Araucana thread anyone?

[PitterPatterPalace]

Quote:
Yes, bantams.
The white pullet is calmer and cooing today. She is supposed to have one tuft but

I don't see it.
The off-colored pullet is the one we have been really excited getting but she's a wild woman (raised by a hen).
We'll be working hard during this quarantine period getting them ready for our 'hands-on' flock.

Now we have to think of names...

 

[smoothmule]

I started a thread about my Araucana cross chicks and wanted to bring it to this group about a couple of my chicks. The first time I hatched a dozen chicks from my Araucana rooster (clean faced and rumpless) to my Cuckoo Maran and blue and black Ameraucana hens. I usually ate all their eggs but wanted to see if this rooster was fertile. I figured while waiting for some Araucana pullets/hens that it would be good for him too.

The first hatch had high fertility, all but 1 were rumpless and I gave most away to a friend as week old chicks when we left on a trip out of state. Yana told me there were 4 little roosters, all barred like barred rock. There were 3 that I just couldn't part with they were so cute and looked like they were pullets so I left them here under our youngest sons care while we were gone a week. The black one is smooth faced and rumpless (half maran), the red one has a lot of blue underneath and fuzzy faced like partial muffs and beard (half ameraucana) and the last is a blue with a bit of red/gold on the chest (half ameraucana) and this one has no beard and the muffs are placed more like tufts than muffs and are loads of tiny feathers, not fuzzy like the Ameraucana muffs.

I hatched out 3 more of this cross, 2 of the Maran crosses that are rumpless, clean faced and I'm pretty sure one is a roo and one a pullet as they should be sex linked. The other chick is from a blue Ameraucana egg and the hen was black. This chick is rumpless but has some amazing "muffs"? or are they tufts??

Is it even possible? Given the rooster is clean faced?

Here are the 2 in question. Sorry about the younger chicks picture, it was late last night when I snapped it and they're still in a cage in the house so the lighting is poor. I'll take more today in natural lighting........any ideas?? They aren't exactly like the two tufted purebred chicks I have but definitely not like past Ameraucana chick muffs either.

I can take more photo's, more close up shots if requested.

 

[smoothmule]

Lanae,
Congrats on the duckwing pen

I know that has been a goal for you. I am still working on my goals. The first was to actually "have" even one Araucana,

It's really tough to get to where you are now, I still feel as though I'm paddling upstream but I'm like a turtle, I'm slow but I'll get there.

PitterPatterPalace, what a nice start......hey! who gets to start with pullets anyway...no fair!

Pretty girls there, you should be able to find a nice, tufted rooster for them now.

 

[cashdl]

Those are definately tufts. Congrats. Maybe Rudys tufts are either really tiny or internal. Its rare but internal tufts can happen. Did you buy him as an adult. Two of my roos I bought tufted but my girls promptly pecked them out. On my blue roo the girl girl that is pecking is the really nice tufted splash hen. I also had her in with my splash roo and since I moved her his tufts have started growing in again. I now have her with a non-tufted roo. She doesn't want anyone looking better than her I guess. LOL!

Try Rudy with an Araucana and see what you get. You know I have that creme pullet that is tufted. I will trade for your duckwing wether she lays eggs or not.

Hopefully those two babies that are tufted are girls also.


Lanae

 

[smoothmule]

I don't have Ameraucana's anymore. I sold the last 3 hens a few weeks back so all I have are the 5 maran hens, Slinky (my Araucana pullet) and Bluesy (my blue bantam Araucana hen) that I'm waiting on a rooster for. The little black chick with the huge yellow muffs, tufts or whatever they are, is the last chick from the Ameraucana hens.

 

[cashdl]

I suppose those could be muffs, but they sure do look like tufts. Course all my muffed birds are EE's so their muffs arn't anywhere near that big. Not even as babies.


Lanae

 

[cashdl]

I set eggs every Sunday and Thursday and here are a few pics of todays batch. I think the pics are pretty true to color.

I mark each egg as to the pen they came out of and the color of hen that laid them. There is only 1 roo per pen for now so I know who the daddy is.

The bottom egg is a light baby blue the middle eggs are nice dk teal, and the top eggs are fairly olive.

Here is whats in my incubator to hatch this month.

These are in the brooder to hatch Thursday.

I don't have the luxury of selecting for egg color right now since I only five breeding age hens right now. It is something I want to work on next year. Right now I hatch everything they lay.

 

[smoothmule]

Lanae,
I picked up the little black chick with the huge, fluffy "things" and I could feel the peduncle. It was fleshy and the whole fuzzy thingy moved when I moved it. I would love to hear from more Araucana breeders to see what they think too.

 

[hinkjc]

Those look like a combination of tufts and muffs to me. Definitely tufts in ther though, which means either your ameraucana is not a pure ameraucana or your roo is tufted and not showing them. Could they have been picked out of him or they are so small you didn't notice them? In my experience with inward/ingrown tufts, the bird does not typically survive long. They grow inward which I believe causes problems inside the head or they develop a hole in the side of the face.

 

[Illia]

Quote:
Ewww you're hatching split pea soup?!

I guess I do have the luxury of breeding for egg color. . . Interesting note though - Your weird brown-green colored eggs come from the same color of Araucana that my weird brown-greens come from. Course, one of them lays the best blue of the lot though, so I'm breeding her. . . Then again, she actually is a little different from the others. She's more of a columbian/melanized silver duckwingxblue, while the others are straight-up duckwingxblue.