Feed store sold me "Ameracaunas"

[Fam5]

So I believe we ended up with a rooster. Am I right??

 

[Michael OShay]

So I believe we ended up with a rooster. Am I right??

Yep, those three rows of peas in the comb is typical of EE cockerels. EE pullets usually have a single row of peas in their combs.

 

[JeanR]

Feed Stores do not employ Poultry breeders as employees. Most employees have strong backs to carry feed sacks, but haven't the slightest clue about the identity of the chicks they sell. And Hatcheries may not, either, as they HATCH eggs (do you know what is inside the egg before it "grows up"?) and actually produce very few of the breeds that they sell/ship. They purchase eggs from whom they believe to be reliable breeders/ sellers of hatching eggs. Chicks must be shipped day of hatch--and if not sold, are destroyed--so pop them in the shipping boxes and off they go. Hatcheries do not ship mislabeled birds on purpose. They ship what they hatched, believing that they are of the breed/variety of the producer of the eggs they set and hatched.
The Ameracauna, Easter Egger "conflict" will go on as long as people do not understand the two names and the birds they are representing. Don't blame the feed store or the Hatchery. They are in business to sell CHICKS--any chicks. They must take belief in the eggs they hatch and then the chicks they ship and that the Feed Store sells. Few day old chicks can be truly identified by their DOWN color, leg color, even size can be deceiving. Enjoy what you have, dump them later, if not what you expected and do not want them, and go to a BREED Producer next season, if you truly need pullets, cockerels or both, of a breed/variety.
I will not even sell EGGS to breeders of my breed--I must know that they are quality birds raised well, vaccinated for Marek's Disease at hatch, and safely shipped to their new owners. I hatch FIRST for ME, but can keep FEW from each year's production, so try to provide the serious breeder with best offspring that I simply cannot keep each year and off they go! That is the pleasure and worth the better price for my birds--and worth it to the new owners, who can save years of costs, by purchasing what they really want instead of some years of housing, feeding, hatching, selection from less standard birds from unknown sources. Not to worry, you made a natural choice to start and can change the birds in time, for what you expected--from another source in the future. It's okay. Good luck.

 

[BirdHead]

To JeanR, I don't plan on keeping them long unless they came up to be ameracaunas then I'll dump em to a friend who may appreciate them more otherwise the chickens I got now are just future slaughter on good care.

 

[Michael OShay]

go to a BREED Producer next season, if you truly need pullets, cockerels or both, of a breed/variety.

Even there you have to be careful. There are a number of individual farmers out there who claim to be breeders of Ameraucanas when they are in fact selling Easter Eggers. We've had posts from a number of BYC members who thought they bought true Ameraucanas from a breeder when they in fact bought Easter Eggers. The bottom line is: know your breeds before you buy. )