Stumped about breed

[gstuartw]

We've had her for about a year and a half and have no clue. she lays a blue egg. Any ideas? She has no tail feathers.

 

[elsfieldchickens]

rumpless arancuna

 

[2seth2]

rumpless arancuna

X2

 

[gstuartw]

Thank you. She's my wife's favorite. Now she wants to order chicks online.

 

[dretd]

Thank you. She's my wife's favorite. Now she wants to order chicks online.

Warning: Be veerrry careful when ordering. These guys are not sold by any commercial hatcheries. I would hate for you to go to a hatchery and have them list Araucana as the breed and then have you get a box of very cute but not what you were looking for Easter Eggers. Murray McMurray for instance, sells 'Araucanas/Americanas'. They are Easter Eggers--birds that have been selected to lay blue eggs but to not meet the Standard of Perfection for the breed Ameraucana.

Araucanas do have problems with fertility as the tufted gene is lethal when the chick has two copies so they have a lower hatch rate than other chicks -- expect to pay more for the chick from a breeder. If you want to try hatching your own eggs, there are breeders that advertise in the hatching egg section but be warned your hatch rate will be lower than regular chickens. They may also sell chicks--I haven't checked.

You could also contact the Araucana Club of America and see if there are breeders in the area: http://www.araucana.net/ . There is also an Araucana thread in the Breeds, Genetics and Showing section and you may find someone in your area posting there: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/288425/araucana-thread-anyone

I can see why your wife wants more, they area very unique and wonderful breed!

 

[gstuartw]

We gave a dozen of her eggs to a friend of ours to hatch out and said we'd take one hen after they were feathered out. One hatched. We know they were fertile.

 

[ramirezframing]

I had no luck hatching pure araucanas but great luck hatching out araucana mixes. Most came off rumpless. one even came off with tuffs. good luck