Araucana thread anyone?

[nivtup]

Quote:
And those of us who are trying, but have not yet come up with something worthy of entering.

Key word is YET.

 

[nivtup]

We seem to keep coming up with non-standard colors.

Or

Tails

Or Clean faces

Or Leg color isssues

Or we get one that looks like it has potential, and it drops over dead for no apparent reason.



It is really only a matter of time.

My stubborness and determination will prevail.

 

[cashdl]

I hear you about the ones with potential. Its like they can feel our thoughts and decide to be perverse. As we all know, I have taken to not looking directly at potential birds, so far this year that has worked out about 50% of the time. Then the ones that live just turn out to be not as special as I thought they might be. Course if I had been looking directly at them I may have noticed sooner. LOL!

Lanae

 

[cashdl]

Cathy,

Congrats on the double tufted white roo you just bought. Anns birds usually throw nice tufts, so you should do well with him.


Lanae

 

[smoothmule]

Lanae,
Thanks, he gets to room with my hen Snowy and I'll leave Fawn with Casper so I'll have some chicks that can be paired up that are not closely related. I might actually have something to show next year

He and Snowy will get the pen that Degas and his girls have now and they will be in a larger pen. I think I may offer some eggs from Degas's pen once I have some chicks hatched so I can see what this pen is going to produce.

I sold a dozen eggs on Ann's site, definitely going back to sell there again. I have several people still wanting eggs but since it's turned off so hot (upper 90's) the girls are taking a break.

Here are some of the most recent chicks, still some mixed colors in this group. I can't wait to see how things change when the breeding pens are breeding pure by the roosters I've matched to the hens. I've gotten some of the most interesting whites. The down is different on almost every chick. I've gotten some splash chicks too. That was a surprise but shouldn't have been, they're likely Guy's offspring and I have several blue wheaten looking hens as well as Luvdove. She is soo sweet, tail and all. Since she's with Degas, I'm hoping for some gorgeous chicks from her. I don't care if she is the right color, that she has a tail or anything, she has the best personality.

Here are a couple of the first chicks hatched in June, no tufted in this group....its interesting that when I have a hatch that one time there will be mostly white chicks, then another hatch will be mostly black with a few other colors each time. The BBR chicks this time have had the craziest hairdo's, lol. I have one I think is a blue breasted red.

 

[puredelite]

Guess I owe one of my black broodie's an apology for bashing her on my last post. After setting her with 6 eggs, pen turned in to a mud hole with all the rain we've had so eggs received a good coating, another hen decided she wanted to help set so ended up with four intact eggs. Two hatched today - beautiful blues! No tufts but such nice color to them. One has a reddish-brown head. Left them for now with the hen, so cool to see the roo even calling the chicks for some tidbit he has found. Will post some pics soon of these and some a few days older hatched from the 'bator. So far none with tufts but have more due to hatch in a couple of days. Charlie

 

[smoothmule]

Puredelight,
Congrats on the near impossible hatch

Tufts are like the icing, gotta get all the other stuff right first so you got a great start there. Three of my hens are broody right now. I have eggs from hinkjc under 2 broodies and some in the incubator and the other hen, I stuffed some Serama eggs under her and some from the Degas pen which are my <scary sound effects> experimental pen.

Degas has my 2 tailed hens and an odd colored hen plus Curlie, my Araucana/Ameraucana hen with the gigantic tufts/muffs/beard and rumpless. Curlie is sold and will go to Ann in Vermont when she's ready for her and the weather isn't quite so hot here. It's been in the upper 90's (96 one day) so it's too hot to ship now but in a few days, it's supposed to cool down.

I'd love to see some pics! I'll be posting some of my young Araucana on Skyblueegg's auction soon. I will be selling several, some with tufts, some clean faced, most rumpless but a few tailed. I'll list them there as they feather out enough to ship and some may be in groups. Some may be sexed to the best of my ability but no guarantees offered because I've been fooled by them before......I've learned to assume they are all cockerels and be pleasantly surprised if they are pullets

I'll post here when they are up for auction for anyone who's interested. I need to get some shipping boxes bought and on hand before I do this so I'll be ready to ship when they sell. I'm getting a lot more chicks than I thought I would.....I like that, I am hoping to have some extra nice ones to share as well as some breeding quality and the less correct ones for those wanting to start from scratch for much less cost.

 

[smoothmule]

Lanae,
I'm reading the posts backwards, lol. I just now saw you won an award! Congrats,

Congrats to Steve Waters and all at the show too! Way to go! Wish I could have been there but traveling just isn't happening right now. I've been working my usual shifts at the hospital and on some of my days off, I've been going to Joplin to work at the hospital there as a relief nurse. It's an hour and a half drive one way for me, this is the Joplin, Mo where the Tornado hit and destroyed about half of the city, St Johns Hospital there looks like a bomb blew it up and there is just miles of "nothingness" where there was once a thriving downtown. I'm working 12 hours there tomorrow so I'm trying to catch up now.

Lanae, I also wanted to ask if you're for sure selling your avatar rooster? I don't have a problem working through rooster "Issues". I seem to get a long really well with the ones that are that way. They get grabbed and hugged a "LOT" until they have had enough of me. It's hysterical to see the look on their face when I have them in a death grip and they realize it's really just a hug. They don't know what to make of the crazy woman and they get over that arrogant behavior pretty fast. Joker "thought" he was tough. He's a push over now and follows me around again. They just "gotta" try stuff sometimes. Try being a tough rooster when you're held on your back like a baby doll and have your tummy tickled and talked to with baby talk. They freak out at first then they start liking being held again.

My husband says I could turn anything into a spoiled rotten pet.

Cathy

 

[cashdl]

Hi Cathy,

I keep waffleing on selling my roo. He is so beautiful and I am getting some nice double tufted chicks out of him. He probably could be worked with, I just don't have the time or the inclination. If someone offers me a good price he is gone, untill then I will keep setting eggs from his pen and dodging his beak.

The weather is so yucky here. I am still hatching chicks, but don't have as many to set. My girls have all but stopped laying. I am only getting about 3 eggs a day and should be getting just over a dozen. I have 1 last hatching egg order to send out today and then I am going to start setting for myself in earnest for the next month or so. I want to give myself lots to choose from for my own breeding pens this fall, so I had better start hatching.

One of my barred pullets laid her first egg and it was a nice solid teal. Yippee! I love the deeper colors. Course it was her first so it will probably lighten up, but thats ok. Now I am down to only two hens that lay ugly eggs. One of those hens eggs have gotten slightly bluer so that is good.

The babies on the deck are crying to be let out, so I am off to see to the flock. Good morning all!!


Lanae

 

[HaikuHeritageFarm]

Not a purebred, but I am proud of her! This girl is half Araucana and half rosecomb brown Leghorn. We couldn't get our hands on purebred Araucana hens, so this was the solution for the time being. They turned out beautiful. Many of the others have stunning tufts, too.







The other birds in the photos are broiler/Polish crosses. I'm going hog wild with cool crosses for my layer flock this year.

Trooper and the Poodle sisters.

We will be breeding this flock of Leghorn/Araucanas and EE/Araucana back to the Araucana next year. We also did finally get a very few shipped purebred Araucana eggs hatched out for this project.