Messages

1

Exhibiting & Promoting / Re: JR. Showmanship

« on: July 06, 2023, 08:26:15 AM »

Thank you everyone for all the information and advice regarding Showmanship. Our daughter just finished up her first 4-H poultry show and we could not be more proud of her. She really enjoyed herself and presented herself and her birds very well. To top everything off her hen won AOV Large Fowl, placed Third Overall, and she won Junior Showmanship.

A huge thank you and credit to Paul and Angela Smith for selling us the Blue Ameracauna Pullets (now hens) our daughter showed.

Mitch

2

Exhibiting & Promoting / Re: JR. Showmanship

« on: June 07, 2023, 07:31:25 PM »

Thank you we appreciate all the information.

Mitch

3

Exhibiting & Promoting / JR. Showmanship

« on: June 03, 2023, 02:03:04 PM »

Our daughter is exhibiting poultry for the 1st time this year and we are looking for any advice regarding showmanship. My wife and I exhibited large animals in 4-H / open shows, and while we are learning about exhibiting poultry, we know very little about poultry showmanship so any help / advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Mitch

4

Upcoming Meets / Re: 11/10/2023 Ohio National NE District Meet

« on: January 12, 2023, 03:44:24 PM »

Do we need to be members of the APA or any other requirements to have our birds count for the total?

5

Ameraucana Marketplace / Black LF Show Quality Trio

« on: November 12, 2022, 09:30:56 PM »

We are looking for a LF Trio of Black Ameraucana for our daughter to start her own Flock / 4H project. We are located in Southeastern Indiana, but are willing to have birds shipped if necessary.

Thanks

Mitch

6

Housing, Health & Hatching / Re: Chicken Waters

« on: September 12, 2022, 03:36:58 AM »

Thank you for the ideas, I completely forgot about that style of waterer.

7

Housing, Health & Hatching / Chicken Waters

« on: September 09, 2022, 09:53:09 AM »

Our oldest is in her second year of 4-H and she would really like more responsiblity/ownership regarding caring for our/her birds. She is great at taking care of animals and very responsible for her age. She does great gathering eggs each day and does awesome making sure the birds are always fed. The problem we are running into is that she isn't quite strong enough yet to handle/open the chicken waters ( Bell Waters / 3 gallon waters ). We are looking for possible options to help her. Not a huge issue because we insure everything is taken care of, just trying to help support and nurture her interest and desire to take ownership of her responsibilities.

Thanks for any help / advise.

Mitch

8

Housing, Health & Hatching / Re: Worming / Parasite Control

« on: July 18, 2022, 04:26:19 PM »

So just add this to individual waters? Is there anything topical we should use along with this?

Thank you

Mitch

9

Housing, Health & Hatching / Worming / Parasite Control

« on: July 17, 2022, 08:55:27 AM »

Looking for advice on worming/parasite control. We have been very blessed avoiding issues in the past, but as our Daughter is starting to show in 4H and possibly open shows we are wanting to be proactive instead of reactive. Our local vet is great, but admitantly doesn't know much if anything regarding chickens. Any advice on what to administer, dosage, withdraw times, and the like would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Mitch

10

Ameraucana Marketplace / Re: LF Splash Cock / Cockerel

« on: July 18, 2021, 10:12:00 PM »

No we are not going to be able to make it this year. If you have something available to ship when things cool down we would diffenitally be interested.

11

Ameraucana Marketplace / LF Splash Cock / Cockerel

« on: July 17, 2021, 03:52:06 AM »

We are looking to expand our splash operation and are currently looking for a Show Quality Large Fowl Splash Ameraucana Cock or Cockerel (* preferably around 10 months old or older *).

Thanks

Mitch

12

Housing, Health & Hatching / Re: Hatching Issues

« on: February 16, 2021, 09:40:18 AM »

We are located in Southeastern Indiana about 45 minutes outside Cincinnati Ohio. The variety we focus on are Blue,  Black, and Splash.

Definitely thinking about doing a small test hatch, dropping the humidity and see what happens. Also may try to better isolate of the trouble eggs / hens, but we'll start with the humidity and go from there.

Thank you for the information and tips.

Mitch

13

Housing, Health & Hatching / Hatching Issues

« on: February 15, 2021, 11:06:22 AM »

This is our 3rd/4th year hatching (second with the same cock bird and hens) and we've noticed that our chicks egg membranes are extremely thick almost a rubber texture or consistancy and several (30-40%) are having difficulty unzipping their eggs when hatching. We are wondering if it's something we are doing, genetics, or a combination.

We feed our hen's nutrena naturewise hearty hen pellets and sometimes mix in feather fixer or a 20% protein all flock if temperatures get below freezing for an extended time. They are supplied fresh water, grit, and free choice calcium at all times.

Our fertility rate is averaging between 80 - 90 % consistency but our hatch rates have only been in the 40 - 50 % range and we have lost as high as 20% at times that pip but don't hatch.

We have a nurture right 360 incubator and it holds a consistent temperature and we have checked it repeatedly for accuracy. We really pay attention to our humidity and maintain around 50% up to lockdown and then maintain 65 - 75% through the hatch. We now wait until lockdown to candle our eggs and other than that we leave the incubator closed up until we remove them from the incubator trying to remove as mainly outside factors as possible.

Any information or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Mitch

14

Breeding / Splash x Splash

« on: September 16, 2019, 01:23:29 PM »

With the possibility / future qualifying of the Splash variety, our family is considering primarily focusing on the Splash variety and are wondering what if any issues or pitfalls are encountered when crossing Splash on Splash over an extended period of time. Would coloration and feather quality be negatively affected like in other varieties?

We are currently breeding Blue, Black, and Splash varieties so we will still have access to those genetics if we need to occasionally cross those varieties back into the mix.

Thank you for any information.

Mitch and Tiffany

15

Exhibiting & Promoting / Exhibition Age for Ameraucanas

« on: March 12, 2019, 09:29:27 PM »

I was wondering the age everyone tries to have their birds (pullets and cockrells mainly) at for shows. I realize different birds mature at different rates, but generally what ages do you aim for when planning out your show schedule for the upcoming year. We are currently raising BBS large fowl and are looking forward to showing in the near future.

Thanks

Mitch and Tiffany Taylor