The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[armorfirelady]

Quote: Is this just for Amerauca's or for EE also? Its been so long since Edie laid an egg but I don;t think the blue went all the way through

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

I like the EE better b/c of variety in color and pattern of feathers.

I love my feed store "Araucana/Ameraucana" hens. I wanted them for "pretty eggs" and didn't know I'd also get a cool variety of pretty birds with quirky personalities. Obviously my avatar is a EE chick ... others are white, or golden, some have blue tails, etc., ... I have too many birds to know who lays what color egg, but get a nice variety of greens/blues that are "true" all the way through the shell, but I haven't bothered to pretend I have "good" birds or thought about it very much. Having variety in my egg basket is important to me, so I will try to always have laying EEs ... unless/until I start breeding birds for egg color, which is not going to be soon.

I would LOVE to be able to do the super cool "painted egg" breeding projects that some people do to get more intense, vibrant rainbows of colors ... first I've chosen to focus on a heritage breed restoration project.

I can understand why people want to protect breed SOPs ... I think there are very probably people out there who sell chicks/eggs without considering the truth of what they advertise. That's a shame as it is always an investment to hatch/raise chicks.

 

[aoxa]

The breed snobbery is the very reason that I chose EE over Ameraucanas. That plus it seemed that when I was trying to get hatching eggs for Ameraucanas, every one's Am's were on strike. So, my logic went like this... why knock myself out trying to get eggs for a bird that have a reputation for going on extended strikes, and generally slow to start laying when I could get the same eggs in my basket from girls who start laying earlier and more reliably. I'm delighted with my MMc EE. They started laying at 16.5 weeks, even before my BSL.

My experience alone: Ameraucanas are 100x more friendly. My goodness my EEs (originated from McMurray 6 generations ago) are the most flighty and scared of human contact. When we vaccinated them I apologized because they are screamers. SO LOUD. You could have swore I was a fox ripping them up alive by their screams...

None of my other birds do that. Yet, every. single. EE. Screams.

I have 10 of them.

 

[aoxa]

Is this just for Amerauca's or for EE also? Its been so long since Edie laid an egg but I don;t think the blue went all the way through

At least for my EEs it's true.

Take one of her eggs and peel back the membrane and take a pic for us. I'll do the same when I get home.

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Is this just for Amerauca's or for EE also? Its been so long since Edie laid an egg but I don;t think the blue went all the way through

You have to remove the membrane lining the inside of the shell to know if the inside of the shell matches the outside. Otherwise, the insides look "white" when dry.

 

[lalaland]

Everything I thought I knew makes no sense any more.

I laughed so hard when I read that Justine! Fits my current crisis to a T.

I like the Coco Chanel chicken. Very pretty.

Thanks, she's my ghost chicken. Very very quiet and she stays out of the way, and is a loner.

 

[PrimroseMom1]

My experience alone: Ameraucanas are 100x more friendly. My goodness my EEs (originated from McMurray 6 generations ago) are the most flighty and scared of human contact. When we vaccinated them I apologized because they are screamers. SO LOUD. You could have swore I was a fox ripping them up alive by their screams...

None of my other birds do that. Yet, every. single. EE. Screams.

I have 10 of them.

I have not gotten an egg yet from my Amercaunas. They will be 9 months old this month. I did determine that one started laying, do both confined to coop until they prove they will lay in their nest box. They are more flighty than my Bkack Star or RIR my production RIR is my avatar and my pet. The BS and RIR lay just about everyday with no issues. They are easy to handle. But I do enough the difference in the Amercaunad in the yard. But the BS and RIR are my favorite breeds so far.

 

[lalaland]

The breed snobbery is the very reason that I chose EE over Ameraucanas. That plus it seemed that when I was trying to get hatching eggs for Ameraucanas, every one's Am's were on strike. So, my logic went like this... why knock myself out trying to get eggs for a bird that have a reputation for going on extended strikes, and generally slow to start laying when I could get the same eggs in my basket from girls who start laying earlier and more reliably. I'm delighted with my MMc EE. They started laying at 16.5 weeks, even before my BSL.

I have a 5 year old McMurray EE, Jezebel, she is a trouper. Was laying up until molt, and I'm hoping she'll start up again now that daylight hours are increasing.

Justine, funny enough she has always been friendly and curious, unlike her EE hatchmate Izabel who was flighty as heck, also a screamer - I lost her to a hawk last year.

I'm gonna dig some eggshells out of the compost bin....

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

My experience alone: Ameraucanas are 100x more friendly. My goodness my EEs (originated from McMurray 6 generations ago) are the most flighty and scared of human contact. When we vaccinated them I apologized because they are screamers. SO LOUD. You could have swore I was a fox ripping them up alive by their screams...

None of my other birds do that. Yet, every. single. EE. Screams.

I have 10 of them.

Some of our EEs were timid chicks that got picked on by the others ... so they got picked up a lot and are quiet and friendly. My first chicken buddy was an EE who used to take sanctuary in my lap at roosting time. Two of my EEs have chosen to go live in the small free ranging flock. Another is ALWAYS alone and it took forever to even get her to roost with the flock. One was my best broody last year ... I think she liked being apart from the others. Another one just started letting herself out of the run every day, but refuses to be adopted into the harem of our free ranging rooster. I hope she changes her mind because she is all white and sticks out like a sore thumb ... I'd prefer her to follow him into his shelter at night and have his protection during the day.

The EE males were all super jerks, so none of them made the cut. They may have aged out of it eventually, but they were just too jerky in their adolescence to even think about waiting it out. I know you can breed for temperament, which is what I get told every time I mention that, but you haven't breed for anything if you bought your chicks from the feed store. They've probably been bread for precociousness and fecundity and a minimal amount of "still looks enough like x breed to pass." Temperament is simply not the hatchery's priority.

 

[lalaland]

Booster Comb Pic updates: Really no change

Here's two weeks later, pretty much looks the same to me. He will clearly lose his tips, perhaps some from his wattles. It remains dry and looks ok to me.





thats a white speck on the wall, not something dripping from his nostrils.