Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[Euarto Gullible]

I'm wondering if anybody has any advice. I purchased hatching eggs from a reputable breeder who exhibits their birds and keeps pure Silvers and Blacks under two respective separate roosters and penned separately. They also keep several other breeds separately. 2 supposed Blacks and 1 supposed Silver hatched. I am confused as to what these chicks mean. Please let me know. I'm not interested in Easter Eggers, but specifically wanted pure Ameraucanas.

Here is the one which was labeled "Black Ameraucana"




And here on the left is the "Silver" and on the right is the other "Black."



Is there any chance that any of these birds are at least pure Silvers or Silver/Black crosses? I'm mainly interested in the double blue gene for my OE project.

 

[speckledhen]

They look pretty red to be silvers, but I haven't had any personally. They may vary, but still, seems too red to me, unless it's your picture or my monitor. Here is the silver Ameraucana chick pic for you from ameraucana.org, next to your photo you posted.

 

[pips&peeps]

no, they are ee's

 

[speckledhen]

They are more the color of Speckled Sussex than silver anything.

 

[Reyvaughn]

Same with most of my pens. And I have people calling me and sending e-mails and I just don't feel comfortable selling chicks or eggs.....

Do you still have your Wheatens? Can I call/message/pm/post about eggs? LOL. Funny but serious question, actually. At this point, I am actually more interested in just buying one or two really nice quality wheaten roosters and being done with it!

 

[Hangtown Farms]

I'm wondering if anybody has any advice. I purchased hatching eggs from a reputable breeder who exhibits their birds and keeps pure Silvers and Blacks under two respective separate roosters and penned separately. They also keep several other breeds separately. 2 supposed Blacks and 1 supposed Silver hatched. I am confused as to what these chicks mean. Please let me know. I'm not interested in Easter Eggers, but specifically wanted pure Ameraucanas.

Here is the one which was labeled "Black Ameraucana"




And here on the left is the "Silver" and on the right is the other "Black."



Is there any chance that any of these birds are at least pure Silvers or Silver/Black crosses? I'm mainly interested in the double blue gene for my OE project.

I hatched some silver ameraucana x crele penedesenca crosses that look real close to this









below are bad pics but these are silvers

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Same with most of my pens. And I have people calling me and sending e-mails and I just don't feel comfortable selling chicks or eggs.....

I am about ready to order a ton of EE bantams from a hatchery in hopes of getting a few that are Wheaten-ish! Talk about a project. LOL

 

[jajeanpierre]

I'm trying to sex my almost 3-week old Ameraucana chicks.

A person from this group said that you could roughly tell the sex by the comparative size of their feet. I made my guesses before they were a week old and used colored vet wrap to differentiate the sexes.

Now their tail feathers are growing in and I have two decidedly different tails. Half have big bunny tails and the other half have little nubs. Which sex grows their tail first? I was told that the girls have the bigger tail earlier, but that would be exactly opposite to most of my foot-size sexing guesses.

Today I'll go through them a little more closely and note which have the big tails and which sex I guessed them to be.

Any suggestions on how to guess their sex? It really doesn't matter--they are what they are--but I would like to be able to identify them early if possible.

 

[speckledhen]

Quote: Wait a while is my advice. Comb width is the key, not the tail at that age, whether rose or pea comb, the males have wider combs, especially at the back of the comb, whereas the females' combs are much narrower at the back end, generally. First chick is a pullet. Last three are males. These are my BBS Ameraucanas from years ago. Single middle ridge shows on the pullets for a long time before the comb widens. Males' combs widen quickly. These chicks are all about 5 weeks old.




Next three photos are all cockerels, same age, same batch. You can see all three rows of "peas" early on and they show color earlier. The black one has less comb width and color than the blue boy but you can still tell it's wider than the pullet.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Wait a while is my advice. Comb width is the key, not the tail at that age, whether rose or pea comb, the males have wider combs, especially at the back of the comb, whereas the females' combs are much narrower at the back end, generally. First chick is a pullet. Last three are males. These are my BBS Ameraucanas from years ago. Single middle ridge shows on the pullets for a long time before the comb widens. Males' combs widen quickly. These chicks are all about 5 weeks old.




Next three photos are all cockerels, same age, same batch. You can see all three rows of "peas" early on and they show color earlier. The black one has less comb width and color than the blue boy but you can still tell it's wider than the pullet.

So, by five weeks I should know. I was just wondering if I could tell now, not that it makes any difference one way or the other. Thanks.