Araucana thread anyone?

[Ravynscroft]

Can you tell when a chick hatches if it will be rumpless/tailless?  I have two chicks left from my March hatch that ended up being rumpless.  They are crosses, so I had no idea I'd end up with rumpless  chicks.  One of them is totally tailless, and the other has a couple of tiny tail feathers that point down at the ground.  They are both cockerels so I won't be keeping them.  However, I do have more eggs from one of my Araucana hens in the incubator.  What should I be looking for when they hatch to know if they will be tailless when they grow up?  

More rounded butts and look like they have slighty shorter backs... if they are going to have tails they usually show a tail tuft within the 1st few days if not when they hatch... getting rumpless in crosses is not unheard of if the Araucana used is rumpless, it's just not predictable... would love to see some pics!

 

[Kelson]

They look like EE's, but they are very cute.... where did you get them from?

I got them from a family owned local garden shop. They had about 20 of them. Some of them had really puffy cheeks, and most seemed fairly rounded in the back end, especially compared to the RIR chicks they had.
Im not overly concerned if they truly are or not, I mainly just wanted to enjoy some blue/green eggs in the future. Though it would be extra bonus if they did indeed turn out to be Araucana's

 

[Ravynscroft]

I got them from a family owned local garden shop. They had about 20 of them. Some of them had really puffy cheeks, and most seemed fairly rounded in the back end, especially compared to the RIR chicks they had.  

Im not overly concerned if they truly are or not, I mainly just wanted to enjoy some blue/green eggs in the future. Though it would be extra bonus if they did indeed turn out to be Araucana's    

I understand, and it is always good to know for sure what you have, lol... Araucanas have tufts though and not beards and muffs, so I do think they are EE's... they could be nice crosses and be rumpless though... only way to tell is to wait til they get older... if you will, could you post some pics when they start feathering out?

 

[Kelson]

I understand, and it is always good to know for sure what you have, lol... Araucanas have tufts though and not beards and muffs, so I do think they are EE's... they could be nice crosses and be rumpless though... only way to tell is to wait til they get older... if you will, could you post some pics when they start feathering out?

I sure will! I can't wait to see what colors start coming through.

 

[smoothmule]

Run your finger along the spine, going towards the taile end. There will be a tiny bump if they are going to have a tail, and a divet (indention) if the are rumpless

 

[Brada Puhi]

Aloha,

Isn't rumplessness a dominant trait? So even crosses will end up rumpless.

It's really hard to see what's going on with those little furballs. Please give us more pics later.

The coloring is different too. That circle around the eye looks really cool. Not sure what happens with that during feathering.

Aloha, Puhi

 

[smoothmule]

Dominant and homozygous are two different things.

Dominant generally means that at least one parent must carry the gene and "show" is to pass the gene to it's offspring so you can't breed two tailed and expect any rumpless. If even one parent is homozyzgous for rumpless, then it will pass that gene every time to it's offspring and 50% chicks will be rumpless since it only takes One rumpless gene to make them rumpless. So, from a homozygous rumpless to tailed cross......50% of the chicks will be rumpless, but they are all heterozygous for it then and only have one rumpless gene to pass on, and can produce some rumpless, some of those partial tailed, tailed or some with a few tail feathers if bred to a tailed.

You can eliminate tailed chicks by breeding rumpless to rumpless eventually....but as anyone knows, using the punnett square, it IS possible that all rumpless to rumpless (if they are heterozygous) will produce some tailed and those do not have a rumpless gene. I was never concerned about using a tailed Araucana if if had other traits I needed.

Tails are not a hard thing to work with at all and eliminating all tailed birds that were otherwise excellent, was a true waste of genetics. I used them, then kept the best rumpless chicks (knowing they only carried one rumpless gene) then passed the tailed chicks on to a backyard egg layer flock. You have to ask yourself.....if you had an excellent quality, tufted, perfect cock bird with a tail.....and the hens in the flock were just so-so but all rumpless and one so-so rumpless cock bird with no tufts....what would you all do? It's a no brainer... and I built my flock slowly, with careful thought to the total bird, not one single trait. I would breed all clean faced before I would use a really terrible but tufted cock bird......developing an awesome flock of clean faced rumpless hens, to add the tufts with the best available tufted cock which later quickly brought my flock into order.

For those of you that need a visual....this is a Punnett Square for a dominant to non-dominant breeding. Every parent has two genes for a particular trait.


Sire here has 2 rumpless genes (homozygous rumpless)
Mother has 2 tailed genes so no rumpless to pass
Chicks will then ALL get a single rumpless gene, all be rumpless and all be heterozygous






If you can breed homozygous rumpless (YY) back to the rumpless pullets he produced all (Yy) chicks and half will be homozygous rumpless (BB)

Sorry if there is any confusion on the punnett squares. I just lifted them off the internet and typing faster than I'm thinking so I have edited). Just remember that the capital letter is the dominant gene (in this case, rumpless) and the small letter it's not dominant (tailed)

Remember, homozygous rumpless to homozygous rumpless will produce homozygous rumpless only! (BB). BUT in this square it also shows that if you you breed 2 parents that are heterozygous for rumpless.....you can get Heterozygous Rumpless (Bb) and tailed (bb) and those have No rumpless genes to pass on......other than the "other traits" genes that may still make them useful in the breeding pen until you have everything just right!



homozygous to homozygous....all homozygous for rumpless....it's not that hard to get to this point....Do Not Fear the Tail, lol.

Hoping I didn't confuse anyone. This is a lot to digest if you don't have the basics down.

 

[Wolfpug]

I am a little confused about this breed. i got these hens & Rooster from a guy who was special breeding them over a period of yrs. He called them Araucana's or Easter egg Chickens. I do not remember what he crossed with the Game Cock, but they definitely had beautiful rump feathers. They laid blue, green, pink & olive eggs. They were very mellow birds & very good layers. I had them in Alabama back in early 1990's. So did I have an early breed of the Araucana since they definitely are not rumpless?

 

[Ravynscroft]

[COLOR=B22222]I am a little confused about this breed. i got these hens & Rooster from a guy who was special breeding them over a period of yrs. He called them Araucana's or Easter egg Chickens. I do not remember what he crossed with the Game Cock, but they definitely had beautiful rump feathers. They laid blue, green, pink & olive eggs. They were very mellow birds & very good layers. I had them in Alabama back in early 1990's. So did I have an early breed of the Araucana since they definitely are not rumpless?[/COLOR]

Those are definitely not Araucanas... he called them Easter Eggers, which they are, but that is a term for mixed color/crossbreeds of Ameraucanas... Ameraucanas are tailed and have beards/muffs...

 

[WalleyWaller]

I am a little confused about this breed. i got these hens & Rooster from a guy who was special breeding them over a period of yrs. He called them Araucana's or Easter egg Chickens. I do not remember what he crossed with the Game Cock, but they definitely had beautiful rump feathers. They laid blue, green, pink & olive eggs. They were very mellow birds & very good layers. I had them in Alabama back in early 1990's. So did I have an early breed of the Araucana since they definitely are not rumpless?

X2. They are Easter Eggers. I have some EE's and I like them. They lay beautiful eggs and are good tempered, Yours look very nice but definitely not Araucana!

Also: Hello from South Carolina!

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