A Note About Ameraucana Chicken Eggs

If you prefer your eggs to have large yolks and small whites, Ameraucana chickens are the perfect breed. Although they are known as medium size egg layers, my chickens usually lay on the large size, with the largest yolk to white ratio I've ever seen. They have very large yolks with small whites, which is perfect for me.

A friend of mine has Red Sex-links, which lay huge eggs, but they are mostly egg white, with only a very small yolk. I found that I don't care for them at all. If this is the type of egg you are looking for, then Red Sex-links chickens would be a good choice for you.

Chicken update

My chickens made it through their first winter with flying colors. The Ameraucana chickens truly are a cold hardy breed. Not a single chicken showed the slightest hint of frostbite. Before, my other chickens always suffered some frostbite on their combs.

They also continued to lay all winter. Naturally their production slowed down drastically, but not a single day went by that I didn't get 2 or 3 eggs, enough to keep from having to buy them. Now that spring has sprung, I'm getting 8-11 eggs per day. We've been having lots of deviled eggs!

I'm down to 14 hens. For some unknown reason, all of my chickens, including my rooster, took an intense disliking for one of my sweet hens. They pecked at her constantly. She was just miserable, always hiding and cowering. I gave her away to a friend that only had 2 hens and a rooster, so hopefully she is doing much better in her new home.

I'm really enjoying all the colored eggs my girls lay. It occurred to me that I won't have to color eggs for Easter this year. They come pre-colored! I can just boil them and send my grandsons out on an egg hunt.

Colorful eggs

I couldn't pass up the chance to show you some of the beautiful eggs the hens have been laying. Aren't they gorgeous? I'm getting the biggest kick out of checking to see what color they lay next. It makes tending the chickens a lot of fun.

So far the maximum number of eggs I've found in one day is 11. Since I have 15 hens, this is pretty good, although I think a couple of my hens still aren't laying. The good news is that a few of my hens are laying double yolked eggs!

I'll try to take some new photos of the chickens soon. I know I haven't updated the photos since they reached their full size. Some of them are quite beautiful.

Possum finally has the hang of being the head rooster. He's doing a great job of keeping the hen house running smoothly. I really like him. He doesn't crow his head off all day long, like Brewster did, but he crows in the morning just like he should. I dearly love to hear a rooster crowing in the morning.

Farewell to rooster Brewster

I'm sad to say that the lead rooster, Brewster, is no more. He finally decided to attack the hand that fed him. It was such a shame, he was a beautiful rooster. I wish I had a better picture of him. It was sad to see him go, but it was something that had to be done.

I must say, the hen house is a much calmer and quieter place with Possum in charge now. Poor old Possum had been abused by Brewster for so long, he doesn't really know what to do. He's starting to crow again, but he hasn't let the hens know he's in charge yet. I'm sure he will in time.

Speaking of the hens, I have at least 7 chickens laying eggs now. A new one starts laying every few days, and I believe all 15 will be laying by the end of the month. So far I'm getting green, cream, and brown eggs. Yesterday I got a dark olive green one, the most unusual one I've seen so far. I'm still waiting for the perfect blue, but since my Ameraucanas are probably Easter Eggers, I don't know if I'll ever get one. It's fun, looking forward to new color egg every day.

Here are pictures of the roosters, past and present. Brewster is on the left, Possum on the right. Aren't they pretty chickens?

Happy Day! We have an EGG!

Finally, we got our 1st egg today! I noticed one of my hens building nests 2 days ago, so I've been checking them frequently. She chose to lay in one of the nesting boxes, rather than the original nest she had built on top of a hay bale. I'm pleased as can be. The chickens are 4 months and 10 days old, so they started laying earlier than I thought they would. I'm hoping the other 14 hens will follow her lead shortly. It's a small egg, but I'm sure they will lay larger eggs with time. Also, instead of being blue or green egg, it's beige. I guess you really never know what to expect.

One note of curiosity, my lead rooster, Brewster, wouldn't stay out of the nesting box while the hen was in it. He was sitting right beside her, scratching and digging around like he was building a nest, too. Crazy as can be. I've never seen a rooster act like that. After I locked him out of the coop and in the chicken yard, she was finally able to lay her egg undisturbed. If his antics don't improve, Possum will soon be the lead rooster, and Brewster won't be king of anything other than the stew pot.

My whole chicken experience has set be back $214.40 so far. I have to make another trip to the feed store soon, but I won't mind spending money on food, as long as they start laying eggs for me. I'll be buying their first laying mash to go with their corn, and taking them off grower. I couldn't be happier.

