Araucana thread anyone?

[SBE]

Very interesting stories on dealing with bad tempered birds! Cathy, be sure to let me know how "Blanco's" reeducation proceeds. . . He has been behaving pretty well since I introduced him to the occasional face full of water. But I can still see that "twinkle' in his eye when I feed him.

My worst tempered cock birds were always Barred Rocks. It has been many years since I have owned one but the last one was so bad that when he saw you out and just walking around he would come running in attack mode. He snuck up behind my husband one day when he had his head under the hood of the truck doing some repairs and attacked him from behind. Needless to say DH was startled, and smacked the back of his head on the bottom of the truck's hood. He was not amused. A couple of minutes and one shotgun blast later and that Barred Rock was history. There was not enough left of him to eat.

However, my main reason for dropping by over here is to let anyone who has not read it yet that William O Cawley's article on the history of the Araucana chicken is in this month's issue of Exhibition Poultry Magazine. If you have not yet downloaded your free copy you can do so at: http://www.exhibitionPoultry.net

The article is probably the best source of info out there on the documented origins of our favorite breed in the Americas.

Ann C.

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Excellent. Thank you so much, Ann, for bringing that article over here. Welcome to the forum.

 

[smoothmule]

I may be a glutton for punishment but I've not met my match yet for not only getting the mean out of them but making them lap babies. My favorite is the grab and hug and love on them approach till they're sick of it or decide the like me. We took in an evil gander once that was making a family's life misery and numerous injuries from him. He didn't even have a mate that he was being protective of. By the time I was done with him, he had become such a pet, he wanted in the house, he pooped all over the porch laying by the door and he wouldn't leave my side when I was out. He loved everyone, lol. We finally gave him away to another family where he was a happy, friendly boy with his own girls. My swan, most are mean and territorial, is a big mamma's baby now and I've only had him since last fall. He leaves the big pond to come up to the barn and coop area to follow me around. He's even learned to tolerate the dogs and mixes in with the other poultry here like he was part of the flock. He's very smart and has learned to wait till the last and puts himself in the small pond in the yard to wait for his pellets, he has to have them in the water to eat them, they get choked on dry stuff. We took in a wild tom turkey that some friends raised and he became violently aggressive, attacking the owners and anyone that came to their place. They raised him from some stolen eggs found on their place. When he was let loose here, we figured he would likely just leave, he was wild. But no, he quickly took over his new home and somewhere, I have a video of him chasing my husband on the 4 wheeler. It was hysterical and the old tom meant business but my husband was laughing so hard if he had fallen off the 4 wheeler the ole tom would have taken him out, lol. It took me a couple of months. I kept a stick by the back door and when I went out, I had the stick waving it in the air, running at him and screaming....and no close neighbors to hear me thank goodness. I would chase him till he was panting. Finally, one day he ran into the woven wire fence and as dumb as most turkeys are, he couldn't figure out how to back out and go around it so he would back out and try to go through it again so while he was stuck with his head in the fence, I grabbed him and carried him around kicking and screaming (him, not me, lol). I put him in a small pen and made him stay there and caught him and held him and petted him every day and one day, he just stood there waiting for me to pick him up. I always fed him and talked to him and he had no one else paying attention to him so I had my husband do the same thing and he got as tame as could be. It would be a happily every after story but I turned him out and 2 days later, he got stuck in the same spot in the fence and was killed by a coyote. We saw it but only after the deed was done and we didn't have out stock dog then.

I actually have no issues with bad behavior at all and love a challenge. Most are really not any trouble to convert.

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Be prepared - Smoothmule. I'm finding your address. Don't be surprised when mean old nasty roosters start arriving at your place with the mail.

 

[smoothmule]

 

[smoothmule]

Horrible!!
My camera is just worn out! I can occasionally get it to come on, maybe get a single shot in (usually not a good one) and sometimes there are lines though the picture.....blah, blah, blah! Ack! I LOVE to take pictures to share so I'll be getting a new camera soon I hope.

I have 3 broodies setting eggs right now, 8-12 eggs for each (one hen has serama eggs with the Araucana eggs since she's smallish). One broody had been setting some eggs already and when I bought some from hinkjc, I took those eggs into the house and into the hatcher after candling. Of the 12 eggs, one was clear, one an early quitter and the other 10 good and all 10 hatched. 1 blue, 1 black, 1 yellow, 1 yellow with pale stripes and 6 chipmunk striped. I thought the chipmunks were all the regular BBR/duckwing type but 2 of those dried and fluffed and they are "Blue Chipmunks!". They are the typical blue, with darker blue and cream stripes! Gorgeous chick down. Can't wait to see the color on these 2. Not seeing tufts on these, possibly one has some but really hard to tell with the amount of down so we'll see. I don't mind surprises like that. I may try a couple pics with my cell phone camera but doubt they will be very good.

 

[smoothmule]

I'm always asking for help with colors but I have a hen that maybe someone here can help with color wise. I got her when I got Joker and I didn't think much about it. Joker is my sort of duckwing roo, kind of silver but has some golden shades to him too with the odd colored chest that's sort of a blue color pattern. I have posted about him and I had her in his pen hoping to see if they were related, that they might produce more of similar color. I really like him and he's got the least amount of red so he's the black pen roo. Topaz seemed darker and I figured she matched that pen best.

I asked a few other breeders about her color and was told I needed to put her with a black rooster or at least one with no blue and if she produces blue, I'll know it's a blue gene with something else making it look this way. I was told that Joker was not the best match for her to figure out her color. So, she's now with Degas and his other girls in the "under construction pen". He's got more black than the others here and no trace of blue. It will be a while till she's only fertile by Degas but I'll hatch her eggs anyway. I don't know her eggs from the others so some of these chicks are hers by Joker. Next year, I "will" have a black rooster. I know I have at least one black cockerel right now but he's already showing red in the shoulders and patterning on the chest so he may be a Joker son. I have all summer to hatch black chicks and hope for cockerels to evaluate for the best 2 for my black hen pen.

Here is Topaz....... any guesses? I promise when I start getting some chicks out of her and Degas I'll post photo's. Luvdove is blue and she's in Degas's pen too so when I get the new white rooster, I may give him Degas's pen with all his tailed girls for a while and let Degas and Topaz be a pair so I'll "know" the eggs are hers and not the other hens. When I moved her in with Degas, I really got a better look at her and wow, I like her even more now and took some photo's (the lighting in these wire pens even made her look cooler).. In the dirt pen, she didn't look all that special, she sort of blended in with the ground color,

Even her leg colors look different. She does have yellow skin (bottom of her feet are dark yellow) but her legs are bronze looking.

If I can figure out how to copy this group of color genes, there will be more like her. I'd love to see what a rooster would look like with the same genes.

 

[ndoles]

I don't know what color she is..but I love it..she's beautiful!

 

[jeremy]

She almost looks Dun!

 

[smoothmule]

I thought the same about Joker, his chest color and some stray tail feathers did not look blue to me but there is so much patterning and mixed up stuff on him that who knows!

I was told she is a blue, that blue can look like everything from pale sky blue to nearly black and everything in between. Obviously, if there are other color genes mixed with blue, it can make blue look different but I'm just not seeing blue on her. Joker? Well, he looks closer to a messed up blue color (sometimes anyway) but in some lighting, he looks a lot like Topaz,

What do you think about his chest color?