New additions after a heartbreaking loss.

[Dwells]

I have been rasing my backyard flock for a little over a year now. I started due to needing hobby to relieve some work stress and one that we can do as a family. I have had a frustrating but fulfilling at the same time. My frustration comes from a 50/50 ratio when it comes to hens and roo's. I have had to give up half my chickens and get replacements due to not being allowed to have roosters. One day I took my Silver laced wyandotte in since he was a replacement for a previous rooster. I was talking with the guy at the feed store and he offered me an older hen that someone had just dropped off. I picked the gorgeous girl in the picture above. When I got her home I noticed that she had been attack by something (dog, raccoon, other chicken???) and that she was quit a bit older than I had thouth. My wife and kids fell in love with her so i worked at getting her healthy again. After a few weeks her wounds were healed and she began to grow new feathers. She was not however producing eggs so I figured she was past her prime. We decided to keep her anyway, at least she can live the rest of her life happy. After the winter molt she surprisingly started to lay and produced about three eggs a week. We were ecstatic and my kids got to see some beautiful light blue eggs (she was the only amarucuana I had). I tried to introduce her to my small flock (Delaware, Buckeye and calif. white) but neither they or her were having it so I split the run and added another coop. A few weeks ago I was able to introduce two Speckled Sussex pullets in with her and she seemed to be doing well. Last week we experienced three days of triple digit temperatures and on the third day our gorgeous girl was gone. She had succumbed to the heat. I have known about chickens and breeds since I was kid but never thought of having this breed in my flock.
Today I took my kids to the feed store as we needed some feed and new waterer and it is, of course, chick season so they had plenty to catch my kids eyes. I was considering getting Black Sex Links due to being easier to get hens rather than roosters to try and break my 50/50 luck or lack there of but unfortunately they did not have any. After looking we decided to get some girls (hopefully) to add to the flock. What my kids decided on were two Barred Rock chicks (very cute) and as I was getting ready to go I looked at the chicks again and saw they had a few varieties of amerucuanas. Then I saw one that looked like a very tiny duplicate of the fascinating girl we just lost. I could not resist and neither could my kids when they saw her. My wife came home for lunch and saw the cute little girl and fell in love just like the kids (okay and me too) did. So I am going to spend the next couple of months praying that there are no roos in the mix, more so for the amerucuana. So the story continues, an urban chicken farmer who enjoys his hobby and has become very popular because of the chickens and the eggs. It is funny though because i get asked for eggs from friends and co-workers and I threw in a couple light blue eggs and they flipped out swearing they won't eat old Easter eggs. I have to admit, chicken ignorance of others is part of the fun (terrible I know).