Chicken coop disaster

I thought we had the Fort Knox of chicken coops, but I was proved wrong on Thursday night. Our dog went into a frenzy in the wee hours of the morning, barking and carrying on outside the hen house. When my husband investigated, he could find nothing wrong, although he could tell the chickens were disturbed. He thought something was just prowling around outside, but the next morning we found an injured hen and a bag of feed ripped open. I had rolled out the side window, knowing full well that the chickens couldn't get out, but it never entered my mind that something could get inside the coop. Something did, and I'm still kicking myself for not closing that window.

That same evening my hubby screened the coop windows and under the eaves with hardware cloth. I'm positive nothing larger than a snake can get inside now. I certainly hope I'm never proved wrong!

My little hen is still alive after 4 days. I brought her inside to nurse her. She can't sit or stand, only lays on her side, but she can move her feet and she can eat. She can't drink, so I've been feeding her bread soaked with milk and water. She looks much brighter today, and is moving her feet a little more, so I haven't given up on her. I'm hoping she will heal with time. It's so sad that she has to suffer due to my negligence in closing the window.

If you have chickens, or are planning on getting a flock, once you have decided that you have all your safety measures in place, check them again. A rat or weasel only needs a very small opening to get inside, and apparently they climb quite well. The window they entered was 5 feet off the ground. If they entered through the eaves, they had to climb 7 feet or more.

Sadly, my little hen never recovered. My husband had to put her out of her misery, although I did nurse her for 10 days. We've had no other upsets in the hen house since the final safety measures were taken.

What led up to the insanity

Don't get me wrong, I like chickens. In fact, I've owned a few flocks in the past. I have been particularly fond of some of them. My last rooster, which I hatched in an incubator, lived over 7 years. After Zeebarb died, I thought I was out of the chicken business. My story begins 2 years later, after taking a trip to the store to buy a dozen eggs...

My husband and I grow a lot of our own food, but there is always something that we have to buy from a store. After watching food prices go higher and higher, and griping constantly, I was pushed over the edge when I paid $2.99 for a dozen eggs. I came home and announced to my husband that I was going back in the chickens business. I was going to get some White Leggerns. (The proper term is White Leghorns, but around here we call them Leggerns.) He didn't have much of a response. I think he was hoping I'd forget about it. I fooled him. I was sure I was going to save us a fortune on eggs!

Trying to find the perfect breed of chicken

White Leghorn chickens are the supreme egg layers. Nothing out lays them. I was positive that was what I wanted, until I started trying to figure out where to buy them. I discovered that we don't have a single hatchery in West Virginia, so I tried looking in Ohio. I found one about an hours drive from where I live, but to my dismay, the phone was disconnected when I tried calling them. So I started searching the internet.

I hit pay dirt. There are loads of hatcheries scattered all over the country, and most of them will ship day old chicks via the mail. I was in my element. I could get my White Leggerns after all. I started browsing pictures and descriptions of the various breeds of chickens. Now I wanted Brown Leghorns. They don't lay quite as well as the white ones, but they are much prettier. If I'm going to have chickens, I want them to be pretty, right?

I spent days making my decision. I was sure Brown Leghorns were the ones for me. I wanted all pullets. They cost more than straight run chicks, which are a mixture of hens and roosters, but I wanted them for egg production only. To my chagrin, I found that most hatcheries will only ship a minimum of 25 day old chicks. I certainly had no business with that many hens. I only wanted a few, maybe 6 or 8.

Finding a hatchery that would ship small orders of chickens

Back to the drawing board. After more research, I found a few hatcheries that would ship 15 chicks at a time. I had to be careful and choose wisely. I found out that some of the hatcheries would throw in extra roosters for warmth. The last thing I wanted was 15 pullets and 10 little roosters! I finally settled on Cackle Hatchery. They might send an extra chick or two, in case some didn't make it during shipment, but I was pretty sure they wouldn't fill the box with cockerels.

In the meantime, I ran into another problem. I read that all Leghorn chickens, no matter the type, were flighty and tended to panic easily. I didn't want this either. I wanted calm, friendly chickens. I knew full well that these would turn into pets, as all my animals eventually do. After sorting through and reading about different chicken breeds, I decided I wanted a small type chicken, not one of the large dual purpose breeds like I'd always had before, but I didn't want bantams, either.

I finally chose Ameraucana chickens. I know, I know, I've said it before, but this time I really did make my decision. Ameraucanas are supposed to be calm, lay medium sized blue tinted eggs, and be very winter hardy. Just what I wanted. I was a little disappointed that they are only "good" layers, but I figured since I had to order 15 of them anyway, it should more than make up for it.

