Araucana thread anyone?

[cackleberrycoop]

Quote:
Hey, I missed this post somehow! This may answer the question of why the boys can survive the high temps that the girls can't. I had forgotten that in poultry the males have the two versions of the same chromosome, thus giving them a second option in development, so the possibility of rejecting an inferior phenotype for a better, stronger option. The girls are stuck with the one version that they're given. I know it works something like this in human development, but opposite for the male/female XY vs XX.

 

[exoticduckluvr]

out come of the 18 fried eggs
4 living
4 dead in shell fully formed without pipping
1 early death
2 pips but did not hatch fully formed
7 did not develop

 

[star2525]

That's the link I'm most interested in too.

I just keep thinking Amino Acids and Proteins what part they play in the Domino Effect of sexual outcome or affecting its results. Probably sounds odd that I'd think of those, and I don't really know why that I'm even thinking of them in regard to this.

The only other thing I did this spring to summer with my birds feedings that was different was I fed them alot of Kril and Hermit Crab Food, I noticed the Araucanas loved the Kril the most. Probably had no bearing whatsoever on my hatch rates. I just remembered Kermit posting about it on egg color or the intensity of egg color and I also fed them Cranberries, which was another thing he posted about.

I'm weird about my birds food, I don't feed layer pellets at all, I feed GameBird Starter Crumbles, which is higher in protein than Turkey Starter, Scratch Grains (Corn & Wheat), and WildBird Seed Mix which has the Black Sunflower Seeds and I know you're going to find this hard to believe, maybe not, my eggs hatch in 17 days, under a Broody Araucana Hen and in the Incubator, I posted about it on the Araucana Forum one time and Kermit said its from the Quetros, and my start of Araucanas came from UCON birds which I've been told resemble the Quetros mostly and now is intermixed in my other Araucanas from them. The Same Araucana Hens also hatched out Large Fowl Marans eggs for me in the past, they hatched them out in 18 days. I only have 2 of those original Hens left and my one Rooster, and this year I'm going to put them together to keep more of them going. I also need to locate more Krill for the breeding season.

My friend in Florida has Sebastopol Geese, and she always feeds her Geese Mazuri Waterfowl Feed which smells like Fish, I had to lock my Bag of it up, my Cats wouldn't stay out of it, this past year she incubated 20 to 30 some Sebastopol Geese, some she had to cut out of the shells because the Membranes were like Leather and the goslings couldn't get out, out of all of the goslings she only hatched out 3 or 4 Ganders, so I don't know if the feed has any bearing or not, I'm just thinking it has to play a part somewhere down the line. The Health and Vigor of the Birds is definately effected by the Quality of Feed they are consuming, and its not cheap to feed that way. To alot of Hatcheries they wouldn't, they'd cull and hatch rather than invest alot of funds in special feeds and supplements, a Hatcherys Value Analysis is not the same as how we Value our birds. Most of us have all started out with Culls, and if you can find a breeder that would be willing to sell you a good quality Breeder Bird you're really going to pay for it, and you're definately going to invest in its care to pass on its genetic qualitys.

I'm definately interested in this link and think its worth exploring further.

What sort of Thermometers do you have in your Incubator? My Stepson took my Reptile Thermometer with the Probe, so I'm going to have to replace that before I start hatching again. I have the one on the outside and then 2 inside.

Victoria

 

[smoothmule]

I'm happy for you getting 4 live chicks

That's better than none for sure. They must be very healthy/tough chicks to have made it to the hatching stage.
Congrats!
Sorry for the losses too, but in the end you have 4 potentially great Araucana's.

 

[cashdl]

I liked Kermits post about feeding the araucana also. I started cooking scrambled eggs and then mixing yams or sweet potatoes, yogurt, and quinoa. I give it to mine once a week. I also have started feeding my birds game bird starter crumbles, but I mix in scratch to a ratio of 2 bags of starter to 1 bag of scratch. I started that about 8 weeks ago and have seen a good inprovement in the overall looks of my birds. I also put a suet cake in their pens every weeks. They really love to see me coming out to feed.

I am hoping to see an improvement in hatch rates.

