Araucana thread anyone?

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Ok i noticed these birds do not look to have more then chest and legs .... Um do they have a tail ?
i love the colored eggs but i have never seen these types of araucana before and i had them yrs many yrs ago.... is something new changed or ?
i know id never eat one of these they are too pretty but i have 2 favorite parts of chicken and its all the dark meat and looks like that is not here OK i am blown away .

It sounds like i am being mean or stupid but really they are shaped so much more differently then other breeds whats up ? Tammy Seriously asking this is a new form to me
 
Tammy N said:
Ok i noticed these birds do not look to have more then chest and legs .... Um do they have a tail ?
i love the colored eggs but i have never seen these types of araucana before and i had them yrs many yrs ago.... is something new changed or ?
i know id never eat one of these they are too pretty but i have 2 favorite parts of chicken and its all the dark meat and looks like that is not here OK i am blown away .

It sounds like i am being mean or stupid but really they are shaped so much more differently then other breeds whats up ? Tammy Seriously asking this is a new form to me
Click to expand...

Hi Tammy,

First off, Welcome to the thread here!
frow.gif
This is a great place to learn about the Araucana breed.
What you likely had were a mixed breed that the hatcheries still advertise as Araucana. Some hatcheries advertise them as Easter Egger/Ameraucana/Araucana as those these are all the same thing. This is still an ongoing issue with Araucana and Ameraucana breeders. Easter Eggers (also known as EE's) are a mixed breed with similar type to the Ameraucana (which is a breed) but EE's can come in most any color. There is a breed standard for Ameraucana's and Araucana's because they have a standard of perfection with the APA. There are actually clubs for all three of these.
http://www.araucana.net/

http://www.ameraucana.org/

http://www.eastereggers.com/

Easter eggers also have some standards but they are not considered a breed because they are not APA approved. They lay all sorts of pretty colored eggs from blue to green to pinkish and brown.

Ameraucana's and Araucana's lay the blue eggs but some shades range into the greenish blue colors. There are variations and all are accepted but the bluer eggs are preferred.

Easter Eggers and Ameraucana have tails. They also have muffs which look like little chipmunk cheeks.

That said, it's going to be confusing but some true Araucana's do have tails as well. The "Araucana" standard in the UK calls for tails, muffs but here in the US, the standard calls for rumpless with tufts (Not the same as muffs). Rumpless is like rumpies in Manx cats. It's a shortened back that can range from absolutely no sign of a tail (no parsons nose) so there is no tail bone there when you feel along the rump of a new hatched chick. But, they can also have a bit of a tail (partial tailed), full tail or just a few or even just one or two tail feathers. Tufts are actual feathers that grow out from a peduncle (bit of skin) near the ears and they dangle like earrings, some look sort of like a pinwheel, some are huge and fluffy and some are just teeny little bits of tufts. They can be on one side of the head or both (double tufted). It's rare, but the tufts can sometimes grow in other locations, like the chest even, there can be more that one on each side (very rare as well) and some can grow internally and cause death.

The true Araucana carries the only tufting gene in poultry breeds. This gene is known as a lethal gene (like in the Overo horses) so the homozygous form causes death of the babies. Araucana's with even a single tuft carry the gene for tufts but they can only carry one gene for tufts and one gene for no tufts. If you breed a tufted roo to a tufted hen, each individual chick will inherit one of those genes. So, some chicks get 2 non tufted, some get 1 tufted and 1 non tufted and some get 2 tufted. The ones that get 2 tufted will be homozygous, and in most homozygous states, those chicks would always produce tufted chicks, no matter what the other mate carried. The kicker is that this is a lethal gene so when a chick gets 2 of them, it dies. Nothing can be done. They may make it all the way to pipping, some may even hatch but they don't live past a couple of days.

By preference, some breeders choose to breed only tufted to tufted. Only about half will hatch but there will be some tufted and some clean faced. Some choose to breed tufted to clean faced and get more hatched and about 25% should be tufted then. Rumpless to tailed will produce mostly rumpless but those chicks may go on to produce a couple of tailed chicks here and there. Rumpless is dominant though so if you breed 2 tailed, none will ever be rumpless. In the end, they are a rather complicated breed. They can be difficult and non-profitable to some but to many of us here, they are the coolest breed ever. There is a lot more to learn about them. The breeders here may have standard colors, non standard and some in between. Like every breed, there are issues to work on to perfect so they meet the standard but unlike many other poultry breeds, the "culls" are not always culls and can be useful in the breeding pen even if they do not meet the standard of perfection.

There are a LOT of posts here. It's hard to read through so much to learn so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask and definitely check out the links to the breed clubs pages.

Cathy
 
Thank you for taking my post seriously i was like OMG they have no tail. They are pretty.

I would love to learn more . do they get along well with other breeds or are some breeds too agressive for the Araucana.?
 
Araucana can get along with others. While I was buying my first Araucana's I had mine in with mixed breeds, games, easter eggers, Ameraucana's, Marans, giant Cochins and others. Now I have Only Araucana's in Large Fowl and my tiny little Serama's.

They are good foragers and free rangers. I routinely have 3 or 4 spare roosters free range and I don't even close them up at night with my Texas Heeler dogs on guard. They don't roam too far and are great to come back in to roost. They're friendly and like to follow around when I'm out doing chores. I've had a couple roosters that were a little rank but in general, they're all sweet and easy going.

The hens are good layers and they have tolerated extremes in temps here and never totally shut down laying from 113 degrees this summer to last winter there were 13 below zero temps and they were laying and fertile. The roosters smaller combs are less likely to frost bite I guess but not impossible. I had a few that looked a bit purple on the coldest nights but they pinked up when they were warmer.

Breeding them can be harder because of the shorter backs. To increase fertility, many breeders, me included, will trim vent feathers on both the hen and rooster but I've been lazy lots of times and let them grow out and still had pretty good fertility.
 
New pics today of Ari, the colorful little boy.








If I'm looking for Ari and can't find him, I just need to find Mensa, he will be there.
 

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