araucana combs

[amazondoc]

A few days ago I promised somebody that I'd post a few pics of bad araucana combs. I can't find the thread in which we were talking about that, so I'm posting em here instead.

First there's three good combs, then three with assorted problems:

Good comb:

Good comb:

Good comb:

Straight tall comb:

Floppy tall comb:

Twisted tall comb:

 

[canada-goose]

I had no idea there was so much variety!

 

[Krys109uk]

It was me asking about the combs.

Thanks for the pics.
Sorry I can't be any real help, just share experiences nothing more than conjecture.

I used to breed & show UK type araucanas (in UK of course.

).
Because I can't leave anything as it is, I had to mess about with the araucanas &, as a consequence, got some strange sorts of pea combs. Comb number two was what I called "normal" males being bigger; I didn't have the spikey bits.

I've seen birds with all the "bad" pea combs. In my case they were all, either directly or indirectly, a result of crossing to single comb birds, in my case usually leghorns because they seemed to have the closest type. (US & UK standards are different for both breeds)

I particular, I outcrossed to a white leghorn to nick the dominant white gene to make pyle araucanas. I got a lot of females with combs like bad comb pic 2. Whatever makes leghorn combs longer than the average comb also affected the pea combs. Many of the males from the project looked like bad comb pic 3. And bad comb pic 1 looks like het P/p+?

What are your thoughts Ione?

 

[amazondoc]

Oh, I've got no special thoughts on this.

I think, most likely, that most of the pea comb problems are from previous outcrosses. For instance -- I bought bantam araucanas last year, two of which were buff (a very rare color in araucanas). I noticed later that the buff hen is precisely the same color as my bantam buff leghorn hen, and she also has a bit of white in her earlobe (another relatively common fault in araucanas)......ETA: oh, and I forgot to add, she also has white legs!

Also ETA: I don't particularly mind outcrossing, when done carefully and responsibly -- but it does irritate me when I see birds with these obvious comb problems even at shows!

 

[Birch Run Farm]

Ah perfect combs! I only wish, I've had some big 'loppy' ones and still have some smaller loppy ones but they are good birds over all and not on the way to the soup pot yet. I have two brothers you would never guess were brothers. One has a 'good' comb, the other is lopped over.

Some of my girls have almost no combs.

 

[M To The Maxx]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Bantimna]

That would be a great help for somebody who breeds araucana's