araucana chickens

[rypie13]

Can anyone tell me if the araucana breed of chickens tend to have longer tail feathers than a silver laced wyandotte? two of the "girls" have really long ones and the other has somewhere in between the long tails and the wyandottes. We have had them about 5.5 weeks.

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

True araucanas have no tail feathers. They should be rumpless.

 

[rypie13]

well we for sure have questions about araucana which is what we were told. I think they are Ameraucana, just going by pictures.

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

Araucanas, Ameraucanas are a bit of a mix up. Mainly hatcheries selling both and also the Easter Egger (EE) is sold along as the title of Araucana.

Both Araucanas and Ameraucanas should lay blue eggs. They both come in standardized colors. Both should be pea combed.

Ameraucanas have beards and muffs. And will be tailed.

Araucanas will be rumpless and tufted with plumes of feathers on their ears.

Easter Eggers are any mixed breeds from either bird that are not of a standard reconginzed color, lay eggs other than blue and have other comb styles.

If you have pics we can give you a good idea of what you have.

 

[rypie13]

i hope this is a picture. we are new to this forum and am not sure exactly how to add pictures

 

[Anne]

What you most likely have is an Easter Egger.

To answer your question, an Easter Egger may or may not have a tail longer than that of a Wyandotte. It's hard to predict since Easter Eggers are very genetically mixed-up, but from what I've seen, I would bet that the average Easter Egger has a tail that's a little longer than the average Wyandotte.

 

[rypie13]

so do you think the picture above is a rooster or hen and what breed?

 

[Anne]

I can't tell you for sure if it's a cockerel or a pullet. The picture doesn't show a real good view of the tail feathers, but they look a little long, a little pointy, and slightly downward-curved, which may indicate a cockerel.

As far as "breed" goes, it's definitely an Easter Egger (not a real breed, but a general grouping for colored-egg-layers with various traits).

 

[speckledhen]

The comb looks like a cockerel due to the width of it. It has the shape of a cockerel's comb from that pic, anyway.

 

[Ace_king_brahma]

No matter the breed that is a really nice bird you got! I like the silver head on a brown body.