Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[dstokely]

I want to set up a freeze-free auto waterer system. I found a set up I liked and thought would be easy, but I lost the link.

As for actual birds... Here I am 3.5yrs into wheatens and I feel like I am still just starting out. I started with birds with single beard gene issues. I didn't even realize it at first. I added a new line and lost color and egg color. I am now fighting with ticking. My first roo had a single beard gene, so I sold him off to a EE breeder. I bought a bird from Wayne Meredith's breeding and he took my first roo's place. His tail was to high set and he had to much tail fluff, so last year I culled him. I kept a cockerel from last year's breeding who is still growing out. I hatched eggs from eBay and the rooster from that hatch has a weird comb and is being culled. My other roos is my first roo's son and has a single beard and... he's one of those white crop-outs. Yes, I know, you all tell everyone to cull them. I decided I wanted to see what he'd throw. He has a nice tail set and no extra fluff. He also has the egg color genes I want put back into my flock. If I hatch weird birds, they'll be nice EEs for someone else! In the mean time, I have 4 chicks from unknown lineage growing out, and I am looking to buy either a new rooster or many hatching eggs.

What's funny is I actually got out of these birds because of the lack of breeders of quality birds, the lack of availability of birds from quality breeders and the EE/Ameraucana drama. I must be a glutton for punishment! Or, I really like my birds.

I know the feeling, and I am only in my second year. Well third if you count my Ameraucana's I got from the hatchery the first year. Still have two of the EE girls and they lay pretty eggs.
Out of last years crop, I had 5 roos. The blue wheaten turned out to be a blue tailed red. He is pretty, just colored wrong so no babies from him. I had three blue roos of which two had gold leakage and a hawk eliminated one of them. The other blue roo is fine, but I do think his tail is set a little too high, but he is pretty other than that. The lavender roo seems to be a pretty good one. I am getting ready to set some eggs, some I have gotten from another breeder, and I will have some BBS of my own. I think it probably just takes a while to get established and to get the flock that you are happy with. I am hoping to get some pretty BWs from my hatch and hopefully a beautiful black roo. I also want more BBS splash as they tend to be my favorite. I really love this breed with their pretty faces and beards. I was going to set some lavs, but I went on a trip and left my husband in charge. The Lav hen got broody while I was gone and no eggs. My black hen that I had with the lav roo and the one lav hen so I could get black splits and breed back, well she was in the pen with my brown egg layers & the off color BW roo when I got back, so I have no eggs from this group for probably another month. Hubby doesn't know the difference in a black star and a black Ameraucana, but they were well fed and watered while I was gone.

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

I understand the frustration with this breed LOL. Most of this thread is dedicated to telling newbies that their 'Americanas' are EE's!
I have both full bloods and EE's and each have their merits. I will continue to raise both simply because I enjoy the breed and plan to play with the genitics of the blue eggs and the muff/beard with another rare breed I'm aquireing.

 

[MrsBachbach]

There seems to always be issues that need to be worked on with almost all the varieties. I think the BBS is the most well established and it is much easier to find quality with them. Even so, even with them you can run into leaking, etc. Trying to get started with hatching eggs and expecting show stock from them is a tall order. Even with chicks. After my experiences I say impossible to expect. There are only a couple of things that can be checked at hatch with chicks, muffs and skin color(assuming phenotype is there anyway). When I started with BBS hatching eggs, I had issues with them even though they were from a well known breeder. What I have learned over the years is I was too quick to cull. Work with what you have, because sometimes you may end up with much worse. It definitely helps if you don't have a multitude of issues to deal with, but it is unrealistic to expect no faults. Granted, there are some faults you just don't want established (like leaky males, split wings) and those should be culled, but many issues can be bred out. If a bird has good quality in most areas and is lacking in another area, I wouldn't cull it just based on that unless you just want to spend the money looking for that perfect bird. I would find a mate that can help correct that fault.
I just started with the bluewheaten/wheaten a few years ago. I had disappointments the first year also and scrapped my breeding pair. I had disappointments with adding started stock. I worked with the three (two males, one female) birds that made the cut from the eggs I bought and established a starting flock from them. They were good enough for the judges to award them ribbons, but even these show birds need improvement. Keep your good, but not perfect, stock and bring in what you need to improve upon it, if what you need isn't there. Don't scrap them. The perfect specimen is the exception, not the rule.

