Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[scflock]

that does make sense. i wanted to order splash too but figured i could make splash from blues, then hopefully ravyn will help me out through pics on which of my birds are the best. i sure do hope i get a good average on straight run. odds say 50/50 but from what i have read off the ABC forum its been "the year of the cockerel" almost sounds ominous!

I have batches that are mostly pullets, and others that are mostly cockerels, but over time it averages out to 50/50.
What excited me about these is when I sold off my extra cockerels, they sold out in 2 days. Two people drove over 1.5 hour to get them. I've never sold roosters that easily. People either looking for Smith blood, or putting them in with other hens to make EEs

 

[CGilbert]

@CGilbert

Have you checked the Ameraucana Breeders directory to see if anyone has hatching eggs of buff? You could hatch your own roo.

I have. I emailed every person on the directory that has buffs listed. Most of them aren't laying, some people don't have them anymore.

 

[marchick]

7 years ago my wife and I were buying plants for the garden the week before Easter. Those little chicks were so cute, so we bought 4 Buff Orpingtons to play with. Over the next couple of years we added more laying hens, and they eventually outgrew their coop. When I built a bigger coop, that's when my wife decided she wanted silkies. Thats when exponents were introduced into chicken math. Now there are roughly 130 chickens, 7 pens, a new pen is needed to divide the new AM roosters, and 23 eggs are in lockdown...

I think you need to talk my husband into building me more pens! lol Seven is a good number! I love the number seven! Yep! I told my husband! "My friend on BYC"! I read to him what you had posted! He said! "man he has it bad!!!" lol

I thought " So do I!" lol

My husband told me no more this is the last one!!! That was before my pheasant pen. Our first pen has two runs and the one to the back we are going to make that into pen number 4.

 

[scflock]

I think you need to talk my husband into building me more pens! lol  Seven is a good number! I love the number seven! Yep! I told my husband! "My friend on BYC"! I read to him what you had posted! He said!  "man he has it bad!!!"  lol  I thought " So do I!" lol    My husband told me no more this is the last one!!! That was before my pheasant pen. Our first pen has two runs and the one to the back we are going to make that into pen number 4.

No more, this is the last one. I say that every March...

 

[marchick]

No more, this is the last one. I say that every March...

Yep! Then when you get all the work done building a new pen! "That is the last one!!!!!!" I am getting too old to do all that hard work!!!" A couple months has past and you forget all the hard work!!! If I built a new pen I could.......................!!!!!!

x

=

Yep!!! enough said! lol

 

[Saris]

I hit a goldmine on free lumber 5 miles from my house. Check and see if there are any vinyl or aluminum siding dealers near you. Siding ships in crates put together with 2x4s that are held together with 15ft long 3 and 5 inch slats. They leave them by the dumpster and it's first come, first serve. I have loaded my F250 and trailer 4 times, and they are much easier to break down than pallets. I get so much free lumber that I started building and selling my own coops

I will keep that in mind. I've thought of at least 3 places that I could fit new coops and small runs, but I still need to leave room for my kids to play and my husband and I to grow our supplies for his salsa. I think I can convince him to have a small second coop to house some of TJCHICKENS' d'Uccles if any of my prize eggs hatch for Easter.

I have. I emailed every person on the directory that has buffs listed. Most of them aren't laying, some people don't have them anymore.

I will try and keep an ear out for them. Worst case scenario you can get some eggs in spring and hatch your own in late fall.

 

[bruceha2000]

I Love chicken math! 12 +24+8+7+7+7=177 Ohhhh wait a minute how did I end up with that many?

Hmmmm I will just tell everyone I havn't counted! I don't know how many I have! Around 50 I guess!

Can we all say addict! Its the first step!

I have 16 chickens (*), I have a hard enough time counting to make sure they are all in for the night. I can't imagine 177. Unless they are split into smaller groups that can be counted I guess.

* not Ameraucana but 4 are of the original 1970's hatchery Araucana -> Ameraucana type bird

 

[marchick]

I have 16 chickens (*), I have a hard enough time counting to make sure they are all in for the night. I can't imagine 177. Unless they are split into smaller groups that can be counted I guess.

* not Ameraucana but 4 are of the original 1970's hatchery Araucana -> Ameraucana type bird

I don't have that many! I did have over 50! Now I have 19 older but will cull 5 roosters.I also have 20 BCM that are 3 and 5 weeks old. I will start to cull the roosters before my new chicks come. I have 30 ameraucana chicks coming in february. In the end I hope to keep it down to around 40 when I am done culling.

 

[CGilbert]

I will try and keep an ear out for them. Worst case scenario you can get some eggs in spring and hatch your own in late fall.

Thank you! Very appreciated. Hopefully I can find some in the spring. Maybe someone will be getting rid of one of their buff roosters (fingers crossed)

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Yikes you guys have a lot of birds! I have 9, one Wheaten Am roo over a bunch of mixed hens. I also have 3 chicks in a brooder. The most I've had at once is a dozen? I can't even imagine 177 birds...

I must say, my $0.02 on the EE vs Am thing is that if you are breeding Rex rabbits, and you get a rabbit that is non-standard in the lot (say, its ears end up lopped from heat stress, or flecks of white in a black coat) it's still a Rex rabbit, it's just not show or breeder quality. It's still got Rex fur and meets the size/shape/etc and has a lot of the right genetics, just flaws. We still call it a Rex, even if it's a low quality one. It'd never make it on a pedigree or into a show because a judge has to see the rabbit. It's just a "pet quality" or "food quality" animal. And if you're looking for eggs, meat or pets... It doesn't matter if it's show quality or not... But knowing it IS an ameraucana tells them some things about the genetics of the animal (for example, size, two blue egg genes or pea comb for cold hardiness, etc.) that might be quite important. When we got our husky, we wanted a medium sized, active, winter-hardy, intelligent dog that loved to run and looked like a husky and only had husky health problems so we went for a non-show-quality purebred. Similarly, when you have a variety of rabbit that meets breed standard in every way but has a different coat color than is recognized it's very normal to say that it's a "X color-that-exists-in-another-breed" "breed" rabbit and it's up to the buyer to have due diligence on that. So in truth, this is very common in a lot of animals and has a semi-standard way of defining it already. I think as Ameraucanas age and become more recognized, they will follow suit.

But the moment you cross out to another breed, you have a mutt. An easter egger. And all the crosses (including hatcheries and BOY does it bother me that they don't do this!) should all be called easter eggers. I have always said my chicks/eggs were EEs and that I raise EEs. (Still looking for some pure hatching eggs or chicks to be laying this spring if anyone has any available?) And it's really annoying to get mutt birds that don't have Ameraucana traits advertised as Ameraucanas. And that's the real kicker. Is the bird you're selling what you're advertising? If you're advertising ameraucanas that are mixed breeds then that's just being false, straight up. And it REALLY bothers me that hatcheries in particular are doing this because they are selling birds that do not carry the important universal qualities of an ameraucana. It's akin to pet stores selling varieties of rabbits as other breeds (for example one store here sells "dutch" rabbits that are whatever rabbit they happen to get in that week), EXCEPT hatcheries have a much higher standard and quality expectation of them. And they are outright lying. And that truly bothers me and is a LOT of what creates this confusion as to some people they are considered the "experts".

It makes me wonder, with pet chickens being legalized around the nation and pet chicken keeping on the rise, along with all these outraged people having trouble with hatcheries if we won't see some sort of rift between hatcheries and show breeders the way we do with puppy mills and show dogs. It's interesting indeed to watch it unfold.