Araucana thread anyone?

[smoothmule]

It's been 0 degrees here for several days and just plain frigid before that for a while so I had quit saving eggs for the incubator, they felt frozen by the time I got home from work and no alternative. I do have some in the incubator that were collected before the deep freeze and there will be more to hatch (on the 25th) but here are a couple that hatched today. Too young for me to see if there are any tufts yet or if they're rumpless. Fawn has a couple of tail feathers but the roosters are rumpless.

This is Fawn's chick. Very golden looking. I don't think the photo picked the color up very good, taken in the house and poor lighting

This one is Slinky's chick. I'm thinking it will look like it's older sibling. All I can say about this one is it's a HUNK of chick, wow. Bigger than my month old Serama chick.

 

[cashdl]

Congratulations Cathy, I am jealous as usual. Slinky appears to be a keaper.

Lanae

 

[coturnix2044]

Congrats Smoothmule! New fuzzy butts, no matter what they are, are fun to have!
I was recently pondering something,
Has anyone come across the Araucana/Ameraucana/Americana problem lately? It saddens me to see locals and friends refer to them as the rainbow layer with green legs and and tufted (really bearded, but

)
I wish the hatchery's would change the name on the EE's, as said in the Am thread. It's hard to go around saying I have "True" Ameraucanas or Araucanas because then the common response is "I do too", especially to friends. When my birds start breeding, I think I'll do flyers on the breeds, so they can hopefully start to see and re-educate locally. Don't mean to pull up an ancient arguement, but tonight they told me an that an EE sold as an ameraucana was not an Ameraucana because it didn't have green legs. Also some Australorp eggs I bought, someone told me were araucanas because they were not green but were a pink-ish color. Oh and have you heard the Araucana is the bantam size and the Ameraucana is the large fowl size story? got that one when I responded to a "true Araucana" ad locally. Don't get me wrong, I love the EE's I have but, its also hard to sell true Ameraucanas or Araucanas for EE breeding as well as running a true Ameraucana or Araucana against an EE in a fair.
What do you guys think would be the best Idea to resolve this "problem" locally?
so yup, Hows everyone's birds laying lately? Mine should start shortly

Ty

 

[Illia]

Quote:
Mine are either molting or just got finished being broody.

I only once have gotten the Araucana/Easter Egger problem out here, although if I ever mention my Ameraucanas. . .

I swear I should carry around a little paper for a speech to give to any person I come by about it.

Out here there are hardly any chicken owners, and most just own typical brown egg layers, so I won't fret about it. If someone approaches me with the subject, I'll gladly and politely educate them. I once even had a lady who came to me asking if I could help them with their thesis on Araucanas. I of course had to include the info on Easter Eggers and Ameraucanas, even showing my own birds to help them identify them all, and of course she didn't even know the other breeds existed. It was fun educating her. In the end she was very interested in getting some Araucana chicks too.

My problem, really, is that the Easter Egger thing is literally stealing business from us Araucana and Ameraucana breeders. How are we to sell our true, original, purebred birds with the right name to people who'd care less, they just want blue/green eggs?

I also find Easter Eggers just fine too, nothing wrong with them, but honestly when I started out, I wanted REAL Araucanas because I loved the thought of having such an exotic bird with no tail and real tufts, not beard/muffs.

Plus there's nothing like having something no one else has.

 

[coturnix2044]

Quote:
Mine are either molting or just got finished being broody.

I only once have gotten the Araucana/Easter Egger problem out here, although if I ever mention my Ameraucanas. . .

I swear I should carry around a little paper for a speech to give to any person I come by about it.

Out here there are hardly any chicken owners, and most just own typical brown egg layers, so I won't fret about it. If someone approaches me with the subject, I'll gladly and politely educate them. I once even had a lady who came to me asking if I could help them with their thesis on Araucanas. I of course had to include the info on Easter Eggers and Ameraucanas, even showing my own birds to help them identify them all, and of course she didn't even know the other breeds existed. It was fun educating her. In the end she was very interested in getting some Araucana chicks too.

