Araucana thread anyone?

[cackleberrycoop]

Alright. Here goes. Off to trim some behinds. Wish we luck!

 

[syble]

sorry to hear that lanae, is that common with araucanas? Hopefully your pullet turns out nice and a good replacement!
Take care!
Sib

 

[Quirky]

Lanae, you are having terrible luck these days. I hope things turn around.

 

[ndoles]

I'm looking for a rumpless pullet...does anyone have one to sell?
I would prefer a blue, but will consider any...

 

[cashdl]

I have heard that sometimes they have a heart attack. So maybe that was it. Sadly or fortunately I am getting beyond where they are my pets. I still have a few that are my favorites and I will be sad when they die. Now I am looking at it like a hitch in my breeding program. I even told my husband the other day, if it got to the point where we were short on money and needed to eat, we could eat my breeding stock. Fortunately I have about 125 egg layers to eat before we get to that point. He was comforted as he looked out at a yard full of chickens, when he only originally agreed to 5.

My daughter bought me a plaque for my yard that says " My husband said he would leave me if I bought one more plant, I sure am gonna miss him." I guess the same could apply to chickens. LOL! Fortunately he thinks I am awesome, I sure am not going to tell him any different.

It is almost 1 week since my tufted chicks hatched and so far so good. They are all eating and drinking. First hurdle overcome.


Lanae

 

[Quirky]

Fortunately he thinks I am awesome, I sure am not going to tell him any different.

Ha! This is the story of my marriage​

 

[cackleberrycoop]

It's tricky sometimes, knowing how many birds to keep for breeding purposes. So often if I cut down to just the bare necessity number wise and quality wise in a given breeding line, then something like this happens, where all of a sudden the only rooster is dead, or the only tufted hen is dead, or whatever. Of course, it's not a good idea to keep everything that might work out for breeding just in case, because then we end up feeding a gazillion chickens and cleaning up way more poop than we ever wanted to. I sometimes have a hard time knowing how to manage this part of my breeding program. Sorry you lost her Lanae - a splash no less...


On a happier note, I had a man call the other day wanting some started pullets (not Araucana, just good egg layers). He and his wife moved out to the country and HE decided that they needed to have chickens on their land. As a protest of his decision to get chickens, his wife was not going to come out with him to pick up the girls. I was surprised when he showed up with her in tow. She said she needed to make sure that he didn't bring home too many or spend too much money. As I gathered the pullets together for them and explained some of the basics of chicken raising, I asked if they wanted a free rooster (I have about 40 little boys fattening up for the freezer. RIRS, Ameraucanas, Marans, Silver Laced Wyandottes, etc. Never slow down on the way past my place - I just might toss a few boys in the back of your vehicle before you can get away).
"OH NO WAY, NO ROOSTERS, NO WAY" they both agreed most enthusiastically - shuddering at the very thought.
We were just getting the pullets ready to load into their car and they were nearly ready to take off when my absolutely stunning, sweet as can possibly be, clean faced buff duckwing-ish Araucana rooster struts around the corner and strolls proudly across the lawn, with a little glance over his shoulder to make sure his beauty was being properly noted.
Well, that was that.
That woman had to have that rooster. The woman who didn't want chickens at all, who had to come along to make sure that her husband didn't loose his head and bring home too many pullets, the woman who had just moments earlier laughed at the stupidity of anyone who would every contemplate bringing home a rooster, had to have that Araucana boy. We tried for about 20min to catch him but with no success. The husband had to drag his wife to the car - she would have tried all night. I promised to grab the rooster up the next day before I let him out of his coop again. Secretly, I thought it was a good idea for them to go home and sleep on the decision to take home a rooster.
The last time I saw that rooster, he was being held and petted and talked to and crooned at by the very happy wife. I received a phone call yesterday from the man wanting to know everything about the Araucana breed - they are absolutely taken with the gentle nature of the rooster and thinking about trying to obtain some tufted girls to put in with him.
Life is so funny sometimes.

 

[cashdl]

I got my first rooster before I had hens. One lovely saturday morning my husband and I were sleeping in, when we heard this weird noise and a thump. We opened front door to find a rooster on our porch. He calmly walked right in and started checking out his new digs. We stared like idiots, hardly believing it. Aparantly someone threw him out of their car window as they drove by, according to our neighbors. He did not become a house pet, but I did get him some girls. He used to stand on my husbands boots when he was bar b q ing and beg for pieces of chicken. How gross is that. He loved everyone except my father in law. He hated his overalls. We soon learned that the reason he was given to us, is he loved his voice and was sure you would too. He loved to hop on your lap and crow in your face.

The day after roosty ( my son named him ) died, a rooster walks up to me when I am getting ready to feed the hens, with this look on his face that clearly said I hear you have a few girls (73) that need someone to look after them, so I opened the coop door, he calmly walked in and stayed with us for a year before something got him.


Megan, good for you. That is so smart of you to train one of your excess roos to strut his stuff at the perfect moment. It doesn't hurt that Araucanas have such a regal carriage to them, that is uspoiled by a tail. It makes them look like they are wearning a over coat with tails.


Lanae

 

[Quirky]

(clapping maniacally) Those are great stories.

My neighbor came by to check out our coop, and when I told him how sweet my three Araucana are, he scoffed that "the rooster will be mean when he gets older." Hrumph. How does he know? I can't see Gomez turning mean....

Megan, your story about the wife's 180 made me laugh real hard. That's kind of what happened to me.

 

[klf73]

ok, I got a pic of my boy, not a great pic, but a pic nonetheless....
here is my triple tufted, rumpless, lav split araucana boy I hatched from eggs from Harry(Shaffer) 2 years ago. I have been trying to get some girls for him and had a lav split clean faced rumpless hen that a coyote took last year

. I have 2 lav chicks in the brooder and some more eggs in the bator so hopefully I can get him a girlfriend. I also have a lav tailed, slightly tufted roo from last year but I don't have a pic of him. He looks funny because he was eating and everything is soooo muddy with all this rain
here is nigel