Araucana thread anyone?

[PrairieFarmer]

Hi Araucana folks.
So what's the deal with tails in Araucanas? I got eggs from a breeder and out of 5 chicks hatched 3 seem to have tails. Is it common for a certain percentage of them to have tails and those then become cull birds from breeding or did I get some "not pure" araucanas?
Thanks!

 

[syble]

rumplessness is dominant, so it can hide tails. some breeders may breed with tailed birds to keep the backs on their rumpless birds from getting too short. they are probably still pure araucanas. i have a tailed one out there, waiting to see on sex to keep or not.
Thanks
Sib

 

[cmsdvm]

Tails pop up to bite even very conscientious breeders now and then. Sometimes a really nice bird just has a tail feather or two so you go ahead and use her in your breeding program, then you can get quite a few tails showing up.

 

[cashdl]

I have all rumpless birds and yet one roo has 4 tail feathers ( no tail bone ) and out of his pen I am getting a higher than normal percentage of tailed birds this year. Also my birchen pen is completely rumpless and yet I hatced a tailed chick several weeks ago. We all try for rumpless and sometimes get tails.

Rumpless is the goal and sometimes tails pop up.

Lanae

 

[smoothmule]

Tails happen, from regular looking full tails to frumpy odd looking tails to partial tails and no tails but a few stray tail feathers. I would keep them and evaluate them for their other valuable points. Clean faced? tufts? correct feather colors? pullet or cockerel? leg color? comb correct? These are all things I evaluate before I consider a tailed Araucana a cull. If they have something good to comtribute, keep the pullets, breed to the rooster with the shortest back and cull that next generation harder than this first. You can breed to cut the number of tails down but not always eliminate them but I don't mind them in my flock at all. I don't think I would keep a tailed rooster since that would mean every chick could potentially be tailed. If you just keep a couple hens with tails in a flock for a year, the best rumpless chicks can be kept from those hens and cull the hen and any tailed chicks. Those rumpless chicks may produce some with tails but more likely, partial tails or a few tail feathers. Eventually, you'll have some nice rumpless from those initial tailed hens. It all just takes time

 

[klf73]

I have a rumpless lav araucana and it has a few rudimentary tail feathers....at least he's tufted(going with probability of gender)

 

[PrairieFarmer]

Thanks for the replies! Out of five chicks I got two tail-less (but not tufts) and two with pretty significant tails (especially one, has a really long looking tail, at least at 4 weeks!) and then the only tufted chick I have has a few tail feathers. He/she has some pretty good tufts and is a cutey - lavender I think. So...I'm kinda hoping that tufted chick/little bit of tail is a roo and I'll keep him to breed with the two tailless/no tufts who will hopefully be hens. In a perfect chicken world of course...

 

[klf73]

Quote:
I only know of two people that have lavender....yours may be blue unless you specifically asked for lav....and got from one of those 2 working on it...

 

[PrairieFarmer]

Oh...probably a blue then! (My ignorance showing). Kinda a lightish slate blue. I guess I just called it lavender cuz thats what it seems like to me! I'll try and get photos (tried to get some the other day but boy, 4 week old chicks are hard to take a photo of!).

 

[suzannaski]

Hi! I'm new to this thread. I had posted elsewhere asking about Araucanas because I was having such a hard time finding any for sale in New England. I have one rumpless roo and also two hens and a roo that have tails. They are mixed Ameraucana/Araucana. I got them last year, and they turned out to be so good natured, and their eggs are gorgeous. I'm totally hooked. It's all about color for me. I thought I had all LF and not bantam, until I saw the pic in the beginning of the thread with the eggs. Now I don't even know if I have LF or Bantam. They are almost the same size chickens as my EE's. Anyway, I'm glad I found you guys. I'm looking forward to learning more about the breed and improving my flock. Cheers!