Recent Posts

11

Exhibiting, Promoting & Club Notes / Self Blue Photo committee

« Last post by Russ Blair on January 14, 2023, 12:12:57 PM »

Hello my fellow Ameraucana Alliance members. I just want to inform everyone as your new president I am currently putting together a committee to pick photos of a standard bred large Fowl cock, hen, cockerel, pullet, and chick or chicks of the self blue variety for our website photo section. With Hatching season upon us it will be a good time to take some chick photos, which is why I am posting this so soon. I may need a volunteer (dues paying) to assist if needed and will definitely be asking for photos from our members. So please keep this in mind and I will keep everyone up to date on our progress and post more information as soon as possible.

Thanks, Russ Blair

12

Breeding / Re: 2023 hatch

« Last post by Mike Gilbert on January 12, 2023, 11:15:09 AM »

7 out of 10 eggs set, looks like the lights are working  . 2 from a blue wheaten pen, 1 from a wheaten and 4 from a blue K over silver H

Pretty sure I'm seeing eight chicks in that box?  Five dark ones and three wheaten/blue wheaten.

13

Breeding / Re: 2023 hatch

« Last post by Russ Blair on January 11, 2023, 07:50:40 PM »

7 out of 10 eggs set, looks like the lights are working  . 2 from a blue wheaten pen, 1 from a wheaten and 4 from a blue K over silver H

14

Breeding / Re: Wheaten chick down

« Last post by Jessica Rodgers on January 10, 2023, 12:26:56 AM »

I just want to ask a quick question. How is the fluff/down color? I was told by Mike long ago that they should have a grayish undertone. I can attest the gray downed Wheaten seem to always have better tail color and wing color at least in the females. I am just wondering if the lighter chick down had any  correlation to the down color?

Honestly I haven’t looked that closely I’ve been busy with a baby boy. I’ll be getting my hands on them in the next month or 2 and culling some so I’ll take a closer look then and update here on what I see.

Thanks for the follow up. Interesting that your line of large Fowl are opposite to Mikes Bantams.

I was a little surprised myself at the results! Glad I marked them as chicks. I always enjoy looking into these little details. It’s a challenging variety but I always enjoy a good challenge 

15

Breeding / Re: Wheaten chick down

« Last post by Russ Blair on January 09, 2023, 04:21:07 PM »

Correct Mike, the undercolor on adult females.

16

Breeding / Re: Wheaten chick down

« Last post by Mike Gilbert on January 08, 2023, 01:57:07 PM »

I just want to ask a quick question. How is the fluff/down color? I was told by Mike long ago that they should have a grayish undertone. I can attest the gray downed Wheaten seem to always have better tail color and wing color at least in the females. I am just wondering if the lighter chick down had any  correlation to the down color?

I believe Russ is referring to adult females, not chick down.   Yes, I look for a gray undercolor on the back behind the hackles in adult wheaten females.   You will seldom find it on  Blue Wheatens or Splash Wheatens however.

17

Housing, Health & Hatching / Re: Sevin Insect Killer Dust

« Last post by Russ Blair on January 08, 2023, 11:00:53 AM »

Thanks for the heads up, I used to use it more often. My wife barred me from using it in the gardens anymore (she’s more of an organic girl  ) so I have switched to DE to sprinkle around in the bedding and roosts. I still use cattle pour on ivermectin and have recently started using a wormer solution from Victor since they discontinued Wazine as my parasite defenses.

18

Breeding / Re: Wheaten chick down

« Last post by Russ Blair on January 08, 2023, 10:49:43 AM »

I just want to ask a quick question. How is the fluff/down color? I was told by Mike long ago that they should have a grayish undertone. I can attest the gray downed Wheaten seem to always have better tail color and wing color at least in the females. I am just wondering if the lighter chick down had any  correlation to the down color?

19

Housing, Health & Hatching / Sevin Insect Killer Dust

« Last post by John W Blehm on January 07, 2023, 03:57:50 PM »

I've used Sevin-5 Ready-To-Use 5% Dust on my chicken roosts and bedding for many years. The active ingredient was Carbaryl and contained 5% of it. They have now "updated" and changed the active ingredient to Bifenthin with just .1% of it. This Sevin Insect Killer Dust may be new and improved and I don't doubt it. I just want others to be aware of the change in case it makes a difference to them.

How Does Bifenthrin Work?
...It's a synthetic pyrethroid and mimics the naturally produced pyrethrums that are found in chrysanthemums. It works on contact and by ingestion and paralyzes the insect, causing death within minutes or hours.

When is Sevin not Sevin?
In recent years, newer, more powerful pyrethroid insecticides have come to dominate store shelves, making carbaryl harder to find.

A couple forum links about Sevin Dust...
http://ameraucanaalliance.org/forum/index.php?topic=1024.msg6925#msg6925
http://ameraucanaalliance.org/forum/index.php?topic=1012.msg6875#msg6875

20

Breeding / 2023 hatch

« Last post by Russ Blair on January 07, 2023, 09:43:32 AM »

I am a little late but here’s my first hatch 1/2/2023. Looks like (all bantam)2 Wheaten, 1 Silver and 6 blue/silver splits (test mating a blue cockerel). Set 42 eggs and had 20 fertile, when I candled them at day 7, that went into lockdown. Hopefully fertility picks up now the lights have been on longer. My goals this year are to test mate my black and blue bantam breeders to ensure (or at least make a honest attempt) I have my blacks based on sex link gold and blues sex link silver. I am also hoping to build up my wheaten and blue wheaten bantam flock since last year I had a really poor hatch rate (due to old breeders). Unfortunately I am doing the same with my large fowl blue and brown reds thanks to the predator attack of 2021  . I hope everyone’s hatches and breeding season are successful as well.