Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[jsayles86]

I have a "special needs" Ameraucana hen who we call Lazarus. Named Lazarus because we felt that we saved her from starvation by hand feeding her for a couple of weeks while just a chick. During that time she was isolated and because of that and certain strange behaviors, she is basically excluded from the other flock members. We had two SF roosters who used to peck at her all the time. They are no longer with us.
She also seems to have some physical differences. I have included photos of her right and left wings. To me it looks like there are feathers missing.( In the second photo the left wing tip is enhanced.) In the last photo you might be able to see that she turns in her right foot so that she looks ding-toed. She used to have seizures when under stress, for example when the SF roosters were around. These seizures included walking in circles while turning her head way to the right and squawking. She does that much less frequently these days. Can anyone explain what if any feathers are missing from her wings? Also, has anyone else experienced these sort of chicken seizures?
Otherwise, she is really sweet.

 

[MrsBachbach]

I have a "special needs" Ameraucana hen who we call Lazarus. Named Lazarus because we felt that we saved her from starvation by hand feeding her for a couple of weeks while just a chick. During that time she was isolated and because of that and certain strange behaviors, she is basically excluded from the other flock members. We had two SF roosters who used to peck at her all the time. They are no longer with us. She also seems to have some physical differences. I have included photos of her right and left wings. To me it looks like there are feathers missing.( In the second photo the left wing tip is enhanced.) In the last photo you might be able to see that she turns in her right foot so that she looks ding-toed. She used to have seizures when under stress, for example when the SF roosters were around. These seizures included walking in circles while turning her head way to the right and squawking. She does that much less frequently these days. Can anyone explain what if any feathers are missing from her wings? Also, has anyone else experienced these sort of chicken seizures? Otherwise, she is really sweet.

I have a "special needs" Ameraucana hen who we call Lazarus. Named Lazarus because we felt that we saved her from starvation by hand feeding her for a couple of weeks while just a chick. During that time she was isolated and because of that and certain strange behaviors, she is basically excluded from the other flock members. We had two SF roosters who used to peck at her all the time. They are no longer with us. She also seems to have some physical differences. I have included photos of her right and left wings. To me it looks like there are feathers missing.( In the second photo the left wing tip is enhanced.) In the last photo you might be able to see that she turns in her right foot so that she looks ding-toed. She used to have seizures when under stress, for example when the SF roosters were around. These seizures included walking in circles while turning her head way to the right and squawking. She does that much less frequently these days. Can anyone explain what if any feathers are missing from her wings? Also, has anyone else experienced these sort of chicken seizures? Otherwise, she is really sweet.

Aww, poor thing. Looks to be of the wheaten/blue wheaten variety. Sweet birds. If she is still a pullet, birds tend to lose and grow feathers during their first year, so wing feathers may still be growing in. Would help if you had a pic of the wing spread. Does she always hold the wing so loosely? Leg is probably a deformity. No telling what could have caused that. Genetics, nutrition, incubator temps, etc. Circling could also be a genetic deformity, ear infection, or tumor? That would be my guess. Hard to know. I wouldn't breed her, just enjoy her eggs and company.

 

[CackleJoy]

Another query is why do they advertise Ameraucanas if they are not true As?!

Since I purchased "Ameraucana's" from McMurray, I actually called and asked them that very question The lady I talked to said it's for google purposes. They are listed as Ameraucana/Easter Eggers to try and make it clear that they are just colored egg layers but they keep the Ameraucana word attached in order to attract google hits. I felt a little sorry for the lady on the phone when she added "We have to take a lot of flak for it too." So I decided not to kill the messenger and thanked her for answering my question.

I have a question... I have a line of BBS ameraucana whose rooster combs flop over to the side. Is that something I can fix by bringing in other lines, and if so, is it easy to fix? I'm assuming that is not a desireable trait... Thanks in advance for any input.

I wouldn't have thought that was possible without some other comb type hiding in the back ground. I'd probably aim for replacing him asap. Comb issues in other breeds are very hard to fix. I'm new to the AM's but assuming they follow similar patterns.

