My ameraucanas start laying pretty much at exactly 5 months. However, none of them lay through the winter, and then they usually only lay from march until august before molting and then stopping altogether for winter. I've had a few decide to molt right at 5 months old so i didnt get eggs from them until about 7 or 8 months old. My RIRs on the other hand are excellent!

But have no fear, when your ameraucanas do decide to start, it'll be well worth the wait for the yummy blue eggs!

Ha ha ha... :)

They should kick in with the eggs pretty soon. Although it's coming on Winter, when egg production naturally slows...

Most of my girls are molting (it looks like a chicken nudist farm out in my yard!) so between molting & colder, shorter days we're not getting many eggs right now, either. Spring will change all that!

Velvet ~:>

Remember that Ameraucanas come from South American blood. I laugh lately, I turned on the heatlamp in my barn and whenever I go to look, my four Ameraucanas are hogging the space right under it! My chickens are just finishing their molt and returning to the nests, despite the shorter days. It's nice to walk in after work and find five eggs where it had been maybe one or two every couple of days!

Before you know it, you'll be getting those eggs.

--Johanna

Hi Jenica,

ours started laying right around 5 months also. Of course my Ameraucanas have also started molting so I get 2 everyother day and 3 on the third day. It will get down to 20 tonight and it has been raining like gangbusters for about 3 days and with that everyone will slow down - but rest assured like everybody else said come spring that will all change.

Velvet - A nudist colony!!! LOL LOL LOL I did not think I would stop laughing at that visual!!!

Mine are doing the flash for cash in the front yard - people actually stop, they think we have some kind of exotic chickens - I always tell them what is really going on and then they buy eggs! I think they feel sorry for them!

I always tell my girls "Thank you very much"

Nelda

Thanks everyone for your reassurances. I really hope they do lay through the winter. It doesn't get too cold here and we generally get a lot of sunny days in the winter compared to most places so hopefully that will help. If they take a vacation every winter I'm in for some expensive eggs! With the RIRs they pay for their feed and then some with the extra eggs I sell to my neighbors. With everyone doing holiday baking I have an even bigger demand for eggs. My one neighbor says he goes through egg withdrawal when I don't have enough to sell to him. He jokes about going out and squeezing the chickens!

I feel bad for the molting chickens now that it's getting chilly. Poor girls can't seem to grow back their back feathers because the rooster is overly amorous.

So do the blue eggs taste any different from the brown? I just thought it would be neat to have different color eggs and hadn't thought about the taste.

It seems strange that there are so many featherless (or close to it) chickens out there. In all the years I've raised birds of all sort there has never been any 'nudist' molting going on. It might be they are not getting enough protein during molting season. I usually maintain a 15% protein level in the hens except during a molt. Molts usually occur in September/October in our area so at the begging of September their protein levels are increased to 19-20% by adding more soy meal (you can add chick starter) to their diet. I see an increase in dropped feathers but never bald spots. The egg production continues at their normal rate. At the end of September Grow lux and Sun Stix Fluorescent light are placed on auto times extending the day to 10PM each day (about 3-4 hours/day). I have 16 large egg layers and average 15 eggs/day. The Seramas (210 hens) produce a daily average of 160 eggs. Most Seramas lay only every other day a few lay every day.

jenica,

the color of the egg doesn't change the way it tastes, although that would be quite interesting!

Mine just layed her first at 4 months, 3 weeks.