Lanae

 

[star2525]

I plan to get the Quinoa too I want to plant it to see if it will self seed itself.

I've managed to get all of the Araucanas together in the Coop, I had 8 chicks that wouldn't go in with the other ones and wanted to Roost on my Wood Pile, so every night I was going out and catching them and carrying them to the Coop and putting them up on Roosts, I did that so many times I finally decided I wasn't letting them out to free range for the next couple of weeks so that they would get the idea that the Coop is where they are supposed to be.

Cold here tonight about 17 degrees, now I need to catch 5 Guinea Fowl that insists on sitting outside in rain or snow, I have one Araucana Hen with a chick that is about 7 weeks old now that I can't keep in the Coop, the chick is still able to manage to get out of the Coop Chain Link fencing, and the chick will go right to the Guineas and set next to them, so after catching it nightly and taking it in the Coop I finally had to leave the Hen out with it, I have an Open Hutch that is 3 sided that the Hen and chick both decided to finally go into, so was glad of that, I hate the thought of grabbing those Guineas they're serious when they strike at you, they'll come to me for feed but don't want to be touched at all and I really wish they'd go inside on their own and I don't think they're going to. This is my first experience with Guineas.

Victoria

 

[cashdl]

I had guineas for a while. Noisy crazy creatures that loved to come find me and yell in my face whenever someone or something new was around. They are great watchdogs. Good for snakes. I am soo happy I don't have them anymore. They loved to yell outside my bedroom window at un-acceptable hours of the morning.

My birds like the quinoa but they love the sweet potatoes the most. They will pick all the sweet potatoe pieces out first than when those are gone start in on the other stuff.

Lanae

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Wait, what did I miss? Where is this post from Kermit about feeding? Sounds intriguing. Is it his post that inspired you to feed your birds game bird starter crumbles also, Lanae? I was just about to go do a search on if there are foods to feed our colored egg laying breeds to increase the intensity/amount of pigment that they make. I have four new pullets this year who began laying and the eggs are the truest blue that I have ever had, and one girl's eggs in particular were so vibrant. But.... they all faded to nearly white so very, very quickly, and I would do just about anything to keep the color going strong after they begin laying again. I do have some hens who lay colored eggs for longer periods of time but they certainly have brown pigment genes in there and I don't know if I want to try to cross breed for longevity of color and then try to breed out the brown pigment gene, which is pretty much impossible to do anyhow; it seems a real shame to mix those brown egg genes into these stunning blue eggs (I have a related brother cockerel to three of the girls who lay the blue eggs, so I have a great start on some true blue egg laying lines) . Anyway, all that to say, I'm really hoping that there is a supplement or diet change that I can make that will help with the egg color as opposed to having to try breeding strategies.

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Quote:
I have an Araucana banty who hatched out two Ameraucana/Marans chicks and then insisted on taking them to roost each night in the tree tops. I worried about those birds so much when we went through a solid week of 17 below with wind chills. I tried everything to capture the birds and put them in a coop, but I could not get them. Every night I would wake up, cold in our heated house, and worry about those idiots out there in the trees, and every morning I rushed out to see if they were frozen solid on the ground. Well, every morning I find them out of the trees, running around the field like it's the middle of summer. The only thing I've noticed is that the one chick who has a single/pea comb combo thingy sticking off it's head is starting to get black tips, but It's a rooster and we'll be eating it before too long anyway - it doesn't seem to bother him and it's not as big a comb as his daddy's. They are amazingly tough, those birds of ours.
I have another black Araucana banty who we named Spook because we see her about once every other day or so - other than that she sleeps out in the trees somewhere and has been doing so for two winters now. I know she's still around because I find her eggs plopped out in the middle of the snow, or tucked under a pot on the porch, or, well anywhere she feels like laying when the mood strikes her. I don't know what she spends her days doing but she is shiny and round and healthy and spunky and I get such a thrill when she decides to make an appearance while I'm throwing scratch or cleaning coops.

 

[cashdl]

Kermit posted on the araucana thread a while back and here under resolution. His post here was about the winter faced breeds don't remember the title but I had remembered that he had posted about feed before and so I asked him. His reply is in that thread.

You could always pm him.

Lanae