Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Good job Tyler!! I'd really like to read the email you sent them, if you are so inclined...

 

[MissD'uccle]

Ok ya'll.... my son is really wanting to breed our Ameraucanas for show so I have to ask how this roo is shaping up. He is our only roo at this point, but we have black blue and splash hens. He wants to hatch and raise some babies this spring and show them in the fall. I don't know much about Ameraucanas as far as showing. I did hatch this boy from breeder eggs from the Cree line. He is only 3 1/2 months in this picture and if more pictures are needed just let me know which angles you need and I'll get them! I believe if he were to show this rooster, he'd have to be entered in the AOV catagory due to his coloring? Thanks in advance!

 

[Goose and Fig]

MissD'uccle :

Ok ya'll.... my son is really wanting to breed our Ameraucanas for show so I have to ask how this roo is shaping up. He is our only roo at this point, but we have black blue and splash hens. He wants to hatch and raise some babies this spring and show them in the fall. I don't know much about Ameraucanas as far as showing. I did hatch this boy from breeder eggs from the Cree line. He is only 3 1/2 months in this picture and if more pictures are needed just let me know which angles you need and I'll get them! I believe if he were to show this rooster, he'd have to be entered in the AOV catagory due to his coloring? Thanks in advance!

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/45838_slater4.jpg

Oooooo I like him! His legs look a little short but I think it's just the camera. I like the tail angle alot and he has nice dark blue in the splash.

Great job Tyler! I'm going to write them too. Can't believe Ideal- WTH is wrong with them?​

 

[TK Poultry]

Hello,

I'm emailing regarding you marketing practices of the Ameraucana/Araucana chickens. I am emailing all the major hatcheries that I can find to try to change the marketing practices. Most major hatcheries have been selling tinted egg layers since before the APA Ameraucana and the APA Araucana were accepted breeds. I'm assuming that is how the hatchery birds got their name. Now that they are accepted breeds 4H'ers and new poultry fanciers buy your Ameraucana/Araucanas and show them against the accepted breeds. They wonder why they didn't do well and then they get frustrated or even give up on the fancy. You the hatchery have really done nothing wrong. The buyer has been misinformed. We need to try to educate the public about APA Ameraucanas and Araucanas, and hatchery Ameraucana/Araucanas. If you just change the name of your product maybe give it a trade name and not the name of the APA breeds, the confusion and struggle for the breed fanciers would start to subside. I'm not being a fanatic or anything. I'm trying to a campaign to REFORM and EDUCATE people about the breeds. So that way they become less of a misunderstood taboo. I would very much appriciate if you would help in this movement to make it easier for young people and first time fanciers to become educated.



Best Regards,

Tyler Brammer

this is what I sent them. I posted it a couple pages ago. I'm tossing around holding a seminar of sorts for local judges. If that would not offend them.

I'm also waiting on responses from 5 more hatcheries

PLUS I'm waiting on replies from like 12 breeders I've emailed inquiring about new stock. Looking for Lav Bantams, White LF, Buff LF, Blue and Splash LF, and possibly Black Bantams. I might end up having to drive to where there is a huge concentration of Ameraucana breeders-Wisconsin for my chickens!

 

[MissD'uccle]

Quote:
Oooooo I like him! His legs look a little short but I think it's just the camera. I like the tail angle alot and he has nice dark blue in the splash.

Great job Tyler! I'm going to write them too. Can't believe Ideal- WTH is wrong with them?

Thanks! Yeah I think it may be because I was standing over him to take the photo. I'll have to get some better ones!

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Sorry, don't know how I mised it. Sounds great Tyler! You should be proud of yourself!

 

[TK Poultry]

Great job Tyler! I'm going to write them too. Can't believe Ideal- WTH is wrong with them?

Someone, I think Illia said they had done this before and got the same reply.

I think that if we conquer this it will be a big victory in the education of the newbies to the fancy. I want to keep going with the "movement" and if we all set up informational workshops for misunderstood breeds that judging and exhibition would improve. I read on the ABC forum once about a thing with a Wheaten hen with little color in her tail winning over a wheaten with more color in her tail. I read that maybe it was ignorance of the standard on the judges part. So maybe if we educate judging will become more fair.

Sorry, don't know how I mised it. Sounds great Tyler! You should be proud of yourself!

Thanks. I'm just doing it for the greater good of the breed and to try to end confusion and frustration.​

 

[bledsoe95]

My 2 EE's !

 

[kswaterfowl]

Also consider for a moment, if you buy a Barred Plymouth Rock from Ideal and take it to a show, you are not going to win or do very well. Or when you buy a white Cochin bantam from Murray McMurray...same thing. Hatcheries are hatcheries. It takes just a much to feed a show bird as it does to feed a hatchery bird. I honestly wish you good luck, but I don't imagine you are going to get the responses you are looking for. Its all about the money for a hatchery, the quality of the birds they use to make that money doesn't matter as much to them as the numbers of birds they maintain in the flock to get those chicks.

Another interesting thing. VERY FEW hatcheries own their own flocks. Most of them have "breeders" that supply them with the eggs that they put in the incubator to hatch. There are some breeds out there that if you order them from a hatchery, you get chicks from flocks that are maintained by respectable show breeders that show those same breeds and have for years. They just have contracts with hatcheries, and sell them their eggs. But the hatchery has nothing to do with breeding those birds, only setting, hatching, boxing & shipping out.

I know of people that have e-mailed hatcheries before, and they get the same response, but in the end, the birds were still advertised the same the next year because of the money. Ideal does clearly state on their website that their birds are purebred and represent the breeds they are, but they make no claims that they will be show quality or fit their breed standard exactly.

 

[TK Poultry]

Quote:
I'm just want a simple name change. That is all I'm looking for. You as a 4H leader and poultry exhibitor know just like I do that people are convinced that their EE's are Ameraucanas because that is how they are advertised. I think an education wave needs to happen for this breed. It is almost a 30 year old breed! We need to have some reform. I'm not out to change hatchery breeding/buying practices.

I have been approached before to be a backup supplier of my Swedish Ducks before I got rid of them. I understand how it works. I just want a name change. The responses that I have gotten so far except Ideal's have been positive. They have either changed or seem open to it. I just want to make sure New Fanciers and Judges understand what an Araucana is and what an Ameraucana is. I too have been one that has been fooled into buying EE's as Ameraucanas when I first started. I too was offended when someone corrected me.

We just need to change this cycle. That is all I want. I don't think I'm the only one.