Ameraucanas = Blue Eggs

I have all kinds of things to share today. I’ll start with ordering chicks…I did it, I mean I ordered them from a hatchery!    A first for me. : )

I ordered Ameraucanas from Chicken Scratch Poultry in Illinois.

Photo from Chicken Scratch Poultry

I have been studying about Aracaunas, Ameraucanas and Easter Egg hens for a while now, but the description of these birds from Chicken Scratch Poultry is what won me over…

Ameraucana “Blue egg layer”

 William Morrow line

Ameraucanas lay the most beautiful blue eggs I have ever seen.  This is NOT an easter egger.  Ameraucanas have a pea comb and black or slate colored legs and fluffy muffs or beards.  Chicks hatch with the cutest fluffy cheeks. These birds do quite well in cold weather.

Since my goal was to have dark copper eggs and blue eggs…this certainly got my attention…”the most beautiful blue eggs I have ever seen.”

Another photo from Chicken Scratch Poultry

In thinking about Ameraucanas I decided to make them the subject of my newest chicken painting…a Lavender Ameraucana…

8″ x 10″ oil on canvas

And again this opened up a new world for me, because  I noticed while I was painting that Ameraucanas have very different combs called pea combs… This chart by Ross Simpson has a  very impressive display  of many different kinds of combs…

Illustration by Ross Simpson Found at CHICKENWIKI

Here is another chart…much simpler and easier to see…from Langston University Cooperative Extension website.

Then I found fern… 🙂

You will fall in love with this story of fern the Ameraucana hen by Lauren Scheuer at Scratch and Peck.  And …Lauren has written a book coming out in March called Once Upon a Flock.  Can’t wait to read it!

So, now I’m waiting for the phone call from the Chicken Scratch Poultry telling me my chicks are on the way…and I’m also waiting for a phone call from my son saying my new baby grand-daughter is on the way…any time now. 🙂