"Araucana people" - would like your opinions please!

[fancyfowl4ever]

Went to an auction last weekend and to my surprise there were real bantam Araucanas. The boxes were labeled "trio of Arrconas" but when I looked inside I saw rumpless and tufted birds.

I got my hands on one box($45) and a friend of mine got one too(@$50), my box contained 1 rumpless/tufted pullet and 1 rumples/tufted roo and a tailed/tufted roo.
Her box had 1 rumpless/tufted roo, 1 tailed/tufted roo and a tailed/clean faced roo........

Needless to say both of us were dissapointed at the amount of hens...... she ended up giving me her roosters to see how they grow out.

The tailed ones get to stay to see who colours out best, but I doubt I will use any of them for breeding.

Here are the pullet and the 2 rumpless/tufted rooster, what do you guys think? Quailty? Overall look? anything else I should look at?

Pullet(solid black btw)

Both roosters(both black and red. Left one mainly black with just some red bleed on the hackles/saddle, my fave so far ).

All 6 are absolutly psychotic when it comes to handling, being such small birds I always worry when handling them because they struggle/scream so much I have to hold on tight.

Never planned on having Araucanas any time soon, this was one of those impulse buys, never seen any at the auction and breeders are hard to come by so I thought now or never. lol

Anna

 

[key west chick]

I think they are very pretty! As long as they are healthy I think you did well! Don't forget tufted/tufted can produce a lethal gene and about half the chicks will die in the shell. I would consider yourself lucky to have found so many tufted. To bad there weren't more hens.

 

[Birch Run Farm]

I know nothing about bantams but their tufts look quite nice! The red is not an accepted quality for showing if that is a goal. The one looks like it has unusual leg color. If just keeping some pure bred birds it is fine, I have some pretty wild color combos and love them.

Just don't let the cockerels over use the pullet. Perhaps try and obtain some black bantam hatching eggs and try and get a few more females. I am not sure if anyone breeds/sells day old bantam chicks or even more started birds. Check/post on the ACA website.

I think it is worth the shipping cost to invest but that's just my $.02! Have fun with them.

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

Showing isn't really an issue, only show anywhere near me is 12 hrs away.

I am trying to find some araucana breeders right now,, but so far I could only find 1 in canada and they only have large fowl.

Am awaiting reply from the ACA and the CAC regarding breeders in canada.

If all else fails they look like a good start for brown red.

Anna

 

[wilds of pa]

Hi fancyfowl4ever, not bad looking birds there. you got a good start with having the hen.
Breed your best black male on the hen. Just keep hatching and hatching and in the mean time, look for some more stock if you can find the bantams up there.
You may get duckwing or bbr out of the breedings to..

If i could suggest as well, only keep one male with the hen, as Birch Run said, they will shred the hen big time..

try contacting: Omega Blue Farms
They may be able to help you or even know somebody with what you are looking for
http://www3.telus.net/OmegaBlue/

Thanks
Charlie

 

[fancyfowl4ever]

Hi Charlie, the araucanas are right now in my flock of 50 or so other hens/roosters, so when it comes to breeding I doubt much is gonna happen yet since they all still cheep too, none of them sound like adults yet(and my adult roosters ignore them all completely).
Once I notice any activity I seperate all roosters into a batcherlor pad and have an all girls flock.

If I want hatching eggs I will seperate the desired hen and roo into their own pen for a day and then put everyone back into their enclosure after that.

I have been chatting with Wayne from Omega blue farms for a while now, ok I admit we were chatting more about his amazing muscovy ducks then chickens but the araucanas came up a few times and I was tempted to buy some of his largefowl blacks(he seems to be selling out of them judging by his sales list).

I got an email back from the owner of the CAC, he will give me a pair of largefowl blacks if I join the CAC and pick them up at the national show(like I mentioned, 12 - 13 hr drive one way)........ after emailing back and forth I still don't have an answer if there is anyone with bantams in BC or AB but besides himself he did suggest Wayne if I want someone who sells araucanas to anyone.

Why do I get the feeling this will get more difficult then I thought.....

Anna

 

[wilds of pa]

Hey Anna, didn't know you had 50 plus birds, sorry..

But I'm sure you know what i was getting at with only breeding the best male with the hen.

However if you cant find anybody with any, Set up a breeding program using all your roosters each at different times with that single hen, you may get a bit more genetic diversity in your chicks using different roo's. Of course lots of brooder space will be needed with those staggered hatches, as you have to wait a bit of time before each roo will have taken the fertile roll of that hens eggs, guess its somewhere around 3 weeks or so before each male would have fertilized on his breeding cycle...

I know that will take some time for each breeding cycle with a different male, but if you cant find any, then build off of what you have. Thats what i would do if you had no other options..

I doubt Wayne will ever get out of any Araucana he's been doing it for some time..Cant picture that..LOL

Yes it may be tough but there are others with them up there, just a matter of finding them.. less then more in Bantam owners/breeders

Best of luck...

Charlie

 

[amazondoc]

Quote:
I may be misunderstanding what you wrote here, but remember that it can take several weeks for a hen to get rid of all the sperm from a previous roo -- so you have to keep the hen separated for at least three or four weeks before you know for sure that the eggs she lays are only fertilized by the desired roo.

Just a thought!

 

[wilds of pa]

guess its somewhere around 3 weeks or so before each male would have fertilized on his breeding cycle...

amazondoc I think i said that in my response...

Thanks
Charlie​

 

[amazondoc]

Yup, you sure did. I didn't see your post before I wrote mine!