Araucana thread anyone?

[jocelynpei]

Even in Chile folks are talking about the leghorn bred in, and the barred rock and the brahmas...so there too, the stock is becoming outcrossed. A lot of the birds from Nicarogua are rumpless, bearded and black breasted reds. Many are black skinned. Some stocks from Mexico are blacks, black skinned and rumpless and bearded. Some are tailed. Quechuas in southern areas traditionally laid yellow/brown eggs, grey eggs, greenish with white spots, and even greenish with pink spots. Blue is dominant, so a lot lay blue now, due to crossing with araucana types. If you tell firefox to accept Spanish as well as English, then search on gallinas Mapuche, you can get a lot of the Chilean sites. Click on translate this page and it's not too bad. Google translator is built right in, and it's readable. Back to the colours of chicks...the black with the brown face might be birchen AKA brown red. the white chick with the balck eyes and slight hint of grey around the face is probably recessive white on over extended black or birchen. Hang on, I'll go back and look, I have a VERRRRYYYYY slow machine, so have patience please.

Jocelyn

 

[Medicine Man]

Jocelyn, you're not in the US are you? I think I had come across your name searching for Quechua?

 

[jocelynpei]

I was looking at the little chipmunk chicks of Smooth Mule, I am guessing, but I'd say Black Breasted Red for both, and too soon to say if Columbian restricted or not, but it's possible. Probably silver, but that can be hard to see till a few more feathers.Some times you can get a silver with so many red enhancers that it's pretty near the same as a gold based one. You end up with a little silver in the hackles of a reddish bird, especially the restricted ones.


Jocelyn

 

[jocelynpei]

Hi Medicine Man, no, I'm in Canada..... east coast...PEI

Jocelyn

 

[star2525]

I have to agree, good stewardship.

I am still looking for Rapanui, to keep as a separate race also.

Please advise. And Thank You.

[email protected]

Victoria

 

[Illia]

Quote:
Adorable first chick, that one is going to have some awesome tufts!

 

[exoticduckluvr]

Thanks Illia. I hope it has great color too. I really like the darker colored birds

 

[smoothmule]

Wonderful tufted chick there

I really enjoy seeing the chicks here. There is still so much I don't know but I sure don't expect the volume of information I'm seeing to sink in quick anyway. I get these light bulb moments sometimes, I love those. They say a person can delay the aging process (mentally anyway) by keeping the brain working and poultry genetics and colors are going to keep me mentally young for a long time I expect

I can't wait to see how these last 2 chicks feather out as adults.

Isn't it a breed when there is a type and variety being worked on to develop a particular standard? Even with all of those outcrossings, if they are breeding true to the type they are aiming at, I can't really say I'd be too concerned with that history. Frankly, after all I've read about how many new varieties are developed, I don't know how anyone could say that any breed is pure. I sort of got the feeling that the best you can expect is to be able to breed for whatever characteristics are called for in a breed and expect a reasonable outcome, always more to work on but more consistent with time.

I don't think chickens can be categorized the same as wild species of birds, the birds that only breed within their own species. Poultry are all poultry. In a way, they are all the same species like a dog or cat that can interbreed producing all sorts of crosses, many that were nurtured into the breeds we know today. That said, then I have trouble seeing any "breed" of chicken being truly pure.

My breeding will take years to develop my flock into a decent flock I think, and really should have a goal so I've chosen to work towards the standards set by the Araucana Club. If I hatch anything that is valuable to breeders with a different focus, that's cool too. I do find the history of the breed intriguing and I love to hear about the Quechuas, Quetro and Collonca too

 

[cluckcluck42]

Question:

I have a unilaterally tufted white roo. I am positive I read somewhere that tufts are tufts, and that no matter how well tufted, that hit of tuft is all that counts. (ie. the tufted gene will be passed on) I have two gorgeous rumpless clean faced girls and I need a tufted roo for them or they will go to waste. If I breed them to him will some of the chicks be tufted? Is there a difference between how tuft carries- will unilaterally tufted roos throw the same? Or is there an equal chance to get bilateral tufting? ((I hope that all made sense))

 

[Illia]

You make absolute sense.

And, whether he has one tuft or none, he's bound to pass on tufted offspring.

As for if they'll vary, only have one tuft, or have both, I'm not sure, honestly. . . . My splash and blue cuckoo Araucanas all came from one cock over several clean faced hens. The cock was bilaterally tufted, but they were unbalanced in angle. What did I get out of the offspring? Some clean faced birds, of course, and one bird with one tuft, two with a small tuft and big tuft, one with bilateral large tufts, and one with bilateral small tufts. ALL of them were not balanced though.

I have no clue, though, if taking a single tufted bird to a clean faced bird will not produce bilateral birds though. I've asked it before and it seems no one has ever done it or knows. All I know is that one cockerel of mine has one small, one big - He passed on a chick with only one tuft. So, I do think there are some "quality" genetics in play here.

One thing that does seem to be true is balance. The cockerel who passed on the offspring with one tuft, both parent and child had balanced tufts. The cock who had cockeyed tufts passed that on to all his offspring.

But, this spring I'm sure to find out all the answers. I've got a perfectly balanced, bilaterally tufted male covering a clean faced female as well as a male with one small, one big tuft covering a clean faced female, and a male with only one tuft covering a clean faced female. We'll see how it goes!