Araucana thread anyone?

[Illia]

Quote:
My Araucanas are the most dual purpose of my breeds.

They lay a lot of eggs, are very broody, very good at foraging, and have a lot of meat on their bodies for their smaller size. They especially have a very good amount of breast meat.

 

[HawaiiWahine]

Hi, I've been reading about Araucanas and trying to learn as much as I can before I buy some. My friend has what appear to be "Easter Eggers", here called Araucanas but they probably are mixed and were bought at a local feed store. Some of hers are laying light green eggs and other laying a light green/blue egg. What I am wondering is for the true purebred Araucana, is the "blue" egg color that I've read about a deeper blue than the light green/blue of the eggs I've seen here in Hawaii? If so I'd like to find purebreds and see if I can import them. Otherwise, I can just buy locally. I've tried to find this out on the Net but couldn't. If the eggs are indeed a true blue, is there a photo on the Net I can see? I look forward to hearing from you!

Aloha,
Sue in Hawaii

 

[smoothmule]

Sue,
Those are Easter Eggers. Feed stores, here anyway, get the chicks from hatcheries and there isn't a single hatchery that I've found that hatches true Araucana's yet they advertise them as Araucana and will even tell you they know the difference but since the buyers can't tell the difference then they don't care. I went on a campaign to try and convince a couple of die hard hatcheries to come clean and list them as what they are and they refused.

I don't know if there are any Araucana breeders in Hawaii, there aren't a whole lot of them anywhere. You should be able to get hatching eggs shipped but as difficult as they can be to hatch in the best circumstances, that might be really tough and I've had issues with the post office handling them rough and even had some left sitting in KC, KS for several days before they were sent on to me, verified by their own tracking system. You might consider shipping a good pair of young adults to get you started. Visit the Araucana Club and consider becoming a member. That is a great way to make contacts and many breeders are more willing to sell good stock to a breeder that is committed to the breed enough to become a member. http://www.araucana.net/ Look at it from the standpoint of how small the gene pool is in such a rare breed. Selling very good quality Araucana's to someone for a pet, oddity in the flock or to crossbreed can be a big loss to the betterment of the breed. Once there are more breeders and a larger pool of genes to work with, it won't seem quite so harmful for them to be backyard pets.

Yes, the eggs should be blue but you will find a wide range of acceptable shades of green to turquoise to blue. The Araucana Club sells an egg color reference card. http://www.araucana.net/Araucana_store.htm (at the bottom of the page) Breeding for egg color is one of several characteristics to work toward and you won't get bored working with this breed. It's a bit frustrating trying to buy breeding stock but if a person doesn't have the patience and tenacity to keep on till you have a small flock, they probably will not have the patience and tenacity needed to breed them with as many failures as there are at times.

 

[smoothmule]

Chickensoap,

Araucana's "are" excellent dual purpose, what do you mean by "real" dual purpose Araucana's? As far as "fancy", well I guess they are but they are just so rare so they're definitely hard to find to buy if you're just looking for a "chicken" to raise eggs and to eat they can be a bit expensive. If you're also wanting to raise a few chicks, they are not without challenges and what that comes down to is cost to raise them which will be higher than the average breed when there can be so many losses. I've found that the breeders who can stick to the Araucana are very dedicated to the breed. Otherwise, many wouldn't put up with the difficulties.

 

[cashdl]

Chickensoap,

Welcome to the araucana thread and to BYC. For me, Araucanas are definately dual purpose. I have a couple of roos in the grow out pen that are large and looking kinda yummy. In the spring if I havn't fallen in love with them they are going into the freezer. My hens are very reliable little egg layers when they are not broody. Course I love them when they are broody, because it means more little chickies are on the way. They do it so much better than any ole incubator. Araucanas are very expensive. They are hard to breed, hard to hatch, sometimes hard to keep alive as chicks. However I am a tenacious little chicken keeper and am determined they are not going to beat me. LOL!!

My araucanas don't eat near as much as my mixed flock of egg layers. They are hardy and independant, curious and friendly, rare and funny looking. The roos are very nice and easy to be around. I have not once been attacked by an araucana rooster which I have about 16 right now. I cannot say the same about the RIRs, Marans, or Polish I have running around. Overall, it doesn't get more dual purpose than that.

