Araucana thread anyone?

[syble]

illia, beautiful boys!

cashdl, you have a blue hen in that pen, and bbr roo is a black based bird, so when bred to the blue hen, some would be black in theory... no weather it has no red show up later is another story haha.
Sib

 

[Birch Run Farm]

Quote:
Lanae, I can't remember the last time I had such a good morning laugh. I do hope your tufted black chick doesn't die, I have first dibs on it.

 

[puredelite]

Lanae, Congrats on your new chicks. Hope to hatch some blues this Spring and wouldn't mind at all some tufts! Ain't it a shame that we have to have a death watch attitude on the one's we desire the most. I had one that hatched last year that was solid black with the most brilliant white double tufts, a real beauty! Thought I was home free after a week but then it just weakened and died. Tends to make one gun-shy about picking a "favorite".... Best of luck with them!

 

[cashdl]

My roo in the pen I spoke of is a red duckwing splash roo. Sorry about the confusion. So technically I shouldn't be getting black chicks. She is still black this morning. She ( I hope) does have white on the tip of each wing. I so rarely get black chicks that I don't know what I am seeing. But everything else about her is black.

My georgous black double tufted roo up and died one day, just shy of 5 months. You could have heard my howls for miles around. I gave two of my tufted hens to a friend ( my splash double tufted and my blue double tufted) and loaned him a double tufted blue roo. He is now happily setting eggs for us. I am down to one tufted hen and she is in with my cleanfaced roo. I have 5 tufted roos in with cleanfaced hens.

Out of the 7 babies that hatched only one looks tufted, but two are chipmonks so I am super happy about that. This Sunday I have two eggs set to hatch out of my ginger red pen. I am so excited. At the Humboldt Poultry show I took the tufted ginger hen and cleanfaced roo to show people. Everybody hands down loved their color over my double tufted gold birchen roo. I would love to get more of that color. When those two are running around in the yard, the sun just glows off them.

I will take pics of the new babies as soon as they are all fluffed up. I had 7 rumpless Araucana hatch and 11 Araucana polish hatch. I am using a LG styrofoam incubator in the house right now and a total of 18 out of 26 have hatched with 1 more working on it. Probably my best hatch rate so far.

Lanae

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Quote:
OH, this is exciting news! Those LG's can be SUCH a pain to operate, so you have my full and gigantic CONGRATULATIONS on an outstanding hatch. Really can't wait to see photos.

 

[cashdl]

I just posted a double tufted large fowl splash roo for sale on www.showbirdauction.com if anyone is interested. I also have a double tufted blue roo I will be posted next month so keep an eye out for him. Right now he is on loan to a friend making blue babies.

Lanae

 

[cashdl]

I have to say, I am totally pleased with my styrofoam incubators. I have two and was eyeing a third today but held off buying it. It took two days of keeping an eye on the temp and humidity before I put my first batch of eggs in, but after that, it has been a breeze. Once I got the temp set it never fluctuates. I add water every 3 or 4 days to keep the humidity at about 25%. I have automatic turners. I candle twice and remove eggs thursday to the hatcher ( another styrofoam incubator) and set eggs Sunday. I typically candle on a Thursday or Sunday since its open cause I am adding or removing eggs.

I totally am still getting a sportsman ( I hate you Megan ) but will then use the styrofoam ones also as hatchers or spare incubators. Untill then, these seem to be working great. I have them in our dining room, where the temp remains pretty constant. Right now I have a good size list of people waiting for hatching eggs so I won't have as many to set myself so just the two , 1 as hatcher and 1 as incubator seem to be all I need. I do already have two more automatic turners and I hate to seem them go to waste. But I guess it means I have room to hatch more project eggs.

Lanae

 

[clacasse88]

Hi. I don't know how you all get such great pictures. I have a new camera and still cannot get the exact angle, etc. I really need to spend more time working on half way decent pics & just post.


Today I noticed my only bilateral tufted chick had lost one of its tufts and is all bloody. Ugh! I ended up pulling the chick out & separating.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[cashdl]

Hey Chris,

Tuft envy is a real pain. I usually seperate the chick untill it heals and then try again. I think there is something you can put on it to keep the other chicks from pecking but can't remember what it is. My best birds are the ones that can dodge and weave.

Lanae

 

[Birch Run Farm]

You can also put some pine tar on the area getting picked. It doesn't taste well to chickens. Look for pine tar in the equine supplies section of your farm store, it is used for hooves.