 

[Reyvaughn]

I cull when my birds are around 4-8 months (depends on the bird). I am trying to find a happy meeting ground with my flock, but it seems as soon as I address one issue, another crops up. I went back to the original line to fix color (ticking) and tail set that the other line brought in while trying to fix size and beards. I will have to work out the single beard gene issue later. I am quite aware the perfect bird is unlikely. It's just funny how sometimes you take 1 step a head and 3 back. Basically, I am back to what I had in my flock 3.5yrs ago when I first started out! Just, more ticking, higher tails and green eggs instead of the lovely blues I had.

 

[MrsBachbach]

I cull when my birds are around 4-8 months (depends on the bird).  I am trying to find a happy meeting ground with my flock, but it seems as soon as I address one issue, another crops up.  I went back to the original line to fix color (ticking) and tail set that the other line brought in while trying to fix size and beards.  I will have to work out the single beard gene issue later.  I am quite aware the perfect bird is unlikely.  It's just funny how sometimes you take 1 step a head and 3 back.  Basically, I am back to what I had in my flock 3.5yrs ago when I first started out!  Just, more ticking, higher tails and green eggs instead of the lovely blues I had.

The single beard issue can usually be worked out without having to bring in other lines, unless you are in a hurry.

 

[Sylvester017]

I understand the frustration with this breed LOL. Most of this thread is dedicated to telling newbies that their 'Americanas' are EE's!
I have both full bloods and EE's and each have their merits. I will continue to raise both simply because I enjoy the breed and plan to play with the genitics of the blue eggs and the muff/beard with another rare breed I'm aquireing.

My friend had both an Ameraucana and 3 EEs and I only had Amer. We compared notes and seemed to agree with our experience that the Amer was a gentler soul for some reason where the EEs were sweet but could show more assertiveness than an Amer. Either breed per my friend was enjoyable to have. All 3 of her EEs gave her different colors of eggs - mint, pink, bluish. The production in my Amer has been outstanding with larger eggs than our previous White Leghorn. My Amer's production is probably very good because she's never been broody in 2 years. Broodiness is so unpredictable though - Leghorns are not broody yet I once had one go broody on me, go figure?

 

[dstokely]

My friend had both an Ameraucana and 3 EEs and I only had Amer. We compared notes and seemed to agree with our experience that the Amer was a gentler soul for some reason where the EEs were sweet but could show more assertiveness than an Amer. Either breed per my friend was enjoyable to have. All 3 of her EEs gave her different colors of eggs - mint, pink, bluish. The production in my Amer has been outstanding with larger eggs than our previous White Leghorn. My Amer's production is probably very good because she's never been broody in 2 years. Broodiness is so unpredictable though - Leghorns are not broody yet I once had one go broody on me, go figure?

My Ameraucanas are a year old and of my 7 hens, two have gone broody. My lav hen and a black hen are doing their best to hatch a golf ball. If it works, I may make lotsa money!

 

[TaraBellaBirds]

Yes the Am's do seem to have such sweet personalites, my Rocky (Wheaten) is a doll, even broody as she is now. My EE's go from super aggressive (males) to curious and smart, my fav is a red and blue EE hen named Scarlett. She is a ballsey little thing that took on a full grown hen at 4 weeks!

 

[Alaskan]

anyone good at sexing wheaten chicks?

 

[HorseChick21]

I got my babies today I'm so happy! My AM chicks came this morning and my oh my are they so cute and friendly, I have 10 blue 8 black and 4 lavender babies, and they're so soft, I love them to bits already, I'll hve a lot to learn about breeding standards but I'm hoping I hve good enough stock to start me out...