Araucana thread anyone?

[cashdl]

Hi All,

I need a pic of a BBR chick showing down color a silver duckwing chick, a black chick, and a white chick. I looked thru all my pics and they are fuzzy.

Thank You

Lanae

 

[exoticduckluvr]

Lanae that is perfect. You covered all the bases in the differences between the 3. I can't wait to buy a copy of your book. Sounds like it is going to be a really good one and more informative than just about genetics and how to breed as the other are I have found.

 

[cashdl]

I am trying to make it a more generalized book for the everyday Araucana owner. Not everyone shows, but we all need to know the specifics about the breed. I do touch on genetcs here and there, but since I am not even close to an expert, I want to keep it light and easy.

Right now I am working on the different colors and matching them with pictures. It is so difficult. I am trying to find pictures as close to show quality which I think is important but there are so few show quality Araucana and so many colors.

Lanae

 

[Birch Run Farm]

"Minnie laid her first egg yesterday. It was so pretty, kind of a medium blue. She just looked at me like " Of course its georgous, I am Minnie"

Aweeeeee!

 

[Omniskies]

I am a weak person.

I broke down and finally bought the Araucana flock someone was selling (NPIP certified flock, closed lines). Moreso, I bought an assortment of 45 cockrels and pullets that are at the POL. They were funky and I have an extra pen this year (which means if I keep the Araucanas I'll need to build _another_ pen this fall to give them a permanent home once my Barnevelders are old enough to need that pen...).

Anyway, there are a rainbow of colors in there because he kept all of his colors running together. 99% of them are rumpless, and maybe half of them are tufted. He kept one bizzare white hen that developed a small tuft/crest/poof of feathers.

I've done as much research as I can and still don't know what I should keep and what I should part with. I know about the lethal gene, and that fertility can be an issue with rumpless birds. I finally found out that there _are_ recognized colors of Araucanas, so now I'm concerned about whether I should keep a rainbow flock or try to cull down to a specific color. Most of the roosters look like BB Reds but only one hen looks like a BB.

Should I keep a rooster with a tail to help improve fertility, or strictly keep rumpless birds? Some of the hens have ear tufts and some of them don't, so I will probably keep a tufted rooster.

He was selling hatching eggs and I would like to do the same. Would it be better keep a non-tufted rooster so people have a better hatch rate? Or should I stick with keeping a tufted rooster and provide 25% more eggs for free to cover the lethal gene's influence?

Is there a market on BYC for any extra roosters out of a mixed-color flock, or should I get them ready for Freezer Camp (which was the original plan)?

This weekend our arctic freezes are supposed to give way to weather in the 50s. That's when I plan to start going through the flock to do a lot of serious culling, probably thinning it down to four or five roosters I like the best, then I'll do a second round of culling once everyone starts laying, and a third round of culling when they are older. I have a thousand pictures to take over the weekend for various things, but plan on trying to get pictures of the Araucanas, as well.

Nothing like diving in head first, right?

 

[syble]

PICTURES!!! Alot of people are less concerned about color and more concerned about type. I'm a fan of color myself. I hope to breed the blue family even though its not recognized. One day hopefully it will be. I would post some pictures and get some feedback on birds. There is a saying that you need to build a barn before you can paint it, i hear it used alot with chickens. basically means work on the birds type and features then work on color. You'll need to really look at each bird and see what the pros and cons are. then you can get an idea of what you can do with the flock, or what you will need to work hard at.
Sib

 

[cashdl]

Keep tufted roosters and hens first off. Keep rumpless. Keep tufted rumpless before tufted tailed unless you see one that is colored correctly or just blows you away in the tufts dept.

Keep rumpless hens. I am not sure I would keep tailed hens if you have rumpless ones. But there are so many variables. pics would definately help. Rumpless and tufted roos should sell pretty easy if they are built well, no matter the color. the rest could probably go to freezer camp.

Lanae

 

[NateDomRIR]

Omniskies,

I agree with Lanae. By the way, what is a rosecomed Barred Rock? never heard of them. A Dominique perhaps?

Nathan

 

[Omniskies]

Thanks for the breakdown, Lanae.

Nate, a Rosecomb Barred Rock is 100% not a Dominique

. Back in the late 1800s, early 1900s there was a Rosecomb version of the Barred Rock: a large, meaty, dual-purpose bird with the Barred pattern (not the Cuckoo) that had a Rosecomb instead of a Single comb. There are articles from 1912-1913~ from people selling Rosecomb Barred Rocks and trying to start up a club for them. Unfortunately they never took off and faded away into obscurity. I think the latest I've been able to find documentation for them is 1913.

I really like the look of Rosecomb birds and enjoy the fact that you don't have to grease them up when the weather gets cold. For the past couple of years I've been ever so slowly working on producing a Rosecomb Barred Rock. The breeding I'll be doing this year to strengthen the Rosecomb gene and give the breed more size should also produce Blue Barred birds, which I'm kinda stoked about. I'm hoping to have a consistant enough flock to tentatively offer hatching eggs in a couple of years. I should probably take it off of my signature since I don't have them terribly far along right now

 

[Birch Run Farm]

Omni-

One of my chicks from last year is a tailed and tufted pullet that is just gorgeous. Her tufts are even and large but not droopy, plus, she is solid, glossy black with no bleed through color. I do see value in her for many of her qualities. She will go to rumpless tufted cocks (one is her father) and won't get culled. It's best to evaluate your birds carefully and try and match them up with the best mate to try and breed out the unwanted traits (tails in this bird's case).