Araucana thread anyone?

[willchickeneat]

many people have mixed colours.

even rumpless birds can throw some chicks with a few tail feathers so introducing tails would cause a disaster.

I'd agree. There's those individuals that believe mating tailed x rumpless improves the short back issue. More than anything, I think there just isn't enough people who are willing to cull birds that don't meet SOP. Ameraucana community is super diligent in their standards and willing to share/improve the breed. Look where they are today. They call anything outside the SOP easter eggers (exception project varieties). Araucana, people will sell nonstandards like they are the real deal. It dilutes the overall quality of the breed. Yes, culling nonstandards lessens the Araucana gene pool, but if you are not breeding towards a standard, there won't be consistent improvements. You're just diluting the quality of the breed while misrepresenting what is an Araucana.

Standard Araucana is according to SOP. Everything else is a non-standard Araucana (in Ameraucana standard, they are cull or easter eggers). The breed itself is unique, as offspring do not hatch true to SOP, so having stock that meets SOP is far in between. Araucana is not as black and white. It has a lot of gray areas. Their low hatch rate significantly lowers the chances to improve the breed as well.

 

[willchickeneat]

Okay. And are the chicks thrown with a few tail feathers able to be spotted once fluffed? Or do they look rumpless until they start feathering out? The place I placed an order from claim to cull tailed chicks before they send shipments out, but now I'm not sure if that's only ones with literal tails or ones that have the feathers too

Best way to know what you're getting is to fork out extra money and by adult birds. At least you'll see their flaws.

But yes, tail chicks you can tell early on. Harder at day old, but if you've hatched in enough you can kind of tell. There's tailed, partial-tailed and rumpless. The partial tails are a little more tricky.

But tuffs you can see early on. See the far left? DT. See the rumpless? Lack of tailbone. The butthole tends to sit higher for Araucanas. These were Edd Sheppard hatch.

Also hatched some from another breeder in 2020. Even from that batch, I had a few partial and tailed among the rumpless as well.

The fuzzy rumpless booties really do look different from tailed chicks. A little tricky, but with practice possible.

If you're diligent, right when the chicks hatch and are still wet you can try to see if there are signs of a tailbone when they are still wet and haven't fluffed out yet.

By 1 month, you can pretty much tell which ones are partial, tailed and rumpless.

Where are you getting your rumpless chicks from and do they have a guarantee policy?

 

[chickengr]

Okay. And are the chicks thrown with a few tail feathers able to be spotted once fluffed? Or do they look rumpless until they start feathering out? The place I placed an order from claim to cull tailed chicks before they send shipments out, but now I'm not sure if that's only ones with literal tails or ones that have the feathers too

if I remember well those tail feathers show up later, at about 3 mo. they are not real tail feathers and if you don't have perfect birds you can work with them. just be ready to do more culling.

here in greece there are a lot of people that just want blue eggs. so cull birds go to them.

 

[willchickeneat]

if I remember well those tail feathers show up later, at about 3 mo. they are not real tail feathers and if you don't have perfect birds you can work with them. just be ready to do more culling.

here in greece there are a lot of people that just want blue eggs. so cull birds go to them.

These were 1 month from hatch date. Totally can tell which ones are rumpless or not. The 2nd to right has a partial tail/tail growing out. You can see it.

See the yellow looking one? Fully rumpless. Tuffed birds can be seen earlier on as young as day old. Some have 1 huge tuff, then 1 tiny tuff.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Best way to know what you're getting is to fork out extra money and by adult birds. At least you'll see their flaws.

But yes, tail chicks you can tell early on. Harder at day old, but if you've hatched in enough you can kind of tell. There's tailed, partial-tailed and rumpless. The partial tails are a little more tricky.
View attachment 2936241
But tuffs you can see early on. See the far left? DT. See the rumpless? Lack of tailbone. The butthole tends to sit higher for Araucanas. These were Edd Sheppard hatch.

Also hatched some from another breeder in 2020. Even from that batch, I had a few partial and tailed among the rumpless as well.
View attachment 2936250

The fuzzy rumpless booties really do look different from tailed chicks. A little tricky, but with practice possible.

If you're diligent, right when the chicks hatch and are still wet you can try to see if there are signs of a tailbone when they are still wet and haven't fluffed out yet.

By 1 month, you can pretty much tell which ones are partial, tailed and rumpless.

Where are you getting your rumpless chicks from and do they have a guarantee policy?

It's from Chicken Scratch Poultry. They seem more on the hobby than serious side, but I've had a hard time finding anywhere selling chicks willing to ship out to my state (I'm not willing to risk eggs with a bad hatchery already and adults have just been unavailable period). They also sell known pullets and cockerels, but I'm just super wary about those because of biosecurity and Mareks especially

 

[willchickeneat]

It's from Chicken Scratch Poultry. They seem more on the hobby than serious side, but I've had a hard time finding anywhere selling chicks willing to ship out to my state (I'm not willing to risk eggs with a bad hatchery already and adults have just been unavailable period). They also sell known pullets and cockerels, but I'm just super wary about those because of biosecurity and Karen's especially

Bot quite sure what you mean about bring wary of biosecurity and karens

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Bot quite sure what you mean about bring wary of biosecurity and karens

Meant Mareks. Let me fix that real quick

 

[willchickeneat]

Meant Mareks. Let me fix that real quick

Unfortunately, NPIP does not test for Mareks. If you are that worried, you'll have to buy the Mareks vaccine and vaccinate them as day old chicks, or if the place that you are ordering from offers Mareks vaccination, pay the extra cost for them to vaccinate for you. My opinion is that in general, most folks do not vaccinate their flock for Mareks.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Unfortunately, NPIP does not test for Mareks. If you are that worried, you'll have to buy the Mareks vaccine and vaccinate them as day old chicks, or if the place that you are ordering from offers Mareks vaccination, pay the extra cost for them to vaccinate for you. My opinion is that in general, most folks do not vaccinate their flock for Mareks.

Yeah, and I know day olds are usually a safe bet, plus I can buy the chicks as vaccinated. But once they're pass that window, I don't really trust buying birds older because of the risk. Hence me figuring it's worth it to buy 16 chicks and cull as they grow instead of buying a rumpless, tufted trio of juveniles

 

[-Flash-]

I have a Araucana. She is a devil. Buddy is her name and she is a scary, scary chook. But I love her.