Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[Chicken5555]

Fyi, I think the one on your shoulder is a male. Let us know!

You have just seconded my thoughts. Thanks for your input. The black and my one and only splash also look like boys. I was really hoping that the splash would be a boy. Right now it looks like only four out of the ten that hatched are girls. We'll see and I'll keep you all posted.

PS - two of the blues already have nice edging and they aren't even six weeks old yet. I look forward to seeing how they look after they molt.

 

[FowlStuff]

I am new to BYC and just learning about the different breeds. I'd love to have a few so have been asking around and the two breeds that have been suggested to me for friendliness are the Americauna and the Orpington. I'd like to get eggs, too, of course. So I've just been reading, reading, reading about everyone's experiences.

Consider the combs.
Orpingtons have large single combs and wattles. These work like a radiator and the more surface area to the comb and wattles the better to dissipate body heat, so they do better in warm southern climates.
Ameraucanas were created in the Midwest as a cold hardy breed. They have small pea combs and no wattles, so although they can take the heat from a normal northern warm summer they also do very well in very cold wintery weather without frostbite.
Just as Chihuahuas wouldn't do well in the northern climate and Huskies do well down south, some breeds of poultry are designed to do better in one by design.

 

[Sylvester017]

I am new to BYC and just learning about the different breeds. I'd love to have a few so have been asking around and the two breeds that have been suggested to me for friendliness are the Americauna and the Orpington. I'd like to get eggs, too, of course. So I've just been reading, reading, reading about everyone's experiences.

Your spelling of Amer-I-cana is the feed store or hatchery identification for Easter Eggers and not the Amer-AU-cana breed on this thread. Both birds can be incredibly sweet but AmerAUcana comes in only 8 accepted APA color varieties laying close to blue eggs whereas Easter Eggers/Amer-I-canas do not have one of the recognized 8 feather colors and lay anywhere from blue, blue-green, mint, sage, stone(gray), tan, cream, tinted, or even WHITE eggs. Don't feel bad -- this is a clarification that has continued for decades educating newbies on the difference. Hatcheries, websites, and feed stores perpetuate the misnomer but in reality are selling off Easter Eggers as if they were true Ameraucanas by being sneaky and sometimes spelling it as Amer-I-cana. Easter Eggers/Amer-I-canas and true Amer-AU-canas are all sweet birds and somewhat related but definitely are separate.

IMO Amers/EEs are not an egg production breed like Leghorns, or Rhode Islands, or Barred Rocks -- but most people get them instead for the variety of blue-green eggs -- plus Amers/EEs are one of the sweetest non-combative breeds. Friendly? Maybe not so much as youngsters. Some take a long time to get over their wariness and cautiousness but you will earn their trust with treats if there aren't other pushy breeds around hogging the limelight from the more timid EEs/Ams. We loved our Blue Wheaten true Ameraucana girl -- the sweetest gentlest non-combative breed we've had in 6 years but we lost her this summer at 3 yrs old -- she was too fluffy to do well in our hot humid SoCal climate so I won't be getting any more Ameraucana or Easter Eggers as much as I love them.

I never personally owned Orps but people like them. The Orp chicks seemed aggressive to me bothering other Leghorn chicks and ducklings in the same pen but then that may have been an isolated incident. In the long run for myself I had to decide whether I wanted egg layers who tend to be larger more assertive types or whether I wanted lesser/smaller eggs from more docile light-weight breeds. My DH loved his Silkies so that decided it for us to re-home the heavier dual purpose type breeds and keep gentler smaller breeds - the eggs aren't as big but some of the gentles can lay up to large size and EEs/Amers can lay LG to XL sometimes.

Good layers IMO are Australorps, Barred Rocks, Buff Orps, California Gray, Delawares, Rhode Island Red, New Hampshire Red, and White Leghorns. There are other dual purpose like Marans, Wyandottes, Sexlinks, Wellsummers, Mediterranean class breeds, etc etc. I avoided these breeds for my backyard because of the Silkies and in my original research found most gentle/docile breeds to get along with our Silkies were not necessarily good at egg production but we didn't mind. For just two of us we got plenty of eggs from Silkies, Breda, and Ameraucana. Brahma and Faverolles are gentle giants but way too heavily under-downed for our humid climate. I like going to the MyPetChicken website to peruse their assessment of breed personalities. Although not every individual chicken within a breed description may be exactly that same temperament it does give a reasonable assessment of what breeds might be more compatible within a flock than others.

Happy chickeneering!

 

[LaPoulet]

...

I am new to BYC and just learning about the different breeds. I'd love to have a few so have been asking around and the two breeds that have been suggested to me for friendliness are the Americauna and the Orpington. I'd like to get eggs, too, of course. So I've just been reading, reading, reading about everyone's experiences.

Welcome! I love Ameraucana

 

[LaPoulet]

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 for your loss. That's my biggest fear. I currently have a very healthy closed flock but all of my cockerels were culls. Very scary bringing in new chickens. I wish you continued success with your remaining flock. We all know how much you love your chickens and the time you put into it. Best of luck to you! Mary

 

[Saris]

So sorry for your loss. That's my biggest fear. I currently have a very healthy closed flock but all of my cockerels were culls. Very scary bringing in new chickens. I wish you continued success with your remaining flock. We all know how much you love your chickens and the time you put into it. Best of luck to you! Mary

Thank you.

I hope you find a healthy boy to bring in or hatch a nice one.

 

[Roxbell25]

Thanks. They are so cute, aren't they! They sound very personable too.

 

[OnceInaBlueMoon]

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 for your loss.

I hope the remaining birds fully recover.

 

[OnceInaBlueMoon]

I am new to BYC and just learning about the different breeds. I'd love to have a few so have been asking around and the two breeds that have been suggested to me for friendliness are the Americauna and the Orpington. I'd like to get eggs, too, of course. So I've just been reading, reading, reading about everyone's experiences.

Welcome to BYC! I raise a few color varieties of Ameraucanas as well as Silver Laced Orpingtons. I can attest to the fact that they are both sweet, docile breeds. I enjoy having both of them. I refer to the Orpingtons as gentle giants, and the Ameraucanas are very friendly...several of them will eat from the palm of my hand.

 

[Saris]

So sorry for your loss.

I hope the remaining birds fully recover.

Thank you, I think they are on their way over the hump as long as I keep the stresses to a minimum. My husband just resided the chicken run so 'coons can't get in it so I don't think I'll have to keep blocking the Coop door.