Araucana thread anyone?

[n8ivetxn]

With Araucana, every hatch seems like the chicken lottery to me. Even more so with the duckwings.
I can't wait to see their big bird feathers.

Are the duckwings more difficult to work with? If so, what challenges do you see that is different than the other color varieties?

 

[terrysteph]

Dcba ... I have looked at his page and he really does have some fine looking birds. Post pics when you get some too. I love pics.

N8ivetxn... That is a good question and I'm sure some of the more experienced breeders and those with genetic expertise can better explain it than I can. Here is my experience with them though. If I could have been lucky enough to have started with perfect sop duckwings, it may have been easier. But of course I have been working with culls from others for years so it has been more challenging. For me, the solid colors are easier to breed for perfection because its one big block of one color. With DW you have multi blocks of specific colors in specific areas to keep straight. It's a matter of keeping the right color in the right areas and the wrong colors out of those places. If that makes any sense at all.

 

[n8ivetxn]

LOL, yeah I got a bunch of mixed up colors myself! Not all of them are culls, but the colors need serious work.... Would you say this guy is "sort of" a duckwing?



I just noticed, one the chicks I recently got, I thought it was a lav, but today I noticed it actually has barring! I would be so tickled! - And, a big plus, it has willow legs

I'm expecting a few more birds, from Ann Charles. I got some BBRs from her.

So, in the spring, I'll be trying to figure out how best to pair up what I've got and go to work!

 

[Ravynscroft]

Dcba ... I have looked at his page and he really does have some fine looking birds. Post pics when you get some too. I love pics. N8ivetxn... That is a good question and I'm sure some of the more experienced breeders and those with genetic expertise can better explain it than I can. Here is my experience with them though. If I could have been lucky enough to have started with perfect sop duckwings, it may have been easier. But of course I have been working with culls from others for years so it has been more challenging. For me, the solid colors are easier to breed for perfection because its one big block of one color. With DW you have multi blocks of specific colors in specific areas to keep straight. It's a matter of keeping the right color in the right areas and the wrong colors out of those places. If that makes any sense at all.

Spot on! Yep, it's much easier to breed from correct from the beginning, but when it's patterned there is always constant work... That's why I don't know if I want to work with the 1 GDW pullet I have or not... already working on breeding color out for blacks, lol... But the GDW pullet came from amazing stock, Lisa Helms, same as my gorgeous black cock...

LOL, yeah I got a bunch of mixed up colors myself! Not all of them are culls, but the colors need serious work.... Would you say this guy is "sort of" a duckwing? I just noticed, one the chicks I recently got, I thought it was a lav, but today I noticed it actually has barring! I would be so tickled! - And, a big plus, it has willow legs I'm expecting a few more birds, from Ann Charles. I got some BBRs from her. So, in the spring, I'll be trying to figure out how best to pair up what I've got and go to work! :yiipchick

That's what is called duckwing based... has the base for it, but not correct coloring in the correct places... I have a hen kinda similar... she's gorgeous, but not anything close to correct coloring...

 

[n8ivetxn]

Ah-ha... Well, he has great tufts! That might be his best trait, lol!

The more I look at my new chicks, I think one of them will look like your dw based pullet...

Now, this guy below, if I'm right, he would be Er based? He doesn't have a dw patch or any green sheen in his feathers. However, his chest is really clean, no flecks like (I think?) a Birchen is supposed to have.... He does have willow legs, but clean faced

I realize the first pic is dark, but if you click it, it looks better.

 

[Ravynscroft]

Yes, he's the one I commented on before, lol... does look Birchen, but I've had a duckwing base bred down to black 2 generations that turned out similar...

 

[n8ivetxn]

Yes, that's right, I remember now, you liked him the best of the 3, I think.... And, now that you mentioned it, I think the lady who sold them to me said there was a black rooster one of the breeding pens where some of her eggs came from.... She bought 100 eggs and only 10 hatched

If he was your cockerel, would you try breeding him? What would you use with him?

Or the dw based guy? Would you bother with him?

 

[n8ivetxn]

(I'm writing this stuff down in a notebook!)

 

[Ravynscroft]

I did have one like him and yes, I used him... I went for black though, instead of trying to fight mixing more mixed colors...

I also had 100% tailed to start with, so eliminating that has been my first priority... getting rumpless, then correct to type and size, then the color correct, then the tufts, and then egg color...

Tufts are gorgeous and I love them, but they are fairly easy to add on later... getting the rest corrected first is the hard part...

As I got reminded the other day, 'Build your barn before you paint it'... this goes for the feather color, the tufts as well as egg color...

The SOP book has the standards weights, sizes, shapes, etc... measure each one to that first before deciding...

 

[n8ivetxn]

Wow, you must really enjoy a challenge! That seems like an enormous amount of work.... and patience....

....... I need that SOP!