Ancona Chicken Thread

[redfordchick]

Does anyone know where I can find just one Ancona pullet or hen? We recently lost ours, and adored her, well my little girl is only 3 and is taking it hard... I loved our Ancona and would not mind a couple more but I can't find them! Only from the hatcheries. I was told mine came from a private breeder in Ohio... Anyone have one to spare close to Michigan? Any ideas?

 

[gruffy]

You can always find eggs on eBay they can be expensive with shipping but not as expensive as the hatcheries. That's how I found my Barnevelders some people selling have the best breeding lines as well and you can ask what temperment the parents are and stuff. You can also see pictures of the birds they come from. it just takes some incubation or someone willing to incubate them for you

 

[bruceha2000]

You can always find eggs on eBay they can be expensive with shipping but not as expensive as the hatcheries. That's how I found my Barnevelders

some people selling have the best breeding lines as well and you can ask what temperment the parents are and stuff. You can also see pictures of the birds they come from. it just takes some incubation or someone willing to incubate them for you

Or a nice broody hen. You know, the ones you keep throwing off the nests because there is nothing for them to hatch? Though if others have Anconas like mine, forget that. Happily (for my situation) they don't sit on a nest any longer than it takes to lay an egg. On the other hand, one of the Black Australorps, one of the Cubalayas, both of the Faverolles and both the Partridge Chanteclers (when they were alive) will happily sit in a box of nothing but shavings.

 

[gruffy]

Well yeah but you have to have them arrive the day your hen goes broody and hope they will hatch before she gives up and leaves the nest :/

 

[redfordchick]

You can always find eggs on eBay they can be expensive with shipping but not as expensive as the hatcheries. That's how I found my Barnevelders some people selling have the best breeding lines as well and you can ask what temperment the parents are and stuff. You can also see pictures of the birds they come from. it just takes some incubation or someone willing to incubate them for you

No Ancona chicken eggs on eBay :-(

 

[bruceha2000]

Well yeah but you have to have them arrive the day your hen goes broody and hope they will hatch before she gives up and leaves the nest

For better or worse, mostly worse since I don't often need more chickens, none of my hens that have gone broody ever willingly leave a nest. I decided to get 7 chicks this May after 4 of my hens were on "broody trip" number two this year and the 9 hens are 3 years old so they are slowing down and the Cubalaya "Yard Art" were never much in the way of laying - expected for the breed though.

I had broken the other 3 but decided to let my big Black Australorp stay broody when I found I could get the kind of chicks I wanted (*) pretty quick from Meyer Hatchery. Zorra laid from 3/5 to 4/18 then broody. Laid from 5/5 to 5/27 then broody. The chicks came 6/10 and were put under her at 0 REALLY dark thirty on the 11th after my getting nervous when we tried at 0 fairly dark thirty on the 10th. In the meantime one of the Faverolles and one of the Cubalayas went broody AGAIN around the 2nd so I let them stay broody just in case Zorra didn't take the chicks. She did and I stuffed the other girls in the buster.

Then the OTHER Faverolles went broody on the 12th - straight into the buster. Mind you this is the THRID time for these 3 girls this spring! She broke and let her out. Zorra chased her away from the chicks for a couple of weeks but somehow she has become the "aunt" and the little family of 9 (chicks now 7 weeks old) are being mothered 24x7 by two hens.

Mind you the Anconas have NO interest in the chicks and while they were clearly top of the pecking order and routinely let everyone know it just in case they forgot (though I think purely due to her 1.5X their size factor they never bothered Zorra much) they have been cowed by Zorra's "hen from hell" protectiveness of the chicks. They can't even walk past without being chased out. And now one of them is in serious moult so she is nervous in her "unprotected" state anyway.

* though I'm pretty convinced the "Black Australorps" I got are Jersey Giants given their VERY yellow feet. Not a breed I wanted at all. We don't eat the chickens so their "roasting size" will be nothing but a food burner disadvantage in the winter when they can't forage and they aren't likely to lay anywhere near as well as BAs do - in general. Zorra isn't a great layer but her "sister" is my BEST layer, closely followed by an EE.

 

[maralpz2006]

My 3 months old ancona.

 

[steven29128]

Does anyone have any Ancona Chickens for sale or trade?

 

[Tina88]

My Speckles

 

[elizmartin]

Does anyone have any Ancona Chickens for sale or trade?

Look up Yellow House on this thread,….Joseph is likely to have well started Rosecomb Ancona chicks available in the early spring….Best Most healthy chicks i have ever bought….