Araucana thread anyone?

[Beth G.]

He was a blk cockrel when I purchased him last year and then when he molted he had gold leakage on his neck. This one was born in April and I gave away the rooster to a friend who just needed a good roo for hawk protection. I didn't want to use him for breeding once I saw the leakage.
Quote:

 

[suzannaski]

Illia, Lanae & Beth
Thank you for posting photos of the colors. It is so helpful. Especially when you show the chick, pullet/cockerel and adult.
I can't tell the difference between an adult splash and an adult cuckoo. Is there a way to tell on an adult other than knowing what it looked like when it was younger?
As soon as I get a chance, I'm gonna go recheck Scooters shanks for any yellow above the soles. Interesting that the testosterone would override the yellow on the soles.
Those slate shanks were downright alien! I want a hen with blue legs like that! I love it! Reminds me of Blue Man Group.
Also, Lanae, I find it fascinating that certain colors appear only on the males. Is that going to be in your book? That would be like the Rosetta stone of chick sexing!

We had a couple hawks overhead today. The two roos had the hens corralled in one of the stalls and in the coop. They are the best roos I've ever had! Araucana is definitely my favorite breed, even though I don't have purebreds. In fact, I noticed that the alpha roo sticks with the older hens, and the under-roo

rules over the pullets.

 

[Illia]

The color rules on males vs females thing is a duckwing, partridge, and crowwing trait. It would be a tad hard to explain except for pretty well colored birds for their color. For example if the bird is solid black - It can't have color on the wing shoulders unless it is male. If it is a duckwing, it can't have red on the shoulders unless it is a male UNLESS it is a female silver duckwing with excess red color. I believe Birch Run Farm had a hen with color demonstrating such scenario very well. Easter Eggers are always a good way to show "color rules" in male vs female duckwing colors.


Adult splash.

Adult blue cuckoo. Straight up Cuckoos aren't hard to tell the difference, they'll look like a normal cuckoo

But, notice each feather is tipped with blue or just slightly barred with blue.

Splash will have blue or black and white feathers, NO darkened tips on the feathers or slight barring or smudginess on single feathers. Splashes may have other color influences (duckwing, etc) but each individual feather will not have slight barring if you look close, or darkened tips if you look close.

 

[cashdl]

Here are some pics of a few of this years hatchlings I am particular happy with.

This is a really pretty clean faced boy. I am gettting quite a few of them, but this one has caught my eye. He is 6 months old and I really like his shape and size.

This roo is clean faced also and he is the leader of the quasi- ginger pen while my other roo is getting over an injury. I love this bird, except I would like it if he carried his wings higher.

This is a nice tufted blue pullet, I am not sure I want to keep. I am over run with blues

Here is a ginger chick that is showing almost no blue. He is clean faced but I cannot wait to see how he turns out. He looks like he is on fire in the sun.

Here is a red pyle and splash pullet I spent the afternoon chasing around for a decent picture. 72 photos later this one is the nicest I got. The pulled feather is not from me but I sure felt like it.

I love love love this roo chick. He is going to feather out fairly similar to the first roo in this post but his tufts are columbian. The pullet about is his full sibling.

This is a birchen chick out of my birchen roo and silver duckwing hen. He has two small tufts and will feather out like his dad. I hope his tufts get fuller. They were fairly impressive as a baby.

Illia, The barred chick in the pic with the blue pullet. It is a roo. Do you think it will lighten up like yours did?

Lanae

 

[Illia]

Yeah, I think it will. The more you breed away from blue and especially splash, the better chances the cuckoo color will stay and not fade.


Nice chicks though! I agree, the first guy is pretty nice. His wing carriage, is it normally low or is it just the photo?

Looks like you've got a lot of Columbian floating around.

 

[cashdl]

That is what I am hoping for. The chicken calculator says if I breed it to a black hen I should get all black barred offspring. I have a couple of black tufted hens waiting for him to get older.


Lanae

 

[Illia]

You will get all black barred, yes, however, the barring will be extremely faint. They'll hatch out with white dots on the head like a barred bird, but as they feather out, you'll hardly notice the barring. Once the bird is mature it will mostly just look black. The best thing to do is Blue Cuckoo x Blue Cuckoo for that 25% black Cuckoo. 'Tis what I am doing.

The Cuckoo x Black I've done a lot with Olive Egger out-crossings. My blue offspring actually mature to have slight barring, but the older they are, the more it disappears. The blacks are only born appearing barred, then go solid black.

The barring seems to work the same as with my current blues. Born good, grows up less and less a "barred" bird. That's why I recommend breeding to a Cuckoo, to try and aim more and more for a better barring. I have no clue what makes the modern day "cuckoo" Araucanas grow less and less barred, but, I know they weren't always like that generations ago. And I'm sure I'll hopefully back back to some adult good barring like the black cuckoo shown several pages back.

 

[suzannaski]

What's a chicken calc? Is it like a fancy Punnet square?

Awesome pics, again, BTW! I feel like I'm taking an online course "Araucanas for Dummies" (stole that title from an earlier post. Hee)

Illia you explained the cuckoo/splash beautifully. Thanks.

 

[Illia]

Chicken Calculator



I didn't include Splash Cuckoo though, which can greatly help -

Splash Cuckoo male

Splash Cuckoo female

Again, birds have slightly darker tips on the feathers, females are solid splash cuckoo, no black or blue feathers (however other genes may modify that)

 

[cashdl]

So what I will have to do is breed back to mom and aunts, since I only have cuckoo roos this generation, because I only got cukcoo girls last generation. But this one roo bred to them will give me all cuckoos and hopefully darken them up. I am going to try breeding to black and see how it goes. The roo this generation is already 50 % darker as a chick than my previous generation was. My hens tend to darken up as they get older. Could be the roos start out darker and get lighter, the hens start out lighter and get darker. None of my hens are any darker than yours Illia though. They were just born almost white.



Lanae