Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[TaraBellaBirds]

I had a Wheaten pullet that was really small at 6 or 7 months old, but continued to grow until she was a normal sized Ameraucana hen by a year. She was a late developer. I never got any eggs from her--sadly, she was an internal layer. I don't think the two were related

Thank you. I am hoping that she has more growth soon. She is not laying yet so there is a chance she will!

 

[birdman55]

well morning...it snowed so I hope I can still dig in the ground for the last few coops...got a bunch of eggs this morning heres some pics....17 eggs today

 

[Wishapup]

That looks a lot like my egg basket! My average this week was 17.66 eggs per day.

 

[UrbanFarmOC]

well morning...it snowed so I hope I can still dig in the ground for the last few coops...got a bunch of eggs this morning heres some pics....17 eggs today

lovely basket of eggs!

 

[UrbanFarmOC]

That looks a lot like my egg basket! My average this week was 17.66 eggs per day.

Whoa! That's an impressive number. Right now, at best, am only getting 0.57 eggs a day from 4 young hens. 3 stopped laying and are going through various stages of a mini molt. They're only 7-8 months old. My only layer right now is an EE, who's still laying nicely sized green eggs while her feathers are thinning out. I have 7 more pullets, still 3-4 months from POL, so my egg average is poor. Lol.

 

[Wishapup]

Whoa! That's an impressive number. Right now, at best, am only getting 0.57 eggs a day from 4 young hens. 3 stopped laying and are going through various stages of a mini molt. They're only 7-8 months old. My only layer right now is an EE, who's still laying nicely sized green eggs while her feathers are thinning out. I have 7 more pullets, still 3-4 months from POL, so my egg average is poor. Lol.

I went through a similar stage last year, when we were feeding around 20 chickens and only one bantam egg every day from the one-year-old.

Now we are feeding 14 roosters (goal is to reduce to 7), but at least we are getting plenty of eggs now. I hope your hens recover from their molt quickly!

 

[DrFarmersDrWife]

I have a breeding/hatching question:

I have lavs, blacks and blues from P. Smith. One black hen and one lav. The rest were Roos. One of the hens started laying about 6 weeks ago. They were great looking from day one but very small. I assumed they were from the lav b/c she is very petite and I beleive smith lavs have bantam in the background.

We set 8 of her eggs Nov 25th. I had one pip but in the middle of the egg and turned almost 180 degrees from the air cell. I wasn't home to help and we lost it. This was day 23. The other one to pip only made it internally, in the same malposition and the others died very soon before that.

It was my first incubation so very sad and demoralizing. I checked the two that pipped, which is how I know the positions were oriented wrong. However the chicks were in the right placement body wise with head tucked under the wing and ready to pip.

Both chicks were perfectly formed, absorbed the yolk and the external pipped one was ready to come out, with blood veins not visible etc only had a slightly large naval still (not sure if this is deformity?)

My questions are this:

1: did the small egg size prevent proper positioning to air cell? Membranes were not shrink wrapped and air cells were proper size.

2: Both chicks were dark black/blue feathers with yellow feather spots... So, according to black x lav breeding this should not be possible. Were they blue x lav? Or must these eggs be from the black hen? Splits black x blue are supposed to be all yellow at hatch, correct?

Thanks for any advice or ideas!!!

 

[CCCCCCCCHICKENS]

I have a breeding/hatching question:

I have lavs, blacks and blues from P. Smith. One black hen and one lav. The rest were Roos. One of the hens started laying about 6 weeks ago. They were great looking from day one but very small. I assumed they were from the lav b/c she is very petite and I beleive smith lavs have bantam in the background.

We set 8 of her eggs Nov 25th. I had one pip but in the middle of the egg and turned almost 180 degrees from the air cell. I wasn't home to help and we lost it. This was day 23. The other one to pip only made it internally, in the same malposition and the others died very soon before that.

It was my first incubation so very sad and demoralizing. I checked the two that pipped, which is how I know the positions were oriented wrong. However the chicks were in the right placement body wise with head tucked under the wing and ready to pip.

Both chicks were perfectly formed, absorbed the yolk and the external pipped one was ready to come out, with blood veins not visible etc only had a slightly large naval still (not sure if this is deformity?)

My questions are this:

1: did the small egg size prevent proper positioning to air cell? Membranes were not shrink wrapped and air cells were proper size.

2: Both chicks were dark black/blue feathers with yellow feather spots... So, according to black x lav breeding this should not be possible. Were they blue x lav? Or must these eggs be from the black hen? Splits black x blue are supposed to be all yellow at hatch, correct?

Thanks for any advice or ideas!!!

A lot of times it is more difficult to hatch pullet eggs because of size and other factors

 

[Shaffer]

DrFarmersDrWife, I believe you may have the wrong information about chick down: Blacks chicks should be black with some yellow resemble a penguin as described by some. Blues should be a lighter color but similar and lavenders are lavender color with some yellow same areas as a black chick. You may need to go to the Ameraucana Club and see some topics on chick down to have correct colors. Yellow chicks could be white, wheaten and possibly mottled (somewhat) and maybe splash.

As far as hatching pullet eggs, I never do but a lot of people are in a hurry. Most of the chicks will not be your best from pullet eggs. Not saying when your pullets develop and produce regular size eggs these should be acceptable but the small eggs you will be very lucky to get some quality chicks from them. Two year old hens generally produce the best chicks as some of old timers predict.

There is a lot of good information compiled on the threads of the ABC forum so take advantage of it. Those breeders took time to compile the correct information for new and old ameraucana breeders.

 

[tigercreek]

I have a breeding/hatching question:

I have lavs, blacks and blues from P. Smith. One black hen and one lav. The rest were Roos. One of the hens started laying about 6 weeks ago. They were great looking from day one but very small. I assumed they were from the lav b/c she is very petite and I beleive smith lavs have bantam in the background.

We set 8 of her eggs Nov 25th. I had one pip but in the middle of the egg and turned almost 180 degrees from the air cell. I wasn't home to help and we lost it. This was day 23. The other one to pip only made it internally, in the same malposition and the others died very soon before that.

It was my first incubation so very sad and demoralizing. I checked the two that pipped, which is how I know the positions were oriented wrong. However the chicks were in the right placement body wise with head tucked under the wing and ready to pip.

Both chicks were perfectly formed, absorbed the yolk and the external pipped one was ready to come out, with blood veins not visible etc only had a slightly large naval still (not sure if this is deformity?)

My questions are this:

1: did the small egg size prevent proper positioning to air cell? Membranes were not shrink wrapped and air cells were proper size.

2: Both chicks were dark black/blue feathers with yellow feather spots... So, according to black x lav breeding this should not be possible. Were they blue x lav? Or must these eggs be from the black hen? Splits black x blue are supposed to be all yellow at hatch, correct?

Thanks for any advice or ideas!!!

The first column is chick pics.... you will not see a difference in the color of a split, or non split....http://ameraucana.org/scrapbook.html