I want the second girl! She appears to be a duckwing but with alot of melanizers. Beautiful beautiful girl. Her rump and her fluffy butt are perfect. Where did you get her.
The first girl appears to have duckwing in her breeding which is causing the brownish tints. I had quite a few blues that were that way and they came from breeding my blue hens to a duckwing cockerel.
Cackleberry and Cashdl
Thank you. I got just three hens and two are the darker ones. I got them from Pride and Joy here on BYC. I will have to find out from him if they are bantam or LF. I saw his stock but I had primarily gone done there (below Miami) to pick up a trio of o shamo so I wasn't paying attention as well as I should have! Their eggs are blue green and really pretty. I do love the bustle butts myself!
sharon
Quote:
i was told by two separate people that the two color charts are identical - is this not true? I was referencing the Ameraucana color chart....
I don't know if they are identical. I didn't want to say they were the same because I only have the araucana one.
Lanae
I suppose I could cough up the five bucks to order an Araucana chart and then the question would be answered when I compared the two. It's come up often enough that I really would feel better about about just finding out one way or the other.
Cindy,
I understand why you feel that way but I don't do things that don't inspire me. I have several blue LF Araucana's now and they are pretty good other than being AOV. I am not driven for awards (I have no problem with showing and it looks like fun other than the politics and favoritism), I'm driven for the breed itself.
It would be a crying shame to breed out the blues and other color varieties that we all know Araucana's come in just because they won't get the biggest awards. I could care less about awards and I believe in keeping the genetic pool as large as possible and working to bring more interest in keeping the breed afloat. This isn't a breed that seems to grab just every breeder. They are difficult at best. Choosing to narrow the gene pool to only the few approved colors could be, in my opinion, a disastrous move for the breed. I am working to improve my whites and blacks but other varieties are not ever going to be approved without breeders working on them. And blue is a recognized color so it's not like some odd combination of color genes that are pretty but can't be duplicated. I think there are a lot more blues and splashes out there that are just as close to the standard, other than color, as the whites and blacks and a good blue isn't any harder to get than a white without red bleed through or yellowing and a good black rooster without red in the hackles.
Nothing personal, I just don't agree with only working on standard varieties. You're right about the AOV information. I guess I assumed buyers looking for better than pet quality poultry would know their standards and that recognized varieties can be shown AOV.
I find the rainbow of colors that Araucanas are painted with absolutely breathtaking. I personally find black and white birds a bit blasé. Black breasted reds, SDW, and GDW are quite gorgeous, though. I do love my rooster that is splash, and a male I have that is almost birchen (but not). And the others are right, working in two rather interesting and difficult genes, the tufting and rumplessness, almost puts color on the back burner for most people, it seems. I'd love to see more colors approved for the Araucana, though.