What Kind Of Ameraucana Are These?

[magsrags]

I have to laugh. My feedshop lady is learning from me (a newbie for sure) more about chickens then she ever knew. I mention common breeds and she's never even heard of them. Thankfully she isn't allowed to sell chicks.

 

[Patchesnposies]

Cluckychick-your EE's look exactly like these new ones of ours. Your other ones look like our other girls, too. Those ones I am used to! I had never seen EE's that had so much white on them.

My DH loaded my photos, when he did he resized them and they are so small that you can't really see what they look like.

Thanks for posting your pictures!

 

[speckledhen]

Well, I hate to tell you, Old Rando, but my local feedstore gets in over 5000 chicks, turkeys, guineas every year. The owner has her own flock and takes some of the chicks home to raise. She has the Ideal color book with all the breeds they sell in it and some friend who breeds Seramas and others. She never heard of many diseases of chickens, sells oyster shell as "GRIT", and just doesnt know all that much.
One day, I saved a little cockerel in a cage from being pecked by his cage mates. I said to her, "Oh, this is a Porcelain D'Uccle, isn't it?" She said, "No, that's a Bearded Cochin". That isn't the first time, either, that she's shown she doesn't know what she's talking about alot of the time and will never admit it. She just makes up breeds, LOL.

 

[Old Rando]

Speckledhen you make a good point, even experience doesn't equal knowledge. I live in an area with large numbers of egg productions houses with thousands of production hens. I have known people with 50 or 60 years of chicken experience but if it isn't a production leghorn then they couldn't identify it. To them if a rooster doesn't have a huge single comb then it must be a hen.

I was just trying to make the point that many employees of feed/farm stores don't have either knowledge of poultry or experience and aren't required to.

Patchesnposies I'm sorry if I seemed accusing toward you. I didn't mean to. I have seen lost of posts on forums in the past where other people seem to expect too much from the feed/farm store employees when it comes to chicks they bought. I just wanted to voice an opinion.

My local feed mill is run by a family of three generations, they farm and sell feed, wonderful hardworking folks that know a lot about feed. They know nothing about chicken breeds, colors or sexing them. I don't expect them to.

 

[speckledhen]

You know, Rando, you're absolutely right. They are not required to have knowledge, say working for Tractor Supply, but wow, if they'd just have the guts to say, "You know, I dont know the answer to that, I'm not a vet/dont raise chickens", then so many here wouldnt be throwing Terramycin at their birds for a sneeze or two. The worst misinformation is dispensed at feedstores than anywhere else I've been.
I was told when I asked one feedstore guy, who I know has raised chickens, to get me some of a particular layer feed (not their usual brand, they are a Purina dealer, but got a brand the co-op sells cheaper than Purina because so many asked for it), that it made chickens aggressive and that's what the locals want, for reasons you can imagine. Dang stuff is good quality 16% layer pellets that contains good quality animal protein, unlike Purina.
So, breeds are not what anyone should ever ask feedstore personnel about. Had a discussion with that same feedstore, different employee, about the chicks they had from Privett. The tag said "Domineckers". The chicks were all Barred Rocks, all of them, all single combed. She wouldn't believe me, who has raised them for years, even when I suggested that they were simply mislabeled, a plausible explanation. She said FFA guy came in to check on them and he never said anything. Even when I pulled Storey's Guide to Chicken breeds off the shelf and showed her the difference in the book, she refused to believe me, asked if the comb type changed as they grew.

Sorry, Patches, for the detour here!

 

[Patchesnposies]

Old Rando-No offense taken! I got a little too silly with my "feedstore people lie???" comment. I really didn't mean it about these particular folks.

However, we are also well acquainted with being the greenies and having every horse trader around come and try to make a dollar off of us! lol

Not so much here in NM, but I think there was a full page AD taken out when we bought our hobby farm in SD. The header was FRESH MEAT A'COMIN'!!! There was a line all the way to the next county.....(okay I made that part up).....

Life is all about the lessons learned, eh?

Thanks for all of your input, everyone!

 

[speckledhen]

Nothing wrong with a pretty chicken, no matter if it's pure or cross. Easter Eggers are a cool bird.

 

[Old Rando]

Sorry, I have to comment again the Dominecker story hit close to home. When I was young, my father and everyone else I knew in the area called all blacked barred birds Domineckers. I was a grown man before I knew of Dominiques. Ignorance abounds, I hope to wipe out as much of my own as possible before I'm gone.

 

[Patchesnposies]

Specklehen-Some of my favorite excursions have been the result of detours!

My question has been answered and I enjoy reading about other peoples experiences. I agree, EE'ers are probably some of my favorite chickens. They are cool.

I love all of my birds for different reasons!

Rando-I wonder if our feedstore folk calling these new birds of ours yellow ameraucana's is sort of like your Dominecker story, just a regional thing or just what they always heard them called as they were coming up or something. That's what I chalked it up to.

Before I started reading the BYC forum I had no idea what all I DID NOT KNOW about chickens.

I am still pretty ignorant, but learning as much as I can. My hubby says we are getting a college edumacation in chicken!

 

[speckledhen]

Quote:
LOL, yes, same here. Once I saw a guy selling some BR roosters in a cage at the flea market. Told him that was a good looking BR. He said, "You know, you are the only person to ever call those by their proper name--everyone else says Domineckers". And I hope to learn more and more as time goes on myself.