Araucana thread anyone?

[shanshan51]

Ok guys I have the following that I think have the wrong leg color. I think I need them to have willow legs if they are in face gold duck wing. Please confirm my suspicions.

 

[cashdl]

Hi guys! I'm hoping this is the Araucana thread. I have 2 Araucanas in my flock, whom I have yet to name.

I bought them along with some Buff Orpingtons when they were pullets. They are nearly coming of age, hopefully just a week or two till the first blueish egg.



As you can tell, she is not the most 'typical' of Araucanas. I believe she is a Black-Tailed Araucana, and are extremely rare where I come from. I thought she looked incredibly unusual and I read they had an amazing history, so that got my attention. After keeping these for a while, I can definitely say they aren't the friendliest of birds but are quite intelligent. For example, when I hold a small piece of bread between my fingers, the Buffs take ages trying to peck at it, meanwhile the Araucana pecks my fingers lightly so that I will let go and then runs away with it to eat at its own pace. Despite being a bit pecky and flighty, they are always alert and active, they come running straight to their fence when I appear. They will also protect the buffs from our rogue bluebell hen, who always finds a way to get into the Araucana's and Orpington's coop to lay, the Araucanas, although smaller, quickly scare her off if she gets nasty with the young Orps.

Here is a picture of the gang!

Lovely little British Aruacanas. I would call her color Black Breasted Red based on wheaten. It is the correct color for the large fowl araucana here in the US. Welcome to our little group. I think your girls are wonderful. I have only ever seen the the lavender Araucana color pictured from your side of the pond. Its nice to see the other colors.

Lanae

 

[nicalandia]

Ok guys I have the following that I think have the wrong leg color. I think I need them to have willow legs if they are in face gold duck wing. Please confirm my suspicions.

the boy(red one) is not a gold duckwing seems golden(S/s+) mix of something else(should not have red on his chest), the hen on the other hand seems to be silver duckwing, but as you already know she is carrying clear yellow legs(dominant sex linked dermal inhibitor Id) BUT if you use her with any other silver duckwing roosters you can expect that only the hens will have willow legs

 

[Ray_n_Debi]

Volkova, not sure if she's Araucana, she may be an Easter Egger which would explain her awesome colors. Beautiful bird.

Alright, here's the pics I've been trying to get sized down to post of my Ray-n-Debi hatch, I hatched 7. The weirdest thing-when they were around 4 wks old I swear they had partial tails because it looked like feathers were sticking out. But now? Only 2 are tailed. The others are rumpless. That's so weird, it's like their tails melted. I think I only have 2 girls out of 7, which is a bummer but these boys are so pretty and so sweet.
I'm not sure what the Rumpless Black one is-male or female, can anyone tell? That one has blonde streaks on his/her neck, I like that.
And the one? The Buff Splash? Such a cool color. I'm hoping it's a girl but don't know. Anyone else tell?
They're 10 wks old now. The 1st picture is the 2 that I'm sure are girls.
Debi, you should be proud of these guys. Initially I was bummed because 5 out of 7 were boys. But they're so beautiful and so sweet and gentle. I'm debating on trying to place some but there's only 1 I *might* be able to part with....and what's one more anwyay?


Yes, I see a lot of boys
Really cute though!

 

[Volkova]

Thanks for the appreciation guys! I am pretty sure they are Araucanas, since Easter Eggers are pretty rare in the UK, and the breeder showed me some in a separate flock (they actually were priced higher than the Araucana!). I turned them down, as I do love my pure breeds despite the hatch rate and weaker immune systems.

Yes, we do have a lot of rumpless, Lavender Araucanas, which look nice but a bit dull coloured in my opinion. That's what attracted me to a tailed and crested form with beautiful 'earthy' colours. Unfortunately, many people (non-chicken owners) think the Araucana is ugly and prefer my Buffs, that is however, until they see the eggs they lay!!!

 

[Volkova]

Nice Chickens by the way, I especially like the Splash variety!

 

[shanshan51]

Ok so my goals this year are Duckwing, BBR and Black. So If you were to chose ONE of the boys below which one fits the bill.

 

[Stacykins]

You know, I wonder how many people get into Araucanas hoping to make a buck off of selling the eggs? I honestly don't really see a new faces really when it comes to selling, the people who do it well are the ones who sell the eggs. I was hoping to sell some hatching eggs to break even. I figured out early that wouldn't work this year. So next year I will be first building breeding pens, and also addressing fertility. I've had abysmal fertility in the eggs I collect for my own incubator. Enough for me to grow my flock and get a few birds I am very happy with, but I could never sell, since shipping is so hard on eggs.

So next year I will be going to ship out test eggs, if all goes well. I want to be sure that eggs are hatching for others before I ever think of asking for money for them. I was going to do test eggs this year, but since I have low fertility at home, I am sure it wouldn't have been worth sometimes time to try.

 

[shanshan51]

I just listed a juvenile breeding up for auction. Happy bidding!

http://www.showbirdauction.com/cgi-bin/auction/auction.pl?category=largefowlchickens&item=1346516002

 

[Ray_n_Debi]

You know, I wonder how many people get into Araucanas hoping to make a buck off of selling the eggs? I honestly don't really see a new faces really when it comes to selling, the people who do it well are the ones who sell the eggs. I was hoping to sell some hatching eggs to break even. I figured out early that wouldn't work this year. So next year I will be first building breeding pens, and also addressing fertility. I've had abysmal fertility in the eggs I collect for my own incubator. Enough for me to grow my flock and get a few birds I am very happy with, but I could never sell, since shipping is so hard on eggs.

So next year I will be going to ship out test eggs, if all goes well. I want to be sure that eggs are hatching for others before I ever think of asking for money for them. I was going to do test eggs this year, but since I have low fertility at home, I am sure it wouldn't have been worth sometimes time to try.

Stacykins, you should try clipping the rump feathers on your hens. When I do this to the pullets they seem to have better fertility later. I usually only have to do this in the beginning of the breeding program. Without a tail the hens are unable to move the rump feathers to the side like a tailed hen. I think it helps the roo find his mark then as he matures clipping seems unnecessary.