Araucana thread anyone?

[smoothmule]

Sib,
I hope the hatch goes well but definitely know there will be more that don't make it and be thankful for any that do. Seems to be the nature of this breed and every chicks is so precious! Can't wait to see some pictures and I hope you have a nice number hatch.

I've sold a few now and hope to hear good news from the people who bought from me, especially the lil 9 yr old girl that her mom and aunt had been looking for a long time to find someone that would sell them. I'll have more to sell but still would rather hatch them all here and sell young trios or pairs but until I have a larger incubator, I guess I was fooling myself that I could hatch every egg. I candled some that I bought recently from the Utterbeck lines and there were 14 clear and a couple of early quitters and 15 candled good but I know that there might only be a few of those that hatch and I'll be very thankful. They don't ship as well as other breeds eggs.

Still, hatching eggs are the best way to get some of the best chicks to start a flock, just very risky and expensive at times. When you get your chicks and they're old enough to sex them, if you need some to pair up with what you have, let me know. I'm going to have some for sale this summer too once I know what I have and maybe we can do some swapping. And, I kind of figure if I sell hatching eggs to someone and they hatch all cockerels, I'll sell them some pullets before I'd sell to others but I know that if we all work together to share what we have, we'll all have more and better birds to cross with.

 

[smoothmule]

Lanae,
I love it that you are putting this book together. I definitely want a signed by the author copy when they're ready to sell

 

[syble]

i sure hope for a decent hatch rate, i think if i remember right lanae dosent breed tufted to tufted, which to me is a huge advantage! so hopefully there will be no more quitters

So as for the stats...
blue (blue egg) 1 (had 2 but that was the burst baby)
blue (green egg) 3
Ginger 2
Silver 1
Black 1
Splash black 1

The black is the one with the vivid blue and waxy coating, i really hope that one hatches, and the splash x black was similar just to a lesser degree. But who am i kidding i want them all to hatch!

I've built a brand new hatcher for them too! The turkeys will test it out for them first

Thanks
Sib

 

[cashdl]

The black and the splash black are from the same hen. I havn't hatched any from her yet. ( I keep selling them because they are so vivid) They come out of the dom white splash roos pens and everything that comes out of there is fertile. He loves his girls. I am happy to hear one of the silver ones is developing. The ginger hen is definately my favorite though. She has gorgeous tufts and the roo is just beautiful. The chicks out of that pen have such a gold glow to them.

I don't breed tufted to tufted. I have tufted to cleanfaced.


So out of the 6 araucana chicks that hatched this week 4 are tufted. One of the tufted one ( nice tufts) has a crooked beak, its toes are curled and its spine is wonky. I am going to give it a couple of days to see if it can walk. If not I am going to have to put it down. It is a cute little thing.

Lanae

 

[zekii]

What type incubators are you using to hatch your Araucanas ?


With all these hatches going on I can't wait to try and hatch some Araucanas....
Good luck too everyone with hatches about to happen !!!

 

[cashdl]

Hi Zekii,

I am using LG styrofoam incubators. I am using 1 to incubate with auto turner and 1 to hatch. I am kicking around buying another one for a incubator which would give me the ability to incubate 84 eggs at a time. Can never have too many going at once. I use the dry hatch method and find that they keep the humidity at 24% easily. I keep the humidity at 45% in the hatcher. I seem to be the only one that is haveing good success with these incubators. My hatch rates are about 75% or higher. This week I had 100%.

I eventually want to get a sportsman, but for right now I already have 3 auto turners, so If I buy two more LG's I will have 3 incubators churning out 126 eggs. Fortunately or unfortunately I keep selling hatching eggs so am only setting about 6 to 12 a week for myself. Next year I hope to definately be setting lots more eggs.

Lanae

 

[zekii]

Quote:
Lanae... thanks !!! I used an old Hovabator 1602N for my initial hatch 8 eggs went in, but so far only 2 chicks hatched .....tough keeping temps/humidity in my cold/dry house...maybe late spring - early summer hatch would work better for my location. Before I invest in any Auracana eggs I want to make sure I can get the best hatch rates possible, and I don't think the Hovabator is going to.

Clint

 

[cashdl]

I have a friend who uses hovabators and he gets aweful hatch rates with his marans, Ameraucanas, and Araucanas. He spent a lot of money on his incubators too. I am trying to convince him to switch to the LGs. They are inexpensive unless you buy the turners also. I don't use the kind with the fans. I find the space is too small to need a fan and it would be more difficult to keep humidity constant.

Lanae

 

[syble]

i had been using hovabators to hatch assorted baryard stock with excellent results. and this batch of araucana eggs i put in were started in the hova, I hand turn, but a GQF 1266 litterlly fell into my lap so i had to take it so i put them all in there. Fingers crossed for a decent hatch!

Sorry to hear about your little one lanae, the curled toes are easy to fix, you splint them as soon as you can, but i'm not sure what to make of everything else being crooked... maybe best not to leave it go just for possible defects that it might pass on... dunno, tough call to make.

Thanks
Sib

 

[cmsdvm]

Interesting how we all have different feelings. I DESPISE my 3 Little Giants. They hold temperature very poorly and have often shot up too high, killing off chicks for no apparent reason. My Hovabator, on the other hand, is like a rock. ALWAYS 99.5- I use it as much as possible, saving the LG's for the new influx of eggs, many of which may turn out to be infertiles. With my Hovabator, I have successfully hatched white calls and seramas this year- 2 picky breeds which always required setting hens in the past. My Polish, of course, are so fertile and hardy I think I could hatch them in a cardboard box with a light bulb. I breed tufted to tufted araucanas and they hatch better than the calls, but not as well as the Polish. If any of you hate your Hovabators, I'll trade you for my LG's any old day. I see a Sportsman in my future, but I'll never part with this little Hovabator!
I never ship eggs on the araucanas, by the way, I just consider them too fragile. I think you're very lucky to get anything at all with shipped eggs with this breed. Of course, if you're just breeding for bright colors and tufts and your birds are all outcrosses that would be DQed in a hot second at any show, I suspect these birds are much hardier. If you want to breed this difficult bird for correct color and exhibition, you will have to line breed enough that the eggs are going to be more fragile. That's just a fact of life.