Araucana thread anyone?

[snooparis]

yes maybe it got plucked during transport but it still looks good, the male tufts are long. the girl Annable here is still in show condition.

 

[smoothmule]

Lanae! I missed reading your posts too. How are you?? I hope I have things lined out for spring. I think I'll always have a hodge podge of cool colors that are not black or white but I've been working on putting together 2 breeding pens for black and 2 breeding pens for white with 1 to 2 roosters and 6 hens for each pen. I haven't counted lately but I think I'll still need a few pullets but I will have at least 2 trio's of each color and spare roosters. I thought I'd get rid of anything not black or white to simplify but I can't see parting with Rudy, he was my first and he's here for good so I kept Beauty my dark red hen for him. He is so heavy. I need to weigh him but I think he must be at or over the weight they want for standard. I have some very nice heavy cockerels hatched this year too.

Aris, Good to see you here! I'm so happy you have finally gotten your Araucana's home. I love the pale blue with darker blue head/neck and spots. I have a line of those here, they seem to breed true to color so I bet you will have more of them.

Cindy, I don't know what that color is. It started here with my hen Luvdove. She is exactly that color. All of her chicks by any color rooster were the same color too so I'm really wondering what the color genetics are. It doesn't look splash. These are all different chicks out of that one hen, they are nearly identical

Rumbull,
I think I have a couple more chicks that you would like, did that blue chick end up barred?? What do you think of these 2 chicks?? They are both single tufted. tuft on the right side. Let me know if you're interested in them. They're still in the brooder so it will be a while before they're weaned off lights for warmth.

AND
I have a "new" to me, home made incubator. It's made out of a (free) non-working dorm fridge sized wine cooler, the compressor was gutted out then the only thing that cost me anything was the light bulb. The fan is one I had in a bathroom, a little cheapy fan from Walmart. A quart jar for water/humidity, a "vintage" coil type thermostat that my Dad gave me and a single 60 watt light bulb in a plug-in type socket and the wire was some old lamp wire I found in the garage. The racks were bottle holder shaped so I took apart an old bird cage that didn't have a top or bottom and I used wire cutters to cut the sides to the right size for the racks. I had a strip of that plastic protector stuff you put around the edge of a cage door to cover the sharp edges that was excess that I bought this summer. It made 3 perfect coated wire racks. The best part is how well it's keeping temp. We tried 2 other thermostats that just didn't keep the temps stable, they varied a Lot, from 97 to 101. Now, the temp is on the money 99.5 to 100 and the humidity 38 to 40%. There was already a couple of holes the back where wiring used to be and they seem to be good enough for fresh air. The proof is in the hatching so we'll see in about 20 days. I'm pretty proud of my recycled, $2 incubator

I can rearrange the racks and have 3 racks for eggs and use my Little Giant incubator for hatching or the first few days after hatching.

 

[snooparis]

Hi Cathy, I like the color of your chickens, they are beautiful. What can i say about your incubator? very resourceful and so original hehe. For sure it will work, for me the wafer thermostat is still the best for chicken incubators, very durable and sensitive. Please keep us updated about the hatch rate of your DIY incubator in about 20 days. Godbless!

,Aris

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Fabulous incubator!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so impressed! Good luck with your hatch and remember, if it doesn't work perfectly the first time, keep tinkering. It's sure purdy.

 

[cashdl]

Hi Megan,

How are the blues? I hope they are doing well for you.

Lanae

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Quote:
Hey there - I've been wanting to write you with an update. We've named the Rooster "Delusional" and call him "Lushion" for short. It's a great, strong sounding name and he has no idea that we are laughing at him when we use it.

What a goofy boy! When I first put him and the girls in the big coop with the rest of the flock, and closed everyone in for two weeks to encourage them all to roost in the new building together, Lushion took control of the flock right away; it was incredible! He was the top bird in there, overcame boys who have been at the top of my flock for more than one season. I was very surprised by that turn of events. Then I opened the coop doors to let the free ranging begin and he was scared spitless. The majority of the flock, the blue Araucana hens from you included, poured out the door and spread out far and wide across our property. Lushion stood in the doorway clucking and crowing and having a hissy fit. For two days strait he paced back and forth hollering at "his" birds to behave themselves and get back in the coop. That was when the name "Delusional" came to be.......
He's over it now and free ranges with the best of them, but still gets all hot and bothered when he sees another rooster behaving in a dominant fashion towards other birds, but his is no longer at the top of the flock's pecking order.
Here's a picture of him; I was taking photos of the BitterRoot Mountains the other day and he kept strutting in front of the lens and putting up a fuss.

