Araucana thread anyone?

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This post brings up a question I've been pondering...?
So being new to chickens...I am trying to figure out how to selectively breed birds especially if you have them all in the same coop... I want to establish an Araucana flock but my wife like Wyandottes...so how would I know who breed with who...? Do you keep roosters seperate...or pair a roo with a couple hens during breeding season to selectively breed ? I know I have alot to learn, and alot of reading ahead of me..
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I keep ALL my boys, no matter what breed (except Shamos and Polish) in a "bachelor pad" -

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1356/5141423135_fc96394216_z.jpg

(Marango, one of my Araucanas, is peeping into the camera - behind him are some Marans, an Ameraucana, and some mutts for eating)

And all the girls are in their own area too. With that of course requires getting to know who lays what and having the time to constantly pair up birds though.

Otherwise you could just have separate pens for both.


EE stands for Easter Egger. They're what hatcheries and feedstores claim to be Araucanas or Ameraucanas.
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Illia...thank you so much .... I should have known EE... so much information coming at me .. a little overloaded...
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Wow the rooster batchelor pad...they are looking all content... and I've heard rooster can fight amongst themselves or is that only when there is a hen they are both interested in ??
 
I've had fights. . . In fact I'm dealing with a dilemma now of trying to get rid of a really nice Wheaten Marans cockerel because he's constantly starting fights with my Blue Wheaten.

In general, and 90% of the time, they all get along. The key is to have them grow up with each other. A hen won't really set much off, honestly. . . They have a full view to the girl's pasture, and in fact, I have a pesky pullet who's just at the point of lay who constantly gives the boys a visit, and if she can, will even sleep with them.
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Really, roosters aren't as mean and aggressive as people say. All my boys are sweethearts, and they cope very well with each other. If I introduced a new one out of the blue, yes, there will either be fights or they'll all pick on the new one though. So the key there is slowly get them used to him, and him to them. I just barely had to introduce a new Buff Ameraucana cockerel, and really my only issue is my Wheaten Ameraucana. . . Who's now on the cull list anyway.
 
Quote:
My flock is free ranging together right now; guys, gals, and all the various breeds mixed up. I have eight main roosters of varying breeds and the girls that go with them ( and a bunch of roosters I've grown out to have choices, but most will be supper, just a few keepers). Three weeks before I want to start gathering eggs to incubate and hatch I will move the individual roosters into breeding pens with the very specific hens that I want each to mate with. Three weeks early so that the girls can clean out any eggs fertilized from other roosters and be guaranteed to only be laying eggs from the rooster pairing that I'm after. This year I plan to have 9 breeding pens and I only have one rooster to each pen and the most hens I will have in any of them is the easter egger pen with five hens in it to the one rooster. I am being far, far more selective this year than I have ever been before, and once I get some traits better set in my different lines (this year's goal) I will have bigger groupings of most of the breeds that I'm breeding.
I don't have any nasty roosters around either, because we eat any that show unnecessary aggression - I have no interest in setting that trait in any of my lines. I have, however, at times "worked with" a rooster that I really wanted to use in my breeding but who didn't understand the pecking order of our little farm. I gave up on one rooster (an Ameraucana) when he simply would not stay away from my children. I do not regret butchering him even though he was expensive and gorgeous; the rooster that I replaced him with has given us not a moment's headache and so, what's the point of fighting with an ill-tempered guy when there are sweethearts out there to do the same job? I am introducing an "off standard" Ameraucana (Easter Egger but with known, stellar parentage) to my breeding program this year and we were having difficulty with his attitude. I just made sure to grab him up every morning when the coop door opened. I would hand him off to my children who held him and walked around with him and petted him and hand fed him, etc. It really didn't take more than a couple of weeks for him to get over his posturing and now I have no worries about him.
 
I have made several pens for breeding. They don't have to be big. Mine are 8X8. The pens are the roosters permanent home. The only ones who move around if I decide to change breedings is the hens. I have a bachelor pen where the boys I am not using for breeding go. I have several grow out pens for babies only. My hens when they decide to go broody stay in their breeding pen and the babies when they hatch are cared for by the rooster also. I do have a couple of dog crates in my green house that I will move birds in to if they are sick or a broody that isn't happy in the breeding pen. Fortunately my green house is pretty big and it is each to seperate each area.

I tend to try and hatch everything and cull once they hatch for the traits that I am looking for.

Lanae
 
Seems like a lot of people turn all their breeds in together for the winter then separate into breeding pens in the spring. I just have the Serama's and Araucana's so they would mix well. My Serama's are paired up and penned up where they can stay warm and they're liking it cause they've been laying better than they did this summer. The Araucana pullets started laying so I'm not changing a thing. I'll have some nice sized young for sale in the spring this way. I'm going to keep hatching all I can and I'll manage to keep them inside this winter.
 
Pullorum-Typhoid (P-T)
Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG)
Mycoplasma Synoviae
Mycoplasma Meleagridis
Salmonella Enteritidis
Avian Influenza (AI)
 

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