RememberTheWay
Songster
- Apr 7, 2022
- 903
- 771
- 211
Introduction- This thread's main purpose is serve as a record to look back over journey from Ermine Easter eggers to purebred true Ameraucana's. It's secondary purpose is allow others who are interested in the evolution of this project and me personally as a breeder a chance to follow along with our challenges and progress.
I have kept a backyard flock for almost 7 yrs. I got serious about hatching this year and have spent the year accumulating all the infrastructure and equipment that our family will require to make this dream come alive. Currently we have three Styrofoam incubators. We are hopeful to find an affordable cabinet style incubator. We are making payments on a used commercial sized tunnel greenhouse. The plan is to divide it into two separate structures right down the middle. One half will serve as it's intended purpose, a greenhouse, and the other will be converted into a huge breezeway style breeding pens, covered runs, and lots of loft storage. We are still working out the kinks on the design for that.
We run our farm holistically. I do everything I can to prevent illness of our farm with natural medicines and whole foods, but are not opposed to using mainstream help when and if something occurs that truly requires it. But is never what we reach for first, if a need arises.
We keep dwarf dairy goats, several breeds of poultry, which I am in the process of narrowing at this time. Separate threads will be started for those projects if anyone is interested. This thread will be for our Ermine projects lines- one of which will be Easter eggers and the other a true purebred Ameraucana line. Maybe one day it will dissolve into only purebred, but we aren't there yet. The Easter Egger line is mainly being started at this time due to not having suitable Ameraucana hens to breed right now and wanting to experiment with what I do have for learning opportunities on my breeder journey. I learn best by doing, therefore I am doing
I intend to log all chicks hatched on comb types, muffs/beard presence, eye color, shank and foot color, down color and patterns, and overall defects and type later on. I believe the progressive records of these hatches will ultimately serve to make me a better breeder and will help me to spot issue earlier on in my lines due. Just my personal opinion though. I plan to track progression on the birds.
Presently I have one Ermine Ameraucana project rooster. He isn't perfect, but no bird is
In my opinion he will serve as a jumping off point perfectly. I also have some Easter egger hens (super blue egg layers- Americana dad and white leghorn mother) they both lay blue eggs and one is all white the other is "paint". They have different leg colors, one is slate the other is more green. One has pea comb the other has a modified pea comb. I also have three black Australorp hens with the rooster at this time. I intend to try to hatch sea foam green layers from them, and hopefully get some pretty hens in the process. Black to ermine should result in black and Ermine chicks being hatched with varying levels of clean faces or muffs and beards.
I am on a long term quest to find the right hens for our true Ameraucana project. So far they are proving to be quite elusive. I have now searched every surrounding state to find someone either willing to let me transport them with a private service or close enough to drive. No luck this far
Severely disappointed. There was a breeder that I found that I really loved their available pullets but they decided against waiting for the transport service for a few wks. My vehicle just will not make the drive. So the quest continues 
For the True Ermine Ameraucana Project I plan to get black hens and pair them with the ermine rooster. Eventually I will run two lines, one that is black to dominate white and the other black to ermine. They must have correct type and excellent beards and muffs to be considered for this project. My rooster is lacking in those areas so I am searching for birds to make up for it.
At this point in time I select for the following things but not necessarily is this order-
•Temperament/personality - I will not breed aggressive birds. Period. I intend to create birds that are lovely family pets and completely small child and elderly safe.
•Standard of Perfection - a must for me. For birds that do not have an SOP I will improvise and use my best judgement to make sure I am using sound quality birds.
