Araucana thread anyone?

[cashdl]

Lucy,

I am just praying they are at least greenish colored. Please let me out of my misery. Every since I got that one pullet last year that lays a tan egg, I have been a nervous wreck. I don't use her in my araucana program, she is my broody girl this year. So far she is the only one that has laid a tan egg.

Egg color sometimes gets better sometimes stays the same.


Lanae

 

[cashdl]

All of my araucana lay a nice definately blue egg except for one green blue, last years tan egg layer and a girl I have had a while now that lays a brownish green egg.

All of my roos are hatched from blue eggs not green, so each year I am seeing better and better egg color.

Lanae

 

[suzannaski]

Illia,
Do many araucana breeders have other stock bred into their line like your Mh roo? It's a selfish question.
I have Araucanas/Ameraucanas, but I now have two clean faced rumpless ones, a roo and a hen! My fingers are crossed that my 8 week old rumpless pullet has a nice, healthy, long life.

Also, why do my blue pullets/cockerels all look like they have a laced pattern as juveniles? It disappears as adults.

And finally, what the heck color is my A/A Elsinor? (The others ate her muff feathers along with all the food stuck in the feathers)

 

[Quirky]

Thanks Illia and Lanae. I have a photo in my gmail of the first egg; it's not at all tan but it is green-tinted blue. The egg we got this morning is less greenish than the first eggs, so that's encouraging.

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I'm sad.

I just sold the last of my beautiful Araucanas. They will be shipping out next week to CA. I will miss them so much but since I do not show them and I seldom hatch from them anymore due to so few people around here liking them and I have no where for the surplus to go besides my freezer, I chose to sell them.
I am sure they will be put to good use and have had good reports of the chicks he has hatched since he purchased a pair from me last year. I know he loves them as much as I do and hope they will have a great home.

If I didn't have a working farm that has to be worked at to be kept in the black I would totally just keep them for pets but around here, pets have to earn their keep and locals just do not understand these gorgeous birds. The blue eggs are nice but not as big and bright as my EE's or Ameraucanas.

I have been petting them and kissing their beaks for a few days knowing they are leaving. They are such good birds with no meanness or flightiness about them, at least with me. I can pick them up and hold them and they fly up on the roost so I can pet them. This person is getting a great flock of birds. There is my awesome red/blue roo, a tufted black hen and 3 blue hens.

I hate having to move them out but that is the hard facts of a working farm.

 

[suzannaski]

Amy, you're a stronger woman than I am.
Chickens embrace life every day, so take comfort in the fact that they will enjoy every day in the future as much as they did when they were with you.

 

[poularde]

I am sorry to hear that... I do not understand why more people are not taken by their beauty. The few people who I have over for picking up birds have not liked the Araucanas. I don't get it.

One person out of ten will appreciate them. When someone notices and likes them I just get so proud. I think they take time to appreciate. I have to admit when I first got into chickens a few years ago. I did not understand the appeal of Araucanas

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I know it! I really love mine and have been breeding them for a few years but every year I have more and more left over that did not sell and at one time I had 4 flocks of these gorgeous birds to find homes for. We absolutely hated putting those fantastic roos in the freezer and the ones I bred were not for show purposes (leg color and feather color not SOP) so finding the homes for my extras, even tufted, was very difficult.

It was a very hard decision so when I was contacted again by the person that bought mine last year and wanted all I had left I felt it wrenching my heart but decided to let them go.
I can eat Marans and Ameraucana roos all day long and not feel bad but the Araucanas are just too difficult. They are such a regal bird!

 

[Illia]

I did. Well, I started with EE's that were called Araucanas and personally, I still think the tufts and the elegant look of a rumpless bird with a perfectly large, round cushion is just gracefully beautiful.

But yes, lots don't like that.

I'm sooo sorry to hear of that though!

Out here Araucanas sell better because they're different, and people associate them less with EE's.



suzannaski - Others do, but I personally do NOT recommend it unless it is for a really good reason and you know what you're doing. I personally would never breed Ameraucanas in because of the slate legs, beard/muffs, different face, and the fact that they don't have many color options to choose with except the awesome Buff, which you can extract neat genes from (dun, mahogany, dilute, Wheaten) but to each their own, there's no laws.

My Mh boy was actually an accident, the New Hampshire girl just one day decided to be broody and I never found her until about 2 weeks later, then let her go. The boy was gorgeous and I did want to work with him, but, I didn't.

What are Elsinor's parents?

She looks either Wheaten influenced Duckwing or a Duckwing with Columbian. (and blue of course)


The laced patterning just happens a lot, I'm no person to describe why, it's just a juvenile thing.

 

[Stacykins]

So today wasn't the best. I tried to send ndoles the tufted rumpless boy I had extra. But two post offices turned me down. Said I needed a health certificate? I was looking through USPS regs, and despite the fact that only disease free birds should be sent, I haven't found a requirement of proof?

I loves my Ambrose. He is such a pretty boy, and chill! But he didn't stick around long, as soon as I snapped this picture he jumped off the porch.