Araucana thread anyone?

[syble]

well it happend sooner then i expected, i just brought home a used GQF 1266 cabinet incubator... I couldnt resist, i think it was good price, but best of all it has an automatic turner

looks will look piddley with my 3 dozen eggs haha, but atleast i'll be in tip top shape next spring!
Sib

 

[cashdl]

Congrats Syble.

My breeding goals are duckwings right now. I am not concerned if they have tufts, although that is definately a bonus. I would like to increase the size of my birds. Right now they are at the standard weight which is good but I wouldn't mind them being a little bigger, making them more dual purpose. Conformation is of major importance to me. The right conformation will go a long way towards helping with fertility. My fertility is excellant, but I dont use short back birds in my pens, tufts or not. I do have a lot of fluffy butted hens but am not considering that a problem. I tend to like the looks. Head shape and eye color are important to me. Egg color is not as high on my priorities since I am seeing definate improvement each generation in color. I am culling for color this year, trying to get as close to the standards as possible.

I have 16 birds in this years breeding pens, making up 4 pens. I have a tufted white roo over barred hens. He is awesome and I had to put him somewhere. Plus he is good sized. I have a tufted blue over blue hens. Tufted dom white over bbr, blue, black, splash, hens and a clean faced ginger duckwing over ginger, and two silver hens. I also have a birchen pen that I will be moving a black hen into. The ginger pen is my favorite, followed by the dom white. I am getting some nice double tufted out of all the pens.

My hatch rate has definately improved this year, along with fertility and general thriftiness of the chicks. I believe it is the improved diet the birds are on. They have more animal protein in their diet this year and less soy bean.

Lanae

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Quote:
Hey, way to go!!! That's very exciting, and yes, now you have to bring home more Araucana to fill that thing up! Happy hatching.

 

[Urban Chaos]

Hi,

Some of us here at BYC are trying to resurect a previous project to create a chart showing examples of each breed at various stages of growth. Ideally we would have pictures of both male and female at each stage as well as of each color variety. Would any of you be willing to assist us with photos of the birds you breed? If you are willing, please PM me and I'll fill you in on the details

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Quote:
Wow, are you ever industrious! Such a chart would be incredibly, incredibly useful. I'll be in touch with you later on in the season for sure when I have some time - line photos of my Araucanas. It is a personal goal of mine this year to track their growth through pictures. Good luck.

 

[Urban Chaos]

Thanks cackleberrycoop . We welcome yours and everyone elses input. It is a big project, but we think it will be a very useful tool.

This is basically what we are looking for (disregard the photo bucket comments)

https://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=7696-Progressive_Pic

and here is where you can upload photos yourself if you so please

https://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/submit2.php

 

[syble]

sounds like a fun project, I'm a pictureholic, and have some araucanas dut to hatch on the 10th

I'll be sure to take lots of good pics as they grow.
Almost 2 weeks left, havent had any of the growing eggs quite yet*knock on wood*

 

[Illia]

I'll certainly help out there, but I don't have any photos decent enough for the project/chart . . . Yet.

I've got loads of photos, but most of them were spur of the moment type photos. Either I'm holding them, or they're in the brooder, or running around in a grassy background.

ETA - I've got about 13 Araucana eggs in the incubator right now, day 4, and so far it looks like fertility may be really poor. But, nearly ALL of the eggs in the bator are showing such, so perhaps, and hopefully, it's just too early to say. But I fear it isn't. 1 Ameraucana egg out of 10 is definitely fertile, 2 Shamo eggs out of 3 are fertile, and the Marans I've yet to try, but, things aren't looking too great.

Good thing I have a second incubator waiting to be filled ASAP.

 

[cashdl]

Gary Ramey has a really nice double tufted splash roo for sale on bidbirdauctions.com. He has a large comb but that is really easy to overcome. I thought I would post it in case anyone was interested.

Lanae

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Gosh, that Steve Waters is an awfully neat guy.