Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[bruceha2000]

Our very sweet Blue Wheaten Ameraucana (my avatar as a 5-mo pullet) turned 3-yrs-old recently and after not laying for 7 months started laying her pastel blue eggs again. But our sweet timid girl has turned into an aggressive witch these past couple weeks. She's been picking feather-ripping fights with our littlest Silkie and hassling her in the coop -- the little Silkie tried to defend herself but now cowers from her. Then the Amer started pecking at our youngest bird -- a 11/2 yr old Breda.

We've been teetering on the fence to keep the Amer because she's been a sweet non-combative flockmate for 3 yrs but suddenly she is such a pill we're afraid she'll injure one of the others and that her meanness will be contagious with the flock. I was willing to keep her while she was a sweet flockmate in spite of poor production but now we're afraid she'll be too aggressive -- she's our largest chicken. We lined up a home for her with friends who lost 3 birds to a stray dog and they have 2 EEs left after that attack. They've reinforced their coop/run after the dog attack and are happy to take her since Amers and EEs are so similar. They don't mind that our Amer is not a prolific layer since they are accustomed to the sporadic laying pattern of their own EEs. I'm so thrilled that she will have flockmates of her own kind -- she seemed like an odd loner in our flock.

We had a White Leghorn that was a sweetie for 3 yrs and after her 3rd year she started being aggressive toward her flockmates that we decided to re-home her with a friend's egg-layer flock where she quickly worked her way to alpha. What is it with the number 3-yrs that large fowl start showing their aggressive nature? Our old Silkie bantams don't bother anyone.

My GUESS is that since she started laying again, her hormones are back to normal and she is asserting herself. Even my top of the flock Ancona get shy when they are moulting but regain their mojo when their moult is over. Given you have only the 3 birds, I would think they will get it all figured out pretty soon. No one in charge likes to give up their "position"

Quote:
And the feed stores are just telling buyers what the hatcheries told them. I doubt many at the stores know anything about the difference between EEs and Ameraucana and at a chain place like TSC they probably would not be allowed to change the labeling even if they did.


And yes @twinsmom6 this is a nice group of people. But so are the EE folks so head on over to:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/273489/the-ee-braggers-thread

and when you start wondering if it is male or female, go to:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/463817/easter-egger-sexing-tips-and-tricks-pictures-included

I only have EEs but I follow here because the birds are so beautiful and there are some people really knowledgeable about these birds, genetics and other interesting (to me) things.

 

[MrsBachbach]

When posting a photo or quote from someone else you should give credit to the person, site, book etc. that it came from.
There are photos of all the recognized varieties of Ameraucanas on the club's Photos page (http://ameraucanaalliance.org/photos.html) for comparison and here is one of some day-old large fowl silver Ameraucana chicks.

John, I agree with what you say, but, I don't think she posted a stock photo or quoted anyone. I understood that was a photo of her chick.
Maybe you can weigh in on her photo? I see in your photo the chicks have a lighter more silver looking down while her photo has more yellow/tan looking down. In the stock photos I saw I couldn't discern a difference in the down from her chick. I don't know if the difference is because of lighting or not. So would you enlighten us as to what is the correct down color on the silver chicks?

 

[FowlStuff]

John, I agree with what you say, but, I don't think she posted a stock photo or quoted anyone. I understood that was a photo of her chick.
Maybe you can weigh in on her photo? I see in your photo the chicks have a lighter more silver looking down while her photo has more yellow/tan looking down. In the stock photos I saw I couldn't discern a difference in the down from her chick. I don't know if the difference is because of lighting or not. So would you enlighten us as to what is the correct down color on the silver chicks?

SadiJane can chime it, but she said "she/he won't stay still for a good shot" and took that to mean the photo she posted wasn't her chick.
I have seen the more silver vs more yellow chick down also in different lines of wheatens, but I'm not sure how it translates into adult phenotype.

 

[SadiJane]

SadiJane can chime it, but she said "she/he won't stay still for a good shot" and took that to mean the photo she posted wasn't her chick.
I have seen the more silver vs more yellow chick down also in different lines of wheatens, but I'm not sure how it translates into adult phenotype.

Yes it was a stock photo

 

[SadiJane]

SadiJane can chime it, but she said "she/he won't stay still for a good shot" and took that to mean the photo she posted wasn't her chick.
I have seen the more silver vs more yellow chick down also in different lines of wheatens, but I'm not sure how it translates into adult phenotype.

Here are some good pictures of mine now that she/he is calm enough

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[SadiJane]

Good view of top

 

[SadiJane]

I have no idea who owns the other photo it was just a random one on google that looked quite a bit like my chick. Sorry for the confusion

 

[Miss Ameraucana]

SadiJane can chime it, but she said "she/he won't stay still for a good shot" and took that to mean the photo she posted wasn't her chick.
I have seen the more silver vs more yellow chick down also in different lines of wheatens, but I'm not sure how it translates into adult phenotype.

Above she mentions it was a stock photo

 

[junebuggena]

Good view of top

If you look at the feathers coming in on the wing. They are golden brown striped. That means she can not be Silver Ameraucana (they are black and white coloring). You have a typical hatchery Easter Egger.

 

[SadiJane]

If you look at the feathers coming in on the wing. They are golden brown striped. That means she can not be Silver Ameraucana (they are black and white coloring). You have a typical hatchery Easter Egger.

Thanks so much for the info

Again I'm not disappointed in any way I love this little one the way it is. It just helps knowing more about these little ones.