 

[CackleJoy]

The Ameraucana Breeders Club egg chart is not anything like the Maran's egg chart. There is not scale showing the range from less desirable to most desirable. Maran eggs are easy to grade for color. I can't for the life of me figure out which color is the most desirable of the 46 different colors on the chart. I tend to prefer the colors that have the least amount of green in them.

I went looking for the egg chart online and couldn't find it. I have stock from two different farms. Trying to establish some good breeders. I was so sad when one of the pullets laid a greenish tinted eggs instead of the bright aqua I got from the others. I took her out of the breeding pen. She is a spectacular (if a bit small) blue. Wondering if I made the right choice.

Yesterday I lost a gorgeous splash pullet right at the point of lay. She was a really pretty bird with a lot of substance. A really nice bird. I don't know what happened. It was a cooler day than we have been having (in the mid 90s) but it was very humid. I turned on the mister at noon as I always do in the hot weather. (I have bantam Cochins as well and they DO NOT do heat.) I have misters set up along the Cochin pen and in the bushes for the free range flock. There are two areas where the free range flock can stand in the shade in the cool from the misters. I found her dead behind a piece of plywood I have propped on the west side of the Cochin pen to keep the sun out. The pens and the misters are under a grove of 25 foot oak trees.

My Ameraucana's have taken to climbing up into the trees and I often find them 15 or 20 feet up. They are too heavy to fly down and if they jump rather than climb down they land hard.

Normally I check them a few times in the afternoon--this year found one bird seriously overheated even with the misters on this year--but I was out all day.

I am so angry to lose that pullet. Maybe she died from overheating. Maybe she jumped out of a tree and broke an egg internally. Maybe it was something else. She was the picture of health and vitality the last time i saw her and then she is dead.

This happened two days after a fox took one of my backyard Silkie hens. The fox took the hen about 20 feet from my patio. Where were those useless roosters???? Didn't they read where the purpose of a rooster is to lay his life down for the hens???? The only reason they aren't in the freezer is so they could watch the little bantam backyard flock. Two useless roosters and the fox takes a hen. Grrrrrr.

How very frustrating!

I'm so sorry - for some reason it is never the more disposable ones to die. It's always the ones we have watched for breeding or gotten attached to.

And just for fun, here's my new EE mutt I picked up over the weekend

what you thinkin? I'm considering ameraucana and barred rock or Dominique mixed? Egg color guesses anyone? She hasn't started Layin yet

I have one like that. She lays a giant pistachio green egg.

 

[CackleJoy]

I have a "special needs" Ameraucana hen who we call Lazarus. Named Lazarus because we felt that we saved her from starvation by hand feeding her for a couple of weeks while just a chick. During that time she was isolated and because of that and certain strange behaviors, she is basically excluded from the other flock members. We had two SF roosters who used to peck at her all the time. They are no longer with us.
She also seems to have some physical differences. I have included photos of her right and left wings. To me it looks like there are feathers missing.( In the second photo the left wing tip is enhanced.) In the last photo you might be able to see that she turns in her right foot so that she looks ding-toed. She used to have seizures when under stress, for example when the SF roosters were around. These seizures included walking in circles while turning her head way to the right and squawking. She does that much less frequently these days. Can anyone explain what if any feathers are missing from her wings? Also, has anyone else experienced these sort of chicken seizures?
Otherwise, she is really sweet.

Is that wing what you would call a "split wing?"

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

...

I have a "special needs" Ameraucana hen who we call Lazarus. Named Lazarus because we felt that we saved her from starvation by hand feeding her for a couple of weeks while just a chick. During that time she was isolated and because of that and certain strange behaviors, she is basically excluded from the other flock members. We had two SF roosters who used to peck at her all the time. They are no longer with us. She also seems to have some physical differences. I have included photos of her right and left wings. To me it looks like there are feathers missing.( In the second photo the left wing tip is enhanced.) In the last photo you might be able to see that she turns in her right foot so that she looks ding-toed. She used to have seizures when under stress, for example when the SF roosters were around. These seizures included walking in circles while turning her head way to the right and squawking. She does that much less frequently these days. Can anyone explain what if any feathers are missing from her wings? Also, has anyone else experienced these sort of chicken seizures? Otherwise, she is really sweet. [/quote I have a d'uccle that used to have sezisures. We figured out her trigger and were able to make we environment adapt to her

 

[rainbowchick]

I went looking for the egg chart online and couldn't find it.  I have stock from two different farms.  Trying to establish some good breeders.  I was so sad when one of the pullets laid a greenish tinted eggs instead of the bright aqua I got from the others.  I took her out of the breeding pen.  She is a spectacular (if a bit small) blue.  Wondering if I made the right choice.

