Ameraucana thread for posting pictures and discussing our birds

[BarnGoddess01]

so if your bird lays a nice green egg in her cage........


sorry but I am new at this and having spent some time researching I have more questions than answers

The "blue" egg colour is a matter of degrees. Get an egg colour card from the ABC ....

 

[AinaWGSD]

I dont see muffs... he is not even a EE(maybe he has a pea comb)

That's not true at all. Muffs are not a requirement for an EE, and many people use clean faced Ameraucana culls in their EE pens. My only EE is clean faced (no muffs). Of the 5 EE chicks I received in my order, she was the only one who did not have muffs. She was also the only one who had green legs from the start. Pea combs are also not required for a bird to be an EE (although the odds of a bird with anything other than a pea comb laying a blue or green egg are lower). Nor is laying a green or blue egg...many EE lay a shade of brown or cream.

I agree, at 6 weeks old it would be hard to look at a solid black bird and tell (unless he had green legs) if he were an EE or a poor example of an Ameraucana. I hatched a bunch of chicks from my (now gone) Ameraucana rooster this spring. We set eggs from all of our hens, but the majority of the ones that hatched were either from my Ameraucana hen (who does unfortunately lay a green egg) or from my EE hen. The 6 that hatched from my speckled sussex hen I could tell right away because they had red leakage on the down as chicks and distinct red blotches on the shoulders as their feathers came in. The rest of the 20 eggs that hatched looked the same as young chicks regardless of whether they hatched out of my EE eggs or my Ameraucana eggs. It wasn't until they were at least 3 months old that I could start telling that they were maybe from one hen or the other, and even then it's hard to tell which chicks are maybe from my EE hen at 4 months.

However, if the other eggs that were also supposed to be Ameraucana are clearly EE I would err on the side of caution and assume that you have an EE (you wouldn't want to use him for breeding Ameraucana anyway due to his lack of muffs which are at the very least a serious fault if not a flat out DQ). I know that at least half of the chicks I sold were purebred Ameraucana, but I sold them as EE anyway because I couldn't tell the difference between the purebred chicks and the EE chicks at the time I sold them (even if I had grown them out for a year, I still couldn't have been 100% sure that they weren't EE's without any leakage). Remember, even if a bird meets all of the other descriptions of a recognized Ameraucana variety (in this case black), it is still an EE if it doesn't breed true at least 50% of the time.

 

[TAMMACLEAN]

That's not true at all. Muffs are not a requirement for an EE, and many people use clean faced Ameraucana culls in their EE pens. My only EE is clean faced (no muffs). Of the 5 EE chicks I received in my order, she was the only one who did not have muffs. She was also the only one who had green legs from the start. Pea combs are also not required for a bird to be an EE (although the odds of a bird with anything other than a pea comb laying a blue or green egg are lower). Nor is laying a green or blue egg...many EE lay a shade of brown or cream.

I agree, at 6 weeks old it would be hard to look at a solid black bird and tell (unless he had green legs) if he were an EE or a poor example of an Ameraucana. I hatched a bunch of chicks from my (now gone) Ameraucana rooster this spring. We set eggs from all of our hens, but the majority of the ones that hatched were either from my Ameraucana hen (who does unfortunately lay a green egg) or from my EE hen. The 6 that hatched from my speckled sussex hen I could tell right away because they had red leakage on the down as chicks and distinct red blotches on the shoulders as their feathers came in. The rest of the 20 eggs that hatched looked the same as young chicks regardless of whether they hatched out of my EE eggs or my Ameraucana eggs. It wasn't until they were at least 3 months old that I could start telling that they were maybe from one hen or the other, and even then it's hard to tell which chicks are maybe from my EE hen at 4 months.

However, if the other eggs that were also supposed to be Ameraucana are clearly EE I would err on the side of caution and assume that you have an EE (you wouldn't want to use him for breeding Ameraucana anyway due to his lack of muffs which are at the very least a serious fault if not a flat out DQ). I know that at least half of the chicks I sold were purebred Ameraucana, but I sold them as EE anyway because I couldn't tell the difference between the purebred chicks and the EE chicks at the time I sold them (even if I had grown them out for a year, I still couldn't have been 100% sure that they weren't EE's without any leakage). Remember, even if a bird meets all of the other descriptions of a recognized Ameraucana variety (in this case black), it is still an EE if it doesn't breed true at least 50% of the time.

Thanks. the three I have were all suppose to be Ameraucanas so he is an EE. Sadly though I already have three roosters in the next coop over so these threee and two of the others will have to go. I was so hoping they would be girls, then I would only have to get rid of one rooster. Oh well.

 

[ashandvine]

I just wanted to share something that amazed me, whether it should or no; I have suddenly got broodies. One started and it transmitted to others. Four now, and the part that startles me is that two of them are SHARING a nest. The nest was so full of eggs that they sit side by side... or head to tail really, and brood that one large clutch in tandem. I wonder what will happen when they start hatching. "That's my baby! No, my baby!" We might need Solomon.

 

[poularde]

I have a pair of hens that go broody together. Not Ameraucanas. They share the duties on their nest. My girls raised their babies together. Trading chicks quite often. They raised out on free range. They raised them all up together and did not lose a single one.

 

[Fyremare]

I have had a couple pairs of broody Mommas raise chicks together. The funniest pair were like Mutt and Jeff... OEG bantam and a big Cuckoo Marans! The Cuckoo gave up co-mothering after about 4 weeks. The OEG bantam is still with all eleven chicks, has started laying again and some of them are getting bigger than her! It's been quite a trip!
The cool thing is they integrate those chicks with the flock right away, no introductions needed, Momma's have been working things out with the flock.

 

[ashandvine]

So glad to think I might not need to manage the custody battle. Most of these babies should be blue Ams-- our first hatched here, so it will be a big jump into genetics and a peek into the shades of blue I might get.

 

[ChickenExtreme]

Definitely muffs are not all required to be an EE

 

[BarnGoddess01]

B/B/S Ameraucanas are hatching. My Gene from Jean is a daddy!

 

[BarnGoddess01]

Hatching is exhausting work ....