Araucana thread anyone?

[cackleberrycoop]

Quote:
I'd LOVE to find a bantam tufted wheaten rooster for my two wheaten girls - not to try for buffs, but to work on the wheaten. I've been thinking about getting serious about looking.
Your Buff Ameraucanas truly are stunning. I saw them over on the Ameraucana thread once and thought "Oh, Buff's not the boring color I always thought it was." Then I saw one of Jean's at a show and was really taken with the depth of the color. It would be neat if someone took on this color in the Araucanas.

 

[zekii]

I am sure it comes with experience keeping these breeds, but after reading the descriptions of the Araucana, Ameraucana, and Easter Eggers, there seems to be alot of traits that are common to each breed.

Is it possible for Ameraucana hens to have chicks that have Araucana traits, and vice a versa ?

Easter eggers seem to be a combination of both breeds, so is it possible for them to have chicks that have Araucana/Ameraucan traits.

 

[cashdl]

When it comes to araucana the only trait it has in common with the other two is the blue eggs. The other thing could be the leg color since ee's tend to have green legs and araucanas are yellow skinned and will have willow legs with several of their accepted colors. But other than that look nothing like the other two.

The muffs and beard is a dominant trait and you wont get two ameraucanas producing tufted araucana chicks. Nor will you get two araucana producing muffed and bearded chicks.

The araucana is a rumpless breed although on occasion you will get tails or partial tails. But even a tailed cleanfaced araucana does not look like an ameraucana or an easter egger.

Here is a couple of pics of my birds:

This boy has a couple of tail feathers and still doesn't look like an ameraucana or an easter egger

Not a beard or a muff in the bunch. Just lots of tufts.

Lanae

 

[cackleberrycoop]

OH, Oh, pretty blue Lanae! I love the shape of a good Araucana; an absolute delight to the eyes and a fun difference from an Ameraucana. I like having both breeds out in my yard for sure!

I'm getting breeding pens ready and am just itching for the season to begin!!!!

 

[cashdl]

I didn't think I would, but I am beginning to love the cuckoo colored birds I am getting. They have bright yellow beaks and legs. With the cuckoo color it looks really neat. All the cuckoo colored birds are coming out of 1 pen and I am trying to figure out who to breed with what for the next generation of cuckoo colors. Does anyone know if I just breed the cuckoos together will I continue to get the same color or do I need to cross back to a black or blue?

I too fell in love with the blue pullet, after I sold her. I am such a dunce sometimes. All the pullets that come out of that pen have such a beautiful shape, not many of them are tufted though. Usually the tufted are roo chicks. Oh well, live and learn maybe.

Congratulations on getting your breeding pen together Megan.

Lanae

 

[cashdl]

As I am getting more and more barred chicks I am wondering what is the difference between barring and cuckoo color. I have tried to see the difference in pics and I am obviously missing something. What I am considering barring in my chicks is - overall white chicks with dark grey lines on each feather. My cuckoo chicks are white with grey and black strips so they look like they have a stripe of each white, black, and grey. It makes them look overall dark. Or are they all barred, just different shades.

I would love to see pics of the difference.

Lanae

 

[zekii]

Quote:
I'm starting to understand more the differences between the Araucana/Amerucanas, thanks for the terrific pictures.
I am sure once we see these two breeds in person we will appreciate the differences.

 

[cashdl]

Illia has a couple of good pics of the difference between EE and Ameraucana that I am sure she will post here when she reads this.

Lanae

 

[cackleberrycoop]

But..... the Araucana standard differs from one country to the next, so when you're looking at chickens on the computer it's always a good idea to check the country of origin on the bird or they may just fool you! I think that the Araucana from Australia look like they have little mohawks and (I could be wrong here) don't have tufts, but I just read that the Araucanas in Belgium were supposed to have both tufts and beards until earlier this year when breeders decided together to change the standard to no longer recognize beards.
You are right about the easter eggers sharing traits. They can be any combo of Araucana or Ameraucana or both and any other breed that gets tossed into the mix. It's very common to find easter eggers who have some combo of tails, beards, tufts, muffs, though in my experience, there are far and away more easter eggers who are built on the Ameraucana chicken.

There is nothing like finding a real live, in the flesh Araucana to feast your eyes upon! It's a challenge for sure finding one out there; I looked for a solid year at would be Araucanas who all turned out to be Ameraucanas or easter eggers before at long last stumbling up a glorious tufted rooster at a special sanctioned show here in the valley; and boy, the addiction was on! Good luck out there!
Megan.

 

[zekii]

Thanks for all the information and pictures .... I'll keep studying the various breeds, and hopefully get to check out some of these chickens early this year. There are some people near me that supposedly have Ameracaunas, and another that has Araucanas. Would like to at least get some eggs from them to trial out my incubator before I get any expensive eggs. We eventually would like to have both Araucanas & Ameracaunas in our flock.

A quick question ...
How long do most people keep their Araucanas ? .... or what's the age of the oldest Araucana you have in your flock ?

:Clint: