Welcome to the Ameraucanas!
The bantam Ameraucana/Polish rooster. He stays.
The pretty rooster hatched late last fall by the Orpington hen.
One of the Polish/Ameraucana bantam hens.
Last year was a year to experiment with chicken breeds. Keeping chickens for the farm is not like most farms. I hardly ever eat eggs, so egg production is not the most important aspect, nor do I eat much chicken, so meat birds are out of the question too. Still, a dual purpose bird, that is one that dresses out to a fine carcass for roasting and produces a good number of eggs, is part of the aim. What is even more important is that the birds are excellent foragers. For the summer months, they can free range in the farm yard, sheep and goat pens and some in the pasture if they are in an electric fence enclosure. They live in a portable tarped hoop coop that is moved when the electric fence is moved. Ideally, pasturing with pigs, sheep and goats is the best or the chickens following the sheep and goats to break up the manure and eat the parasites is even better. Without adequate fencing for rotational grazing, the alternative is electric net fencing. This has been used here for two years, but setting it up and taking it down every few days is a lot of work.
Back to the new chickens...
The chickens must also be winter hardy. Ideally they would require only an insulated coop, but not additional heat. Last winter, the coop had two heat lamps. Still the water froze when it was frigid outside and some of the breeds succumbed to that bitter cold. Most of the roosters lost their big combs and wattles, so then I looked for a breed without large fancy combs and big wattles, and that was also good at foraging and egg laying. The only thing not in the favour of the Ameraucanas is that they are not a good meat bird. The carcass is small and thin, rather than plump. The first five Ameraucanas were picked up in Sherwood Park, just east of Edmonton. They are 8 weeks old and still sound like babies with their little peeps. For now they are sharing a huge hoop house with 8 ducks that are separated for true breeding. At first the Ameraucanas were terrified of the new surroundings and the ducks, but after two days, they have become much more at ease. They are fairly flighty and not overly friendly despite that the breeder's children played with them and handled them. This lot is called blue, black or splash, which is grey with black and white splashes through out the feathers. I am delighted with the pretty birds with their muffs and tiny combs. One is supposed to be a rooster, though it is not 100 % easy to sex the birds at that age. The Fat Ewe Farm will be getting four dozen more baby Ameraucana 4 week old chicks in 2 months from a few different lines. The roosters, all but two, will go the processor's for winter chicken soup. Most of the current flock will also be sent along to the processor's much sooner. The Buckeye hen (a fantastic forager), Blue Orpington (broody hen, absolutely invaluable) and the 4 Polish Ameraucana bantam crosses and their rooster will stay. There are a lot of crosses from a late hatch last year. They were sired by a Jersey Giant cross rooster and either Jersey Giant hens or the Orpington hen, but so far, there are none worth keeping. One of the roosters is very pretty and calm, and huge, but he won't be valuable for the Ameraucana breeding, so he must go. They have been for sale for a while, but no takers have come for them. That is the part I hate about farming. We do not always have control over breedings and offspring, and the unwanted ones are used for food. Sigh.
Welcome to the little peeps, pretty little things, they are.
Back to the new chickens...
The chickens must also be winter hardy. Ideally they would require only an insulated coop, but not additional heat. Last winter, the coop had two heat lamps. Still the water froze when it was frigid outside and some of the breeds succumbed to that bitter cold. Most of the roosters lost their big combs and wattles, so then I looked for a breed without large fancy combs and big wattles, and that was also good at foraging and egg laying. The only thing not in the favour of the Ameraucanas is that they are not a good meat bird. The carcass is small and thin, rather than plump. The first five Ameraucanas were picked up in Sherwood Park, just east of Edmonton. They are 8 weeks old and still sound like babies with their little peeps. For now they are sharing a huge hoop house with 8 ducks that are separated for true breeding. At first the Ameraucanas were terrified of the new surroundings and the ducks, but after two days, they have become much more at ease. They are fairly flighty and not overly friendly despite that the breeder's children played with them and handled them. This lot is called blue, black or splash, which is grey with black and white splashes through out the feathers. I am delighted with the pretty birds with their muffs and tiny combs. One is supposed to be a rooster, though it is not 100 % easy to sex the birds at that age. The Fat Ewe Farm will be getting four dozen more baby Ameraucana 4 week old chicks in 2 months from a few different lines. The roosters, all but two, will go the processor's for winter chicken soup. Most of the current flock will also be sent along to the processor's much sooner. The Buckeye hen (a fantastic forager), Blue Orpington (broody hen, absolutely invaluable) and the 4 Polish Ameraucana bantam crosses and their rooster will stay. There are a lot of crosses from a late hatch last year. They were sired by a Jersey Giant cross rooster and either Jersey Giant hens or the Orpington hen, but so far, there are none worth keeping. One of the roosters is very pretty and calm, and huge, but he won't be valuable for the Ameraucana breeding, so he must go. They have been for sale for a while, but no takers have come for them. That is the part I hate about farming. We do not always have control over breedings and offspring, and the unwanted ones are used for food. Sigh.
Welcome to the little peeps, pretty little things, they are.
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