Here is Carl, she is a total sweetheart. When she hears you coming, she will run to you, and fly to your shoulder. For picture of her in action, go to http://toolmakingart.com/2008/10/06/carl-the-crook-beaked-chicken/
Bob
Carl the Crookbeaked Chicken
Love it! Obviously, Carl has a will and found a way!!
Carl? She? There must be a story behind the name!
Poor baby! What's her story??
Carl is named after Bill Murray's Character in Caddy Shack. For a bit more detail and pictures of her flying perched and eating, you can go here, http://toolmakingart.com/2008/10/06/carl-the-crook-beaked-chicken/
She had a broken beak when we got her as a chick. She is an Ameraucana and is the runt of the coop. I was at one time thinking the decent thing would be to thin her from the flock, but when an animal invests such trust in me, it makes it impossible for me to not take care of it. Besides the wife and daughter would not tolerate anything happening to her. Carl will come right up, and if you don't pick her up, she may just fly up on her own. No training was involved in this, Carl trusts us.
Bob
Here is Carl flying up. my wife did some quick photography and captured the moment.
Here is Carl walking down my arm to get to food. It does not look that way, but she has a very gentle grip with her feet.
I'm beginning to think there is something about the temperament with this breed of chicken. I recently purchased an Americauna, her name is Anya. She is the sweetest bird I've met!
She, too, will fly to me and perch on my back, my shoulder, my head, whatever she can. We laugh and say she's a "lover not a fighter" when my two other girls confront her, trying to assert dominance or pecking order, she flies to the nearest high destination to get out of the confrontation. For the first few days she stayed in the coop all day, and would come out when I got home. She'll follow me around the yard and then play "ring around the rosy" if one of the other girls approaches, if they catch her, then she flies to the highest part of me to seek refuge.
On top of all of that, she seems to think that my beagle is her rooster. she follows him all around the yard. she even tried to fly on his back to escape the girls. he didn't appreciate this and yelped, but it was funny to see.
what a sweet bird you have there! she's lucky to have such a caring family!
I think so too. I have never had such a good temperament in any breed as I do with this one. With one exception, usually when I use Pick No More on chickens, it long term conditions them to leave each other alone, in this case I still have to keep using it on occasion. They also seem to be much more intelligent, and less irrationally fearful. I love this breed!
If you are having issues with them picking on each other, do try this stuff, http://www.roosterboosterproducts.com/product/50910 it is not as effective with this breed it seems, but it still does pretty good. Stuff is a mess however.
Another nice thing about these chickens,
Oooooo! Blue, green eggs--Hey grownut, look at Bob's Ameraucana's eggs!
Ooooooooo i want some i have the worst luck with blue green eggs never been able to get on to hatch
I have two Araucana and one Ameraucana eggs in the incubator right now. It was 12 Ameraucana and 20! Araucana--but on the three developed. So I haven't had good luck with them either.
Yesterday I got 8 more Ameraucana eggs--but they are sort of a greyish bluish/greenish color--not very pretty. I am in quest of a sky blue egg.
I am up now because DH put all my stuff (family papers, cook books, seeds, cardboard boxes of incubating and chick raising stuff etc) in the driveway and it is raining! This happened last year too and I lost a lot of my childhood stuff--so he feels bad. Not bad enough, though.
LOL r u gonna get some pay back
I can think of several reasons why the blue green eggs might have issues. The ones I am growing look like the softest most tender shells. Entirely deceptive that. Them shells is freaking hard tough shells.. I think I know how Carl got her broken beak.
The Araucana breed has the ear muffs of death. If the poor chick got the ear muff from both sides, it is dead. If the poor chick got it from just one side it has a 1 in 5 chance of not making it. This means that if both parents have the ear muff, 25 percent will be born without the muff and 35 percent will be born with the trait. The remaining 40 percent die.
Since I wanted to maintain a herd and was committed to breeding them, the Americauna seemed like the way to go. I got a mixed run of banties that I figured I would breed to them, to reinforce broodiness. Turns out to be a poor idea, the bantie roo's have not managed to figure out how to deal with the huge Americauna ladies. Also this breed is so good, it would be foolish for me to throw too much into the selection process. Instead, I am going to get a mixed run this coming spring so I have a few roo's to throw into the mix.
I wanted the eggs too, but I ended up with way more. These are the most solid, healthy and sweet chickens I have met. I have always loved Buff Orpingtons for their temper, but if my Americauna chickens are representative, then this is the breed I want the rest of my life. As I was raising them, I was very impressed with the hatchery that produced these. They gave 25 chicks that where actually all hens. Never seen that before, I expect about 4 mistakes in an all hen set normally. As I have been raising these however, I am more and more disappointed, I want some roos. I have not raised chicks from chickens before, but now I desperately want to. The breeder at this hatchery is brilliant, these chickens are great. At first due to the few without rumps and the few without beards, I figured they were a bit off from breed. As I read more however, the numbers seem right and even above typical distribution for the traits that represent the breed. In any case, pure or not, I truly love these chickens..
