The AMERAUCANA thread

[No Coop No Problem]

Thoughts on this rooster?

 

[NagemTX]

Thoughts on this rooster?
View attachment 3768781

A pretty EE.

 

[NagemTX]

Why do I even bother with the Ameraucana breed groups. I should have fallen in love with a different breed.

 

[I Like Turkeys]

Why do I even bother with the Ameraucana breed groups. I should have fallen in love with a different breed.

Are people in the groups difficult? I truthfully haven’t interacted with the groups too avidly, but I know some FB groups have quite the negative reputation.

Oh boy, do I relate to that second statement. Not a week goes by where I don’t judge myself for the breeds and varieties I’ve happened to start owning. Quite a few times by accident, and a few other times by choice, I’ve ended up owning difficult to breed and or locate breeds and varieties of poultry.

 

[kurby22]

Thank you!
The broodiness of each breed is something I’ve very slowly been learning. Unless it’s a breed renown for being broody, I’ve been somewhat defaulting to assuming I wouldn’t get broody hens. I’ve been bamboozled by surprise broody hens in breeds where you don’t hear about broodiness several times now… Yet still made the assumption my ameraucanas wouldn’t go broody . Definitely my fault for not researching, I now know ameraucanas are able to go broody though.

Totally did this with my d’Anvers! I just assumed they wouldn’t…until they had a group of them on 18 eggs! Oops! My blue Ameraucana hen likes to team up with my broody Orpingtons every year too—I didn’t expect that either. It’s funny how some you just expect while others just don’t give you the signs they have the need till one day—poof! They refuse to leave the box and peck your hands

 

[kurby22]

Why do I even bother with the Ameraucana breed groups. I should have fallen in love with a different breed.

I am with you @NagemTX ! I find the Ameraucana breed groups to be a fickle bunch that likes to pick at you about everything. Very rarely do you get useful mentoring types of help…it’s very frustrating! Which one made you mad today?

 

[NagemTX]

I am with you @NagemTX ! I find the Ameraucana breed groups to be a fickle bunch that likes to pick at you about everything. Very rarely do you get useful mentoring types of help…it’s very frustrating! Which one made you mad today?

The unofficial Ameraucana Alliance Group. Never in all my life have I engaged with people that think if you breed two pure animals together and you get a color that is not SOP that it makes it another breed altogether or a mutt. The non SOP color is just that, an Ameraucana that is not SOP color. Not an EE or mutt. And they are so hard up on this but then turn around and say their color projects are true Ameraucanas. It's illogical. I can not deal with illogical nonsense. I am also a member this club of witch when my time is up I will not be renewing.

Brassyback blue rosecombs are not an SOP color but they are still rosecombs. To Ameraucana people they would be an entirely different breed.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Not necessarily justifying the hypocrisy in that belief, but I've noticed that a lot of Ameraucana folks are particularly stubborn about mixed-color Ameraucanas not being true Ameraucanas, and I think it's most likely because of the struggle they've endured for decades trying to separate the Ameraucana name from the outright mutts that hatcheries sell as Ameraucanas (/ Americaunas or whatever other misspelling of the breed's name). Murray McMurray, for example, still claims that their Easter-eggers are true Ameraucanas that are just mixed color, even though they have traits that could not occur in true Ameraucanas just from mixing colors.

Because of the lack of pedigree in chickens, technically speaking, a bird that doesn't closely match the standard (or have a working standard in the case of project varieties or non-standardized breeds) would not be considered a pure breed even if both parents were purebreeding varieties of the same breed, regardless of what breed that happens to be. That includes Orpingtons, Plymouth Rocks, Cochins, etc. But it only seems to be Ameraucanas that are held strictly to that standard.

There are definitely points of frustration for both sides.

 

[NagemTX]

Not necessarily justifying the hypocrisy in that belief, but I've noticed that a lot of Ameraucana folks are particularly stubborn about mixed-color Ameraucanas not being true Ameraucanas, and I think it's most likely because of the struggle they've endured for decades trying to separate the Ameraucana name from the outright mutts that hatcheries sell as Ameraucanas (/ Americaunas or whatever other misspelling of the breed's name). Murray McMurray, for example, still claims that their Easter-eggers are true Ameraucanas that are just mixed color, even though they have traits that could not occur in true Ameraucanas just from mixing colors.

Because of the lack of pedigree in chickens, technically speaking, a bird that doesn't closely match the standard (or have a working standard in the case of project varieties or non-standardized breeds) would not be considered a pure breed even if both parents were purebreeding varieties of the same breed, regardless of what breed that happens to be. That includes Orpingtons, Plymouth Rocks, Cochins, etc. But it only seems to be Ameraucanas that are held strictly to that standard.

There are definitely points of frustration for both sides.

Oh I know why. They are the only breed that shows SOP that the body type can be confused with EE. This is because they came from them and alot of the traits in physical form where kept.

It's just frustrating for my brain to wrap around their logic because most of them don't know why anymore.

 

[kurby22]

The unofficial Ameraucana Alliance Group. Never in all my life have I engaged with people that think if you breed two pure animals together and you get a color that is not SOP that it makes it another breed altogether or a mutt. The non SOP color is just that, an Ameraucana that is not SOP color. Not an EE or mutt. And they are so hard up on this but then turn around and say their color projects are true Ameraucanas. It's illogical. I can not deal with illogical nonsense. I am also a member this club of witch when my time is up I will not be renewing.

Brassyback blue rosecombs are not an SOP color but they are still rosecombs. To Ameraucana people they would be an entirely different breed.

Yeah, there are a lot of very opinionated people in that group!! I definitely agree with you that it’s a silly and sort of made up thing when they insist it’s something else entirely if the phenotype isn’t perfect. While I totally agree with @pipdzipdnreadytogo that the reason makes sense—the ridiculous vehemence that comes at you over it is far over the top. I sell mine as project Ameraucanas because they’re a guaranteed blue egg and they meet all the standards but color. When they have wrong combs, wrong leg colors, etc…they’re still projects to me but they’re more accurately EEs. Either way though…the angry and stubborn attitude is just off putting and somewhat irrational and makes you less interested in being involved. I feel you there! I also find that group to be the first to tell you to scrap every bird with an issue and start over. That’s not mentoring and teaching…that’s just a fast way to extinguish enthusiasm for the group and the breed. I’ve had a couple occasions to almost leave that group!