Araucana thread anyone?

[smoothmule]

Humm, aggressive roosters?

I always figured "It's a chicken, I am bigger and tougher than any ole rooster" and I mean it and they know it. I've never had even one of my Araucana's to even look at me sideways but I have had mixed breed, game type roosters "think" that they could intimidate me or even attempt an attack and they got shown real quick that I don't take nothing off them. I would chase them down in the coop and put them on their back and hold them there as I looked them straight in the eye and smiled and told them to try that again. When I let them up, they would unruffle their feathers real quick and it might take a couple times but they are smart critters and they gave me a wide path when I came in to pick up eggs. They weren't afraid and were never harmed but I was firm and consistent. They were much better to hold and handle too. I won't tolerate one that is mean to hens either. The young cockerels will sometimes get a little too happy chasing hens but they get removed and to a pen by themselves for a while if they get too rambunctious and only get a couple of chances to return to the flock and show better manners. It doesn't hurt to have a few older, tough ole hens to set them straight too but they have to learn. I don't blame them for being super excitable when they first find their manhood but they better tone it down after a bit.

 

[coturnix2044]

Pullet? It is 3.5 months old, so is this an accurate time to tell if its a pullet/cockeral yet?

Tufty is doing great but... i've noticed a partail tail

, is this fairly easy to breed out?

I'm pretty psyched, these 2 pullets should be laying sometime at the end of this month or next!

Here's an update on my only 2 lavs
pullet and cockeral?

 

[cashdl]

First one looks like a roo to me. Yes tails can be eliminated. Tufty has some nice tufts. Sorry for the short answers. Its my bedtime and I just had to stop by here one more time.

Lanae

 

[puredelite]

On the first pic, check to see if the neck and tail hackles are pointy. That's a sure sign that you have a roo. Sometimes with my chickens it take quite a while to determine the sex of some and others are fairly obvious at an early age. Whatever it is it has some nice tufts! The lavs look like a little roo in the front with the pullet behind him.

 

[smoothmule]

I've found on some of mine that the coloration of the hackles can throw me off. I have a hen that has a marking down the middle of each hackle feather that is sharply pointed so from a glance, her hackles look purely male but looking much closer, the actual feather has roundness to it but you have to hold her and put something under the feather for contrast to really see the shape of the individual feather. I think the pale colors are hard to tell that way too, especially on a young bird. I think I can sex them pretty well now but not till nearly 4 months. The hens hackles seem to still be long and narrow, but not sharply pointed, until they're more mature then each hackle feather looks wider and rounder at the tip from what I'm noting so far.

I have a pullet that is tailed and looks a lot like your lavenders but more of a soft blue instead, with a scattering of darker blue spots and some red leaking on her head and a little in the darker blue neck hackles. I Love her color but not sure what's making it. With the spots I think she must be blue splash but thought that was supposed to be blue spots on a white body but then I wondered if there is a recessive or dominant white and she's just blue with the white allowing a little of the blue to show through, making the appearance of a diluted blue. Many blues are not colored well and have darker blue spots on a reg blue body when they should be evenly blue and have that darker blue neck and head.

Her name is Luvdove and she's not old enough to lay yet and I'm hoping she grows a little larger but her legs are smaller (nice willow color) than the other young ones I have. She's tailed but has small but nice, even tufts on both sides.

 

[cashdl]

Stopped by a local farm supply today and every second Saturday they have a farm fair where anyone can bring their farm animals and try to sell them. Mutt roosters were actually selling for money. One lady had a pen of hens. She was selling them for $55 ea. She wants to buy any blue egg layers of mine. I am going to start going down there. If I can sell some birds locally and raise awareness about araucanas that would be wonderful.

 

[Birch Run Farm]

Especially at that price! Wow, $55 for mutts?

 

[cackleberrycoop]

That's a really neat set up; I would love to have something like that around here. Boy, if you could bring even just rumples Araucanas to these events, they are sure to be a novelty and yes, then you could say "these are ARAUCANAS, the real deal! I'm sure there are those out there who have heard of the differences between Araucanas, Ameraucanas and easter eggers, but just can't find any to look at in real life..... I know, I've been there. You know you are going to be starting someone down the road to Araucana obsession if you show up often enough with rumples tufted chickens. I can't wait to hear how this goes for you.

 

[cashdl]

I talked to the lady with the hens and she says she raises heritage and rare birds. She had 4 EE's. She knew they were EE's but she had them listed on her flyer as ameraucanas. She says she has told people the difference till she is blue in the face and no one cares. She lists quite a few breeds. The hens for sale all looked at least two years old. I could be wrong though. They just struck me as older. No one that was buying chickens knew anything about breeds or quality. They would pick a bird by looks then ask breed when they were buying. It was all done out of the back of pickups. Imagine an impromptu swap meet on a deserted dirt rd., with dirty pickups. Thats what it was but in town. LOL!! My husband stayed firmly in his pickup parked as far from the fun as he could get with the windows rolled up. I love him for being long suffering and taking me.

I am totally excited about going. But I of course have to have nice neat clean birds, clean cages, clean trk. I will wear decent clothes and have a folder with color photos of my birds at home and a flyer that tells about the fabulous Araucana. I firmly believe looks are everything when you are selling a product and chickens are no different.

I did take pics of my new girls. I just have to upload them to my computer, then decide which pics on byc to delete to make more room for the new ones before I can show them to you. Cathy I will email you pics.

Lanae

 

[cackleberrycoop]

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