Ameraucana Mentoring

[John W Blehm]

Here is our article that was published in the April, 2016 issue of the Poultry Press.

How much would it be worth to you to have a mentor that would help with your chicken hobby?  Maybe you feel you are beyond mentoring, but still appreciate advice and hearing about experiences of peers in the fancy.  Would it be worth it to you to buy lunch for your mentor or some peers?  How about just $10 a year?

Mentoring isn’t something I grew up hearing about.  It seems like a newfangled craze, but the concept behind the word isn’t anything new.  I served an apprenticeship and learned a skilled trade from the journeymen.  That would be similar to the relationship between a protégé and mentor.  Many definitions say a mentor is a trusted adviser or counselor.  Mentoring and some of the related words, like role model, have become popular in the states since the 1970s. 

Last year a club member asked me if I “could mentor” her “in growing and developing the bantam wheaten/blue wheaten Ameraucana?...I'd like to dive into this variety deeper! Any thoughts, info and/or contacts regarding this would be much appreciated!”  I replied “I’ll do what I can to help.  I do suggest you ask as many questions as you can on the Ameraucana Forum.  Not only will I answer them there,  but by sharing the Q&As it is a big help to many fanciers, plus you will generally get input from others that will share their experiences…giving you more than one person’s view…” 

I’ve always felt that being in our breed club offers mentoring to those without much experience.  Since none of us are ever too old to learn we can all benefit from learning about the experiences of our peers, too.  I’ve said many times that none of us were born (conceived would be better) with all the knowledge we have.  We learned it somewhere along the way.  Sometimes we learn from our mistakes and with breeding poultry that can cost you a year or more in a breeding project.  Sometimes we luck out and learn from the experiences of others saving us frustration, time and resources.

For as little as $10 per year for membership dues members of the Ameraucana Alliance receive quarterly Ameraucana Newsletters and the normal benefits of breed club membership, but also are registered on the Ameraucana Forum.  This is the place where most of the mentoring takes place.  Most of the forum is open for the world to view, but to make sure dues paying members get a little more bang for their bucks only members can post on the forum and view the Members Only section.  I know many folks are into social media sites, but they lack the format a forum offers to easily access specific topics within subforums, like Breeding, Hatching, Exhibiting, etc.  Between the text and photos a lot of experiences are shared.   

The creators of most varieties of Ameraucana chickens are in the Ameraucana Alliance.  Some of us that are retired and semiretired have more time to devote to helping out and answering questions on the Ameraucana Forum.  There you will find multiple mentors.  I try to guide fanciers there with their questions and comments about Ameraucana chickens, rather than by email or phone, unless the subject is personal.

Recently on the BYC forum someone asked “John…If I were to become a member can one come to help me qualify my birds and show me hands on all the specs and ins and outs”?  A rule on that forum is not to promote another forum, but that is really what I wanted to do.  I did let the poster know he/she should join our breed club to benefit from what we offer, but also explained that our members “are not signing up to commit their time to such outings”.  There are friendships made between some members where an Alliance member actually visits and helps another, but this isn’t thru the club or a benefit of membership.   

Our Ameraucana National Meet is our BIG event each year where many members get together and meet face to face.  This is another place where Ameraucana mentoring is rampant.  We have a Q&A session, eat, study chickens, have a club meeting, eat some more, talk more about chickens and have a great time.  Please consider joining us!  Ameraucana.club

[Dennis Heltzel]

I've been in other organizations and invariably outsiders underestimate the learning value of membership. They generally join for other "perks", but get hooked by the knowledge sharing (and the social aspect of making like-minded friends - perhaps an even bigger "perk"). Not me, I joined with the specific intent of sucking up all the knowledge I could. Seems like a great bargain to me because (at least for now) the knowledge transfer is much more taking than giving, since I don't know enough about Ameraucana specific topics to give much advice. Fortunately, you don't have to pay the experts to come share here, or I'm afraid you'd lose money on me and have to cancel my membership (or increase my dues).

For those of you that post frequently, do you ever wonder if people read your posts? Well I do. I check every few days and read everything posted since my last visit.

[Linda Ferguson]

I've always felt incredibly blessed to have access to the Forum.  When I started with Ameraucanas I knew nothing about them and have learned so much since I met the founders through the internet.   The free share of detailed answers to questions about the breed and variety I chose is much appreciated and something you just don't find everyday.  Thank you - Linda