Araucana thread anyone?

[draye]

Okay after googleing Erminette Chicken, I came across this thread.
My question is what are the color mixtures to create the erminette color? This really sounds like and the pictures I saw a very interesting color to breed for. Don't really know if it is something that I would want to undertake, but sounds interesting nonetheless.

 

[shanshan51]

Anyone care to guess the sex? Purchased as pullets, a couple months old.

The lighter one is def a cockerel. The grey I am going with cockerel as well but could go either way.

 

[cashdl]

Cockerel and pullet would be my guess.

Lanae

 

[AppleJackAcres]

Last weeks hatch I had 5/5 hatch. 3 DT, 1 ST and 1 CF. 2 blacks and 3 blues. These are the best 2 DT.

I had 11 hatch yesterday.. So I will upload more pictures later.

 

[Urte]

Hi,
I have two quick genetics questions:
1- How do I get bluer eggs? Mine lay green, and some a little lighter green tending to blueish, but still green.
2- How do I eliminate red leakage in blacks? By breeding black to black and only keeping the ones with less red until its gone?

Despite I live very close to Chile, where Araucanas come from, its quite difficult to find any in Argentina, so what I have are the only ones I could find, in the batch of hatching eggs that I bought some chicks were single combed. All rumpless but no tufts at all. I think they are cross-breed araucanas, but all in all with quite a fair Araucana type.

Regards
Urte

 

[enola]

Two very good questions. I hope someone can answer them for both of us.

I have an Araucana rooster that has truly blue egg genes. The two hens I bought to go with him layed what I called 'not blue' eggs. When I asked why their eggs were green I was told greenish blue eggs are blue..........

I know my rooster has genes for blue eggs because I crossed him with leghorn hens and every single pullet from this cross lays blue eggs and are rumpless, not a single dropped tail.

When I bred this rooster to the two Araucana hens I got pullets that still layed eggs that were not blue and had dropped tails. So I suspect the hens were not purebred.

By the way my Araucanas all came fom different breeders.

 

[shanshan51]

For those looking for some starter Araucanas I have listed some in the BYC Forum Buy Sell trade

 

[enola]

I think I see where some of the frustration comes from in this breed.  People tend to think Araucana are easy to breed.  They cannot be compared to Ameraucana or Easter Eggers in today's world of breeding.  Here's why..Araucana breeders were set up to fail as soon as the standard was written the way it was.  Getting tufts and rumpless on a single bird is no small feat.  Tufts are lethal, so chicks die in the shell or don't get them.  Very frustrating when it's an important aspect of the breed.  Setting up breeding pens to ensure live chicks and getting tufts on offspring is a way to work around that.  Rumpless is not a fun trait to work with either.  Breed them too long together and you end up with non-breedable birds, either due to fertility problems or spines that are so short they're useless (due to feces blockage or inability to breed).  Not only does this breed not breed true, in most cases it can't due to genetics.  So, establishing a standard of perfection that can only happen 25% of the time was really ignorant.  jmho


In my years of working with this breed, I've learned that one of our first issues is there are not enough people working on them.  The issues with getting the perfect birds keeps people from wanting to raise them, let alone breed them.  The few that hang on to maintain flocks of this breed are the dedicated ones, who hope to preserve something special.  I often revert back to the history of them and remember where they came from.  This helps me make decision in my breeding pens.  It is not only about the APA standard, but what the historical preservation means to this breed.  There goes a lot more than a color variety.  Just something to keep in mind.


Any person who wants to work with Araucana has to start somewhere.  Hopefully they will do their research and buy from people who have araucana (as opposed to easter eggers or ameracuana) to get their start.  Color can always be worked on, but I will say that I've found most of the breeders do not focus on this due to their focus on getting tufts and rumplessness.  Traits have always come before color on this breed.  It started that way a long time ago and people still prefer the non-standard colors over the pure varieties.  I raised pure blacks without leakage and got rid of the flock when there was no interest in that color variety, and I didn't have a personal interest in black birds.  The good news is the flock went to a single person and I can only hope they continue to breed them and enjoy them.  I also raise pure whites, which there is little interest in.  But I like white birds and will continue to raise them until they perish.  It is my understanding Steve Waters is looking for a serious breeder to take over his white breeding program.  If you are serious about a great line, I would encourage you to reach out to him. 