In the photo, the little white one is the roo.
Bob
Who is the breeder, Bob?
I knew about the genetic problem with the Araucanas and the breeder warned me as well and marked the eggs to show what I might get if they did hatch....so I am okay with them. Several started developing, then stopped--so I know they may have had the lethal gene.
But with the Ameraucanas out of 12 eggs--10 candled clear at 10 days! Only two started developing and one of those had a bloodring. I wrote the breeder and she eventually offered me Blue Andalusian and Silkie eggs for the cost of postage. Said she had shut her Ameraucana flock down for the winter--which makes me think she knew there was a fertility problem. All 18 of the Dutch Bantam eggs I started at the same time are still going strong at two weeks
But I would love to get some quality Ameraucanas...and lovely blue eggs.
I ordered them from a feed store here in town that has been providing chicks and feed to my family for 40 years, so I am inclined to support this local store. They however, get the chickens from Ideal and so can you!. https://secuservices.com/ideal/newideal/Products.aspx?Category=Tinted%20Egg%20Layers.
Bob
I have some Barnevelders from Ideal! They are very nice.
Hi Bob!
Your thread has gotten busy since I last stopped in! Since I live in the city I have just three pullets, and they are all different breeds. I have a Silver Laced Cochin, a Red Spotted Sussex, and the Americauna. The other two were together for a number of months before I introduced the Americauna and she had a bit of a rough introduction.
She became ill after initial introduction. Then I had to quarantine her for 2+ weeks and then reintroduce. They are getting better and better with her on a daily basis. They are not pulling feathers, just pecking her on the back (or neck) to assert who's boss. Which, by the way, is totally unnecessary because she's so sweet that she's clearly at the bottom and fine with that. ha!
I'll try the pick no more if it continues much longer, but she's starting to come out and hang with the girls and act like a chicken again. So I'm hopefully that things will sort themselves out.
Throneofyord
How nice that you have such a friendly chicken.
I've had some like that.
They're always lots of fun.
It looks like your chicken has a genetic deformity called "cross beak" which can be passed along to the offspring if you use her for breeding.
Those are Easter Egg Layers you've got there.
No hatchery in the U.S. sells Ameraucanas with except maybe Sandhill Perservation and theirs are probably pet quality.
You might find this article I wrote on the differences between Araucanas, Ameraucanas and Easter Egg Layers helpful...
http://groups.msn.com/ABCShareingPlace/ameraucanamythsandfacts.msnw
This message was edited Oct 18, 2008 5:30 PM
Catscan
Most Ameraucanas lay a blue-green to a pale green egg.
In this pic you can see how greatly they can vary...
Heres some more
(mixed with other breeds eggs)
that show the variance of color.
Thanks for the data, I originally figured that these were Easter egg chickens. Then in researching, it became clear that some breeds are not actually 'true' to breed standards. For example a consistent pure line Araucana strain all showing the required characteristics would be impossible. These all have green legs and feet, from what I read there was some variation. Since well over half of these had the requirements I could find, but no mention of foot color consistantly, I figured they might actually be the real thing.
Real thing or not, this is exactly the breed I like! I have not bred chickens before, but I have been around them all my life and quite a few varieties. I love these!
Bob
Nothing wrong with Easter Eggs Layers but most people think they have Ameraucanas. It doesn't help that most hatcheries claim thats what they are but since the breed club has gotten after them ther are getting better about calling them Easter Eggers.
Carl is adorable....it is so nice to see someone else who enjoys a non-perfect chicken, which really does make her perfect in my eyes! My Rosie is basically beakless, but she is my sweetest chicken and although she has never jumped up on my arm like Carl, she does follow me around the yard and come running when I call, which is cute too!
I went out and looked with a critical eye, and a lot of them have more of a blue gray sort of foot color. It may be slate. I am far from experienced or well trained in identifying poultry standards. ;) The few black chickens have black feet.
Looking at the required features, each of the required features is in majority, Probably a quarter of the flock have all the required traits at once. So I don't think it would be fair to say that Ideal, http://www.ideal-poultry.com/ , is not being honest or ignoring the standard. My sample does not meet the 50% offspring matching and the flock is not pure to one specific color set. There are black and buff and whatever in here. I suspect they are raising each set and the chicks provided are a collection from each color set. So these definitely meet the requirements to be considered Easter Eggers as they are not as consistent with the required traits as is required for show or competition, but they are close to standard.
They might not be as tight in breeding as a show producer might be, but their product is superb.and I do have enough experience to be able to say that with confidence. If the pure breed is consistent with but a few sports, then I am off base here, but if the breed is not selected down to near consistency, then I think that Ideal is trying to adhere to the standard with reasonable diligence. Again, I am not the go to person for advice on chicken breed. Personally, I like all the traits except perhaps the beard. Unless there is a positive trait matched with it, or an advantage to it, I would probably ignore it in my own breeding.
