Araucana thread anyone?

[kygoatgirl]

Very nice smoothmule.
Here's some pics of the ones I got from you...

 

[kygoatgirl]

Here's a few more....

 

[Beth G.]

Very nice Babies!!!
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[Beth G.]

X2 your hens are gorgeous Smoothmule!!
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[Beth G.]

Well everyone, Thank you for taking me up on the hatching eggs. I am currently sold out for now. I also rehomed my beautiful Lavender cockrel. He was sold to a woman locally that bought some other older black araucana hens from me in a trio. She has a really nice farm and no other chickens so I hope she gets to have some offspring from them next year.

I just love seeing all the pictures of all the beautiful babies on here.

 

[cashdl]

My hatch rates seem to be fairly low lately. No matter how many eggs I put in the incubator only 4 to 6 hatch. It has been over 100 here lately so that could be effecting things also. This last weeks hatch while only 4 chicks hatched, 3 were tufted and one of them is barred so that is great.

I am off this evening to coop-in two of my roos at the heirloom poultry show here in my area. We are having an APA judge do the judging so that is wonderful. I hope they do this show every year. I am setting up a breed table for this week and will be man-ing it. I am taking some babies to sell also. I think I have close to 20 I have talked myself into letting go of. I keep telling myself, cull hard Lanae! But it is so difficult. They are all so pretty. I would say half of the ones I am taking down to sell are tufted. Some blues, some blacks, and some splashs. I think out of the last couple of batches, I am going to keep for now 4 duckwing ( 3 tufted), 1 double tufted white pullet ( I will breed her back to her dad), 1 double tufted splash roo, a double tufted barred roo ( this weeks baby) and a couple of birchen pullets all clean faced.

I am kicking around putting this pair on Sky Blue eggs auction site. She has beautiful tufts and he has a georgous body. I think together they will produce some really nice araucana babies. I think I will take them to the Sonoma Fair first to see if they will sell there. Any thoughts on what price I should ask?

I also have a double tufted black pullet with beautiful tufts, no tailbone but two downward tail feathers, and a black birchen-esque cleanfaced rumpless roo, I am going to take to the fair to sell as a pair.
I think I have a couple of other birds I can pair up to sell and thin the herd so to speak.


I hope you all are having a great start to the week.

Lanae

 

[cashdl]

So I was cranky last night. One of the yahoo groups I subscribe to had a post from someone looking to sell a buff chanteclar (sp). Someone else posted they thought they only came in white. The original OP posted back that she got it from someone who was working on the Buff color project. I guess a couple of people are working on the buff color in that breed. After she posted that someone else posted that they have one and they got it at a feed store. I was immediately irritated because it reminded me so much of when I tell someone I have Araucana and they say " so do I, I got mine at the feed store" URGH! So I snarkily posted back that if she got it at a feed store it probably was not a buff chanteclar but a mix that hatcheries are selling as pruebred. Then I went on to say basically, that I loved it when people told me how much cheaper they could get my breed at a feed store, even after I explain how unique my breed is. I mentioned that when you post something like that it infers that what the person is trying to sell is really not that special and can be gotten everywhere.

Here I thought that Ameraucana, Araucana, and EE was pretty much the only chickens this issue came up about. But when you think about it. It comes down to hatchery versus the breeders in a way. Most breeders are trying to work toward a uniform standard even when working on a new color, while hatcheries just want to sell birds that look enough like the breed to keep people buying. It must be a major irritation to breeders of other breeds - say something common like the cochin - when they mention to someone that they raise, breed, and show cochins, and someone says " oh I have those too, I got mine at the feed store for $2.99 each", then looks at them daring them to say how much they charge for their cochins.

If you couldn't tell, I am gearing myself up for the people that are coming to the heritage show who know nothing about chickens and expect to pay next to nothing for them.

I guess I am still cranky this morning. I am off to get another cup of coffee in the hopes of improving my mood. LOL!

Lanae

 

[Illia]

You're not alone Lanae.


Take Rhode Island Whites for example.

- They're very, very, very rare. And don't exist in hatcheries. What hatcheries sell are skinny birds with single combs. RIW's have rose combs, first off. But still, people want to ignore that and deny such truth. . .


Hatchery vs Breeder issues pop up in nearly every breed, and it doesn't stop there. There's a lot of "breeders" that are just people who get poor stock, usually hatchery, and call themselves breeders of truly quality purebred birds.




Oh yeah! You're going to the Heritage/Heirloom expo. Hah, have fun. There are soo many people who think that just because a bird is a Barred Rock means it is a "heritage" bird and the same, somehow, as an actual Barred Rock fitting to the old, heritage standard and origin. I'd like to see a hatchery Barred Rock feed a family like a heritage Barred Rock.

 

[cashdl]

Last show I went to in the fall was small enough I was able to look around at the various breeds and see how they compared to what I had seen in backyard flocks. OMG were the white rocks enormous. They could eat a person! LOL! Same for the giant cochins.

Lanae

 

[Illia]

I need to find a photo of my Sussex next to my Araucanas. She's big enough to eat a person, too. Someday I need to get a reliable scale to weigh her. . . .