Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[samouw]

Hi ,does anyone sell baby chicks ?
Please let me know .thanks

While there are a few breeders who hatch in the Fall, most have chicks available in the Spring. You can check the breeders directory on our website, ameraucanabreedersclub.org, to locate a breeder near you. Just a word of precaution - the top breeders take reservations and sell out quickly, so you might want to start your contacts now.

 

[FowlStuff]

Hi ,does anyone sell baby chicks ?
Please let me know .thanks

Sure, I'm still accepting orders now for chicks next year. There are others listed on the Ameraucana Directory.
http://ameraucanaalliance.org/DnLd/Directory.pdf

 

[Melissa Sakata]

Both of my Black beauties turned out to be pullets with a beautiful green sheen and their beards and muffs are growing nice and full!

 

[Saris]

I feel so devastated....

Pretty sure now that my chickens have MG or something similar.

I've lost one Choc Am for a necropsy, my Splash Wheaten Am pullet passed overnight, and all my little Ams are sneezing, wheezing, have bubbley eyes and/or swollen faces....

Most of my older ones seem to be asymptomatic, except my Bielefelder boy, his eyes are leaking.

I wish I knew when I got it, I think pretty recently, no one got sick after either raccoon attack and that was pretty stressful, more stressful I'd think than a weather change into fall....

I set some shipped hatching eggs on the 9th, I wonder if they brought it in...... it would fit the incubation timeline for this to be the first outbreak of it.....

I hate this. I feel like I've let down my chickens, and I feel like I've let down the people who supplied me said chickens......

 

[Ravynscroft]

I feel so devastated....

Pretty sure now that my chickens have MG or something similar. 

I've lost one Choc Am for a necropsy, my Splash Wheaten Am pullet passed overnight, and all my little Ams are sneezing, wheezing, have bubbley eyes and/or swollen faces....

Most of my older ones seem to be asymptomatic, except my Bielefelder boy, his eyes are leaking.

I wish I knew when I got it, I think pretty recently, no one got sick after either raccoon attack and that was pretty stressful, more stressful I'd think than a weather change into fall....

I set some shipped hatching eggs on the 9th, I wonder if they brought it in...... it would fit the incubation timeline for this to be the first outbreak of it.....

I hate this. I feel like I've let down my chickens, and I feel like I've let down the people who supplied me said chickens......

Oh, no!! So sorry!!!

 

[Saris]

Oh, no!! So sorry!!!

Thank you.

 

[Sylvester017]

I feel so devastated....
Pretty sure now that my chickens have MG or something similar.
I've lost one Choc Am for a necropsy, my Splash Wheaten Am pullet passed overnight, and all my little Ams are sneezing, wheezing, have bubbley eyes and/or swollen faces....
Most of my older ones seem to be asymptomatic, except my Bielefelder boy, his eyes are leaking.
I wish I knew when I got it, I think pretty recently, no one got sick after either raccoon attack and that was pretty stressful, more stressful I'd think than a weather change into fall....
I set some shipped hatching eggs on the 9th, I wonder if they brought it in...... it would fit the incubation timeline for this to be the first outbreak of it.....
I hate this. I feel like I've let down my chickens, and I feel like I've let down the people who supplied me said chickens......

So sorry about your losses. Don't beat yourself up about it -- been there, done that -- it doesn't help. There's just no way to get started with chickens EXCEPT to bring them in whether as hatching eggs, chicks, or juvenile/adults. From supposedly reputable NPIP breeders and show breeders I've received juveniles with lice, sneezing, sniffles, Marek's, cocci, and worms! Some so bad from cocci/worms they died in a week after being tested positive out of the shipping box. You take your chances importing bird stock but how else do you get started? The best way to keep a flock from succumbing to non-discernible latent illnesses is to keep them as healthy, clean, and nutritionally fed as possible so the carriers never display symptoms. And if there is a perfectly healthy non-latent non-disease-carrying chicken I'd like to take out a patent on her!

I did research on CRD/MG/MS issues a while back. I discovered 98% of backyard flocks are CRD carriers but not all chickens will ever show symptoms if they are hardy. (Seems like hardy Marek's survivors don't always necessarily show symptoms either yet others like my 3-yr-old Blue Wheaten Ameraucana succumbed to it this year after having been a chick survivor). I suppose it's environmentally possible to cleanse CRD/MS/MG issues in a backyard but then how would you know you even have it or where it came from without having a test on every bird entering the yard? What about wild birds who carry all sorts of other problems to our flocks?

I have a Black Silkie that once a year like clockwork I have to take to the vet for respiratory symptoms anywhere from mild sniffles, head-staking, blocked nasal passages, to extreme wheezing to where I think I'll lose her before morning. But the vet treats her and she's fine for another year. We figured in vet visits alone her little eggs cost us $10 to $12 EACH LOL! Seems that weather extremes bring on symptoms yet my other hens never exhibited CRD symptoms. Now I've had a couple Blue Breda juveniles shipped to me from 2 totally different breeders from 2 different States with sniffles (Breda are prone to CRD issues because of those cavernous nostrils of theirs) but I took them immediately out of the shipping box to the vet for Baytril treatment and they were fine. However, CRD issues are latent and can crop up again later, or, maybe never again, depending on weather conditions, or other illness that can exacerbate CRD symptoms, or other stress factors. I lost my 11/2 yr-old Blue Breda hen very suddenly without outward symptoms -- suspect FLHS which also exacerbated laying a soft shell egg and can exacerbate other latent issues like CRD/MS/MG. She was bouncing around normally in the morning with no distress symptoms yet by noon had taken a midday nap and died in her sleep -- poor Silkie sitting next to her was unaware her companion was dead. We had no prior warning signals that anything was wrong with her. I am taking steps to fortify the diet of my newest Breda (who so far has never exhibited CRD symptoms) with a little extra selenium, calcium carbonate along with oyster shell for better egg shell quality because Breda are very prolific exhaustive layers which is stressful on their bodies, and I'm adding more vitamin supplementation with Rooster Booster and more frequent doses of children's no-iron liquid Poly-Vi-Sol vitamin drop on the side of the hen's beak a couple times a week. Every time I bring a chicken to my vet he always says the same thing - make sure they are getting vitamin supplementation. I slacked on this so am back to being more regimental about steady chicken vitamin supplementation to my flock's diet -- it's showing up in more renewed energy even in my older 5 and 6 yr olds.

