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Amrox is a breed of chickens of American origin. Its ancestors were practically the same breeds from which Plymouth Rocks: black Dominican chickens, black Javanese and cochin. Amroks were bred at the end of the 19th century. Amroks appeared in Europe in 1945 as humanitarian aid to Germany. At that time, the German chicken population was practically destroyed. Amroks provided the population of Germany with meat and eggs. The result was somewhat paradoxical: these days Amroks are very popular in Europe and little known in the USA.
On the right in the photo is Amrox, on the left is Plymouthrock. For clarity, chickens were taken.
Description of the breed
Amrox chickens belong to the meat and egg breed. Medium-heavy chickens. The weight of an adult chicken is 2.5-3 kg, a rooster is 3-4 kg. The breed is universal and has the characteristics of a good laying hen. Chickens of this breed have a very lively temperament, but at the same time they get along well with other chickens.
Cock standard
The head is medium in size with a large crest.The beak is yellow, short, the tip is slightly curved. The comb is red, erect, and simple in shape. The comb should have 5-6 teeth. The middle ones are approximately equal in size, the extreme ones are lower.
At the back, the lower part of the crest follows the line of the back of the head, but does not lie close to the head.
Earrings and earlobes are red. The earrings are medium length, oval. The lobes are smooth, oblong. The eyes are red-brown and large.
The neck is of medium length, well feathered. The body is oblong, wide, slightly raised. The chest is deep and well muscled. The back and lower back are wide. The neck, body and tail form a smoothly curved topline. The back is level along the entire length of the line; in the area of the lumbar region the top line turns into a vertically set tail. The belly is wide and well filled.
The wings are tightly pressed to the body, of medium length, well feathered, with wide flight feathers.
The lower legs are of medium length and covered with thick feathers. Metatarsus yellow. May have a pink stripe. Fingers are yellow with light claws. Fingers are evenly spaced.
The tail is set at an angle of 45°. Moderately wide. The length is average. The tail feathers are covered with decorative braids.
Chicken standard
The difference between chicken articles and rooster articles is due only to gender. The chicken has a wider and deeper body and a thinner neck. The tail feathers barely protrude above the body plumage. The beak is yellow with thin black stripes. Metatarsus yellow. They may have a grayish coating.
Features of color
Chickens of the Amrox breed can only have a cuckoo color. The feather has alternating white and black stripes. Moreover, even the down pillows of the feathers are also striped.
The color saturation is determined by the sex of the bird. The rooster has black and white stripes on its feathers of the same width, while the hen has black stripes twice as wide. This makes the chicken look darker.
Photo of a rooster.
Photo of a chicken.
The size of the stripes logically varies depending on the size of the pen. On small feathers the stripes are narrower, on large feathers they are wider.
Productive characteristics of chickens of the Amrox breed
Amrox has very good egg production for a non-specialized breed of chickens: 220 eggs per year. Minimum egg weight 60g. The Amrox hen produces 220 eggs in the first year. In the second year, egg production in Amroks decreases to 200 eggs. The eggshell is brown.
The Amrox chicken breed is early maturing, which makes it profitable for breeding for meat. This distinguishes Amroks from other meat breeds of chickens, which ripen quite late.
Exterior defects
Exterior defects in Amroks include:
- graceful skeleton;
- narrow/short body;
- narrow back;
- “skinny” belly of a chicken;
- thin long beak;
- small, deep-set eyes;
- any eye color other than red-brown;
- legs too short/long;
- claws too long;
- rough scales on the metatarsals;
- feathers without a black stripe at the end;
- entirely black flight feathers and braids;
- down without stripes;
- too thin stripes on feathers;
- the presence of any color on the feathers other than black and white;
- poor egg production;
- low viability.
Chickens with external defects are not allowed for breeding.
Determining the sex of chickens
The Amrox breed is autosex, meaning the sex of the chicken can be determined immediately after hatching from the egg.All chicks hatch with black fluff on their backs and light spots on their bellies. But hens have a white spot on their heads, which is absent in cockerels. In addition, the chickens are a little darker. Determination of gender among the Amrokosians occurs literally by looking at their heads and does not present any difficulty.
Dwarf amrox
The dwarf form of Amroks, bred in Germany, retained the main characteristics of the large form. These chickens, although they are listed in the ranks of bantams, also have a meat and egg direction. The weight of the dwarf chicken Amrox is 900-1000 g, the rooster weighs 1-1.2 kg. The productivity of the dwarf form is 140 eggs per year. The weight of the egg is 40 g. Externally, it is a miniature copy of the large Amrox. The color is also only cuckoo.
Advantages of the breed
Chickens of this breed are considered suitable for novice poultry farmers due to their good adaptability, unpretentiousness and undemandingness in feed. Even Amrox chickens are in good health. Another advantage of the breed is the rapid feathering of young animals. The feathered chick no longer requires the additional heat of the brooder and the owner can save on electricity. With a small number of chickens, the savings may not be noticeable, but on an industrial scale they are significant.
Chickens become sexually mature at 6 months. Hens are very good mothers. The chickens themselves have a high survival rate.
Maintenance and feeding
Being a universal breed, Amroks are much better suited to being kept on the floor than in cages. Despite the undemanding nature of the breed, it is still necessary to maintain cleanliness in the chicken coop to avoid infectious and invasive diseases.
When kept outdoors, chickens are usually kept on deep litter. Here you need to remember that chickens love to dig holes in the ground. They will also dig up the litter. It is very expensive to replace deep litter frequently.
There are two options for keeping chickens on the floor:
- Turn the litter daily so that droppings do not accumulate on top, and periodically add insecticidal preparations to it to destroy skin parasites in chickens;
- Leave the floor unlined, but provide roosts for the chickens.
The second option is more consistent with the natural needs of the bird.
To make the chickens feel comfortable, it is enough to make them perches 40-50 cm high. In this case, the chickens will “escape from predators” at night and will not harm themselves when they jump from the perch in the morning.
Amroks diet
It cannot be said about Amroks that they are very picky eaters. But this breed requires a variety of feeds. The diet of Amroks must include grains, vegetables, grass, and animal protein. If good quality feed is available, grains and animal protein can be replaced with combined feeds.
The rest of the diet comes from succulent feed. Chickens of this breed can and should be given potatoes, other root vegetables, various greens, and wheat bran. From 2 months, corn is introduced into the diet of chickens. With a well-prepared diet, Amroks produce delicious, tender meat.
Reviews from Amrox owners
Conclusion
Amrox chickens are well suited for private backyards. For industrial enterprises, their egg production is too low and their growth period is too long. Therefore, today chickens of this breed are bred only by private owners and part of the livestock is kept in nurseries as a gene pool for breeding new breeds.But if a novice owner of a private farm needs a chicken “for experiments,” then his choice is amrox. With chickens of this breed you can learn how to keep adult chickens and incubate eggs.
