Newbie Here

[Guest]

Hey guys,

I am new to raising chickens, and we recently purchased some ameraucana chicks from a breeder my husband knows.  He had several colors, and I can\'t remember all them right now.  We purchased 8 chicks from him and are trying now to see if we have hens or roos.  They will be 2 months old on the 22nd of this month.  I am posting 3 pics to see if anyone can help.  Thanks so much.  Oh by the way I have 4 buff orpington\'s too, so don\'t let them throw you off!!  The two that are pictured alone we have heard crowing, but it is two very very different sounds.  Is that normal?

Michele

[Guest]

your chick picture looks like you have a couple silvers and a couple of what I called brown/red, but the older pictures dont.
they look like mixed chicks?,
A couple look like the brown/gold that some folks have been working on, not a recognized color yet, but a work in progress.
the one with the black striped feathers does look like a cockerl, but can\'t tell much from a photo, but our cockerls seemd to always be way behing in feathering from the pullets.
at the age you have pictured, you can easily tell a cockerl, as their \"saddle\" feathers are beginning to come in, just lift the feathers on the back, towards the tail region,  and look along their back, if you see pointy feathers coming in it is a cockerl, a pullet\'s feathers are blunt and rounded.
It is good to look at the bottoms of their feet too, I see \"willow\" peeking between the toes on some, those most like;ly have yellow or willow foot pads, instead of white ones. My own stock origionated from hatchery stock, and even though we made lots of improvements with them, that willow/yellow still was cropping up even 7 generations in..so it is not an easy trait to breed out..my best recomendation it to try to avoind using ones with willow leggs and /or foot pads in your breeding project.

[Mike Gilbert]

Those older ones appear to be a dark buff columbian - but too dark in the red areas.   They look similar to the New Hampshire Red coloration to me.   Those striped chicks are wild type and could be any of a number of colors when they grow up.   They appear to be hatchery stock, so don\'t be disappointed if the adult colors to not conform to any of the Ameraucana recognized colors.   Enjoy your birds.

[Guest]

The chicks are the same birds as the bigger birds.  We got them when they were 5 days old.  We got 8 ameraucanas and 4 buff orpingtons.  We have been taking pictures along the way.  Thanks for the tip on the feathers, we were able to determine that we have 3 roosters, and 5 hens.  We know that the orpingtons are all hens, as that is how we bought them.  Also can you explain what you mean about the willow.

Thanks.  I will try to post other pics as we get them.

Michele

[Guest]

The way I understand the term \"willow legs\" is the legs have a sort of green looking coloration to them due to the yellow and slate mixture.  Like the bark of a shoot on a willow tree.  

Some breeds, like a Leghorn, have a bright yellow colored leg.  Ameraucana, by the standard, should have slate legs (unless it is the black variety then they can be black legs).  You should not have any yellow or flesh toned legs or any sort of combination.

[John]

You should not have any yellow or flesh toned legs or any sort of combination

Except, some varieties such as buff and wheaten have flesh colored legs/shanks when they hatch and their legs should darken as they mature.

[Guest]

Thank you!!  Told ya\'ll we were new at this.  We can\'t belive that they have gone from those cute fuzz balls to looking like real birds in less that 2 months.