My problem, really, is that the Easter Egger thing is literally stealing business from us Araucana and Ameraucana breeders. How are we to sell our true, original, purebred birds with the right name to people who'd care less, they just want blue/green eggs?

I also find Easter Eggers just fine too, nothing wrong with them, but honestly when I started out, I wanted REAL Araucanas because I loved the thought of having such an exotic bird with no tail and real tufts, not beard/muffs.

Plus there's nothing like having something no one else has.

Agreed on having an exotic

... although at a swap recently they sold Faverolles with the tail feathers all plucked out as rumpless Ameraucanas

Problem for me is, there are so many EE/AMeraucana/Araucana "theories" that I'd have to educate every single last person I know or meet. EEs are very common down here and I want to change that with education, armed with my Araucanas and Ameraucanas

Ty

 

[cashdl]

I went to buy my feed the other day at our local feed store ( it is more like an old fashioned mercantile, its so cool ) and he asked what kind of birds I had. I told him araucanas and started to say not the kind you guys sell, he broke in and said he knew what I was talking about, and he did. I was flabbergasted. My speach was cut off at the knees. LOL!! I am in there all the time buying feed and I know that they will call me if anyone wants a real araucana instead of the easter egger chicks they sell. Next I start working on the people at the farmers swap meets.

Lanae

 

[Illia]

Quote:
Times and people like that just make my day.

Our local Co-Op lady doesn't know much on it, but enough to get her questioning things. When I went in there her schedule said they will be selling Ameraucanas in a few weeks. So I went to her and asked her if she realizes they're Easter Eggers, and explained the difference. She said she figured something was weird, because they all laid green eggs, and she heard real Araucanas, at least, should lay only true blue eggs. But, she also said the hatcheries told her to sell them as an Ameraucana, and she had no say in it.

I offered to sell my own true Araucanas and even Ameraucanas to those interested in the true thing, and she seemed very interested in the idea, but never got back to me on that.

The thing is - People around here think Black Australorps are amazing and exotic just because the name sounds so other-worldly.

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Quote:
That is fantastic to hear; a shout out to that man who has done his homework and knows what he's selling. I began reading about Ameraucanas, Easer Eggers, and Araucanas before I bought any and went to the feed store here in town to ask if there were any Araucana breeders locally. The woman who is the poultry expert for the store detailed for me in wonderful accuracy the differences between the breeds and then told me that I was in luck because they were ordering chicks from Murray McMurray who only bred and sold the real deal, pure, rumples and tufted Araucanas. I was so surprised because I had heard how hard it was to come by these birds, but she said that they ordered them every year and they were the real deal. I ordered eight pullets and watched each and everyone of those girls grow up to have tails, beards, muffs, and of course not a single one was any standard Ameraucana color variety. It really does make it hard to get what you want when there are so many birds being mis-labeled out there. I'm all for a good easter egger; I breed and sell them proudly, but by-golly, they are not Araucanas and I go to great and exhaustive length to make sure that buyers understand this.

 

[cashdl]

So here is my chicken tractors so far. I have one complete except for the final caulking, putting an araucana stencil on the front and the word araucana. I have 3 complete enough to have chickens in them. On two of them I need to paint, trim, caulk, and stencil, but the chickens are in residence. I am pretty proud of myself cause I built them from scratch. Most of the lumber I already had. I had to buy the wire ( ouch ) hinges and fasteners. I am pleased with how quick they go together. It takes a day to put two frames together. Then a day to build the house and build the doors and put the wire on. Then a day to paint.

They are all the same dimensions, the difference is where I put the door on each one. They each have two nest boxs and have 33 sf of space including the house. They are 3' wide and 8' long. The house is 3'X3'.

Lanae

 

[puredelite]

Nice design and craftswomen-ship Lanae! You are so fortunate too having so much flat ground to set them up on. Just reminds me tho that Spring is coming and I need to build some breeding pens myself!