Araucana thread anyone?

[cackleberrycoop]

Sounds just about perfect to me. The only thing that I can think of to add would have been to reference the standard of perfection - the authority on the matter. I think that for someone who had been breeding as long as this seller claims, there may well be basis for her claims in the history of the two breeds - from what I hear out of other long time breeders, it really was an accepted and expected thing to get a hodge podge of the characteristics from the different blue egg layers in a batch of chicks. Again, that's absolutely fine if that is what a breeder and buyers are interested in, but to breed something under a name, it really must be bred towards that standard's agreed upon characteristics, as described in the standard. I'm just not sure how many long time breeders realize that there has been a standard set.

 

[cashdl]

Here is the ebayers reply to my above email.

"A picture is worth a 1000 words-I have said plenty in my ad. I have not misrepresented my beautiful flock in any way. You seem to be the only confused one. Have you seen my whole flock? As you keep insisting on what they are. As I said before 25yrs myself & my 21yr old daughter who has been showing since she was 9 & has an bachelors of science in poultry from the UW Madison & is a state certified pullorum tester-guess that makes 2 experts here & we have the trophies to prove it! 2 UW poultry professors have comment on the quality of our flock & they are experts! Please if you are not interested in saying anything nice please don't say anything at all-makes you sound jealous & small. I am glad to know that other people take pride in their birds as I do."

Here is their ad on ebay which has changed since yesterday but still is interesting especially when you look at their pictures.

" 42 Araucana Very fresh & fertile hatching eggs
White rumpless roos on wheaten, white, & blue hens -some bearded-some tufted-some tailed-some rumpless
Eggs are blue

FREE bonus Black Star eggs"

I am in the process of formulating my reply. As I was only commenting on her ad and the birds she has pictured that represent her ad. I will mention the Standard of Perfection, however if she started raising these birds 25 years ago, it was still well after the Araucana were recognized as a breed of poultry by the American Poultry Association. That was 35 years ago. Also she said that she has been perfecting them for the last 4 years and they are the best they have ever been. No pink eggs. What! Obviously no clue about either breed.




Lanae

 

[Stacykins]

She might not listen to reason. She may have birds that are tufted and rumpless (I see a picture of a rumpless bird and probable tufts in one picture) and the rest are EE mutts that aren't very flattering.

 

[cashdl]

Here is my reply. Let me know what you think. I am really trying to sound reasonable. I went and looked her pics again and do not see any tufts, but I will take another look. I hate people to spend good money expecting they are getting the real thing.

"Again thank you for your reply. I believe you misunderstood my interest. Your ebay ad was brought to my attention after I had seen comments about it on two other Araucana forum sites. It was the consensus that you were unaware of what an araucana was based on your ad and the pictures you have posted to represent your ad. As you say a picture is worth a 1000 words. Therein lies my confusion. I appologize for any ill will you felt coming from myself, it was not intended. I was not commenting on the quality of your birds as birds, but as Araucana. And I was only commenting on the pictures of the birds in your ad. I will say that the rumpless roo pictured is quite lovely and has nice conformation. However none of the others exhibit Araucana type. When seeking validation about ones breeding flock it is always best to look to the Standard of Perfection as written by the American Poultry Association which outlines very clearly what an Araucana is. This was set forth almost 40 years ago to be a guideline for all those wanting to breed this wonderful breed of chicken.

The experts you have mentioned seem to be health experts and not breed experts, but I could be wrong. I am sorry you feel I was sounding jealous, if you have seen my birds on my website you know that is not so. I would love to see pictures of your other birds especially the tufted Araucana, as I love talking to other Araucana breeders about their birds. We can all learn from each other to help better the breed. I am constantly asking questions of other serious Araucana breeders.

I have sold hatching eggs on ebay many times before and my pictures have always been of True Rumpless Tufted Araucana chickens because my add heading was for Araucana hatching eggs. When I open your add to look, I expected to see pictures of Araucana and only say one possible Araucana, the lovely afore mentioned roo. I suspect when others open your ad they are looking for real araucana eggs also, and will be mislead."

Lanae

 

[cashdl]

Nope no tufts to be seen. There is alot of straight combed birds and some birds with beard but no muffs and a couple with muffs and no beard. Also she mentions no pink eggs, but I do see a few tan looking ones in her incubator and hatching pics.

No I don't believe she will listen to reason. I was hoping she would at least change her ad to reflect Araucana/Americana eggs that way people would know right off they are mixs at best and wishful thinking at worst.


Lanae

 

[BlazeJester]

Your argument sounds well thought out, well phrased and pretty inarguable. Feedback is the bane of a dishonest ebay seller's existence. At least better than CraigsList, right?!

As for my own cutie patooties, I'm quite curious as to their mix. They're all rumpless - the lady I got them from said one was split for tufts but that seems not to be the case since tufts are dominant - but all have definite green in their legs. True Araucana cannot have green legs, correct?

 

[cashdl]

True Araucana should have green legs because they are a yellow skinned bird. A bird can only pass on tufts if it has tufts, so I am not sure what the seller of your birds ment by split for tufts. Tufted birds are heterozygous meaning any living tufted bird only has 1 copy of the tufting gene and has a 50% chance of passing it on. If the parents of your birds had tufts they could pass them on to your birds but your birds would show it. They would have tufts. They would then be able to pass their tufted gene on to their offspring if and only if they had tufts, 50% of the time.

Hope that makes sense. I would love to see pictures of them.

Welcome to the forum.

Lanae

 

[BlazeJester]

Ok, so green is good. Good

I've got some VERY GREEN legs and some black legs with random forest-green splotches. Nothing a judge would look at, but if I get some eggs from SOMEONE I'll be happy!

I think there are 2 cockerels and 1 pullet. She said they hatched Nov 10, but they look more like 3 weeks than 6! Probably my favorite thing about them is that in between all the little chirps (they live in a dog crate in my bedroom), I get frequent little *trills* that sounds almost cricket-like. They're pretty adorable. I didn't miss the LF when they moved out, but these guys have been easy to sleep to. I'm sure I'll change my mind about that when someone finds his big boy voice!!!

The one on the left is still chipmunk patterned with just about the prettiest coloring I've ever seen. Can't wait to see how he feathers out. The comb is not well defined or particularly raised, but very red. The lady called him a "buff columbian" but he looks awfully duckwing something to me...

Little girl, all black:

Boy #2, black with gold leakage on the chest; his comb has raised up pretty notably in the past week:

 

[cashdl]

They look good to me Meg, and I think you are correct on your gender identification. Nice looking birds though. I don't see any tufts but sometimes they will get really tiny ones, so look for a single feather sticking out at the ears when they are fully feathered.

Lanae

 

[BlazeJester]

Thanks! One of the boys will have to go but that's quite a ways in the future.

I think you were right about the eBay lady... I emailed her asking why there were tons of single-combed and bearded birds pictured in her listing for araucana and this is the response:

These are Araucana/ Americauna hatching eggs and do not yield a single comb ever. As for the single comb birds you are seeing they are a breed called Black Stars and as mentioned in the description come as a bonus to purchasing. Thank You.

Soooooo she's selling a bunch of mutts and thinks black stars are a breed