What people ask for most is the mixed color varieties.  Why, who knows.  Maybe because they want something rare and in various colors, just for pets and because they're unusual.  I can't speak for them, but personally I enjoy my mixed color pen as well.  I find they more closely resemble the originating species of fowl that drove this breed.  The colonca and quetros that were brought together to develop such an unusual breed will forever be in my mind.


Now that we talk about the colonca and quetros, let's look back at what was done with the APA and see where we went wrong.  The colonca is a blue egg fowl that is clean faced and rumpless.  The quetros was a brown egg fowl that was tufted and tailed.  How did we ever imagine we would get all blue eggs from these two birds is beyond me..first mistake.  Years of selective breeding, yes.  But keeping true to their history, no.  Matching up these two birds and their genetics will not produce 100% tufted and rumpless birds either. 


Someone asked about breeding rumpless versus tails.  In my experience, tail to tail always produces tails.  Breeding rumpless to tail, produces rumpless, rumpless with rudimentary tail feathers, partial tailbone and full tails.    Breeding rumpless to rumpless can produce much the same as rumpless to tail, with less full tails evident.  Although rudimentary tail feathers and partial tailed birds are common as well, depending on which generation you're on.


Tufted to tufted produced lots of chicks dead in the shell.  Not ideal if you want a successful live hatch.  I find matching tufted to clean faced is the optimal way to get lots of chicks and lots of chicks with tufts, since it is a dominant trait and a single copy reduces the lethal aspect.  Sorry for going on and on, but just wanted to share some of my thoughts on the breed.  I hope new breeders find it helpful and will continue to ask questions to learn more.

I started reading this thread at the beginning, and am trying to get caught up......

I do have a question concerning backs becoming too short.

If rumpless chickens are bred for many generations can strict culling prevent backs from becoming too short? For example, before culling young chickens of both sexes, could any backs that appear to be becoming short be culled? Thus perhaps stopping this problem before backs are a problem?

 

[enola]

I would have to agree on the frustrating quality of the breed. I like to think of it as challenging.


From our research at the beginning, there seems to be a lot of mixed up birds out there, and only the dedicated breeders seem to have stock with consistant coloration.


We, along with many, got our start from several places.


We did get a start though, and have made some progress in the challenging world or Araucanas.


Our initial egg purchase resulted in one double tufted pullet, that threw a lot of partially tailed chicks.


We have kept working at it, and as I see it, this is a long term project, as in many years.


Primarily we have mixed colored birds, making progress on rumplessness and tufting. Still working towards good combs, correct leg coloration, general conformation, and of course color.

Very different very attractive!

 

[Stacykins]

Hi,
I have two quick genetics questions:
1- How do I get bluer eggs? Mine lay green, and some a little lighter green tending to blueish, but still green.
2- How do I eliminate red leakage in blacks? By breeding black to black and only keeping the ones with less red until its gone?

Despite I live very close to Chile, where Araucanas come from, its quite difficult to find any in Argentina, so what I have are the only ones I could find, in the batch of hatching eggs that I bought some chicks were single combed. All rumpless but no tufts at all. I think they are cross-breed araucanas, but all in all with quite a fair Araucana type.

Regards
Urte

I can help with the first question. For me, I only hatch the bluest of eggs. A couple of years ago my flock had some green tinged eggs. So I didn't hatch those. The most blue eggs went into the incubator while the greener eggs went to omelets. This year all eggs my hens are laying are very lovely and blue, hardly any hint of green. It took a few years, but it helped work out the greener eggs from my flock.

WIth the red leakage, I wish I knew. I've got a splash rooster with zero leakage, and keep him along. But it seems hatching eggs I've bought from other folks have resulted in chicks with bleed. I don't want to use them in my flock, so I cull. I really, really need to get a new rooster though. One who is tufted (either singly or doubly), rumpless, and either blue/black/splash with no leakage. I hope this year...I can hatch one.