•Production- ESSENTIAL this is what they were originally intended for and intend to preserve this trait in my lines
•Disease Resistance - Resilience - Over Health and Well-being - Again absolutely essential trait- keeping chickens isn't fun anymore if you have sick birds- I want my birds to bring joy, not stress
•Fertility and Vigor- also essential to a lines survival
•I am probably forgetting some at this point and will come back to this as they come to me
Ultimately- this line of Ermine Easter eggers are intended to serve as an educational opportunity and hopefully I will create some pretty birds a long the way
* photos provided are of 2024's current Ermine rooster as of July
* Also included are photos borrowed from Facebook which will serve as inspiration for my chicken breeding barn
* And inspiration I found on YouTube for grow out /breeder pens
This thread will also follow along with various chicken related DIY projects we decide to take on
Chick photos will follow
I have kept a backyard flock for almost 7 yrs. I got serious about hatching this year and have spent the year accumulating all the infrastructure and equipment that our family will require to make this dream come alive. Currently we have three Styrofoam incubators. We are hopeful to find an affordable cabinet style incubator. We are making payments on a used commercial sized tunnel greenhouse. The plan is to divide it into two separate structures right down the middle. One half will serve as it's intended purpose, a greenhouse, and the other will be converted into a huge breezeway style breeding pens, covered runs, and lots of loft storage. We are still working out the kinks on the design for that.
We run our farm holistically. I do everything I can to prevent illness of our farm with natural medicines and whole foods, but are not opposed to using mainstream help when and if something occurs that truly requires it. But is never what we reach for first, if a need arises.
We keep dwarf dairy goats, several breeds of poultry, which I am in the process of narrowing at this time. Separate threads will be started for those projects if anyone is interested. This thread will be for our Ermine projects lines- one of which will be Easter eggers and the other a true purebred Ameraucana line. Maybe one day it will dissolve into only purebred, but we aren't there yet. The Easter Egger line is mainly being started at this time due to not having suitable Ameraucana hens to breed right now and wanting to experiment with what I do have for learning opportunities on my breeder journey. I learn best by doing, therefore I am doing
I intend to log all chicks hatched on comb types, muffs/beard presence, eye color, shank and foot color, down color and patterns, and overall defects and type later on. I believe the progressive records of these hatches will ultimately serve to make me a better breeder and will help me to spot issue earlier on in my lines due. Just my personal opinion though. I plan to track progression on the birds. Presently I have one Ermine Ameraucana project rooster. He isn't perfect, but no bird is
In my opinion he will serve as a jumping off point perfectly. I also have some Easter egger hens (super blue egg layers- Americana dad and white leghorn mother) they both lay blue eggs and one is all white the other is "paint". They have different leg colors, one is slate the other is more green. One has pea comb the other has a modified pea comb. I also have three black Australorp hens with the rooster at this time. I intend to try to hatch sea foam green layers from them, and hopefully get some pretty hens in the process. Black to ermine should result in black and Ermine chicks being hatched with varying levels of clean faces or muffs and beards. I am on a long term quest to find the right hens for our true Ameraucana project. So far they are proving to be quite elusive. I have now searched every surrounding state to find someone either willing to let me transport them with a private service or close enough to drive. No luck this far
Severely disappointed. There was a breeder that I found that I really loved their available pullets but they decided against waiting for the transport service for a few wks. My vehicle just will not make the drive. So the quest continues For the True Ermine Ameraucana Project I plan to get black hens and pair them with the ermine rooster. Eventually I will run two lines, one that is black to dominate white and the other black to ermine. They must have correct type and excellent beards and muffs to be considered for this project. My rooster is lacking in those areas so I am searching for birds to make up for it.
At this point in time I select for the following things but not necessarily is this order-
•Temperament/personality - I will not breed aggressive birds. Period. I intend to create birds that are lovely family pets and completely small child and elderly safe.
•Standard of Perfection - a must for me. For birds that do not have an SOP I will improvise and use my best judgement to make sure I am using sound quality birds.
•Production- ESSENTIAL this is what they were originally intended for and intend to preserve this trait in my lines
•Disease Resistance - Resilience - Over Health and Well-being - Again absolutely essential trait- keeping chickens isn't fun anymore if you have sick birds- I want my birds to bring joy, not stress
•Fertility and Vigor- also essential to a lines survival
•I am probably forgetting some at this point and will come back to this as they come to me
Ultimately- this line of Ermine Easter eggers are intended to serve as an educational opportunity and hopefully I will create some pretty birds a long the way
* photos provided are of 2024's current Ermine rooster as of July
* Also included are photos borrowed from Facebook which will serve as inspiration for my chicken breeding barn
* And inspiration I found on YouTube for grow out /breeder pens
This thread will also follow along with various chicken related DIY projects we decide to take on
Chick photos will follow
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