Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[Dixiedoodle]

Pinkchick, Could something be bothering your birds? Maybe a dog, cat, raccoon , squirrel , maybe even another bird When you aren't around? How long have you had them? Have they acted like this since you have had them or is this learned behavior??

 

[pips&peeps]

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I agree with what has been said, however, he may still produce nice offspring depending on your females! He has a lot of good qualities too.

I also think he has alot of good qualities. But, I agree Royce, he has a high tail and his eyes are a little light. The judges are looking for a nice streamlined back now a days. It has to have a smooth transition into the tail where the saddle feathers do not part and show fluff.

As for the red in the tail, the standard says:

TAIL: Blue, some orange shafting in sickles.

So, you did alright by culling out this guy if you had a better bird.​

 

[megcpat]

I am confused by two of my banty chicks and am hoping someone can help me understand. I was given banty eggs for my incubator and hatched out nine chicks about 10 weeks ago. All the chicks hatched were out of beautiful blue eggs from pure, prize-winning Blue Wheaten banty hens. There were two roosters covering these hens - a pure Barred Rock rooster and a pure Blue Wheaten rooster. I expected some EEers and then the possibility of Blue Wheaten, Wheaten, or Splash Wheaten chicks. Well, seven of the little rascals look just like Barred Rocks. One of the chicks looks like a Blue Wheaten pullet in my unexperienced opinion (feel free to tell me otherwise) and then the last one I was assuming to be a Wheaten Pullet, but as it gets older, it just becomes more and more of a puzzle to me. This is not what I thought BW, W, or SW chickens looked like, but I see nothing that suggests the Barred Rock rooster. What is this chicken? Thanks. Megan

This is the chick that I'm assuming is BW

This is the one that I'm confused by:

I couldn't get a good picture of this one's back, but there is quite a bit of black flecking throughout the feathers.

 

[pips&peeps]

They both look wheaten in coloring.

The first one has white legs, so that would mean as a breeder standpoint she is a cull or needs to be sent off as a layer.

The second one looks like it is a mixed bird with that barring. She would also not be usable as a breeder.

They are both a little darker than preferred for standard.

 

[Illia]

I agree with Pips&peeps - Looks like a traditional wheaten, but the bottom one almost looks EE with those secondaries. (doubt it is, but it makes it look like that)

Anyway - Anyone know if there is a visible difference between the a blue created by BluexBlack, BluexBlue, and BlackxSplash? I once heard that you get a better sort of "lacing" if you cross the blue and black - But how much of a difference can you actually see in those three crossings to create a blue Ameraucana? Is there? Just curious.

 

[pinkchick]

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I hatched these birds in July and August of last year. They have always been pretty standoffish even as chicks they were more flighty than "the normal freakout teenage days of chicks", I have handled them just as I have my other birds. They grew out with my Marans and my Welsummers, they are all very calm birds. Slowly but surely they've become more difficult to handle as they have grown. I must say that they have not gotten worse since they have been moved into their permanent coop, that was months ago. I tried removing one bird at a time to see if maybe there was 1 bird causing the uproar, this has not helped. Since my Welsummer coop was attacked by the neighbors dogs a couple months back, I have severely upgraded security on all of my coops. I even installed 2- 24hr video surveillance cameras pointed right at the coops because I wanted to catch the neighbors dogs in the act (happy to report that those dogs have not been back), after many boring hours of watching videos it is apparent that life here on the farm... is just pretty boring, nothing comes around. These birds act normal in their coop run and coop as long as people do not approach, though they do seem to know when I have treats. My goats, dogs and cats have been a part of the chicken area since day one. The chickens are not phased by any of them. One day (pre-security upgrade) my cat Oatmeal was sleeping in the warm sun inside the coop run with them and they didn't even care.
They are not living next door to any birds that they do not know. On the day of seperating them from the group of birds they grew out with, I moved the Welsummers on one side of them and the Marans on the other. They do not fight through the fence with each other.

I'm just wondering if they ever lay an egg again if I should try incubating some of their eggs and hope the babies aren't as whacko as the parents.

 

[megcpat]

Thanks Pips&Peeps and Illiad. I had high hopes of someone telling me that she is a Wheaten just going through a normal ten week old ugly duckling stage...... sigh. I guess that Barred Rock Rooster is clearly the dominant roo.


Wait, I just re-read your comment Illiad and it sounds like you are thinking she may be a Wheaten. I guess I'll just have to wait to see what color egg she lays. That should clear up the question of her ancestry. I have no plans to breed the banty hens.

 

[cottagegarden]

A barred roo has two copies of the barring gene, hen one. If you put a barred roo over a solid hen it is going to pass on the barring gene to all offspring. You can have barring, or partial barring, usually the girls will have less patterning. That black flecking looks like barring, the eggs from this hen should be green.

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[cottagegarden]

I'm just wondering if they ever lay an egg again if I should try incubating some of their eggs and hope the babies aren't as whacko as the parents.

Maybe yours are recessive for the "sweet, friendly" gene and that would fix it. (0: Look at at this way, you have to do a test hatch anyway to see what you are producing.
What egg color you have, if plumage is holding up properly, so give it a shot. If they are as silly as the parents I still wouldnt scrap them all as nice as they sound.
Just get a new roo, there are always roos. A kinder, gentler, don't worry be happy one.​

 

[megcpat]

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Thanks. What had me so thrown was that the other seven chicks that hatched out EEers all look just like a barred rock except for their combs - the girls and the guys. Got to love crazy genetics.