Araucana thread anyone?

[cashdl]

Ann, let us know how your hatch goes. I am eggcited for you. I book marked your site years ago and eagerly await more news on it. As we all know the modern araucana is not an easy breed for lots of reasons and we need every breeder to hang in there. We are all pulling for you. I sincerely want some of your hatching eggs this year so please let us know when you will get to the point of having some available again.

Lanae

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Unreal! Yes, Anne, I just went to your web site and it is absolutely one of my all time favorites of the breed. I have referenced that site so many times over the two years that I have been struggling to breed Araucanas. Your gorgeous photos have inspired be so many times when I felt like I was finished trying (you know, after yet another batch of purchased Araucana eggs failed to hatch or hatched out a bunch of muffed and bearded babies, etc...). I am so sad over your loss. Raising chickens would be such a different experience if we didn't have to fight the entire animal kingdom to keep them alive. Best of luck my dear.

 

[smoothmule]

Anne,
I'm so glad to hear from you. I hope this is an excellent new beginning for you, make sure to post your results with some photo's.
Cathy

 

[syble]

Sorry to hear of your trouble ann! don't think of it as a loss of part of your flock, think of it as ample space to grow out the next generation!

My first araucanas are due on the 9th! I'm so excited... but i've lost the ability to see into most of them so i'm just hoping no more have quit on me, I may have 9 fingers crossed. There will be pictures! You will be tired of them haha
Sib

 

[syble]

Aww i jinxed myself... the perfect blue egg also quit... so then there were 8....

 

[Anne]

Thanks everyone for the sympathy and encouragement!

I'm glad my website has been a good source of information and inspiration... sadly, it has been neglected and is in sore need of update!

To answer your question, Illia, I have only about 20 Araucanas left after the coyote attack -- almost all of which are culls that I was only keeping as layers. Coyotes apparently have "show bird radar" and all my show birds and good breeders were eaten, leaving me with the culls. Within my remaining birds all the necessary traits still exist -- there are some birds with correct leg color, some birds with decent plumage color, some that are rumpless and some that are tufted -- but not a single bird in which all those traits are combined.

Currently I have 33 Araucana eggs in the incubator. Tomorrow night I will candle and see how many are still viable. The parents are a tufted/partial-tailed BBR rooster with rumpless/clean-headed SDW hens and tufted/part-tailed SDW hens. It was all I had. Probably there will be lots of partial tails in the chicks, but if I can get just a few nice fully rumpless ones I will be happy.

 

[star2525]

I am so sorry to hear of your loss Anne, I thought you had a Dog for your Birds. I hope you was able to get some of those Coyotes, they will come back again, I don't think in all the years I've known of you having Araucanas I've ever saw of you mention a Predator Problem. I thought you also had another breed of birds too or at least I remember from before that you had, did they get those birds too? I'll bet you was just sick over loosing Pigpen, did any of the birds you had from Steve survive?

Do you just have the one Rooster?

So sorry.

Victoria

 

[Anne]

Thank you Victoria.

In theory I would like to get a livestock dog (I am particularly partial to the Great Pyrenees, had those as a kid), but to be honest with myself a dog on top of everything else is probably more than I can handle.

The three birds I got from Steve all died years ago. But their blood still runs in my flock. Every willow-legged (i.e. yellow-skinned) bird I have is related to them in some way!

I have just two Araucana roosters left. The first is the tufted/partial tailed BBR who sired the eggs that are in the 'bator. Nice even tufts, and just 2 downward-pointing tail feathers. Good plumage color but he's on the small side, so I made sure to put a couple nice big hens in with him. The second rooster has a full tail, two nice big even tufts, and in color is sort of a mix between silver duckwing and columbian (he's Pigpen's son, believe it or not). Size-wise he is larger and more solid than the BBR, but I'm not using him for breeding right now as I wasn't sure what color of hens I should pair him with, and I was also concerned that the mottling in his chest would take me backwards instead of forwards with plumage color.

I did have other breeds -- Marans from Bev Davis, SL and BL wyandottes from Jerry Foley, and some California Grays from the feed store. The coyotes got all of the Marans (including my 4-year-old's pet rooster "Jacques"), almost all of the wyandottes (save 3), and just one of the California Grays (the only birds in my flock that WEREN'T expensive).

</gripe>

Anyhow, I now have PLENTY of room in my coops and am looking forward to what the next generation will yield!

 

[star2525]

I remember at the time you told me Pigpen was from a White Hen and your Duckwing Rooster, what was Pigpen bred to for creating the tailed Rooster? I had Spangling in the chest of the Rooster I got from Ann, he was Birchen/Duckwing in color, I bred him to a tailed Silver Duckwing Hen and got a partial tailed cockrel that was an improvement on the Sire, lost almost all of the spangling and improved the comb size, I say go for it, you can always cull out later what you don't want and you're going to do that anyway, I'd use him while you have him, he may just surprise you.

Victoria

 

[smoothmule]

Updated photo's on Columbo, Deja and Lucy (formerly named simply red, I'm pretty sure now she's a pullet).
Columbo is a cockerel and man is he Built! He has huge, deep yellow legs and the most gorgeous coloring. It's like jewel tones in the sun. I tried capturing it but didn't quite get it. He's going to be a gorgeous big rooster. I think he is duckwing/columbian restrictor? Someone help out here.....
Deja, whom I'm leaning toward being a pullet but not sure enough yet, is similar but without the brown/red tones and smaller bone and frame. Could be just a smaller cockerel though. I am "pretty sure" that Lucy is a pullet. She's got some gorgeous red color and the wing feathers have the coolest blue! I caught her trying to climb up on Columbo to escape or something, but anyway, her wings spread out to show what cool color she has there. Illia, was it you telling me that blue will go away with the mature feathering? Either way, Lucy is definitely a keeper. Deja is too if a pullet and Columbo, as much as I like him, intensely like this one, will be for sale, rather is for sale. I think he could be shipped now. I've never seen such intensely yellow legs! I'm so tempted to keep him just to improve the leg color here. Deja has good color too, nearly the same but Columbo's legs are unreal. The photo's were just taken.

Here are some of Columbo

check out his legs! These photo's do not do justice to how he looks in person.