Araucana thread anyone?

[enola]

My eggs next to the Araucana club of America color chart.

Darn! All I have for a color chart is OAC color chart..........

 

[smoothmule]

I don't post here as much as I used to but for members who have been here a while, most know I have been working on adding recessive chocolate and dun chocolate to my Araucana's. I wanted to update my progress here for the ones following

I keep a purebred black pen and they are better every year and it takes really good blacks to make good chocolates. Last year, I hatched a couple of rumpless chocolate pullets that had white skin. I started with white skinned chocolates in this project. I knew it would take a couple of crosses into my Araucana's to get the white skin replaced with yellow skin and this was the year. But, funny thing was that hatched only black chicks from the chocolate pen, so odd....lol. But I hatched a gorgeous black, double tufted/rumpless chick with very nice yellow feet (hoping it's a cockerel and carrying chocolate). The biggest improvement over last breeding season though was yellow skin




Then, last night, I finally hatched a Yellow skinned, chocolate chick with double tufts/rumpless.....hoping it's a boy too


still not entirely fluffed up. I'll post better pictures later

a nice large chick. There are more to hatch, hoping the cycle of all blacks is changing to chocolate chicks again

 

[Stacykins]

The rusty chicks look like wheaten/wild type but lighter in color, does the rooster have any red leakage? Black hens are good at being covered with black and showing no leakage but then they throw whatever color it is under that black sometimes. Wheaten leaks through black a lot more than wild type from my experience if all those are her chicks, it's likely there will be some red leakage on the blues and black cockerels but not the pullets.
Gorgeous chicks

The rooster has zero leakage, which I've always been pleased with. And it is why I haven't replaced him, since leakage has been a problem when I purchase hatching eggs from time to time. Other than him being splash, which isn't an approved color, he is rumpless, double tufted, willow legged, very mild mannered, and has no leakage.

 

[smoothmule]

Awesome Stacy, good roosters with no leakage are hard to come by. Even so, with hens producing wheaten or wheaten split chicks like the tan ones, the hens can pass that on to the chicks (all of them) and the cockerels will have leakage and the pullets no leakage.

If all of those chicks are out of that one hen, then you have her pegged as the one producing that. Breeding a hen to your rooster and getting clean blacks and blue cockerels will tell you that hen is E/e+ which is good for nice clean hackles in the blacks, blues and splashes.

 

[NotAFarm]

It is great to see this thread active once again!!

I still have my single blue Araucana hen. She laid a few eggs earlier in the spring but I have not seen a blue egg since..I've seen her on the nest but no blue egg...I hope see is not eating them........

 

[Brada Puhi]

Aloha, Stacy and Cathy, thanks for posting on this side.

Puhi

 

[Brada Puhi]

I have one black chick with white on the bottom and another that is pure black. I assume that they will both be black but is there a difference in their offspring? They both look male.

Thanks, Puhi

 

[smoothmule]

I have one black chick with white on the bottom and another that is pure black. I assume that they will both be black but is there a difference in their offspring? They both look male.

Thanks, Puhi

The chick down color tells you that the penquin marked chick (the one with yellow) is Extended Black, the best for blacks. The all black is ER or birchen black. They will both make black adults but my choice for breeding is the EE (extended black)

 

[smoothmule]

Hatched another chocolate, clean faced and rumpless. I forgot to mention I also hatched a black barred, double tufted/rumpless cockerel chick. The comb appears to be a straight comb but the mother is a Barred Holland so that is possible. It's an easy fix though and the tufts/rumpless are a breakthrough. My line of barred is from the Barred Holland breed so there is no issue with white ear lobes or brown eggs. They lay a white egg, yellow skinned with red ear lobes. I know this chick is a cockerel because barring is sex linked, a solid roo over barred hens, the cockerels will all be barred and the pullets all solid. You can tell at hatching which are cockerels, they will have the yellow or white dot on the head like this chick.

I only have the 2 barred hens, one is pure Barred Holland and the other is her daughter by one of my Araucana cocks. The daughter lays a nice blue egg, she has a pea comb but no tufts and she has a tail. This chick also has "pale" yellow skin. Something that seems to need one more cross to Araucana for some odd reason. Definitely a project but coming along nicely.

 

[jpulidol]

My hens on the hood of my truck.