Araucana thread anyone?

[puredelite]

Nadine, Bet he sure had a little 'jet-lag' after a coast-to-coast flight not to mention tired wings! Looks like perfect tufts on this boy. If you don't mind, where in upstate SC are you?

 

[WestKnollAmy]

Quote:
I am on the Greenville/Spartanburg county line of upstate SC.

This fella does have perfect tufts and I sold him to someone just wanting a pet. Granted they paid well for him and his wife but still he is going to just be a pet breeder.

However, I still am hatching some and usually have roos with tufts like this. I don't hatch much anymore with this breed because people around me just don't like Araucanas and I can't keep them all. I will probably only hatch about 25 this year. I still have a roo running around with the free range flock that needs to go in the freezer but I haven't gotten that far yet.

I added a few clean faced pullets back into the Araucana flock about a week ago, too. I just like looking at them and petting them. Mine hop up when I open the door and want some raisins or other treats. They are very pretty birds to me. And I have plenty here to compare them to!

 

[smoothmule]

Nadine,
My flock is getting better but I'm still looking for diversity in bloodlines before I cull hard and close my flock to work on type and color. I'd like to have some from your flock and could use a couple more tufted pullets for my clean faced roosters that I like so well I don't want to part with them yet. The plan is to do some planned breedings this summer and keep some and repeat it next year then evaluate how that's working, choose the ones I want to make 2 small flocks with 2 or 3 roosters each then sell the others to breeders having a hard time finding their starter birds. By then, I should be able to put together the ones that cross best so they will have a decent start. I finally feel I have a decent start but it's just the beginning.

To All,
Of 4 eggs set, I have 2 chicks from the new pen. One hatched last night and one is hatching now, pretty much out of the shell.
Is this a white chick? I hatched a chick that was chipmunk striped like the others that feathered out snow white (that's her name now) She has gorgeous willow legs and is clean faced/rumpless. She should lay this summer. So, this chick is yellow. I didn't expect that from the hens I have in that pen or the rooster. It's gorgeous and fat and healthy, hoping for a pullet. There is faint striping but that may disappear when the down is dry. Is this one going to feather out white? I need to take this to the coop and read again about recessive and dominant whites.

I love these fat, healthy chicks!

 

[smoothmule]

I didn't think I was going to sell any eggs for a while but I already have more than I can incubate right now. I have a dozen for sale that I can send out on Monday, 3/7 if anyone is looking. I just bought a dozen so I need to save room in the incubator and the Serama's are beginning to lay good too, did I mention I have a Chocolate Serama hen now?
The eggs are $25 for a dozen plus $12 shipping. I'm posting them a couple of places so I can have them sold quickly while they're fresh so please email or PM me and I'll give my paypal information
Thanks

Here's a better pic of one of the 2 day old chicks

I plan to add another rooster or two to the pen soon. I'll have eggs off and on so let me know if you're interested,.


Cathy

 

[Birch Run Farm]

Looks like it might be a white chick!

 

[smoothmule]

Yep,
I've been reading up on breeding the whites and got a lot of help at The Coop. This one has to be a recessive white, none of the birds in that pen are white, lol, so it was sort of a surprise. Especially after I had a chick that was a dark, chipmunk striped chick that feathered out snow white.

Cathy

 

[smoothmule]

I removed spurs for the first time today

Degas was in definite need so I just looked over all the options and decided to opt for the hot potato thing since they were so long and by golly, it worked so easy that I was shocked. One of his spurs was 2 inches and the other one was a bit over 3 inches and curling. I got everything ready, washed his feet and legs good in the bathroom sink and laid him down in my lap on his back on a towel with it kind of wrapped around him. I had ready a pair of regular pliers, flour for a blood stop and a hot potato. I had already cooked the potato in the microwave for 7 minutes then let it cool for 5 minutes. I slipped the potato over the smaller spur first and kept some of the towel under it so the potato didn't burn his leg. The potato was pushed almost up to the end of the spur but not quite. Then I set there holding it for a full minute, took it off the spur and got a snug but not too firm hold of the spur about midway down and held his leg straight and gently twisted the pliers back and forth and it made a slight "pop" and slipped off leaving a soft, pointed half inch of softer tissue with a scant amount of blood. The tip bled a few drops and I pulled the towel up and put some flour on the stub and in the towel and waited. It did bleed several drops but it wasn't spurting.

