Are Ameraucanas naturally mean and bullies?

[Kiki]

Oh well. If they don't lay blue, I could always eat them, except the Lil Lady has gone and got "attached" to them. At least for now.
Can someone post a few pics of some true Ameraucanas? From what I've read, Auracanas have feathers that stick out about their ears and are tail - less. But Ameraucana hens have sideburns and a tail. The Cocks are supposed to have a tail and sideburns, but also a full beard with a long Goat-T sometimes. But my info is from Google images, and it can be wrong a lot of the time.

http://ameraucanaalliance.org/photos.html

 

[paintedChix]

Post is Picture heavy

The Ameraucana breed club split a few years ago - in 2015. I wasn't a member of the original organization when it split. I am a current member of the Ameraucana Alliance.

A 2nd "club" is this one - Ameraucana Breeders Club.

http://ameraucanabreedersclub.org/

Ameracauna are bred to an APA standard the same as other breeds that are shown. A color is a "Variety". Other breeds also have different varieties. Currently accepted varieties (colors) are - black, blue, blue wheaten, brown red, buff, silver & white. Lavender is a project variety, I've heard there are others. Splash is not an accepted variety for show, but is a common color when breeding for the blue coloring (there is a standard to the color blue to aim for - in the birds & in the eggs). In simple language, splash to black makes 100% blue...

AA Photos - http://ameraucanaalliance.org/photos.html

ABC Picture gallery - http://ameraucanabreedersclub.org/gallery.html

Ameraucana come in both large fowl (LF) and bantam sizes. Part of the standard IS the expected muff, beard, pea comb, slate coloring on beak & legs and blue egg laying. Breeders are striving to bring their flocks to the top of the standard - addressing any issues with the above plus
bringing in some new varieties along with doing the standard things that all chicken owners do to insure the continuance of their healthy flocks.

I have loved having EEs and may always have some EEs &/or OEs, but a "true" Ameraucana can be spectacular! And no, along with breeders who breed SQ quality stock of other breeds of chickens, Ameracauna aren't your least expensive chicks. They aren't the most expensive either. Most hatcheries don't carry "true" Ameraucana. I now know to just accept that the hatchery birdie called an "Ameraucana" is "just an EE". Some won't lay a blue egg - so definitely not an Ameraucana.

I have had a few breeder line Ameraucana in the past (not sure whose lineage). I currently have 8 BBS Ameraucana (don't know the sexes yet) who are supposed to be of Paul Smith lineage and will be adding between 10 & 25 LF Lavender Ameraucana later this spring(not sure whose they are originated from). I also have plans to add some Bantam Ameraucana - really want silver and will go from there... Our previous Ameraucana were friendly birds for the amount of handling they had (very little with full time jobs & lots of family stuff & health issues at the time). The chicks I currently have are also friendly - though the two largest chicks spar quite a bit starting at just 2 weeks of age. Pretty sure they are both cockerels. I've lost my computerized notes on my previous ones - and can't remember when I started recognizing which sex they were. I haven't learned vent sexing yet. This batch of chicks don't seem to have the same heavy muffs and beards that previous chicks had - we'll see how they turn out as they mature... Have 1 black, 4 blue & 3 splash chicks.



A few of our previous birds as chicks and as older chicks. We went thru a farm move with a 3 month layover at another property. I lost 1 chick originally to crossed beak, another to a different issue - leaving 6. Those made it thru their 3 month quarantine - but our move to this property created problems and I lost the rest to illness/stress and to "new" predators... 1 roo lived longer - free ranging and roosting high up into the trees. Haven't a clue what eventually got him. I do have some bantam mixed "grandchildren" of his coming soon (hatched under the OLD bantam hen who actually raised him 4 yrs ago).

Yellow band Rleg turned out to be a pullet



Blue band, Lleg is a cockerel


We had at least 1 other cockerel in September, but don't seem to have good pics of him & can't ID 2 of the pullets in the bunch below...



I consider myself to still be a new chicken owner. I don't know if any of this 2014 group met the standards well enough to use for breeding. They were sure pretty to look at and at least 2 of the pullets were laying some nice blue eggs...

***I am still learning about Ameraucana, so if other o/breeders of them who are better versed in their SOP find that my info needs correcting, please let me know. I can say that I've had EEs since 2012 & Ameraucana from 2014 to 2016 & EEs resulting from them since then. I now, FINALLY, have my first purebred Ameraucana again, ***

Glad that the OP found out what was causing his 2 birds to be such fighters.

 

[EggWalrus]

OP here!
Those Battling Babies are around 7 months old now. And thank God they outgrew their badass mistreating and ass kicking tendencies. And still haven't gotten the first blue egg! Lost a few to predation and out of the original dozen I think I might have 2 that are girls, the rest are trying to crow. A couple sound more like they are say "woo woo woo". One imitates howling coyotes. Then there's one that sounds like Tarzan.
The 2 girls faces are turning red so hopefully this month I might just get a blue egg out of one of them. But there ain't no dang tellin!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Yesterday I picked up some Ameraucana chicks from TSC. They are only two or three days old now, but they are fighting. Not just a little peck here and there, but head down stare offs, then lunging and flapping and pecking at each others faces....

The reason that chicks have their beaks trimmed is to help put the quietus on aggressive pecking order behavior. Actions like you are seeing are not the result of overly aggressive behavior but rather what you are seeing is the refusal of your chicks to accept defeat. This refusal to admit defeat is 100% normal and usual. A clutch of aggressive chicks would need physically separating multiple times per day and a big dollop of Vaseline smeared on their noggins each time you seperate them to help the little peeps open their eyes or to keep their eyes open in spite of the scabs on their heads.

 

[EggWalrus]

The reason that chicks have their beaks trimmed is to help put the quietus on aggressive pecking order behavior. Actions like you are seeing are not the result of overly aggressive behavior but rather what you are seeing is the refusal of your chicks to accept defeat. This refusal to admit defeat is 100% normal and usual. A clutch of aggressive chicks would need physically separating multiple times per day and a big dollop of Vaseline smeared on their noggins each time you seperate them to help the little peeps open their eyes or to keep their eyes open in spite of the scabs on their heads.

They were little Hellions till they got a couple months old. Several times I came back from going to town, only to find them covered in blood and leaning against each other like 2 wore out boxers in the 20th round. They'd lean for about a minute, then square off and go at it again for 10 or 15 seconds. Then they'd lean on each other to hold themselves up. Then go at it again. I finally had to start locking them up in seperate cages or they would just find each other and do it again.
I'm dang sure happy they out grew the fighting and get along now.