Araucana thread anyone? - Page 543

I think your black may actually be a very dark blue, i see lacing through out the body...

I just started keeping Araucana chickens last year, they are so fun to have and they have the best personality of all my chickens. I also have Americanas which are also nice birds.

Man this has been a frustrating year so far!!! I had a hen go broody with just a couple eggs under her so I switched them with a dozen eggs from the incubator that only had about 10 days left. Thought it would be fun for our 4 year old to watch the mom leading the little chicks around the yard. After a few days, another hen joined her on the nest. I pulled her out a few times but they seemed to enjoy sitting together so I let them share. I got home last night on due day to find that they had suffocated six hatched chicks. All dead! I pulled the second hen out again and separated her so she could not return. Tonight the remaining 6 eggs are still not hatched. They are probably duds!

that's awful, sorry to hear about your troubles, aside from muscovy hens, i have never had alot of luck with naturally hatched chicks. Fortunately the season is still young, maybe you'll have some good hatches yet ;)

I've had more chicks hatch the last day or so, some were from shipped eggs, and a few were from mine. ended up with a real mixed bag lol, but also ended up with 3 tufted chicks!

Rusty chipmunk, rumpless and cleanfaced

another reddish chipmunk, but it has blue or black skin? even its beak

A light chipmunk with wispy tufts (they look even so far!)

an attempt to show its tufts, its rumpless too, but it has a single comb :(

A tailed black with 1 big tuft. I ended up with 2 of these, could have been bookends, they look the same (with only 1 big tuft each), but they are on opposite sides.

Last but not least, 3 chipmunks from my eggs, all rumpless and clean faced.

I've been told by the lady i got the shipped eggs from that you can sex these chipmunks early on by the stripe on their eyes, is this true? and is it true for all chipmunks? and just as importantly, can you show me pictures lol

I havn't found sexing by the eye strip to be true for me but It could be because I am not observant enough to notice the differences in how the eye strip looks.

Congrats on the baby chicks especially the tufted one.  The straight combed one is probably a roo. The comb looks huge for that age. I had a straight combed roo that I bred to several of my hens years ago.  I only ever hatched 1 straight combed chick from it and it also was a roo.  I don't have either now and have never gotten another straight combed chick from my araucana.  Did it hatch from your eggs ( I am guessing not ).

Lanae

Quote:

Originally Posted by syble 

I think your black may actually be a very dark blue, i see lacing through out the body...

Yeah my goal is with the pure black roo it will darken up the black over a couple generations :) as I mentioned its my project.

admirable goal i'm working on a blue black splash group myself, constant work in progress but i think i'm getting there lol
 

How does everyone manage their cockerals and roos? I'm finding mine to be precocious and aggressive with other breeds of similar ages.

Thank you.

None of my roos are aggressive at all.  There is the occasional chicken spat where they chase each other around or someone gets a bloody comb, but soon its sorted and that is the end of it.  I never add just 1 new roo to the pen,  I add several at a time and always at night.  I have 3 different rooster pens that have different breeds of roosters, there is a top rooster but everyone knows it and there is peace most of the time.  Things get unsettled for a while when I add new roos but nothing major.

Lanae