When it stopped, I did the other one, the potato was so soft it slipped over the larger curled spur just fine too and I repeated it. I coated a lot of flour on the stubs and held him maybe 5 minutes till it wasn't dripping anything then put him in a carrier with clean shavings and put him in a dark, quiet area for about half an hour before putting him in a cage with deep bedding that is large enough to stand tall and turn around but small enough not to allow a whole lot of moving around to encourage rest. He's in the garage where I still have a trio of Serama's and he seems surprisingly content. He didn't seem phased at all and went right to eating. I added some vitamin powder to his water and I'll keep him in there a few days to observe the spurs. They should develop a tough covering then later it will be like a regular spur only a lot shorter. I'm going to get a dremel so I can keep spurs tips cut off and filed so I don't have to do this often. As easy as it was, I think just keeping the sharp tips blunted would be better and not to let them get so long and sharp. I hope to have him back out in the breeding pen soon but want him pretty well healed since it's wet and muddy right now and I don't want them to get infected.

 

[cashdl]

I have now gotten my 3rd double tufted black chick of the year. It is so weird. I only got 3 black chicks for all of last year and none out of the pen I am getting the blacks out of this year. Only 1 was tufted last year, and it died of course ( sorry Ann). This year I have had 4 hatches and 3 black chicks and all 3 double tufted. My chicks seem healthier this year. A little more robust. I have lost one chick this weekend. It was my smallest. I cleaned out their pen and put fresh bedding in it yesterday. It was dead this morning. Probably allergic to clean. I try to minimize the amount of changes to their environment as much as possible, at least for the first 5 months. I find that they can get stressed by change and almost give up.

My favorite pullet of the moment is also my tiniest. She is bantam size even though she comes from large fowl parents. Her and her sister look like mutt and jeff cause her sister is twice her size.

I gave a presentation about Araucanas to a poultry club in Lodi this weekend. I was so nervous. Everyone was really interested and asked lots of questions. I heard from the coordinator that a couple of people drove down just for my presentation. I am glad I didn't know that before hand. I took a double tufted splash hen to show everyone.


I hatched out 5 araucana this weekend. I am hoping to be able to set more each week, but fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, I have a lot of orders for hatching eggs.

I sold 7 two and three week old chicks to a couple here in California this weekend. They were able to drive and meet me, since I don't feel comfortable about shipping babies at that age.

Well, I think you all are up to speed on the life of Lanae. Talk to you soon.

Lanae

 

[syble]

congrats on the successful speech, with you championing for araucanas they'll be on the top of the to get list for the summer

I'm so excited, i want to get my eggs as soon as i can do a successful test hatch! The hatching itch is strong!
Sib

 

[smoothmule]

Lanae,
You are really doing the breed a lot of good, thank you

I'm getting all these white chicks from a rooster and hens that are not white, lol. I'm beginning to like the recessive white though. If I can get some with good tufts and rumplesss, it really puts me closer than I thought I could be with some that are show quality. I didn't really think I liked white but they seem to stay so, well, white. Snow white and clean even in the mud and I have some of the most gorgeous intensely yellow and some willow legs on these whites.
I have a black chick too, and with that hatch a brown one that I have no idea what color it is. I hope it's a pullet and just like Beauty, that dark red/brown hen.

I sold 2 dozen eggs to an 8 year old (bought by her aunt) that is "big" into her chickens per her aunt. She's in Alabama.


Here's the brown chick, anyone know what the color is?