Araucana Problem

[chicken gal]

Hi,
I have 6 chickens and 2 of them are Araucanas.(sorry don't know how to spell) I have noticed they are not laying their normal green, blue, and pink eggs. They are acting like there normal selves, but I live in Alaska so maybe they are meant for being tropical birds. I don't know. I know that the average chicken lays 3 or 4 years so do they lay shorter amount of time or do I have a problem?

If you could please help that would be nice.

Thank you

 

[chicken8]

Araucanas are from Chile and are cold hardy. Did they molt? Some of mine molted hard and quit laying for a couple months. The rest started slowing down around Thanksgiving (I don't add light).

 

[chicken gal]

No, they seem normal and their feathers are just fine. I don't know.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

How much light are they getting each day? Most chickens will stop laying if they are getting less than 14 hours of light a day. Also, how old are they? That will make a difference. Most birds will lay right through the winter their first laying year, then moult their second fall and not lay an egg until both all their feathers are grown back in for a few weeks and they get more than 14 hours of light a day. http://www.sp.uconn.edu/~mdarre/poultrypages/light_inset.html

Also, hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you do not have Araucanas. Instead, you have Easter Egger chickens, which are mutt birds that carry the blue egg gene. I know this because you said they lay blue, green, and pink eggs. True Araucanas and Ameraucanas only lay blue eggs.

http://www.ameraucana.org/faq.html
http://www.araucana.net/

It's extremely common for hatcheries to label their EEs as Ameraucanas or Araucanas or even Americanas, but there are only a couple of hatcheries out there that will sell true Ameraucanas, and I know of none that are selling Araucanas.

 

[chicken gal]

Oh, okay...... I didn't realize that I had Easter Eggers. But I guess that makes more sense. Also this is their second winter.