Araucana thread anyone?

[ndoles]

Pretty!!

 

[coberdor]

I had a clean faced cockerel last year, just like that, that came down with mareks and I had to put him down. He of course was the prettiest boy in the hatch.

Looking at your roo, makes me wish mine had survived.

 

[smoothmule]

One of my Araucana hens finally decided to be broody. She's the first and only one so far and I'm wondering if there will be any more. I let her set a dozen eggs and picked out my prettiest blue eggs from each pen. They're all still producing well and good fertility and I'm amazed give how the weather has been here, jumping from 38 degrees to ninety+ in a day. Geez. And we're getting drowned again with loads of rain and storms moving through. Everything is flooded. I did a 2 day trial with Lucy in the BBR pen with Guy and Rudy and she was Horrified and with good reason, the others, hens included, pecked at her till the back of her head was open! She ran to me to be held and I put her back in the juvenile pen. She was past 4 months and I wanted her to acclimate to a regular coop before she started laying but for now, at least, that isn't going to happen. I had put another pullet in with her that was a couple of weeks younger and that chick just settled in fine. Good grief. I may have to raise a cockerel up with her as her mate and just have them paired or with another pullet. I felt so bad for her but she's fine now, other than the hole in her head

It will heal but she's more attached to me than ever now. I wondered if it was her bright red/buff color? She really stood out.

The others are doing great, lost a couple to who knows what that were just weaker at hatching but the others are growing like weeds and I've moved more out to the barn to make room in the house brooder for the next to hatch and I still have more eggs than I can hatch and selling some here and there. I know they won't continue this way so if anyone is considering buying hatching eggs from me, they should probably consider it soon. I expect them to go broody or moult anytime although they're not really showing signs they will. I'm trying to hatch everyone I have room for. I did sell some that were older, around 2 weeks, and sold them cheap and of 2 dozen + eggs that were more than 7 days old, all were fertile but 3 and showing life and due to hatch Monday so the buyer is thrilled. I just sold my first dozen from the black breeding pen. He didn't care if the roosters weren't black or not, all the hens are black in that pen so we'll see what he hatches. I told him they may still be fertile from any of my roosters but he didn't care as long as they were out of all black hens.

KLF73,
Nice looking roo, love those colors!

Lanae and Cackleberrycoop,
Loved the stories!

 

[cackleberrycoop]

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Gosh, wow, he is handsome and his body looks really nice and round.

 

[cackleberrycoop]

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How come I never thought of this! There are a lot of back roads around here and this would really help me deal with the %50 cockeral to pullet hatch issue...... I'll just watch for the homes that look like they SHOULD have chickens and consider my boys ambassadors for the poultry fancy at large . Thanks for the awesome advice Lanae....

Seriously, though, a good rooster is just magic. Can't imagine life without at least one. I have breeds of roosters that I really love, but I've got to say that there is something absolutely endearing about the carriage of a good Araucana boy that just makes them look like they are up to little boy prankster tricks but hoping that you won't notice; Or counting on their charm to get them off the hook for it, at any rate.
I'm just about ready to set my favorite Araucana boy free of his breeding pen. So far, 100% infertile. I don't know if he's shooting blanks or just so upset about being penned. I can't wait to have him out and about again, always under foot, sticking his nose into everything. I've missed his antics.
This brings me to a question I keep forgetting to ask. I was told to add some rooster booster to his water in hopes of boosting his fertility. First - does anyone else ever do this? I see on the bottle that it only gives directions for adding to feed or for oral dose by syringe.
Second - is there someone who can please interpret the directions for me? Direct quote from bottle label "(1-3cc) per day prior to keep and (3-6cc)per day during 14 day keep period. Poultry Cell may be mixed in feed or administered orally with a dose syringe." That's it - the entirety of the directions for use.

I'm going to be very embarrassed if this is super obvious, but my head hurts from trying to figure it out on my own.

 

[cashdl]

I have no idea what that means. I would guess that prior to keep is before you put him in the breeding pen, during keep is when he is in the breeding pen, but am probably wrong.

