Well, a couple of weeks after we moved in to our new loghome, we had one of those drizzly, dreary weekends here. So we decided – kind of on the spur of the moment – to go buy some chickens. We went out and bought 10 baby chick hens and 2 ducklings.
In case you’re interested, we got 2 Rhode Island Reds (Rhoda & Red - like Duh!), 2 Red Sexlinks (Brittany & Christina - another No-Brainer), 2 Plymouth Barred Rocks (Gertrude & Henrietta), 2 Buff Orpingtons (Buffy & Jodie), and 2 Golden-Laced Wyandotte’s (Wynona & Ashley). We were gonna get a couple of Brown Leghorns but the guy said they were pretty flighty and not as easily manageable, so we passed. Plus we wanted Brown Egg Layers and Leghorns are White. One of the Barred Rocks turned out to be Henry (Hank) instead of Henrietta so we went back and got an Ameraucana hen.
When we bought Sister, our EE, we did so because we had heard the folks at the Feed Store call them the Easter Egg Chicken. But then we found out later that’s a misnomer because the Easter Egger or “EE” is really a hybrid mutt that’s not a true Ameraucana.
Originally, we thought it’d be a novelty to include a blue egg as we could with our other eggs. Well as time went on we couldn’t figure out why we never saw any blue eggs. So that got us looking up Ameraucanas on the internet and from there we got a whole host of information that was the catalyst to what is now a full blown addiction.
At first we thought maybe she was laying out in the woods but eventually I caught her sitting in a nesting box and was able to see her egg. It was sort of a pastel pinkish. After reading much on the internet from this site and others, we knew we had actually gotten an EE and not an Ameraucana.
Then I contacted Lisa Cree and she confirmed it for me for sure. I must say that talking with Lisa also helped fuel my addiction as she was so patient, kind, and informative with an absolute No-Nothing like I was and pretty much still am.
Then I found out about a big APA/ABA/WFF Poultry Show that was supposed to take place in Centralia last December and that made things even worse. Plus, I found out that the Wheaten Ameraucana is still in its early stages of being developed and that coupled with a picture of a Wheaten Marans that I saw on Bev Davis\' site really did the trick. I think the Wheaten is such a purty!! hen.
I really like the Wheaten color and the idea of developing a specific strain and color of bird is fascinating and really exciting. So a Quad of Wheaten Ameraucanas is next on my list. Maybe a Trio of Blue Wheatens too. And I\'ve even been thinking about adding a Splash as it might help with breeding. I\'m buy an E-book called \"Making New Colours\" by Gary Brereton that is subtitled, \"The Simple way to create new colours and patterns of poultry without any jargon\". Which speaks right to me unless there\'s a better one out there called \"Creating colours in poultry for Idiots!\"
Anyways, I\'ve also got some Welsummers and several varieties of ducks that I plan on breeding too. I\'ll probably only show the Ameraucanas and maybe one kind of the ducks but we\'ll see. Oh, then there\'s the Pilgrim geese that I plan to get because I\'ve heard their the oldest American breed and are endangered.
Oh boy, look at me, I\'m starting to ramble on again. See what the addiction does?
Ok, I better git. I gotta go whack a few weeds and check on all the critters...
God Bless,
