Araucana thread anyone?

[chickengr]

As a general rule, no, you don't want to mate brother and sister... but if the parents were unrelated to each other and they are all you have to work with right now, it is a personal choice... I would only try it once if needed though...
Linebreeding is different... yes, breeding the pullets back to their father is acceptable, or breeding the cockerel back to the mother... it will strengthen the good points and the bad in your line... bringing in new blood can be very good or very bad... new blood refreshes your genetic strength and can bring in desirable traits or it could bring in undesirable traits... just depends on if your needs outweigh the issues...
Breeding will always take time, patience and lots of generations... this breed more so than most, lol...

well, the breeder has 3 roos with hens, so I am just guessing that they are brother and sisters. but I definitively don't want inbreeding. their parents might be brother and sister as well.

 

[Cockatrice6420]

Thanks. They're both spunky as all get out! Odd Ball is already bossing folks around and hasn't even laid her first egg!

 

[ochochicas]

Brother and sister have the same amount of identical genetic make up as mother/son or father/daughter. They likely share 50% identical DNA. One mix is not any better than the other. "Line breeding" is simply a term breeders made up at some point in time to make it sound like they weren't inbreeding their stock.

Sort of related...my mother used to breed dogs. When she "line bred" she would only end up with 1 or 2 live puppies. The babies were either absorbed as embryos or they pups died due to defects. Some were born with cleft palate or hydrocephalus. When she bred to unrelated mates, she would end up with more than a dozen puppies and they didn't have any defects. This happened over and over again. I'm not sure how she didn't realize breeding related dogs was not good for their health (I figured it out and I was only 9 years old! LOL).

Anyway, I think chickens are more durable in the genetics department, but looking at common defects like scissor beak and the low viability of Araucana eggs I'd try to stay away from any kind of inbreeding when possible.

 

[Exotica]

Pretty bird.
I did some research on this since I have a rumpless Marans hen. Apparently birds without any Araucana in their histories can be rumpless, but it is very rare. It is a genetic mutation that is more common in some breeds than others. Resulting birds often have fertility problems. My hen in particular has never laid a fertile egg although she has always been the favorite of my roosters.

I hope your baby grows up to lay beautiful blue eggs!

Oh! I did not know that!! I have the same answer to you as the person below so if you don't mind reading below..

If you can, ask the guy you got it from if he breeds Araucanas as well as Am's... nothing jumps out yet saying yea or nay, but as another poster said, rumplessness can pop out in other breeds... also, the one big difference in Araucana and Ameraucana is Ameraucanas have white skin, Araucanas have yellow skin...
Only way to knoe for sure is to grow it out and see...
Tails and clean faced can happen easy in Araucanas, but at least one of those has beard and muffs and one looks to have a bit of beard... so my guess would be Easter Eggers...
Also would depend on where you got them... hatchery and feed stores usually are only EE's, for Araucana you really need to get them from a breeder...

So that's exactly what I did! I asked him if it could possibly be an Araucana and he said he does have one rooster + hen in the same pen as his Ameraucana's. So it's possible! Of course, he could just be lying to me because I was so excited. This is the same guy that was suspect about telling me the heritage of his Cream Legbars then said that he got his stock from someone who had them in San Diego 30 years ago when the guy decided to sell his flock away.. Well Cream Legbars were barely imported to the US around that time so I highly doubt that he got it from the guy that imported them.

We'll just have to wait and see!! I know they are definitely not Easter Egger's, as he sold those as well and they were in a different pen. He has Easter Egger's and Blue Ameraucana's only! I guess he could've had an Araucana?

 

[chickengr]

Brother and sister have the same amount of identical genetic make up as mother/son or father/daughter. They likely share 50% identical DNA. One mix is not any better than the other. "Line breeding" is simply a term breeders made up at some point in time to make it sound like they weren't inbreeding their stock.

Sort of related...my mother used to breed dogs. When she "line bred" she would only end up with 1 or 2 live puppies. The babies were either absorbed as embryos or they pups died due to defects. Some were born with cleft palate or hydrocephalus. When she bred to unrelated mates, she would end up with more than a dozen puppies and they didn't have any defects. This happened over and over again. I'm not sure how she didn't realize breeding related dogs was not good for their health (I figured it out and I was only 9 years old! LOL).

Anyway, I think chickens are more durable in the genetics department, but looking at common defects like scissor beak and the low viability of Araucana eggs I'd try to stay away from any kind of inbreeding when possible.

great information, thank you!

 

[agdusa]

Are these Ameracauna hens?

[/IMG]

 

[Cockatrice6420]

Are these Ameracauna hens?

[/IMG]

Are you asking about breed or gender?

 

[agdusa]

Both!

 

[Cockatrice6420]

They look like ameracaunas to me. The small comb, dark legs, fluffy faves all fit. If they're around four months old, I'd say they look like pullets, hens, they have the fluffy feathers just before the tail and I don't see any pointy roo feathers, (the feathers look rounded). It looks like if they were roos they'd have at least a starter crow. The one in the fore ground with the bigger comb looks like she might be EE.

 

[agdusa]

No crowing so far! They are 6 months old yesterday. When should I expect my first egg?