In 2003 the large fowl bug bit after I saw a picture of Barbara Campbell’s large fowl silver Ameraucana. After corresponding with Barbara I arranged to purchase black, silver, and blue large fowl hatching eggs. In the fall of 2003 I met Paul and Angela Smith at the Southern Missouri Poultry show and came home with a trio of black, a pair of buff, and a blue cockerel. We added blue wheaten and wheaten chicks from Barbara Campbell and buff, white, and wheaten chicks from Larry Clionsky in the summer of 2004. The fall of 2004 saw the rounding out of pens with the addition of a trio of white from John Blehm and a brown red cockerel from Mike Gilbert. In the fall of 2005 Bantam Hill purchased the majority of Barbara Campbell’s flock of silver Ameraucana. We now have functioning breeding pens for all varieties of large fowl Ameraucana except for brown red due to the loss of our brown red cock in the heat of summer 2005.

2006 Fall Breeding pen comments

The 2006 breeding season was one of the most frustrating I have ever experienced. The weeks of triple digit heat and 75% cockerel hatch rate were the foundation for  a  breeding season that seemed to produce very few quality birds. From the blue and black pens the quality seems to be very nice out of the birds that survived. Some late summer hatches have provided breeding stock and show birds for late winter. Very few white large fowl survived through the summer, but seem to be nice. The buff pens produce a few nice cockerels and pullets and I have one pullet laying an exceptionally colored egg. Overall the buff have great type, but a few black specks on tail feathers appeared. The addition of several cockerels from John Blehm should solidify the quality of the buff for spring 2007. The wheatens that survived were very nice. The silver were probably the largest disappointment for this year. We sold a lot of eggs, but in the end had very poor hatches and huge losses from the chicks we hatched for our personal use. We did end up a brown red cockerel that has some faults, but he is a starting point for more improvements. An outstanding pair of large fowl cuckoo Ameraucana were produced this and we continued to work on the large fowl versions of lavender, blue silver, and black gold.

2006 Spring Breeding pen comments
Black – This pen is headed by a great cock from Paul Smith of Texas. The hens and pullets come have mostly been raised at Bantam Hill. The lines originated from Paul Smith and John Blehm of Michigan.Blue – This pen is headed by an outstanding cockerel from Paul Smith of Texas and blue pullets and hens from an assortment of sources.White – This pen is a trio that I purchased from John Blehm of Michigan. The cock is an outstanding bird in every way and the trio produced some excellent offspring last year. I expect great things from this quad for 2006!Buff – This pen is headed by a cock purchased from Paul Smith of Texas several years ago with very dark slate legs. The pullets are the best I have been able to find and produce. There is a good chance this pen will produce some very nice offspring. The chicks are hatching out either dark buff or on the golden side of things. The egg color is not too bad, but it is more green than blue. I know that the two cock birds I am using come from blue eggs, so there should be an improvement of egg shell color.Wheaten\Blue Wheaten – This pen is headed by a very good blue wheaten cockerel with a couple of wheaten hens and a blue wheaten pullet. The pen will produce about 50% wheaten, 50% blue wheaten, and a few splash wheaten offspring. I am doing a bit of compensating in this pen. The hens all have small combs and my best cockerel has a large comb that is leaning slightly. The mating should produce some acceptable birds.Silver\Blue Silver – These pens are headed by a blue silver cockerel from Mike Gilbert of Wisconsin. One pen is populated by hens and pullets of a darker color that should produce good exhibition cockerels and the other pen is populated by hens and pullets that are of an exhibition color and should produce exhibition pullets. These pens should produce about 50% silver and 50% blue silver. Blue silver is not a recognized variety of Ameraucana currently. If the blue silver cockerel is not fertile I will substitute a silver cockerel or cock in both pens which will result in 100% silver offspring.

 2005 Breeding pen comments

The black large fowl Ameraucana are mostly Paul Smith’s birds and have been good natured, easy to work with, and have had good productivity. The white large fowl at Bantam Hill are from Larry Clionsky’s and John Blehm’s lines of white Ameraucana. They have great size and we look forward to the spring hatch. Our wheaten large fowl at Bantam Hill are a combination of lines from Barbara Campbell and Larry Clionsky. We have both light and dark wheaten hens.

2004 Breeding pen comments

We were very excited to get our first pair of large fowl buff from Paul Smith in October of 2003. Unfortunately the hen never laid an egg. In an act of desperation we crossed the buff rooster to black Ameraucana and Buff Orphington hens. We have youngsters to work with and plan to cross the buff rooster to bantam pullets and hens this winter in the hope of getting two or three generations in 2004-2005. The buff large fowl are definitely a work in progress at Bantam Hill. The blue large fowl Ameraucana at Bantam Hill are a combination of Paul Smith’s line and Barbara Campbell’s line. They have produced some very nice colored offspring and I look forward to seeing how they compete. They look that promising! The blue wheaten large fowl at Bantam Hill are from Barbara Campbell’s winning lines and we look forward to working with them . . . They are some great looking birds. Our brown red large fowl are a work in progress. The cockerel from Mike Gilbert will be mated with brown red bantam hens and large fowl black hens as soon as possible and an attempt will be made to raise two or three generations in the next year or so. Silver Ameraucana at Bantam Hill are a work in progress. We are working on breeding down from the large fowl silver obtained from Barbara Campbell. We are close and may have something in three or four generations.