Araucana thread anyone?

[yanmar1610d]

Just wondering if anyone has Wheaten Araucana's?

 

[cashdl]

Hi Yanmar,

Sky Blue Eggs has wheaten Araucana. I should have a start next year with a few wheatens, but they are just babies right now.


Rumbull,

Your correct the fast feathering gene is cuckoo and more messy looking, and the slow feathering gene is barred and more crip barring. I have heard that there may be a genetic link between fast feathering and Mereks resistance also. If thats so, I would definately prefer the cuckoo look in the araucana.


Lanae

 

[yanmar1610d]

Quote:
Lanae,
What did you cross yours with? I crossed a Wheaten Maran with a Red Breasted Araucana. The pullet Chick that hatched out is Rumpless and has the Wheaten color. Now I need a Wheaten Araucana Roo to go along with the pullet.

 

[cashdl]

I was bad and just bought some chicks from skyblue eggs. Two came wheaten. They both look to be pullets. I have a BBR roo that I will breed them to and see what I get.

Lanae

 

[cashdl]

I don't know who all saw my post a while back about my days at the farmers market selling eggs and how fun it was to have people telling me that they had araucanas also. One of the ladies I went ahead and argued with because I have know her for years. I showed her pictures of my birds and she had to admit that she didn't have araucana, but she only wanted the blue eggs and now she thinks they are ameraucana, but is still going to tell people they are araucana ameraucana eggs, so I really did a great job on that one. LOL!

She and I share a craft fair booth, I sell my jewelry and she sells pot holders and change purses ( she does really well). She informed me last weekend end over coffee that she bought Penedesenca chicks from a hatchery and they were getting close to laying. She couldn't wait for their dark brown eggs. I told her that Penedesencas were very rare and she most likely did not get the actual breed she was supposed to. She informed me that she had done the research and was sure that was what she got. She ordered them in the wheaten color. Then she told me they looked just like her Ameraucana Araucanas except they had feathered legs also. I laughed so hard I spit out my coffee. I told her, it sounded like they sent her Salmon Favorell cross's and her eggs wouldn't be dark like she was expecting. But no she was very sure.

I knew the very basics about the Penedesenca, so the next day I looked up the club website, which really is what anyone should do when looking to buy a breed. HMMM! The Penedesenca looks nothing like Ameraucanas, nor do they have feathered legs. So much for her research.

Then I decided to look at various hatchery websites and see what they say. One website said that the Penedesenca lays the darkest eggs of any breed. Wow that interesting. I though the Marans did. LOL!


Then I went to Murry Mcmurry website and got distracted by their Araucana page. REALLY! Has anyone else looked at it. Talk about alot of wrong information. Here is what their website says

The "Easter Egg Chicken", This unusual breed gets its name from the Indian tribe of Chile where they were first discovered. Araucanas lay beautiful colored eggs of blue-green shades from turquoise to deep olive. These natural Easter Eggs will amaze your friends and make a great "show and tell" project for school. Adults are of medium size with pea combs and our breeding stock is selected for their ability to produce colored eggs. They exhibit a wonderful combination of colors and color patterns and 10 or 20 of these birds make an absolutely beautiful laying flock that is extremely hardy and will be the talk of the town. Baby chicks come in all colors, plain and fancy, just like the adults. This is a unique breed and great fun to have when the colored eggs start coming. Our Araucanas are recommended for egg laying color and ability and not for exhibition" I am so glad they mentioned that they are not for exhibition. LOL! One would think they were show quality just looking at the pictures.

Then they have a video of baby chicks and point out their muffs and call them tufts. They also have a drawing of a Quetro type bird with big tufts. I wonder how many people are waiting for their birds tufts to grow bigger and look like the drawing. LOL!

Ok, enough of my rant for the day. I am off to make myself another cup of coffee.

Lanae

 

[granites2001]

I know the information out there is CRAZY. I remember years ago finding Tufted Rumpless Araucana on the internet. I ordered chicks from Murray McMurray and I think Cackle hatchery expecting to get Araucana. So, glad there are groups out there and breeders who I was lucky enough to find. I only have 4 a black bilaterally tufted roo, 2 blue clean faced rumpless hens and a splash clean faced rumpless Splash. I am so excited to finally have Araucana's after so many years of not being able to find them!

I think I'll get another cup of coffee too...LOL

Lisa

 

[cackleberrycoop]

I have my coffee cup in hand, so can I join in the rant too??? I'm all for breeding and selling what people want - what's selling. But if you have to lie about what you've got, that's a pretty good sign that you're on the wrong side of the issue. In the case of McMurray, it's just shameless; they have to know how much they are relied upon and trusted in the world of backyard chicken owners. I have lost count of how many times I have tried to explain the Araucana/ Ameraucana relationship only to be discounted because I contradict THE hatchery's web site. The standard of perfection just seems to frightening people, most of the buyers I have shown it to had no idea that there was such a thing - for them the authority is what the big hatcheries say. It would be such a different story if the big hatcheries would just take a few weeks to get their stories straight, take pride in educating their buyers instead of feeding the confusion and discord that's so rampant on this issue.

 

[cashdl]

Has anyone read David Caudills book " Araucana Poulterers Handbook"? It is really cool. While it has alot of information about the araucana, it was written to promote the Collonca or the rumpless cleanfaced version of the Araucana. He calls them Araucana Colloncas. He outlines 3 variations of the Araucana. 1 - the Colllonca - rumpless and cleanfaced, laying blue eggs. 2 - The Quetro - tailed and tufted, non-blue egg laying. 3 - The Colloncas De Artes - tufted and rumpless, laying blue eggs.

He calls the tufted rumpless a mongrel that is the offspring of breeding the other two varieties together. I had kicked around having 3 seperate breeding goals, one for each of the distinct varieties but have yet to hatch a tufted tailed araucana. I get the other two varieties all the time of course and I get cleanfaced and tailed. His thought was the Collonca and the Quetro should only be bred with their respective types to stabilize their type.

He seems to indicate and so do several others Such as Dr. Bustos and Dr. Sierra that it is the combination of the rumplessness, tufts, and blue eggs that is lethal. They concluded that by breeding tufted, tailed, non-blue egg laying birds together only would stabilize the tufting gene. HMM! I wonder if there has been any other research done on this. Anyone know.


He also comments on the blue egg and pea comb linkage which is interesting. He states that in the experiments a pea combed araucana cock resembling a brown leghorn was mated to an unspecified number of straight combed hens whose breed and type were not identified. They only reported on the F1 female results and neglected to include in the report that the single comb gene is recessive to the pea comb gene.

He also corresponded with several poulterers who stated tha single combed or for that matter any comb variation of domestic fowl will and have been successfully bred to produce blue eggs, and also have the ability to pass the blue egg gene on their their offspring with consistent regularity. He also found that the most intense blue colors were observed in birds who were single combed.

This was all observed over 30 years ago and the Araucana has changed dramatically in that time but it makes for interesting reading. Anyone else have thoughts on this.

Lanae

 

[granites2001]

I need to find that book. I am so new to the genetics stuff and I feel really dumb, but I try to read everything I can get my hands on. Plus, it helps to have friends who are very experienced and knowledeable to bounce thing off of.

Thanks for the book recommendation Lanae!

Lisa

 

[Rumbull]

When I read that about the straight comb, it made me assume leghorn was crossed into the breed. This would remove brown and thus make the eggs less green. I know that white earlobes were once common and that also could be from the leghorn.
The handbook is a neat flashback to what was going on in the past.