Blue Ameraucana thread!

[rooboo]

I ordered from  Meyer Hatchery ....

"These are not to be confused with Easter Eggers, as they are a pure breed. As with other "blue" breeds, the trait does not breed true. In addition to blue you may receive splash/black. Chick color is hatchery choice."

The picture of the chicks in the catalog look like the one I received, the picture of the hen looks like yours??? I don't know, I hope she is blue or splash, but I really am looking for the bright blue eggs. I'll be really disappointed if I spent $20 on one chick and didn't get what I ordered!!  I also ordered 3 BLR Wyandottes in the hopes one will have a really nice coloring, of course with my luck two of the three died in the first 48 hours and the third looks black laced!! Gah!!   

Every time I see the word Meyer I cringe. I received 28 chicks from them back in December, blue ameraucanas, black copper marans, and welsummers. Only 10 survived. I had the dead ones tested and found out that they had infected yolk sacs from the hatchery. The blue ameraucanas were the least affected, only losing 2 out of 7. They turned out to be nice looking birds, 2 splash; 1 roo and 1 pullet, 3 blue; 1 roo and 2 pullets.

This is my splash roo now, I don't know if the red showing through is a bad thing or not. These are "purebreds" from Meyer.

 

[lizzychick]

Every time I see the word Meyer I cringe. I received 28 chicks from them back in December, blue ameraucanas, black copper marans, and welsummers. Only 10 survived. I had the dead ones tested and found out that they had infected yolk sacs from the hatchery. The blue ameraucanas were the least affected, only losing 2 out of 7. They turned out to be nice looking birds, 2 splash; 1 roo and 1 pullet, 3 blue; 1 roo and 2 pullets.

This is my splash roo now, I don't know if the red showing through is a bad thing or not. These are "purebreds" from Meyer.

Pretty splash roo! I ordered 16 chicks to be delivered in February. Super cold overnight. They all died before they got to the post office. This batch I cut the order down to 8 chicks. 3 died in the first 48 hours and the other five are thriving. I ordered 1 blue ameraucana, 1 black copper Marans, 1 buff Orpington, 1 Easter egger, 1 Columbian Wyandotte and 3 blue laced red Wyandotte. The chicks that died were the Columbian and 2 of the blr Wyandotte. So sad when the little peepers die.

 

[rooboo]

Pretty splash roo! I ordered 16 chicks to be delivered in February. Super cold overnight. They all died before they got to the post office. This batch I cut the order down to 8 chicks. 3 died in the first 48 hours and the other five are thriving. I ordered 1 blue ameraucana, 1 black copper Marans, 1 buff Orpington, 1 Easter egger, 1 Columbian Wyandotte and 3 blue laced red Wyandotte. The chicks that died were the Columbian and 2 of the blr Wyandotte. So sad when the little peepers die.

Yes, it is sad. I personally will never order from Meyer ever again. Since that major die off, I have received several shipments of chicks, even in cold weather here in Wisconsin and have not lost a single chick during shipping. I've had a few losses several days after arriving as can be expected, but nothing like what I got from Meyer. Everyone else has put heat packs in and the chicks have arrived very healthy. I hope you didn't order the bcm for the very dark eggs, the ones that I got that survived don't lay eggs anything like the breed calls for. I still have to separate my blue ameraucanas to see what color their eggs are. Right now they're mixed in with some easter eggers and several other breeds in my egg house, so I'm not sure which eggs are theirs. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll be a nice blue.

 

[rooboo]

This is my blue ameraucana roo. So far he's been a pretty well natured boy.

 

[PapaChaz]

Thanks for the BBS chart! It's a great reference. And definitely leg colour is something to be concerned with when looking at Ameraucanas. Is it possible your chicks were older than the one in the picture when you got them? I'm sure your chicks did look lot different than this one. I've noticed a lot of differences even in individual chicks I hatched out.

I bought 8 chicks. 6 were a week old, the other 2 were a day old. the only difference in them were some were a little lighter gray than the others. They all had the slate colored legs and feet and all had beards already.

I do know that the colors will change as they grow though, but I would have said splash all day long with that much light colored fluff on them, so I'll say again, I can always learn from those who know more than me.

 

[lizzychick]

. I hope you didn't order the bcm for the very dark eggs, the ones that I got that survived don't lay eggs anything like the breed calls for. I still have to separate my blue ameraucanas to see what color their eggs are. Right now they're mixed in with some easter eggers and several other breeds in my egg house, so I'm not sure which eggs are theirs. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll be a nice blue.

Oh no! That IS why I ordered these chicks specifically. Dark dark brown and bright blue eggs. How much lighter did your eggs end up being?

 

[PapaChaz]

Oh no! That IS why I ordered these chicks specifically. Dark dark brown and bright blue eggs. How much lighter did your eggs end up being?

all of the above are why I don't think I'll ever order from a hatchery. There are too many locals that buy sell and trade. Have you looked up your state thread on here? We have some awesome people here in GA, several that breed and hatch. When I get ready for more different breeds I'll definitely look here first

 

[rooboo]

Oh no! That IS why I ordered these chicks specifically. Dark dark brown and bright blue eggs. How much lighter did your eggs end up being?

From top to bottom;
Cream legbar egg (blue )
Black copper marans from Meyer (light brown w/speckles )
Welsummer from Chicken Scratch Poultry (dark brown with speckles )
Bottom two eggs are black copper marans from Chicken Scratch Poultry (dark brown w/ speckles )
I also have a couple welsummers from Meyer that lay light brown eggs w/ speckles, I have a tough time seeing the difference between my other brown eggs and the bcm's from Meyer. I probably won't breed the welsummers and bcm's from Meyer because I have much better birds from Chicken Scratch Poultry. My last hope to have anything worth breeding from Meyer is the blue ameraucanas.

 

[rooboo]

Lizzychick, are you located in the Chicago area? If so whereabouts. I am in southeast Wisconsin about 25 miles north of the state line. I also have some greenfire bcm's that haven't started to lay yet, but should be starting in about a month, so I don't know what the eggs will look like. I have also been hatching a few of those dark eggs crossed with a blue copper marans rooster. So I have some young blue and some black copper marans. If you do any hatching, I could sell you some of those dark eggs for hatching.

 

[goldeneye girl]

so cute