How long has he been in the breeding pen. I had a roo that was a pet, and it took him almost a month before he gave up on me and started showing his girls attention. Could be that you are the only girl for him at the moment.

Lanae

 

[Quirky]

Interesting comments on roosters. I think I'll be more aloof around Gomez, as he seems to like me and I don't need him to neglect his gals. Really, though, it's terribly endearing how he walks right up to me when I'm sitting there and investigates my shoe or pants leg. I had no idea they could be so personable.

 

[smoothmule]

I think I've boosted my fertility by trimming vents but also by using 2 roosters in a pen with 6 to 10 hens and turning one rooster out to free range occasionally then switching them. There are things they eat and probably need to build them up when they're free ranging that we can't even provide. Plus they can run and act like a rooster and when they do get put back in with the hens, they are "ready to go". That said, there is always the risk of something getting the rooster while he's out but they can up and die in a pen too so nothing is without risk.

 

[nivtup]

I vote for vent trimming.

We had fertility issues with our white pen this spring. A little trim job on all of the birds and fertility issue solved. We were 0% before trimming and are not 90%+ after trimming.


Good luck.

 

[smoothmule]

Just thinking out loud here and hopefully, it will open up some conversation about all of your flocks, how you choose which rooster to which hens and how many etc along with thoughts and comments about my choices as well as your future plans too......sorry but a long post.

Not for increasing fertility so much, but I am turning Degas out today to free range a while. Degas, Rudy and Guy have all been excellent free rangers and seem to brighten up when they're allowed this free time. They go to the pond to drink, forage and come running at feed time for handouts. They're much calmer and friendlier when they're out free too.

The reason I decided to take Degas out of the black hen pen is that I had put together my breeding plans with a lot of thought to type, color etc and the whites were a no brainer. I only have a trio of adults (and many upcoming chicks). The BBR wasn't real hard, Rudy and Guy for all the red that I like, on a BBR type coloring, and all the hens that were BBR, wild type or duckwing. So, that left the black hens, but no black roosters of breeding age yet. All I had left were Joker and Degas. It seemed logical, plus one was tufted and one clean faced. Degas has a lot of black on him but then he also has the gold and red in his neck and saddle hackles. I've been reading a lot about how to breed for better black and Degas isn't the right cross for that. Joker is silver based, a little messed up on his colors.....sort of duckwing, a lot of chest markings, the colors are pretty diluted and probably blue but not obviously blue but his basic color is better for breeding to black and should reduce red leakage in the cockerels. Also, I'll find out about the blue if Joker is the only rooster in with all black hens so that's another plus and we all know blue and black are compatible breeding together.

Degas is not getting younger though and since I have so many to look at for body type now, I am seeing that he has a much shorter back than any of my others and the chicks I've lost that made it to 2 or even 3 weeks old has super short little backs so I know I need to correct this and not breed him to my rumpless hens. I have a pen for them now and need to pick up another feeder and waterer for them and I'm going to pen Degas up with my tailed hen LuvDove. They each have something good to add to my flock and will, hopefully, correct some of the others issues. I'm not in a hurry though and will give Degas a little free range time before penning him up. When I pen him, I'll be able to turn Rudy out a week then put him back in and let Guy out and so on. They seem to love that and I like them happy.

Joker is clean faced and he's got 3 clean faced hens and one tufted (she just went broody a couple of days ago) but I'm not concerned about tufts right now. I have 2 tufted/rumpless black chicks and any chicks from him with these hens should be nice. He's really got great size and type and I'll keep his black chicks to raise and sell any chicks that are not black. In the spring, I'll evaluate them for size/type and color and any with red leakage will be culled and hopefully, there will at least be a couple that are "good" even though they're clean faced. If one or both of my tufted black chicks are cockerels, and good enough, they will take over the black hen pen. If they're pullets, I'll just work on getting a good rooster (buy or continue to hatch and hope). I also have a double tufted big blue chick that may be "the one" instead. I'll get blacks and blues in the one pen that way.

We all know it's not done overnight but I always want things to go forward at least. So now, it's your turn

what have you got? what are you doing with it and what are your goals?

Cathy
(the windy one,

)