Getting Ameracauna Chicks Soon...Need Advice

[mydogmolly]

So I am looking to buy some Ameracauna chicks soon. Still trying to decide on bantam or standard size. I am buying them from a feed store so assuming they're coming from a hatchery. From all of your combined experience, do you have any suggestions on picking out chicks and what colors they will be or if they will be roosters? I need to have all females and I know that that is hard in ameracaunas!

 

[cmobley]

Well unless you have a trained vent sexer its pretty much no way to tell whats what. I know this will sound odd and I in no way guarantee its 100% in sexing chicks but here's what I've learned and done and had really good results. But trust me somebody's gonna say this doesn't work and sometimes it don't. Ok. You go look at chicks theyre all cute and look alike. Pick up the chick very slowly and easy hold it by its feet upside down. A hen will just hang a rooster will try to get back upright pretty quick due to the instict when fighting they dont wanna be on their back. I know it sounds crazy but its worked for me more than not. Someone else may know the wing feather technique and could explain that one also.

 

[QueenMisha]

So I am looking to buy some Ameracauna chicks soon. Still trying to decide on bantam or standard size. I am buying them from a feed store so assuming they're coming from a hatchery. From all of your combined experience, do you have any suggestions on picking out chicks and what colors they will be or if they will be roosters? I need to have all females and I know that that is hard in ameracaunas!

I assume you mean Easter Eggers. There are several good articles on here regarding the differences between Easter Eggers, Ameraucanas, and Araucanas, but I'm going to copy and paste my usual response here as a quick guide.

What is typically sold as an "Ameraucana", "Araucana", "Americana", or "Americauna", is, 95% of the time, an Easter Egger. True Ameraucanas and Araucanas are not sold by hatcheries, Easter Eggers are. They were both created in their modern form from crossbreedings of South American Araucanas and various other production breeds in the 1970s, but the first two are true breeds and the third one is a specific type of mutt.

Ameraucanas will:

Always be a specific color; e.g. Blue, Black, Wheaten

Always lay a blue egg

Always have ear muffs and a beard

Usually come from a private breeder

Araucanas will:

Always be a specific color; e.g. Blue, Black, Wheaten

Always lay a blue egg

Always have ear tufts (NOT muffs) and a beard

Always be rumpless (this does not apply to birds in UK or Australia)

Usually come from a private breeder

Easter Eggers will:

Be any color or mixture of colors

Usually lay a blue OR green egg but sometimes brown, white, tinted, etc.

Usually have a muff/beard but not always

Usually come from a hatchery

A note on bantams: You aren't going to find bantam Ameraucanas at a feed store. You just aren't. You might find bantam EEs, but like all bantams, they will be unsexed, and as such you have a 50/50 chance of getting a pullet or cockerel.

As for sexing, ask the feed store if their chicks are sexed pullets. If they no or say they are straight run, then do yourself a favor and don't buy their chicks. Keep searching. If they say they are sexed, then you can proceed to pick out chicks. Honestly just pick out whatever color you want, but do be sure to get a variety of colors - it's more fun that way imo. You've got a 90% chance of getting all pullets. Vent sexing is just the only way to sex a chick that young (excluding sex linked fowl, which Easter Eggers are not). So 90% accuracy is the most you're gonna get. It's less accurate in Easter Eggers than in other breeds (which run 95-98% accurate), for whatever reason, but it's still a pretty good chance of getting all pullets.

 

[drumstick diva]

agree with Queen Misha's excellent advice

 

[BantamFan4Life]

agree with Queen Misha's excellent advice

x2

 

[MonicainAZ]

I read this article today, although it is not breed-specific, I think it has some good advice!
http://www.communitychickens.com/choosing-the-good-chick/

In addition with easter eggers, chicks can often look very similar to each other and yet grow up to have very different colors/patterns, so you will just have to be surprised.

 

[Roxannemc]

I have to add although not a recognised color there also is pure Lavender Ameraucanas which breed true and lay blue eggs .
True They dont sell pure Ameraucanas at feed stores just EEs no matter what they call them.

 

[Cel45]

I have a question. Don't some hatcheries sale pure Ameraucanas and Araucanas? I have seen chicks advertized for $10.00, $20.00 and up. I can't remember the hatcheries off the top of my head, though.

 

[enola]

Yes some hatcheries sell true Ameraucanas and recently I found a hatchery that sells true Araucanas. But they are much more expensive than chicks you can buy at the feed store.

Chicken Scratch Poultry sells Araucanas. But, I am not sure if they are breeding to an SOP or not.

 

[Cel45]

Yes some hatcheries sell true Ameraucanas and recently I found a hatchery that sells true Araucanas. But they are much more expensive than chicks you can buy at the feed store.

Chicken Scratch Poultry sells Araucanas. But, I am not sure if they are breeding to an SOP or not.

Yep, I was going to add that you are at the mercy of unscrupulous practices when you order from the hatcheries.