Araucana thread anyone?

[Illia]

So that IS a tuft on the chest I see. How odd. I've heard of holes in the throat and all, but three tufts. . . Sheesh.

You know, though, for an Araucana thread we have, what, 3 photos of eggs?

I have a whole collection of different Araucana eggs to keep track of who lays what egg colors and how they progress through time for perfect breeding, but no, no photos yet.

 

[cashdl]

Ok here is a photo of my eggs.

Two of my girls lay oliveish eggs, the others lay blue eggs.


Lanae

 

[megcpat]

Quote:
SWEET! Those really are blue eggs.

 

[cashdl]

My marans arn't old enough to lay yet but I can't wait to go to the farmers market with chocolate and blue eggs. My RIR's are laying decently dark eggs, but not like the marans are supposed to.

I can't wait.

Lanae

 

[cashdl]

The egg in the center is a really pretty turquoise color in person. I took the pic to try to capture it but it was much darker in real life. Arn't they always. Its like the fish that got away.

Lanae

 

[Illia]

Wow, nice color.

I've got some with an odd green like the top and two girls with a wonderous blue like the rest, but most of them lay a turquise type color like the middle one. I should take some photos to really show the color differences. In natural light, they're all quite similar but for a few.

 

[megcpat]

Quote:
Yes, I'm getting there. Tomorrow the plan is to catch every single chicken I own, deworm and dust for creepy crawlies. Strip out ever coop and deep clean, then spray with oil/kerosene. I'm taking full advantage of my parents being present to watch children while I get the flock ready for winter (where did summer go?). So...... If I am not sick to death of all things feathered after that (my husband can only dream) then I would like to post some photos and ask for input/show off some pretty awesome little araucanas we've got running around out there. For now I'm just lazing on the couch soaking up the beauty of your flock members.

 

[star2525]

Pretty sure the spotting on the chest of the yellowy chested bird is from a pattern gene and is duckwing related and I think they call it Birchen/Duckwing and you want to try and loose that pattern gene as you're breeding, I had one in standard duckwing colors that came from Ann Charles breedings and lost the rooster to a dog attack, he was tufted and rumpless, I hatched all of the eggs I had collected and managed to get a partial tailed roo that was clean faced and is a golden duckwing with less of the pattern gene and a better comb size than the Rooster he came from.

The Blue Cuckoo is going to be sex linked and best to use a Black to breed with it to get the Cuckoo in the opposite sex of what it came from, if you have a pair of them it would be nice to see if they breed true, if not locate a solid black bird to use. I am guessing you would use a BBR with the Cuckoo to produce Crele. Gary did have Crele in his birds, I also got what is called Quail from his breedings, and I really liked the way that bird looked, started out as an all black chick then started getting what looked like Birchen coming in the neck that was white, then its chest started getting the white feathers coming into it and the chest feathers were white laced with gold, I have one hen left that is tailed and clean faced that goes back to Garys birds.

And you can use your BBR's with your Duckwings to get more Duckwings, so keep that in mind if you have a nice tufted and rumpless BBR hen.

For all of them you're striving for yellow skinned birds, the whites are supposed to have the yellow legs, most of the other colors have willow, however if you get yellow don't fret, you may in the next generation get willow and at least you know you have the correct skin color. Another easy way to check for skin color is look at the bottoms of the soles of their feet.

Victoria

 

[Illia]

Does anyone else have barred Araucanas? Lately it seems if anyone does, they're from Gary's stock - But I recall Ann Charles to have a barred hen years ago.

 

[Illia]

All of my Araucanas are yellow skinned, even the yellow shanked ones - I think the yellow shanks is just a splash thing, as all my splash birds have it.

I don't have any BBRs, but do you know of Gary Ramey's black copper/brown-red project? I think I got a pullet from that breeding, as she looks like it. Could I use her with my Duckwings or not? She is afterall tufted.

Yeah, I figured the splotches were a duckwing defect. My culled Silver Duckwing had white dots on his black chest.

Also, how is it that the cuckoo is sex linked? This is what I was saying earlier, I don't think it is a true barred allele, because if they cross to another color - they don't become sex linked as a normal barred bird would, but instead just have smudges of barring and the other color mixed into the offspring.