Araucana thread anyone? - Page 4

I have 2 Araucanas. Sorry, no pics, I'm computer illiterate! But I do have a rumpless/clean faced roo that comes closest to what I call a gold duckwing. I also have a mottled tailed/clean faced hen that lays a beautiful little blue egg.

Huh- well I did some searching- and I guess Ardenner is a completely different breed. It's a Beligian bird that has a single comb and can also be rumpless.

In order to be shown, an araucana must have ear tufts. However, because of the way the tuft gene works, it's impossible to produce 100% of birds with tufts. The tufting gene is lethal when a bird has two copies of it, so all tufted araucanas are heterozygous for the trait. So you will always produce some chicks that don't have tufts, no matter what you do.

So if you breed one without tufts to a tufted one? Not thinking about being able to be shown- just want to know if you would get any chicks with them.

Is it the similar to the frizzle gene? I mean how you should not breed frizzle to frizzle.

It's soooooooooort of like frizzle....but different, too.

Here's a rough idea of how it works out:

tufted x tufted = 1/4 chicks dead in shell, 1/2 chicks tufted, 1/4 chicks clean face
tufted x clean =1/2 chicks tufted, 1/2 chicks clean face

So if I bred 12 chicks from a tufted x tufted breeding, on average I'd get 6 tufted chicks and 3 clean faced chicks -- total of 9 chicks.
If I bred 12 chicks from a tufted x clean breeding, on average I'd get 6 tufted chicks and 6 clean faced chicks -- total of 12 chicks.

So -- some people will breed tufted x clean in order to get more chicks. However, I personally prefer to breed tufted x tufted so that I have fewer clean faced chicks that I have to worry about. That's a matter of personal preference.

ETA: the tufting gene is a simple dominant gene, but it's lethal in the homozygous state.