Araucana thread anyone?

[syble]

i lost the robust looking silverduckwing egg chick... no idea what happened, fine one day, dead in the morning, that sucks... the small blue chick is hanging on but still breathing fast and not very active... I have a bad feeling that soon it may be 4

 

[cashdl]

I would seperate them from the turkeys. I am sure that is not the problem, but Turkeys grow very fast and when they all huddle together someone may get suffocated. Make sure they are all drinking and eating.

Lanae

 

[cackleberrycoop]

I know it sounds simplistic, but I have had good luck with the little chicks who pant when I put a little sugar in their water - cool but not cold water - and dip their beaks every hour -ish during the day time. I think perhaps it works so well because it is simple enough that I can actually do it and it doesn't stress the chicks at all. Good luck Syble. Sometimes poultry raising is just maddening!

Oh, and changing the water every am and pm really cut back on chick deaths for us. Cool but not cold water.

 

[smoothmule]

Syble,
I didn't see a post that you mentioned turkeys being kept in the same brooder as chicks. I would never keep chicks in with turkey poults, you need to separate them asap. I hope the rest are okay
Cathy

 

[cashdl]

Cathy,

I don't think she posted it. I think it was in an email to me, but I know she was hatching turkeys and araucana. I only once had a turkey in with chicks, I did loose a lot of chicks and didn't associate it till later. Somewhere I read that its not good to keep them together, but not why.

Lanae

Nope, went back to page before this one and she says the turkey were enamored of everything the chicks did, which made me think she is keeping them together.

 

[syble]

it's common practise to put chicks in with poults atleast at first as the poults are stupid enough to not eat and drink often enough with out being reminded to by the chicks. and its true, they wont think to eat till the chicks start to. they are about the same size, the bigger poults were seperated to the outside brooder. there are only a couple stragglers in the house. If anything it seams like the chicks are hard on the poults! they peck them and walk all over them.

The rest of the chicks are fine, eating up a storm and growing like weeds, though one has a wet bum that i wipe often. One of the blue one even has some tail feathers comming in...guess theres no doubt on that one haha.

I will give the sugar water a try, we've done drops of honey right in the mouth in other cases.
Thanks
Sib

 

[smoothmule]

There are illnesses that turkeys can carry that don't make them sick but can kill a chick and vice versa. I was told by my vet never to mix them. Doesn't mean they will all die if they do but what it does mean is that you could have turkeys carrying an illness and they seem perfectly fine, they could still harbor illness that can kill the chicks. I know lots of people have both turkeys and chickens and I do as well but I would never consider keeping poults with chicks, there are plenty of other things they can up and die from without adding more possibilities, in my opinion anyway.

 

[Illia]

Well, it just had to happen!

Two of my Araucanas who originally were laying are now suddenly broody, both beginning on the same day. I'm going to let it happen this time since it isn't fall as they last chose, and I'll be putting some Araucana as well as some Polish eggs under them both.

 

[coberdor]

Here are some recent pics of my chicks that I moved to the outdoor brooding pen. Almost all rumpless. No tufted, hopefully when I put in the splash roo I got from Smoothmule, I'll start getting some tufts. I have one blue hen with one tuft.

Nice little blue pullet, very light.

Here is an interesting color I'm getting from my splash/blue pen. They look like splash cuckoo. 2 rumpless pullets, 1 tailed roo.

Here is a cute pullet. Not sure what color shw eill turn out to be.

Here is a pullet I think is a BBR. What do you think everybody?

These are the first group of this year's hatch. I have more younger ones that are still inside.

 

[smoothmule]

Coberdor,
What nice looking chicks, I love their stout legs

The colors are stunning too! Looks like you're having some really good hatches, I hope you have some super nice pullets in these hatches. I have a white chick with some of that cream tipping on the wings here and there. I honestly can't tell if it's white with color leakage or it's just dirty, lol. I may have to give it a bath to know for sure. I hope Spot does a great job for you, tufts are just really tough to get though. The last hatch, I hatched 4 eggs and 2 are tufted, a chipmunk chick with one big tuft on the left and the blue chick with a tiny tuft on the right and I'm really happy to have even a teeny tuft. I'm okay with just the rumpless though, not that I'm not working to do better and breed towards the standard but I've learned not to get overly worried about how many tufted chicks I get. I'm still in the phase where I'm wanting to set my conformation, size and even color before I worry too much over tufts. I also know I'll get a few partial tails since I have 2 tailed hens but that can be fixed too.

I am "MORE" than impressed with a couple I've hatched out. I have one awesome, white pullet, clean faced and rumpless and gorgeous yellow with a little willow legs, ample body, great conformation, I really like her. I have a cockerel almost as nice and his legs glow yellow so they're definitely a pair I'll pen up together with Fawn. Also, one of my younger cockerels is impressing me more all the time. Columbo is a duckwing and looks to me like he might be Jokers kid. Terrific amount of body and bone, rumpless and correct, willow legs, just what I'm wanting. He's also rumpless and clean faced. He's definitely staying here and I am really hoping his color will finish out correctly, I don't really have a clue how to improve the Duckwing pattern. I think it's only a matter of time when I will have the "Plus tufts". His hatchmate, Deja, is almost identical other than just slightly smaller but he seems to be catching up with his brother. I'm going to keep them both and see how they finish out.

I feel really good to already see chicks that are better than the parents, not perfect but "getting better". The tufts are just going to be the finished product if I can get everything else in order so they will breed true to type and color. I am still learning the colors and how they work so I can put the right breeding groups together to get the best birds. I would really like to get to the point that I can keep a closed flock but not yet. I'm still working to collect Araucana's from different breeders for diversity and for outcrosses as much as possible. I think it will result in larger, more hardy birds. When I feel I can work with what I have and maintain the size and quality then I may stop adding new lines.

I'm determined to be able to share good birds I don't feel I need. I really liked Spot, he was a hard one to part with and he was a nice solid cockerel with great bone and just overall, nice to look at. There will be some I'll use and send on to other breeders after I have chicks. I can't keep a whole lot at one time so my plan is to keep bettering my flock and moving forward without worrying about keeping them all so hopefully, I'll have some quality to sell or trade with other breeders and keep things moving without keeping 100 birds.