Hi Everyone,
It's been some time since I've been here and I see y'all have picked up several new folks. I'm particular glad to see that there appears to be quite a few more people that have the wonderful WBS variety!
I just happened to get a post in my Inbox today about egg laying and Cayenne pepper. I seem to remember not only reading something on BYC about Cayenne Pepper but I also have an old Poultry Book from like 1874 that mentions it as well. I am going to have to go back and take another look at that.
I thought I would mention that I had a real problem with egg production last year and early this year with about a dozen of my girls. When I finally got rid of all these gals they were 18-24 months old and had not given me an egg in 6 months - some 9 months. I posted a thread on the ABC Forum about this and it appears that I am not the only one who has experienced a problem with egg production in the Ameraucanas. Evidently, I and others have been so focused on getting some nice looking birds that egg production took a backseat to the point of being problematic. I am also thinking that at least in my case I may be experiencing the problem because of inbreeding and/or line-breeding depression/fatigue.
As it is now, I think I am down to 2 birds that are giving me an egg every other day. Well, there's another one that is a good laying but she's throwing a white egg (thanks to a BW male I had some recessive genes that popped up. "Had" is the operative word there.).
On the upside, I have several gorgeous W and BW pullets that I am hoping are going to be good layers. I've picked out 3 Wheaten and 3 Blue Wheaten pullets to take to the show this weekend and I think they are my best gals yet. Unfortunately, I have no males I can take to the show. Most of them are still too young to take and some of them are still too young to see what they're gonna turn out like yet. As far as I can tell though, I'm still not getting a full-colored beard on the males and my best looking Wheaten cockerel lost some brown in the wing. The type and size is good on the males though. I'm trying to add some weight to the females.
And now, as I mentioned, on top of it all I've got to look at egg production. So don't be surprised if a couple of y'all on here don't see me reach out to you this year for some eggs. As much as I hate to think about it, I may just have to open the flock up and bring some new blood in.
God Bless,
Very pretty but it looks so photoshopped I can't tell if it's real.