Sue,

Welcome also.

Realistically araucanas are going to lay a wide range of colors from blue to green to khaki. I have the whole range in my flock and egg color is definately something I am working on, but it is not my main focus at the moment. Ideally they would lay a nice blue egg. Araucanas should be rumpless, however tails do crop up from time to time. If it has araucana parents and has a tail it is still an araucana. They should have tufts, but most do not. Tufts can be the holy grail of the araucana world with everyone trying to get them, and the majority of chicks hatched wont have them. I have a batch of chicks that are 3 week old

Here is a couple pics of a few of mine:

Araucanas should be rumpless, however tails do crop up from time to time. If it has araucana parents and has a tail it is still an araucana. They should have tufts, but most do not. Tufts can be the holy grail of the araucana world with everyone trying to get them, and the majority of chicks hatched wont have them. I have a batch of chicks that are 3 week old and of 12 eggs, 9 hatched, 4 were tufted - two died right away. So now I have 7 chicks running around two have tufts and only 3 are completely rumpless.

I do love a good challenge.

Lanae

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Great pics Lanae, I love seeing the different egg colors.
I havet four pullets from skyblue egg just beginning to lay; I'm still sorting out who's laying what, but to my great dissapointment, it looks like one of the girls is laying brown

. One or two are laying a green egg, and I keep seeing my tufted white girl trying out the nesting boxes but no egg yet......... can't wait...... I really do put a lot of weight on the egg color blue in my breeding decisions because it is such a key part of what makes this breed so special, but often it is a trait that has to be carefully worked towards. I think that, in an effort to bring the different color varieties into the breed, there has been a bit of out - sourcing from brown egg laying breeds, so we really need to focus on bringing that trait back up to par. For me, at least, that's a big deal. A long term goal!

 

[cackleberrycoop]

You've been attached by one of your Marans roosters, Lanae? Wow, that just blows my mind! I have never know sweeter roosters than the Marans that I have. I now have five boys from three completely different breeders and they just absolutely melt my heart with their even temperaments and the sweet way that they obsess over their girls. We've hatched out tons of boys from these roosters and grown them up to eating size, and I have yet to have an even mildly aggressive guy pop up. I'm sorry to hear that you've not had the same experience and it's good to know because I always tell anyone looking for a rooster to guard the flock how perfect the Marans boys are; now I'll add a teensy cautionary as well.

 

[poularde]

cackleberrycoop, I have only had two Marans roos and one is extremely aggressive. He attacks me every time I turn my back. My other Marans only attacks me if I am carrying the water with a red base. He hates that dish! I do believe there temperament has to do with the lines they come from. My Araucana boy has never even given me an evil eye. I adore him!

 

[Illia]

Quote:
Yep. I've heard of aggressive Marans too. It isn't common, in fact it is on the uncommon side, but I too have had a cockerel that tried sneaking a spurring whenever I turned my back.

Never had an aggressive Araucana, but have heard of one case of such.

 

[cashdl]

I cannot stress enough how much I dislike Marans birds. I thought I would get some and have dark eggs, olive eggs, and all the color eggs I am getting from my araucana. I find the roos to be aggressive to other birds, including hens. They jump at me when it is feeding time. The jump on the hens. They beat up the others roos in their pen. They are large bullys and I cannot wait to eat them.

My araucana roos call the girls over to get the best bits, they do a mateing dance for the girls and yes sometimes me. They come over to inspect the food bowl as I am filling it but wait patiently untill I am done. The are all gentleman. I have about 16 araucana roos and not a one is a bad bird. I have 5 marans roos and they are all jerks. The jump at the food first and peck everyone else away. They pounce when the girls arn't looking and when they are. They jump at me as soon as I open the gate. I hate that. I think if I didn't have the araucana to compare them with, it wouldn't be such a big deal. But the araucana make them look really bad.

My polish are just crazy birds. Their only saving grace is how ridiculous they look. They are too thin to be good eating. plucking all the black out of their skin from their feathers is a major pain and truly not worth the effort. So I have 4 polish roos ho just hang out cause I don't want to make the effort to kill and pluck.

Lanae