I happily hopped online and placed an order for 15 Ameraucana pullets from Cackle Hatchery. Not more than 3 hours later, I started feeling guilty for not getting a rooster for my new girls. I spent the next 2 hours trying to reach the hatchery by phone. It must of been their busy season. It seemed everyone else was trying to call them too. When I finally reached them, I asked if they would add a wee rooster to my order. The girl I spoke with readily agreed, and also gave me a shipping date, including the date I would receive them. Now I only had to wait 3 weeks for my new flock. So far I was only $50.75 and many hours poorer.

Preparing for the arrival

The way I had it figured, the hardest part was over. I'd finally made my decision and I'd chosen the best hatchery. How hard could it be to build a new coop? My old ones were in disrepair, but I couldn't imagine it would take long to build a new one. So what if I needed to buy new feeders and waterers. They couldn't be too expensive, could they? Ha! I'm getting senile in my old age.

Fortunately, my husband still likes me, even after all these years. He went right to work on the new coop. With the help of our small grandsons, he tore down one of the old coops to make room for new chicken headquarters. In a couple days time, he had the floor down and was ready to build the walls. This is where things got interesting. Would we buy sheets of plywood for the walls, or use up some of the oak lumber we already had stacked around here? Naturally we decided on the harder, slower method. We went for the oak boards. The problem was, we have a shortage of 2x4's around here, to use for framing. We ended up building the new coop in true Jenny Lind fashion. If you're in a hurry, I don't recommend it. It was a slow process, but this should be the last coop we'll ever need to build. Luckily, we had the block, windows and roofing already sitting around here. We only had to by 2x4's for rafters. The cost was low, but it took just about a week to finish. I have to give credit my hubby. He worked hard on the project. I didn't do much of anything but had him things he needed.

Finally, the arrival of the chicks

I only had to wait 3 weeks for the arrival of my new babies, but it seemed like forever. While I waited, I went to the farm store to buy everything I needed. I still had a quart waterer and a chick feeder from earlier years, so I bought a hanging feeder, a 2 gallon waterer and a bag of chick starter for $50.00. Counting the 2x4's and the cost of the chicks, I only had $117.75 invested in my attempt to save egg money. Can you see how this is going?

April 4, 2008 was the big day. I woke up early, anxious to receive the call from the post office that my new chicks had arrived. By 10:00, I gave up and went down to get them. Bad news. They weren't there. I was terrified that they weren't coming. I just knew they would all arrive dead, if they didn't come until the 3rd day. I hurried home and called the hatchery. They told me the chicks may have missed their original flight out, and to have my rural post office call our major one, to see if they had come in on an express flight. My postmistress is a dear. She listened to my tale of woe, and she did call Charleston, but my chicks weren't there either. She called me to give me the bad news, but she did tell me that the fellow in charge of express mail would be on the lookout for them. By this time, I was sick with worry.

Thirty minutes later, she called me again. They had arrived in Charleston! The fellow over express mail had peeked into the box, and said they all looked alive. Happiness at last! I was thrilled! They would be sending them on an afternoon route, and my postmistress would call when they arrived, around 3:00. She even offered to drop them off to me on her way home. Isn't that great? Living in the country has it's benefits. At 2:00 I received a call. For some strange reason, my chicks were waylaid at the post office of a town near us. They had my little chickens. I jumped in the car and zoomed to town. When I walked in the door, I could hear my babies screeching their little heads off. They were not happy campers. They were cold, hungry and thirsty.

I nearly roasted myself on the drive home. I rolled up the windows and turned the heater on full blast, trying to warm the chicks as best I could. When we arrived, their new home, a cardboard box with a hanging light to warm them, was ready and waiting. We put each one into the box, gently dipping each chick's beak into the water, trying to coax them to drink. They were fast learners. In no time at all, they were all eating and drinking. All 18 of them. That's right, there were 18 healthy little peepers! Not a single one was lost. I received 16 hens and 2 roosters, or so I hope. I won't be sure until they are older, but Cackle Hatchery did put a drop of blue dye on the roosters heads, so I could tell them apart. I hope they are accurate on their sexing. I don't need or want more than 2 roosters.

Chicks are growing well

The hardest part of raising baby chickens is trying to keep them warm. Regulating their temperature was a constant struggle for me. Trying to keep a box big enough for them wasn't easy either. It's amazing how fast they outgrow their living quarters. We finally made a really big box out of smaller ones, and were sure it would last. Boy, were we wrong. Here they are at 12 days of age, when they first moved into the large box. They were already growing wing feathers. We were starting to name some of them, as well.

Preparing for the move outdoors

We wanted our Ameraucana chickens to have a safe and happy home, so we had to build a secure outdoor run for them. This involved buying a roll of chicken wire and lots more labor. My wallet was now only a total of $156.25 thinner.