The egg color chart can be ordered from the Ameraucana Breeder Club. You can also see pics of it by searching google images, but that is not nearly as reliable colors as actually having the real chart. From what I can tell, greenish hues are not necessarily considered undesirable. Granted, most people prefer the blues, but there are tons of green tones on the color chart.

 

[Penny Hen]

Aww, poor thing. Looks to be of the wheaten/blue wheaten variety. Sweet birds.

If she is still a pullet, birds tend to lose and grow feathers during their first year, so wing feathers may still be growing in. Would help if you had a pic of the wing spread. Does she always hold the wing so loosely?

Leg is probably a deformity. No telling what could have caused that. Genetics, nutrition, incubator temps, etc.

Circling could also be a genetic deformity, ear infection, or tumor? That would be my guess. Hard to know. I wouldn't breed her, just enjoy her eggs and company.

It could be Cerebral Palsy. CP is caused by low levels of oxygen before, during and right after birth. It usually affects one side more than the other and people with CP are more prone to have problems with seizures. My oldest daughter has CP but fortunately no problem with seizures. Her good friend with CP also has trouble with the gran mal type seizures. I just lost 2 baby quail who had clear signs of CP. I couldn't get them to eat. One was so minorly affected that if it would have only eaten it would have lived and done fine. CP often affects the effeciency with swallowing food and water. It took my daughter until she was almost 18 to coordinate enough to swallow pills. She still can't do the large vitamin pills so she uses the gummies.

 

[Manningjw]

This is very interesting! I have Lavender Cuckoo 100% English Orpingtons and they are so pretty that I'm thinking about trying it with the Ameraucana's. I got lucky and just hatched eggs from someone else's hard work with the Orps. With the Ameraucana's I'll have to do all the work myself and I find I'm looking forward to the learning process.

I have one hen we bred - a BR rooster - that is a complete EE but I have her in the pen with an AM cockerel (black). I'm hoping out of the chicks I get a good single barred cuckoo cockerel. This cockerel will be 1/2+ Ameraucana with more traits going for it than against it. I'm not sure he will be any good for breeding but I'm hopeful.

The EE pullet is pictured here - her yellow feet are a dead give-away Anyway, she lays a nice green egg so I'm hoping that by breeding her to a Black AM, I will get a good cuckoo cockerel with some good Ameraucana traits that I can start a project with. I'd like a good black cuckoo that I can breed with the Lav's. Even if it takes me a couple years of work to get the right cockerel I'm willing to be patient. I also plan to buy a good line of Lav's for the project so I'm not wasting time that way. I know it's not an SOP color but it would be so pretty!

Those of you with Barred Ameraucana project EEs do you have any pictures of them as chicks? I suspect two of the black chicks i hatched are barred by the white spots on their heads but I don't know. The rooster who is the father I think had barring hiding under dominant white from the white leghorn hen he was hatched from - I saw what looked like bars on a couple of the black feathers he had. 2 out of 5 black chicks have the white spots, which is about what I would expect percentage wise.

Edit: I should probably take this question to the Projects thread .

 

[CackleJoy]

Those of you with Barred Ameraucana project EEs do you have any pictures of them as chicks? I suspect two of the black chicks i hatched are barred by the white spots on their heads but I don't know. The rooster who is the father I think had barring hiding under dominant white from the white leghorn hen he was hatched from - I saw what looked like bars on a couple of the black feathers he had. 2 out of 5 black chicks have the white spots, which is about what I would expect percentage wise.

Edit: I should probably take this question to the Projects thread .

There is a really neat thread for Barred EE's but it doesn't see a lot of activity. They may have the photos you are looking for.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/94095/barred-easter-egger

Mine were pretty obvious. Except for puffy cheeks & green legs, they looked like barred rock chicks. They are the black ones with white head spots and puffy cheeks found at the bottom of this photo.