Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[mstricer]

To multi quote, hit multi to each post you want to quote, when done hit reply and they will all show up

 

[unkadan]

She never asked anything about winning..showing is not always about winning. It is about the experience..talking with like minded people..supporting local poultry clubs and the sport of breeding..Sportsmanship..asking questions, and getting excited and learning about conditioning. Tips about showing and fun!! It is so much more than winning!!!

Well spoken

To multi quote, hit multi to each post you want to quote, when done hit reply and they will all show up

thanks I wondered how that worked

 

[chippysmom327]

To multi quote, hit multi to each post you want to quote, when done hit reply and they will all show up

Thanks! Mobile is hard to work!

 

[jajeanpierre]

Finally, some pictures! Comments both positive and negative are greatly appreciated.

All birds were hatched April 1.

First up is a splash cockerel I want to keep simply because I like his color. (I used to show Collies and Shelties and he has a perfect blue merle coloring.) I am not intending to breed from him because he is on the small side and has had a crop issue starting September 9th. He's had three episodes of his crop not emptying, so he's had three days of fasting, 3 days of very little food and three days of limited food starting September 9. Needless to say, he has lost weight. I was going to cull him, but gave him one last chance and treated him with Nystatin prescribed by my vet. He seems to have recovered with his crop emptying every night. I started the anti-fungal meds a week ago. Up until recently, he was a beautiful clear blue color. I think any muddy color is because he free ranges and the feathers are old. I don't know if you can see it in the fourth picture, but he has a few dark colored scales on his shanks and feet. I don't know if that is an issue or is to be expected with the splash coloring.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Next up is a splash pullet, again hatched April 1. She, too, is on the small side I think. I took weights on them but I don't think my scale was accurate. I have a very accurate scale for weighing my parrots, but the chicken will have to stand on the scale--not nearly as easy as holding the chicken, weighing myself plus the chicken and subtracting my weight. I really like this pullet, mostly for her personality. If there are any squabbles, she is quite prepared to break them up, standing up to the cockerels with hackles flared and bumping their chests and finally chasing them off. She is the second smallest of the group and the cockerels are much larger than she is. She has the most exquisite expression, looking intently up into my face. She gives me the impression she is constantly thinking about things. Her tail set in the pictures looks low but it is not--she held it low because of the stress of being in that cage for the first time. I really like the overall balance of this pullet. She has never had any yellowing to her color although the older feathers aren't as clear as they once were. She is out free ranging as well.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Next is my Wheaten pullet, again hatched April 1. She's a blue Wheaten, right? She is quite small. Her tail feathers have not fully grown in so her tail set looks worse than it probably is. I didn't like her at all as a younger chick, but she gets nicer and more balanced as she grows up. Her breeder (and the breeder of all my Ameraucanas) told me to wait and not be quick to judge. The black on her hackles is molting out. I believe that was one thing that Paul Smith told me, to wait that things like the hackle feathers would correct as they matured. This pullet and the two Wheaten cockerels have molted out most of their black feathers in their hackles, starting at the head and working down to the nape of the neck. It is funny that the hackle feathers on the left side of this pullet have more black than the right side, even in pictures I took of her at the end of August.

 

[jajeanpierre]

This lavender pullet, again hatched April 1, is the largest of my three pullets. She's a really solid little bird. She was crouching a bit in the cage. I don't like the way the head flows (or in her case, doesn't flow) into the neck. I think it is just the way the shorter feathers meet up with the very abundant and longer hackle feathers at the back of her head. She just looks like she has a ewe neck if chickens can have ewe necks. Recently one of my (expletive) mini Dachshunds chased her down and pulled every feather out of her tail--I'm talking bare skin. Her tail feathers are only just now starting to look normal. She always had a really clear color, but I can see the old feathers have started to fade with some yellowing. The feathers are what I would describe as having a "cottony" texture if I were using dog-show terms. They are just lousy feathers, but lots of them--damaged with lots of dried pulp from the developing feathers in the plumage. Her plumage is certainly better than when she was younger, but there is something wrong going on as the feather is developing. I see the same kind of problems in a lot of lavender Ameraucana pictures, so this must be an issue with either the lavender color or lavender-colored Ameraucanas. What's going on with their feathers? If it were one of my parrots I would be in a panic fearing I had a fatal disease called Parrot Beak and Feather Disease (which chickens can't get).

 

[Penny Hen]

This lavender pullet, again hatched April 1, is the largest of my three pullets. She's a really solid little bird. She was crouching a bit in the cage. I don't like the way the head flows (or in her case, doesn't flow) into the neck. I think it is just the way the shorter feathers meet up with the very abundant and longer hackle feathers at the back of her head. She just looks like she has a ewe neck if chickens can have ewe necks. Recently one of my (expletive) mini Dachshunds chased her down and pulled every feather out of her tail--I'm talking bare skin. Her tail feathers are only just now starting to look normal. She always had a really clear color, but I can see the old feathers have started to fade with some yellowing. The feathers are what I would describe as having a "cottony" texture if I were using dog-show terms. They are just lousy feathers, but lots of them--damaged with lots of dried pulp from the developing feathers in the plumage. Her plumage is certainly better than when she was younger, but there is something wrong going on as the feather is developing. I see the same kind of problems in a lot of lavender Ameraucana pictures, so this must be an issue with either the lavender color or lavender-colored Ameraucanas. What's going on with their feathers? If it were one of my parrots I would be in a panic fearing I had a fatal disease called Parrot Beak and Feather Disease (which chickens can't get).

I was told that it is genetic. A gene link with the lavender and the way to improve the feathers is to cross to a black Americana and to create splits and the back to the Lavender to get the color to appear again this time with better feathers. It is one of the reasons really good lavenders of any breed cost so much but are the pride and joy of a breeder when they achieve it.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Next is my blue cockerel that I will be keeping. Again, April 1 hatch date. If he is good enough, I might use him in a breeding program. If not, he'll hang around to guard the free ranging chickens until he is replaced. I've always criticized this bird for his color, but I am not so sure it is as bad as I thought it was having seen an awful lot of pictures of blues with the same tones to their plumage. The old rusty feathers are being replaced by feathers that don't have the taupe overtones to them. He's free ranges.

 

[Penny Hen]

I am curious if there are any purebred bantam Americanas? I have found several sources for bantam Easter Eggers, but I was really hoping to find real Americanas.