I nearly decided that it was his way of asking me to clip off his abnormal third tuft and use it in my feather jewelry business. That's my constant threat to him, when he's causing a ruckus in my flock, prancing about with that THING bobbing around his chest "You watch it Mr, I'm about to clip off that tuft you're so proud of. I'll turn it into the most beautiful earring you've ever seen and then I'm going to wear it every day when I'm cleaning out your coop!" He just looks at me like "I am invinsible you clueless human, now feed me."

Here is my favorite hen that you sent to me. She is so pretty and for the last few days she has been trying out nesting boxes - I'm really looking forward to her first (for me) egg.

I've been taking photos of the birds and need to update my website; she is certainly going on there.

How are your newest babies doing? Got anymore in the bator?

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Wow! those pictures are ENORMOUS! I'm sorry everyone - I'll have to figure out what happened there and change my technique.

 

[All-American-Chick]

hey all,
I have a lonely male rumpless over here that needs some friends.
I just finished a hatch with 5 rumpless eggs and only 1 hatched.i was happy to have the one but was hoping that maybe someone out there has some more just hatched for sale.i dont care what colors just so he has some friends.can one determine sex at a few days old on this breed?im hoping ours that hatched is a female.
if you have or will be having some hatch soon and willing to ship please pm me the details.

or if you sell hatching eggs please pm me price and colors available(not that it really matters but i love the lavenders)

thanks

 

[cashdl]

Hi Megan,

Glad to hear they are all getting settled in. That blue hen was my favorite of the 3 also. She is very sweet and if memory serves, lays a nice blue egg. Sorry I didn't mention the roo's ability to dominate any situation. He has had his own pen of girls for 2 years now so I didn't think about it, but when I first got him, he beat up a much bigger roo. It was my double tufted perfect BBR roo, who was so devastated by the incident that he literally laid down and died, with not a mark on him two days later. Since then I have kept all my breeding boys seperate and all has been good.

He is a nice boy though and very pretty except for his third tuft. Gag! LOL! But it is bouncing around your yard now.



I have a beautiful pen of 3 month old grow outs all from the same hatch. Out of 13 chicks, so far only 1 has died and only 4 are not double tufted.

I have 6 eggs in the incubator set to hatch tomorrow but I am not really holding out too much hope. PG&E turned power off to our entire little town 2 weeks ago while doing upgrades. I put hand warmers in with them and the temp didn't get below 90 according to my daughter who was watching the farm for me that weekend but I am a little worried that the warmers may have off gassed, so we will see.


Lanae

 

[cottagechick]

Quote:
Hey there - I've been wanting to write you with an update. We've named the Rooster "Delusional" and call him "Lushion" for short. It's a great, strong sounding name and he has no idea that we are laughing at him when we use it.

What a goofy boy! When I first put him and the girls in the big coop with the rest of the flock, and closed everyone in for two weeks to encourage them all to roost in the new building together, Lushion took control of the flock right away; it was incredible! He was the top bird in there, overcame boys who have been at the top of my flock for more than one season. I was very surprised by that turn of events. Then I opened the coop doors to let the free ranging begin and he was scared spitless. The majority of the flock, the blue Araucana hens from you included, poured out the door and spread out far and wide across our property. Lushion stood in the doorway clucking and crowing and having a hissy fit. For two days strait he paced back and forth hollering at "his" birds to behave themselves and get back in the coop. That was when the name "Delusional" came to be.......
He's over it now and free ranges with the best of them, but still gets all hot and bothered when he sees another rooster behaving in a dominant fashion towards other birds, but his is no longer at the top of the flock's pecking order.
Here's a picture of him; I was taking photos of the BitterRoot Mountains the other day and he kept strutting in front of the lens and putting up a fuss.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/69745_delusional_1.jpg
I nearly decided that it was his way of asking me to clip off his abnormal third tuft and use it in my feather jewelry business. That's my constant threat to him, when he's causing a ruckus in my flock, prancing about with that THING bobbing around his chest "You watch it Mr, I'm about to clip off that tuft you're so proud of. I'll turn it into the most beautiful earring you've ever seen and then I'm going to wear it every day when I'm cleaning out your coop!" He just looks at me like "I am invinsible you clueless human, now feed me."

Here is my favorite hen that you sent to me. She is so pretty and for the last few days she has been trying out nesting boxes - I'm really looking forward to her first (for me) egg.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/uploads/69745_blue_araucana_1.jpg

I've been taking photos of the birds and need to update my website; she is certainly going on there.

How are your newest babies doing? Got anymore in the bator?

I LOVE the picture of the roo...I don't know if it is clear enough but that would be a great pic of the day...