Araucana thread anyone?

[cashdl]

I have been kicking around putting my roos out on a leash. I have seen it done. I have 8 breeding pens so I can only let each pen out for an hour or two each day so the roos don't fight each other instead of eating bugs. But if I put them out on leads, I can have everyone out at once. The girls will go to bed when it starts getting late and I can run around and round up the boys. I have a dog that roams and keeps critters away during the day. I may try it with two or three pens at once for a morning and see how I like it.

I should be happy that my hens are getting their exercise chasing me around, cause they are seriously over weight. I just wish they would forage like my Araucanas do. I spend about half on food for my Araucanas than I do for my egg layers. I get $ 25.00 dozen for Araucana eggs, and $ 5.00 dozen for table eggs. Something is wrong with this picture. I am not complaining, Im just saying who needs the egg layers, when I can just put my none breeding Araucana hens in the layer pen.

Lanae

 

[cashdl]

I just candled some eggs due next weekend and the weekend after, I am happy to say my silver duckwings are finally giving me fertile eggs. My blue pen is also fertile now. I just had to shave everyone.


Lanae

 

[syble]

Congrats Lanae, the hens have probably forgotten it now hehe. Grab a dog, that keeps the chickens at bay. even my guineas who are nuratic heel lickers know better then to push it cause i bring chy out and all the games stop and suddenly the lawn becomes alot more interesting hehe.
Sib

 

[Gold Griffin Chicken Mom]

I do try to avoid silly questions, is there anyone within 350 miles of Suffolk, Virginia, with extra roosters?

If you have a boy or three that you'd rather not eat, I think I'd like him/them. Although a breeding pair would be awesome, I think some Auracuana males could help improve my Ameracuanas. I don't care if they are tailed and I understand (correct me if I'm wrong) that most of you need tail-less. If he's not perfect for you, I could possibly use him. As long as he's healthy (blah, blah, you all know this stuff better than me!) I think an imperfect specimin will still be miles better than my hatchery stock.

Suffolk is in South Eastern Virginia near the North Carolina border. I plan a Spring Break trip to visit family in North Charleston, SC. A side trip can be arranged!

 

[WestKnollAmy]

I live in SC and have an extra roo right now. He is a pretty splash boy and I just haven't had time to put him in the freezer. He is free ranging with my egg laying flock during the day. I have 3 other roos he runs with so he is used to bossy girls and older roos. However, he certainly knows how to catch a lady and make her his.
You are welcome to this roo for free. I hate to eat my Araucanas. I put a really nice rainbow splash roo in the freezer recently and just hated having to do it. Lots of great meat but just too pretty to take out.

 

[Illia]

Okay, so it is coming that time of year, and I gotta ask. . .


Anyone here mind showing off their flock/breeding birds they offer hatching eggs from that are NOT from Gary Ramey's stock? I ask this because I'm looking for new blood, and all my birds, no matter the color, are from Gary Ramey. Very nice, but I need some new blood in here too.

 

[cashdl]

My roo in my avatar is not a Gary bird and neither are the two silver hens I have in with him. My dominant white roo and two of his girls are not Gary birds.

Lanae

 

[puredelite]

All my roos are from Gary but I do have some nice solid black c.f. hens( no leakage) that I will be putting with a tufted splash roo of Gary's and will probably have spare eggs after I put some in the 'bator. One hen laid for about a week or so and then went broody. She is now determined to hatch a golfball! I hope to get me at least a few tufted blue babies from this pairing. I am open to just maybe exchanging eggs with someone out there...

 

[smoothmule]

I just sold a couple dozen eggs (heading to southern Mississippi to an 8 year old girl who is really in to her chickens, but should have some to trade soon so anyone interested should PM soon, I've been getting inquiries nearly daily but I'd prefer sharing with my friends here and at the Araucana Club right now as well as help out some new breeders. My goal is to have several different breeders birds and work to find out what produces the best crosses and in 2 to 3 years (ya, I plan that far ahead) I'll look hard at my flock and start culling to end up with 3 breeding pens with 2 roosters and 8 hens per pen. I really like the brown/red, BBR, Duckwings so I'll see what mine do best at producing and work with that color, I know these colors are a little more difficult to get just right so I'll have to wait to see what I have that works. The other 2 pens will be a black and a white pen.

I can't really verify the backgrounds of all mine. Degas came from Ann at Birch Run, I just love that rooster! I have the 2 cockerels from Lanae's flock but not sure if they are Gary's stock or not (Lanae??)
The majority of mine came from Thom Dean who stated on his craigslist ads that all his flock was from Skyblueeggs but I was also told that he had bought hatching eggs from Gary so I can't really verify any of them. I don't really have a problem with the close breeding, they're rare enough that I'd bet most of them go back to some of the original breeders flocks so I'm not sure there is actually any fresh blood out there. Anyone know?

I have Champagne colored horses/ponies and at this time, it's been a few years since there was a new line that was not known about before so as many Araucana's as there are out there, I'd bet there are a lot of common lines to connect them. I have some hatching eggs coming that are supposed to be from Nnncy Utterback lines but I don't know where her's originated. They will, at least, have a few generations that are not so close to what I have now. Outcrossing should provide some vigor and size. I have a lot of variance in size and I plan to work for type, egg color and all that but I want mine to fit the standard as far as size too and my eggs vary a good bit in size too, partly due to younger hens. I have not really felt I have what I need to start concentrating any genes but I'll get there and hope to help some new Araucana breeders get started as I go along.

 

[cashdl]

Hi Cathy,

The eggs you got from me were Birch Run Farm hens and Sky Blue Egg roo.

I only have 4 Gary Ramey Birds. One ginger red roo, 1 blue roo, 1 blue hen, and 1 splash hen. My pens are seperated for color not breeder. I have two sky blue eggs roos and 3 Birch run farm hens. The rest of the hens and roos are from my various mix and match breedings to see what I would get and what I would like. I kept the ones I liked and have moved them into the breeding pens for this year. I have 12 hens and 4 roos in breeding pens right now with a couple sitting on the sidelines waiting for my approval.

Lanae