Americauna?

[junebuggena]

Do you know when she should start laying?

Cochins can take awhile to start laying. 8 months or older isn't out of the ordinary for them.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

Cochins can take awhile to start laying. 8 months or older isn't out of the ordinary for them.

x2

Very pretty Splash Cochin..I love my bantam Cochins...some of my best broodies and honestly decent layers of small to medium eggs....when they aren't brooding.

And, as she is maturing in shortening day light, she may not lay until spring. Their pituitary gland needs at least 12 hours of steady daylight to trigger hormone release to develop eggs...14 steady hours of daylight to have sustained laying.

You are probably not getting that this time of year, so she may very well wait until longer days to begin to lay. Some chickens are less light sensitive and their hormones (due to genetic selection) produce year round, but many still need a significant daylight to bring about and sustain laying.

You can manipulate that by reproducing "daylight" by adding lighting safely to the coop...but you need 14 hours of light consistently during the day hours with 10 hours of darkness...otherwise you can create neurotic behaviors in the birds like feather picking and canabalism.

LofMc

 

[Lady of McCamley]

So what does that mean? Is that why my little baby looks like a chipmunk? Since i posted this, another chipmunk chick has hatched.

The "chipmunk" pattern is simply known as the "wild type" pattern. Many breeds and most mixes have that coloring as chicks. It is what usually defaults on chick down when you get mixed genetics unless one parent has a dominant color such as white or black. (@junebuggena is an excellent resource for feather genetics but you can play feather genetics with this generator http://www.breedbook.org/?action=geneticscalculator&tab=CHICKEN.)

Your photo of the mother shows an Easter Egger...how do we know? She does not meet the strict requirements of a purebred, standard of perfection, Ameraucana (see this page for those standards http://ameraucanabreedersclub.org/gallery.html).

Yet, your hen shows signs of Ameraucana heritage (the tell tale beard/muff with pea comb). That doesn't mean there couldn't be something else in her background, but in the US, if you have a large fowl bird with those characteristics, chances are it has Ameraucana or EE blood to produce the beard/muff with pea comb....plus the breeder said she was an Olive Egger.

Olive Eggers are not a breed but a mix between an Ameraucana parent (ideally to ensure 1 blue gene to the offspring) and a dark brown layer parent (usually a Marans or Welsummer or Barnevelder or Penedesenca) which hopefully provides the nice dark wash to its offspring (much more complicated covering about 13 gene patterns) that coats brown over the egg shell base. If that base is white, you have a dark brown egg. If that base is blue (from a blue gene), you get green shells. The darker the brown wash over blue shell the darker the green.

You state your Olive Egger lays brown/pink eggs. That means an Ameraucana wasn't one of the parents. That means she had Easter Egger as a parent (or even an Olive Egger) with its 50/50 proposition of passing the blue gene, and a dark layer (such as a Welsummer or Marans or Barnevelder or Penedesenca ideally) as the other parent. With an assured blue gene from an Ameraucana over a good line of dark layers, you will get Olive Eggers every time. However, if you use an EE or OE as one or both parents, it is a crap shoot as to what you get then.

You got unlucky and didn't get the blue gene so all you are getting is brown/pink eggs...and not particularly dark at that.

My dark layers vary a lot in their line as to how dark they lay. I was sorely disappointed that a coveted hen I purchased from a line of 7 (nicely dark) Marans (at a nice price I might add) is only producing at best a 4 to 5 scale, barely within the dark layer range of 5 to 9 (darkest chocolate). But that's the curse of genetics, especially with the dark brown layers as the genetics for that coveted dark brown wash is complicated. You can see the scale here http://www.themaransclub.co.uk/eggs-and-egg-colour-chart/4541995077.

This all doesn't matter a whit if you are happy with your very pretty barnyard hen who lays nice brown/pink eggs, and you are happy with healthy little barnyard mix chicks that will grow up into happy healthy barnyard mix chickens with hens that lay nice brownish eggs.

It does matter if you had hopes of building a flock that will breed forward certain egg colors for personal use or sale and/or wanted to tell your customers that you have Ameraucanas for sale and/or your chicks will grow into hens that lay olive colored eggs. For that you have to choose your breeding stock carefully and knowingly.

Lofmc

 

[Whinnys Comets]

My neighbor had this bird in his yard. He asked me to take it in. Is this an Americauna or something else? I have 4 golden comets and don't know to introduce them. "She" is in an old coop alone right now. He said she's. even roaming for about 4 days. Sheis quiet but was very calm when we picked her up. Thanks.

 

[Ravynscroft]

My neighbor had this bird in his yard. He asked me to take it in. Is this an Americauna or something else? I have 4 golden comets and don't know to introduce them. "She" is in an old coop alone right now. He said she's. even roaming for about 4 days. Sheis quiet but was very calm when we picked her up. Thanks.

That's a cockerel, not a hen...

 

[henny1129]

That's a cockerel, not a hen...

X2. :/ May be an Ameraucana, but I can't tell for sure from the picture.

 

[BantamLover21]

X2.

May be an Ameraucana, but I can't tell for sure from the picture.

Agreed

 

[summerb123]

I also agree!

 

[Schicksnthesick]

me too!

 

[Ravynscroft]

.