I lost 2 of my 5 birds this summer -- the Blue Wheaten Amer of suspected Marek's cancer and the Blue Breda to suspected FLHS which really I think she wouldn't have suffered if she hadn't been laying 4 to 6 eggs/weekly for 10+ exhaustive consecutive months since her pullet year. It was too much for her little lightweight body. There's just never much advanced knowing what brings on illness or death in one of our precious hens but hindsight turns out 20/20. I've come to my own conclusion that heat stress exacerbated my Ameraucana's health -- she was just too heavily under-downed for our humid 100+ steady heat over the past several years and all she wanted to do for the 3 years we had her was to sit in the wettest soil she could find in the shade, yet she happily bounced around the yard on cool rainy days! I definitely will not subject another heavily-downed breed to our humid climate. It is October and we have had 2 straight days of 100+ degrees and no rain in sight. Getting an 85 degree day is a cool spell for us!

I recently read in detail about VetRx as a remedy for respiratory issues for chickens but I take my chickens to a vet since I don't feel comfortable yet self-diagnosing or treating on my own. I hope your necropsy will be conclusive. So many findings are vague with "cancerous lesions but unknown as to cause" or "tests were inconlusive" or some other mumbly stuff. My vet won't waste client money on necropsies unless a client insists or there's a suspected threatening outward phenomenon -- otherwise I have come to trust his diagnosis and treatments with accuracy. I don't breed or sell so haven't found the need to spend money on a necropsy that won't bring my chickens back to me

. If there was something catastrophic all my 5 hens have already been exposed anyway but so far they continue to survive fine.

 

[FridayYet]

I feel so devastated....

Pretty sure now that my chickens have MG or something similar. 

I've lost one Choc Am for a necropsy, my Splash Wheaten Am pullet passed overnight, and all my little Ams are sneezing, wheezing, have bubbley eyes and/or swollen faces....

Most of my older ones seem to be asymptomatic, except my Bielefelder boy, his eyes are leaking.

I wish I knew when I got it, I think pretty recently, no one got sick after either raccoon attack and that was pretty stressful, more stressful I'd think than a weather change into fall....

I set some shipped hatching eggs on the 9th, I wonder if they brought it in...... it would fit the incubation timeline for this to be the first outbreak of it.....

I hate this. I feel like I've let down my chickens, and I feel like I've let down the people who supplied me said chickens......

So sorry to hear that. so many decisions to make now as you move forward.

I had two last year that got sick while I was on vacation. I separated them out and treated for a while, then made the tough decision to cull. Treated everyone else twice with Deneguard just in case. Thankfully none of the others have ever shown any symptoms but I'll never know for sure if they are or aren't carriers. The flock has been closed since then, and none have left the property except for the freezer.

So sorry you are going through this.

 

[Saris]

So sorry to hear that.

so many decisions to make now as you move forward.

I had two last year that got sick while I was on vacation. I separated them out and treated for a while, then made the tough decision to cull. Treated everyone else twice with Deneguard just in case. Thankfully none of the others have ever shown any symptoms but I'll never know for sure if they are or aren't carriers. The flock has been closed since then, and none have left the property except for the freezer.

So sorry you are going through this.

I appreciate that.

It is tough, I would like resistant birds so I don't have to worry again, but the only way to know if they are resistant is to know they carry it and have no symptoms....

My Splash Wheaten boy who had some bad swelling with no bubbles or sneezing seems all better today. He didn't get any antibiotics either, just probiotic chick booster....

Some others seem to be doing a scosh better as well, but I won't hold out too much hope for my Blue Wheaten girl, she seems to be more weak of spirit than the others, my Choc boy seems the same. Only mild eye goops but just standing huddled and sad.....

 

[marchick]

I feel so devastated....

Pretty sure now that my chickens have MG or something similar.

I've lost one Choc Am for a necropsy, my Splash Wheaten Am pullet passed overnight, and all my little Ams are sneezing, wheezing, have bubbley eyes and/or swollen faces....

Most of my older ones seem to be asymptomatic, except my Bielefelder boy, his eyes are leaking.

I wish I knew when I got it, I think pretty recently, no one got sick after either raccoon attack and that was pretty stressful, more stressful I'd think than a weather change into fall....

I set some shipped hatching eggs on the 9th, I wonder if they brought it in...... it would fit the incubation timeline for this to be the first outbreak of it.....

I hate this. I feel like I've let down my chickens, and I feel like I've let down the people who supplied me said chickens......

I am so sorry for you and your babies! Only us chicken people know how you feel. They are our feather babies!