Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[aoxa]

This is our first year raising the Blacks and I am in love with them. The beards.. the muffs.. They make me swoon.

 

[dstokely]

Well, the behaviour from your young cockerals is actually pretty normal in my experience. They know which girls are breeding and which are not which explains why they bother the hens and not the young pullets. The wing dropping is what I call the breeding dance. I never let my group of cockerals out with the hens just for that reason. They will run them ragged. Especially if there is a group of them. One cockeral to about five hens wouldn't be too bad on them though. Heck, when I have put a young cockeral with my hens, he is usually hen pecked! Of course they were much younger than yours so that may be why. My hens either have a mature rooster with them or none at all. When breeding they go in pens. The cockerals are usually more mature by then but still more aggressive than mature roosters. There isn't much room to escape so the hens usually submit and it's over with. Then things calm down. It usually does take a few days for the hens to relax though. If there is a hen who doesn't want to be bred(and that does happen), they usually go in with a cockeral. Cockerals are very persistant and they usually will breed a hen that a rooster will leave alone.
So, the best I can tell you is chose those that are people friendly if that is your priority because that other behaviour is pretty normal for young males.

Do you keep all your roosters penned? I have the five youngsters, of which the "blue wheaten?" is the most mature. The young laying Dominiques tolerate him where the other laying hens give him a cold shoulder and a peck or two. A couple of the others are starting to pull on the head feathers of the AM pullets. Should I put them up in pens now? I am going to keep the "blue wheaten?" as my common rooster and leave him with the layers and the two ee's along with the blue wheaten hen. I may or may not hatch any ee chicks. I am going to cull one of the blue roos which leaves me with a lavender, and two blues. I can have three breeding pens if I choose. I have three black hens, two splash, two blue and then the wheaten. I am still trying to decide if I want to play with the lavender, or make it easy and just do BBS. If I lived closer to my grands, it would not be a tough decision; I would have these flavors and silvers!

 

[dstokely]

This is our first year raising the Blacks and I am in love with them. The beards.. the muffs.. They make me swoon.

They are beautiful. I tend to like the beards a different color than the bodies so they stand out more but the blacks are certainly classy!

 

[SonoranChick]

So pretty. I love them! My photos are not as nice...but here are my black Ameraucanas, Peachy and Tailor

 

[cjpines]

They are beautiful. I tend to like the beards a different color than the bodies so they stand out more but the blacks are certainly classy!

I didn't know they came black. I love the puffs on their sides of their cheeks.

 

[MrsBachbach]

Do you keep all your roosters penned?  I have the five youngsters, of which the "blue wheaten?" is the most mature.  The young laying Dominiques tolerate him where the other laying hens give him a cold shoulder and a peck or two.  A couple of the others are starting to pull on the head feathers of the AM pullets.  Should I put them up in pens now?  I am going to keep the "blue wheaten?" as my common rooster and leave him with the layers and the two ee's along with the blue wheaten hen.  I may or may not hatch any ee chicks.  I am going to cull one of the blue roos which leaves me with a lavender, and two blues.  I can have three breeding pens if I choose.  I have three black hens, two splash, two blue and then the wheaten.  I am still trying to decide if I want to play with the lavender, or make it easy and just do BBS.  If I lived closer to my grands, it would not be a tough decision;  I would have these flavors and silvers!:yiipchick  

Pretty much. When I'm growing out a group of young ones I will seperate the cockerals from the pullets usually around ten weeks if I can identify them. The reason I do this is because the cockerals are big eaters and not very concerned with the pullets welfare. They hog the feeders and sometimes the lesser pullets will stay away and eat dirt or loose feathers. So the cockerals get moved to another pen to finish growing out. Now when it is time for breeding I move the girls to the breeding pens. This usually takes some time for them to adjust to the new surroundings and rooster so I try to do this at least a couple of weeks before I expect to collect eggs. Because I have seen them just quit laying when moved. After I break up the breeding pens I sometimes do keep a single rooster with the now free ranging girls for the rest of the summer. I may sometimes switch out the roosters after a while because sometimes the rooster develops favorites and not everyone is getting bred. So switching out roosters will take care of that. Hens can carry sperm for several weeks so they don't always need a rooster with them day in and day out. The extra roosters are kept in their individual pens.

I did move a couple of pullets in a pen with a mature rooster. My blue wheaten male is currently molting and since I don't plan on showing these two pullets I thought I would give him some company and make more room in the pullet pen. He is being a perfect gentleman. I don't know if it's because he's molting, but he hasn't jumped them or chased them or anything juvenile. He is sweet to them, calling them when he finds a treat, etc. Neither pullet is laying yet and he seems to know this and not harass them.

 

[WendyF]

My silly, sunny, sweet, smart, sassy, spunky, funny little 5 & 1/2 week old Lola. Does she look like an Ameraucana should at this age? She came from Meyer & I know hatcheries often send Easter Eggers when you order this breed. What do you think?

 

[hotlipshens]

She does to me A friend has gotten some pretty nice ones from Meyers. Don't you love their dispositions?!

 

[WendyF]

She does to me   A friend has gotten some pretty nice ones from Meyers.  Don't you love their dispositions?!

Yes, very much. I have 13 chicks of various breeds I have raised from day 1, & Lola is by far my favorite. I have a really sweet Lavender Orpington who is also a lap chicken, she loves everyone, even strangers. But sweet as the day is long she still isn't near as smart as Lola. Plus, Lola has hour long conversations with me, LOL. I never have to guess what she's thinking, she tells me what's up all the time .

 

[Going Quackers]

I got new pics of my one little flufflball we were unsure of the sex. Most feel it's a pullet.

It's 9wks, so basically 2mths.