I have gotten chickens from several sources over the years, Many of them wonderful. It is a lot of fun getting a cheeping box from the post office, Ideal has been the best of them all, although McMurray, http://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/, has always been very fun to deal with. McMurray is fun because they have assortments of chickens. This way you can get a nifty weird flock cheap and see a broad range of personality. I try to buy from our local store, if they have stock available, but at times I have gotten chickens/eggs off ebay and from other local sources.
In defense of the honor of the hatcheries that provide such wonderful chickens, let me take an off topic detour into another area of gardening. One I am a bit more knowledgeable on.
It is easy for such confusion on breed to occur. In much simpler and easier to control areas, breed names are quite impossible to maintain.
My father was a hybridizer of Waterlilies who at one time was a wholesale producer of waterlilies. On his price list he had four different versions of the waterlily 'Attraction.'
Attraction is a variety developed in 1910 by the French hybridizer, Marliac. This is a plant that has been produced from root division since that time. Despite the fact that each plant was a clone of a clone of a clone... , things had changed over the years. As cells divide, failures die, variations still happen. The International Waterlily Society had, at least,16 strong contenders for the name at it's trials in England.
Many of those who voted and discussed which lily was 'Attraction' has their own business and were strongly biased. Hard luck to find that your variety was now just a sport. Before the decision, all of these plants are Attraction. After, one or two breeders own the name. The debate had a lot of folk in a lot of corners. Some felt that the prettiest and healthiest should be selected as the champ. Some felt that the most common was the most honest. Some wanted the one that they figured matched Marliac's sales description the closest. But then, after the trial, little changed.
Despite the fairly large variations that mutation over the years had caused, every one of them was a clone of the original. Only a few folk know which is now the 'true Attraction.' Those folk also know that it was simply a choice voted on by members of the society that were there at the time. No one had signed a pact to stop calling their Attraction, Attraction. Some of those who grew the correct Attraction, were likely to either send you the version that would grow best for you, without your knowing, or would send whatever expecting you to not know, care or perhaps think the difference was in your soil.
Back on chickens, I suspect that a lot of breeders got their breed before the standard was set. Even then, when you are trying to maintain vigor, egg laying, and other basic traits, it is easy enough to drift a bit. Even If you have a perfect setup, large numbers, a stable and talented staff and can maintain a mass of chickens and records of who beget who, there will be times when the question of which hen and rooster to breed must come down to vigor and not plumage.
I can understand the society members and breeding organization wanting to clarify the breed names based on standards. I can also understand the productions breeders wanting to keep a broad healthy pool of what they already have and raise what they originally got as a breed, from the best source they could find at the time.
A breed standard, is a valuable thing. It can preserve traits and maintain them as a pallet for future breeders to select from. It is what allows the end user some measure of confidence in the choices they make. At the same time, from the view of the production chicken wranglers, a breed standard is a constricting and arbitrary set of rules made by a small group of people. It would not surprise me if some of the people who where there voting on the standard, ignore it at least partially today when it comes to their own flock, unless they are taking a bird to show. It would not surprise me in the least, that they might sell to a producer, a breeding set that was not quite standard.
As I raise my flock, if I have any success breeding, I might some day want to get the pure strain, if only for the bright blue egg. I have a few bright blue eggs in the mix, but more of them are blue-green. Not that it bothers me, I love green eggs, Sam I Am. Though I would rather you hold off on the ham.
Bob
This message was edited Oct 18, 2008 11:30 PM
CMoxon--- Rosie sound great! You have to take care of love wherever you see it.
Vicky---- It is sad to me that Carl's trait is probably a genetic trait. I really wanted to breed for her disposition, but I don't want a genetic disease passed on. I am thankful for the information however! It is great to be able to get information from someone who knows! I have been studying the book, 'The Mating and Breeding of Poultry.' and so far I am coming up with two more questions for every fact I learn. I thought onions were complicated and mixed up.
Bob
Bob, anybody can breed for whatever traits one wants, but as an example...say a Border Collie breeder bred an Australian Shepherd into his Border Collies because this cross suited his needs better...its perfectly ethical to make such a cross BUT he shouldn't turn around and sell those puppies as purebred Border Collies, even if they looked purebred now should he?
Thats basically what has happened with the Ameraucanas.
Most commercial hatcheries sell Easter Eggers as Ameraucanas....or the mis-spelled " Americanas" despite the breed club asking them not to.
Once again...the Ameraucana Breed Club has no problems with hatcheries selling Easter Eggers but they shouldn't refer to them as Ameraucanas when they aren't the real McCoy.
Its deceptive and false advertizing.
I once did an investigation on Eggbid Auction. I asked all the people who were selling Ameraucanas to send me photos of their birds if they didn't have any posted on their auction. They were all Easter Eggers.
So its not just hatcheries that do it...alot of private breeders do it as well, whether out of ignorance of the breed or because they're trying to pass off their mutt chickens as something else. I don't know why this goes on but this is not good for the buyer especially if someone is in the market for real Ameraucanas.
I have also found even when you point out the facts to such people a large percentage of them still continue to refer to their birds as Ameraucanas.
So I guess the bottom line is caveat emptor...let the buyer beware.