Araucana thread anyone?

[Illia]

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I only breed LF/standard. I just don't like banties. Although my (main keeper) splash girl is pretty darn small.

cluckcluck - Nice couple of tuft little'uns. I see a boy and a girl.

 

[exoticduckluvr]

talk about tufts please. I know you have to have them to get them in breeding but that's all I know.
ex. do small tuft make small tufts or could you get nice tufts out of it??

 

[Illia]

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Okay, honestly, this is where it gets sticky and thin with me. Naturally, all tufted birds have one tufted allele, as having two is lethal - They die in the shell. However, the the size, balance, or symmetry of the tufts and genetic hereditaries of such traits, I'm really not so sure of. I've heard from ONE breeder who told me there should be no worry of having parents with one big, one small tuft or two small tufts, they'll still pass good tufts. However, I'm still curious of the validity on that. One thing I do know is that if you have a bird with both small tufts, YES, they pass on big, good tufts.

For example - The parents to all my Blue/Splash Cuckoo Araucanas were clean faced, with a beautifully but unbalanced tufted cock over them. The offspring, what I have, are varied, but none are good. One has only one tuft that points down, another has a small tuft and big tuft, unbalanced, and the third has both large tufts, but one points straight down, and the other is quite horizontal. So that makes me wonder - Is the balance/angle of the tufts a genetic trait? I'm not sure yet, but will find out in the spring.

Another example - My Lemon Blue cockerel has one small tuft, one large tuft. The only offspring he's given me so far with tufts either end up with one small tuft one big tuft or only one tuft. Again, I'm wondering if I'm just getting bad odds or if the lack of symmetry is genetic.

I'd love to hear from others' experience though! I know a lot of you out there have very nicely tufted birds, but anyone worked with birds that have unsymmetrical tufts? (different sizes, different angles, or only one tuft)

And of course another thing I'd love to know is if a tufted bird really does pass on its symmetry, does a clean faced bird ever decide the fate of the tufted offspring? Is there anything on the clean faced birds' face that could destroy or better the tufted bird's symmetry?

 

[cashdl]

So far my experience with tufts is limited but what has happened this year so far is this.

My BBR Roo had two georgous huge balanced tufts. All tufted chicks out of him have huge fairly balanced tufts except two chicks that have thin barely their tufts.

My splash roo has 1 tiny tuft. I have gotton both single tuft chicks and double tuft chicks out of him. All the tufted chicks from him have nice tufts not huge but decent.

My Blue roo has 3 tufts - 1 small one on each cheek and a huge one on his chest. His tufted chicks have all been double tufted and fairly small but uniform.


My double tufted splash hen has produced three tufted chicks by both tufted and non tufted roos and all the chicks have tufts that are identical to hers. Big tufts with one being visibly larger than the other and lower on the head than the other.

Next year I am going to keep a chart to see what I get out of each roo.


Lanae

 

[Illia]

Soo. . . . None of yours are unbalanced though? (one big, one little or one high, one low)

 

[cashdl]

My splash hen with the huge tufts. Hers are unbalanced. One is larger than the other and higher on her head than the other. All 3 of her chicks have the same tufts as her. What I would call unbalanced in size and position.

I know of one breeder who says that the size of a parents tufts has little to no bearing on the shape and size of the offsprings tufts. Hopefully by the end of next year I will have a better idea if that is correct.



Lanae

 

[exoticduckluvr]

good info. I am glad to hear it because several of the new ones I got have small tufts and because one has one higher than the other. She is the best one for tufts

 

[exoticduckluvr]

Shaffer my Exotic Ducks can be seen here if you want to see them. I have been raising them for almost 5 yrs now and add a few new ones each yr. In my case I wish they wouldn't breed. No one down here wants them. I had 32 Mandarin babies one yr. I ran ads in all the papers, put out fliers and only sold 4 hens. I ended up finding someone to trade with for other species since he sells as many as he can get his hands on in Fla. I started removing eggs after they start setting and only let them hatch a few
http://pets.webshots.com/album/562207564unUUlW

 

[PitterPatterPalace]

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Thanks, Lanae, but we'd at the very least have the boy be with one tuft...
We'll be moving soon, so when we do we'll have to say we've had the roo (now illegal in Seattle, but have been 'grandfathered' in). Lol!

 

[Illia]

Just want to share my excitement for this spring's breedings. . .

So, I'm not sure how many of you remember, but I've got blue barred and partially blue barred (as well as splash barred) Araucanas, but for some time I've been crazily looking for a truly BARRED Araucana to add to my flock and fix up my gold leakage in my boys and girls so I can produce truly barred and blue barred Araucanas. . . .

Well, ta-da!!!

A truly barred Araucana!! I'll be picking this guy up, probably next week, and adding him to my flock. Since he is clean faced, I'll be pairing him with my tufted splash cuckoo pullet. Thus, the two will give me solid blue cuckoo (with some tufts) girls and boys. Half of them should be entirely free of any gold leakage.

(Oh and I know. . . His legs are the wrong color, but I'll be working on that. And it's worth the time. Also, his secondaries are pure black, and I'm still trying to figure out what would cause that, but again - Worth the shot!! )

Here's an example of the girls I'm using: (this is a blue. . . the splash is in the left background)

As you may see, the barring is hardly "barring" on the girls and she's got some gold smudging. My current cockerel is who really shows the diluting/leaking.

He looks like an odd hodge-podge, yes, but he has barring in there, trust me.