Araucana thread anyone?

[dollyfiero]

 

[Ravynscroft]

[/IMG]

Nice egg color! And I agree with enola, they aren't SOP color, but they are the same colors from what I see. Roo looks a little different but think that is just cuz roo patterns/feathers are usually a little different anyways. My colors aren't SOP, but I'm breeding like enola, for egg color and outing tails...

 

[Stacykins]

Keep your rooster. He is tufted and rumpless. He will pass that on to his offspring. You have some very nice cuckoo hens. There are some folks out there working on cuckoo/barred birds. I am not sure how the genetics works, but eventually you might want to replace him with a barred rooster to better compliment your girls. But for now, work with what you have. And what you have is great.

You could probably get some hatchings eggs from the flocks working on barred/cuckoo Araucana.

 

[enola]

Cuckoo? I can't see them really well on my phone

 

[draye]

From what I can see they look Columbian to me.

 

[enola]

I would like to see better pictures

 

[Ravynscroft]

They looked mottled with some barring to me, but am on my phone too..

 

[smoothmule]

They are "not" barred at all. They are mixed genes with columbian. I've had them like that and just bred them to black for more blacks. There are SO many breeders with Araucana's that have these "pretty" colored/marked birds that are nice but they are so mixed up color wise that there is no name for the color. What you can sometimes do is figure out "some" of the genes present to know what you have to work with to use them. There's nothing wrong with starting that way. I started out with mostly culls to develop the line of blacks I have now. Columbian can be a real pain to get rid of and it will mess up other patterns like duckwing. So, instead of fighting it, I would just use those colors to breed for black chicks and they make wonderful blacks.

It all boils down to "what do you want?" If you like mixed up colors, that is fine but you have to accept that many breeders will not be interested in buying them if they are not bred to the standard. And bred to the standard is more than just rumpless and tufted. Correct skin color, leg color and other traits as well as standard colors that are accepted by the APA for the Araucana will interest more breeders but just having a "real color" is important. Blue in large fowl Araucana's is a common color but it is not an accepted APA color for show so they can be shown, because blue exists in poultry and accepted in other breeds but in Araucana's it can only be shown as AOV (any other color variety).

Some breeders are "rude" to the back yard breeders who just breed any color to any color but to me, if they are good birds other than the color, they are good and definitely can be worked with if you understand your genetics and have a plan. I haven't found many Araucana's that don't have "something" to offer. Anyone who likes dabbling with genetics and has good Araucana's but needs help in figuring out how to make the best of what they have to work with is Always welcome to message me and I'm happy to help. Breed those Araucana's! The only thing that nearly killed off this breed were breeders who culled anything that was not perfect. They nearly culled them out of existence and to those Araucana breeders who bred them freely and developed their own mixed up colors...... Thank you

for without those culls I started out with, I would not have the quality black Araucana's that I have today.

 

[AppleJackAcres]

Breeding is slow here, but I'm starting to get some nice offspring

 

[smoothmule]

Breeding is slow here, but I'm starting to get some nice offspring

Very nice