I must say, my hubby did a great job on the run. It took 2 days to complete. The top is enclosed with wire, to keep chickens in and critters out. The side wire is buried underground all the way around. This should deter any wildlife, including neighbors dogs, from getting into the pen. He also built a nifty trap door and a lever, so we can let them into the run during the day, and close them up securely at night. This can all be done from outside the coop. The top of the run also sports a metal door on hinges, so we can get into the run, should there be an emergency. We've had one of them already.

After moving the chickens into the coop at 5 weeks of age, I only left them inside for a few hours, before letting them out into the run. I thought I was being nice. I found out I was being foolish. When evening came, they didn't know the big coop was home. They were all fighting and trying to pile into a corner of the run to sleep. I had to climb through the access door of the run and catch all 18 of the little stinkers. This involved many trips, stooped over double, running back and forth inside the run. Somehow, I think the 6 or 8 chicks I had originally planned would of been a lot easier to catch! But they were all eventually caught and placed back in the coop. They were also left inside for 2 days, before I opened the trap door to the run again. This time things went as planned. When night fell, they all went inside the coop to sleep. They still aren't sleeping on the roosts, I guess they are too small, but I hope to peek inside soon and find them off the floor and on their perches.

All settled in

The chickens are happy and doing great in their new home. I can't think of a thing I could do to make them more content. They eat like piggies, though. After another trip to the feed store, a 50 lb. bag of cracked corn and a 50 lb. bag of grower later, my running total is now up to $176.15. That's nearly 59 dozen eggs, even at the bloated rate of $2.99. It's a good thing I didn't have to purchase a building of comparable size at a lumber yard. That would of set me back another $700 or so. The way it is, I only have 5 more months to wait for a return on my investment. In the meantime, I'll still be paying for more food. I estimate that I just might break even sometime in 2009 or 2010. I'll keep you posted.

Choosing Ameraucana chickens wisely

If you're thinking of raising Ameraucana chickens, I'd like to give you some advise. Only after I'd already ordered my chicks, did I find out that I'd probably purchased mongrels. The odds are good that mine are not purebreed chickens, but a bunch of crossbred mutts. I admit that for me, this won't be a problem. I just wanted pretty chickens to enjoy and fresh eggs to eat. I will have a beautiful flock. They are colorful and diversified, but if I had children in 4-H, my chickens wouldn't qualify for showing. A true Ameraucana only lays blue tinted eggs. The mongrels passed off as Ameraucanas by most hatcheries, can lay blue, green and pink eggs. They are commonly known as Easter Egg Chickens, or Easter Eggers. I won't know how many green egg layers I have for a few more months, but I'm sure I'll have quite a few. Unfortunately.

The Ameraucana Breeders Club, located at http://www.ameraucana.org, has a wealth of useful information on the subject, including photos, descriptions and a list of breeders, from which purebred Ameraucanas can be purchased. I highly recommend checking out their website, before making the same mistake I did.

A word on planning a new chicken coop

It's amazing how hard it is to find good chicken coop plans on the internet, but I did locate a few that we adjusted to our own use. According to some of the sources I located, a coop requires a minimum of 1.5-2 square feet per chicken. Our hen house is 8x8 or 64 sq. ft., so it should house 18 chickens very comfortably. Ameraucanas are a smaller breed of chicken, the hens should top at around 4-1/2 lbs. and the roosters 5 lbs., so this will be fine for us.

Hens will share a nesting box to lay their eggs in. Most sources recommended having a nest box for every 4-5 hens. We decided to build 5, which should be more than enough for our needs. The nesting boxes are 13x13x16 inches. The bottom starts at 21" and the top shelf is 34". We used hay to make a comfy nest, even though there won't be any eggs for quite a while. Our grandsons put a plastic egg in a nest, to give the girls an idea of what they should be doing!

So far we've used the top of the boxes for storing feed and hay. I don't think this will change, unless the chickens start trying to roost up there. If they do that, we'll have to change things a bit.

Here are a few links to useful information on coops and raising chickens in general:
http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/poultry/factsheets/10.html
http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/poultry/factsheets/designs.html
http://www.buildeazy.com/chicken_coop_1.html

Building the roosts

When building roosts for your chickens, I recommend making sure you have them higher than the top of your nesting boxes. Chickens like to roost as high in the air as they can. If you let them roost outside, you will see them sleeping in your trees. We built our roosts 4 inches higher than the nest boxes. They are 38" high, with room for 19-20 chickens, allowing 8-9 inches per bird. If our flock expands very much, we'll have to put in another roost for them to perch on.

We also built a small ramp leading to the top of the roosts. This makes it much easier for the young chickens to reach the top. Once they are fully grown, they will have no trouble getting up there by themselves.