Araucana thread anyone?

[wilds of pa]

The more the merrier...

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Have any of you ever had young birds grow their feathers into their ears or other odd places inside?

I had a pullet last year that was gorgeous but she developed a bad head tilt and we treated with a lot of different things to try and get her better. She eventually died and we did a necropsy only to find feathers had grown in one of her ear canals and was causing serious problems in her head. No discharge either so we had no idea. Vets don't care for chicken stuff around here much but since I have worked with so many I have one that tolerates me enough to help me out. He was fascinated by it but now we know some signs to look for in the future. Although I hope it never happens again.

From now we plan to do a necropsy on anything that dies for mysterious reasons. I have read of feathers growing in some really weird places.

 

[megcpat]

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Alright, that's weird. Never heard of feathers growing inside of the ears like that. Actually, never really heard of feathers growing anyplace too weird, so....... what other crazy feather growing stories have you heard?

 

[klf73]

I have heard of it I think.....Harry had told me that sometimes they have tufts and you can't see it because it is an internal tuft? Is that the same thing? Geez, I think it was him that told me.....feel like I am losing my mind now

 

[Illia]

Interesting about those feathers. . . What I always wonder is how much it is worth to breed a single tufted Araucana? I mean techincally it all boils down to either you have one tufted gene or none, but what of the Araucanas with ONE small or large tuft? Because I have here two "Blue Cuckoo" type Araucanas I would love to breed, and continue working on this odd color, but I want tufts. . . And the pullet is cleanfaced, the cockerel has just one tiny tuft. Will they throw good tufts?

I sure do love this odd color though! . . . Just wish I knew what, genetically, it is.

 

[heritagebirds]

Wow, they are cute. I've got a blue splash hen... in addition to many others.

My blue keep coming out clean-faced.

 

[Illia]

I only have one "true" blue, the rest have a beautiful lemon-yellow coming through. I hope it doesn't go red, because I love calling them "Lemon-Blues" for the mean time.

And, they're the bravest of all of my Araucanas. I just introduced the tiny things to my current flock, and one of them tried to win a fight with a Wyandotte who was, ooh, 10 times bigger than it?

. . . Which also brings me to ask - Are all LF Araucanas just really slow to grow, or will they stay REALLY small? Because my Araucana flock is 5 weeks old now, but still about half the size of my other 5 week old Marans and Ameraucanas. They're TINY!! Some of them are finally growing up, but they still seem so small. . .

They'd better catch up in size.

The "Lemon-Blue" - I have about 5 of these beauts.

 

[heritagebirds]

Pretty Chickies, Illia!

 

[megcpat]

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Gosh, that lemon blue is so lovely. I've got the same questions about the tufts. Hope someone can answer them for you.

 

[heritagebirds]

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Gosh, that lemon blue is so lovely. I've got the same questions about the tufts. Hope someone can answer them for you.

Yes, my silver duckwing girl(my av) has got great double tufts, and some of the boys do, but both of my blue girls don't. My BBR hen has one tuft. LOL