Are Ameraucanas naturally mean and bullies?

[EggWalrus]

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. I've never seen this kind of aggression in babies before. I put the two that were doing most of the attacks in seperate shoe boxes. But now the other 10 are going on an butt kicking spree. They all have plenty of food, water and heat.
Every thing I've read about them says they are docile. I wonder if TSC could be selling some mean strain of easter egger/mutant mut and passing them off for Ameraucanas. Wife says they are just jousting for rank in the pecking order, but I've never seen it happen when they are this young. But who knows? There just ain't no dang tellin!
Anyone else have mean Ameraucanas?

 

[Kiki]

What is the exact size of your brooder and the exact temperature of it?

 

[PNW_Peepers]

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. I've never seen this kind of aggression in babies before. I put the two that were doing most of the attacks in seperate shoe boxes. But now the other 10 are going on an butt kicking spree. They all have plenty of food, water and heat.
Every thing I've read about them says they are docile. I wonder if TSC could be selling some mean strain of easter egger/mutant mut and passing them off for Ameraucanas. Wife says they are just jousting for rank in the pecking order, but I've never seen it happen when they are this young. But who knows? There just ain't no dang tellin!
Anyone else have mean Ameraucanas?

TSC doesn’t carry Ameraucana. They have Easter Eggers labeled as such to fool people. Sounds like you have yourself an aggressive EE. I had an EE chick similar in aggression. I ended up giving her to a neighbor. The battling quit once I removed the highly aggressive bird. She apparently mellowed out for my neighbor once she was put in her place by an older established flock member. Good luck.

 

[Kiki]

TSC doesn’t carry Ameraucana. They have Easter Eggers labeled as such to fool people. Sounds like you have yourself an aggressive EE. I had an EE chick similar in aggression. I ended up giving her to a neighbor. The battling quit once I removed the highly aggressive bird. She apparently mellowed out for my neighbor once she was put in her place by an older established flock member. Good luck.

I'm sorry but I don't agree that a two day old chick can be labeled as aggressive.
I think there is possible a heat and too small of sized brooder causing these problems.

I hope OP comes back to answer the above questions.

 

[Unexpected chicken lover]

I ordered my americaunas online and they are perfectly sweet little babies....still are
Didnt have problems from my bunch of easter eggers from my local supply store last year though

 

[Calbtx]

I have 2 Ameraucana and they are the shy ones out of my group. They are pretty much the bottom of the pecking order because they are docile

 

[AmandaMBG]

Def not going to be actual pure breeds. Some hatchery EE can be pretty aggressive. I rehomed all 3 of my first EE girls because they became feather pickers and were just not nice birds. I replaced with two new EEs and they are really sweet still after a year with the flock. That being said that seems really odd for 2 day old chicks. Are you sure they have a big enough brooder for the number of chicks you have?

 

[JCAS]

What folks are saying about EEs being sold as Ameraucanas is true. A lot of hatcheries are still trying to get away with this. The give-away is when they describe "colorful" birds and show pictures of yellow, brown, and black chicks. Real Ameraucanas are pretty reliably brown. EEs are made by crossing any homozygous blue egg layer (Ameraucana, Legbar) with any other breed. Some hatcheries cross them with good laying breeds (Leghorn, RIR, etc.) so the resulting pullets lay eggs that are plentiful and a decent size. Other hatcheries, well, who knows? I get my EEs from a hatchery that is transparent about what they use to make them. They aren't particularly aggressive but some can be real jerks when I'm trying to round them up at night. They are definitely more high strung than my Marans. Interestingly, and not what I would have expected, my homemade OE cockerels (Marans x EE) are serious fighters starting at about 5 weeks old.

 

[EggWalrus]

Sorry it took a while to get back.
I figured it out. It was the white light I was using for heat. The TSC I got them from had all red light bulbs except for the small wash tub that had these "Ameraucanas" in it. It had a white light, and I had a white light in the brooder. My wife asked if I was ever gonna let the babies get any sleep and I asked her what she meant. She said that they were awake ever time she walked past other than once when she turned the light off and had them in the sun from the window to keep them warm. I went and got a red bulb and they went straight to sleep and have quit the Battling till about a week ago. They have been outside in a brooder since about a week old and now that they can fly they have gone back to sparing but not real aggressively like before, just the usual "Baby Battles" that all chicks do. I guess it was just sleep deprivation making them so ornery. I hope they are really Ameraucanas and not just some mutt EEs. TSC also sold us some Gold Laced Wyandottes that turned out to be Barred Plyrocks and Dominiques. At least they gave me a dz more "ameraucanas?" to make up for their mistake. If they turn out EEs, maybe I can breed them with some of my other birds to make olive eggers. I already get white, tinted, yellowish cream, pink, brown, orange/copper brown, purplish brown and chocolate brown. Just need some blue, turquoise, and green. Thanks for all the input everybody.

 

[EggWalrus]

Sorry it took a while to get back.
I figured it out. It was the white light I was using for heat. The TSC I got them from had all red light bulbs except for the small wash tub that had these "Ameraucanas" in it. It had a white light, and I had a white light in the brooder. My wife asked if I was ever gonna let the babies get any sleep and I asked her what she meant. She said that they were awake ever time she walked past other than once when she turned the light off and had them in the sun from the window to keep them warm. I went and got a red bulb and they went straight to sleep and have quit the Battling till about a week ago. They have been outside in a brooder since about a week old and now that they can fly they have gone back to sparing but not real aggressively like before, just the usual "Baby Battles" that all chicks do. I guess it was just sleep deprivation making them so ornery. I hope they are really Ameraucanas and not just some mutt EEs. TSC also sold us some Gold Laced Wyandottes that turned out to be Barred Plyrocks and Dominiques. At least they gave me a dz more "ameraucanas?" to make up for their mistake. If they turn out EEs, maybe I can breed them with some of my other birds to make olive eggers. I already get white, tinted, yellowish cream, pink, brown, orange/copper brown, purplish brown and chocolate brown. Just need some blue, turquoise, and green. Thanks for all the input everybody.

PS. I also found out that they were almost a week old when I got them. They're all alive and growing fast, and having fun doing chickie things. They're gonna love next weekend, they will get to start Ground School.