'm glad!

He's a handsome well manored looking fellow!

 

[Miss Ameraucana]

My choc split boy. He has a tiny dab of brownish red on a couple feathers, would that be the choc gene leaking or red leakage? Or nothing since it's his juvie feathers?

My girl, I love her silvery underfluffs. So pretty!

Some of her feathers have black streaks, normal for juvie feathers?

He is so pretty! He looks really good! Seeing all these beautiful birds in all their glory just takes my breath away!

 

[Miss Ameraucana]

He looks so good! I'm glad!

He looks really pretty! It looks like he was well kept for sure.