Araucana thread anyone?

[syble]

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OHHH *peanut gallery cheers* Use the tufted black roo in the splash pen and bring the clean faced black and blue hens over for a party.... or take that group of hens and split them between the blue and black roos lol *peanut gallery shuts up lol*

 

[cashdl]

Yes Syble I will be sending you some splash hatching eggs in the spring. LOL! All of the girls in the splash pen right now are ones I will never sell. They are just too nice. So I might as well do something with them. The girls in the splash pen really all lay the nicest eggs of all of my birds. The one black hen I am thinking of putting in that pen lays a beautiful teal blue matte finish egg. It would be prettier if it was shiny but can't have everything.

Next week the white roo gets shipped out and then I will start rearranging pens and birds. I am so excited.

Lanae

 

[syble]

i wonder if thats the same black hen you sent me an egg from this past spring, we discussed it at length very nice color in my mind.

Thanks for the comment on the black pullet. I really dislike crow headed birds. I'm accustomed to the big block heads that come with my other dual purpose breeds lol.

On the topic of egg color the blue ginger duckwing/wheaton hen lays a pretty little mint blue/green egg, the black lays a very pale blue, and the blue lays a vivid dirty green... i remember the rooster hatched from a respectable blue egg, so i will still use the blue hen and hope that the combination will inspire bluer eggs lol.

if all goes well (fingers crossed) I hope to hold onto about twice the amount of hens that i need in the hopes of being able to cull additionally based on egg colour. pipe dreams i know but fingers crossed lol.

Anyone else have goals for this season?

 

[cashdl]

I agree about the crow headed. I just read an article about culling for head type and egg production. It was really interesting. I had to run around and look at my birds. I tend to keep the birds whose face I like anyway. But it was good to get some pointers on what to look for in a chicken head, even though the araucana is never going to be a production egg layer like the leghorn or RIRs.

Now if I can work on egg color I would be happy, but I seem to have gotten rid of some of my bluest egg layers because they either weren't a color I wanted or I didn't like how they looked. I promised a cute little cuckoo pullet to someone and I went out to her pen to clean it the other day and found two beautiful blue eggs. Really nice color. She is the only girl in the pen so they are definately hers. Wouldn't you know it, that I already sold her. Oh well. I still have a couple of girls that lay nice blue eggs. I think 4 or 5, but the rest lay definate green eggs.

There is always something to work on with the araucana.

Lanae

 

[cashdl]

I think it is the same hen Syble. I havn't hatched any babies from her lately but my nice double tufted black roo chick is one of hers and so is a couple of cleanfaced black pullets. So they should lay nice blue eggs.

Lanae

 

[syble]

that is exciting news

hurry up spring lol.

I think the hard thing for me will be to keep track of the blue hens babies... unless something extraordinary hatches that's male from her, i have no intentions of keeping a single male from her... I'll have no way of telling what egg color it would pass on to the hens you breed it too... shes tailed too so i'll have to cull hard i'm sure. but even if by fall i have a few pullets to evaluate from her, its better then nothing right? She lays the largest eggs out of the lot of them. and the color is vivid, not pale... if it had a blue spectrum instead of a green one, she would have gorgeous eggs!

the other 2 are in the blue world so i'm not too worried there as the cockerel hatched from a blue egg also. I don't want to keep anything tailed from them (they're all rumpless anyways, but you never know what will show up). And again, I want to hold onto twice as many hens as i plan to keep and cull em down based on egg color.

I plan to focus only on intense breeding of 3 breeds this year, araucanas, orps and partridge chanteclers... I don't think i'll do any breeding and keeping of my marans or silver laced wyandottes. I just don't see those fitting the same as long term goals.

 

[cashdl]

OMG! There is a 1502 sportman incubator and 1500 hatcher used 1 season for sale $900.00 for pair in Manchester New Hampshire. I wish I could get those. They go for $1600 new for the pair.

Lanae

 

[cackleberrycoop]

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Heavens to Betsy! My heart's pumping a mile a minute, like there was some way on God's green earth that I could get those here. My goodness, I would scrape that money up in a heart beat if there was any way to get those things home!!! I wonder why in the world they are selling? I have had NO problems with my sportman 1502, I've been so impressed. Wonder if they lost their flock to predators of something? WOW, what an awesome deal for someone.

 

[cashdl]

I know and I can't figure out how to get it. There is a brand new Ova Easy 380 for sale here in California for $800.00 and I am kicking it around because I have heard good things about it. Also farmerboy16 has a GQF1202 for $400.00 but I really want a new one and one with a clear door.

I can't make up my mind.


Lanae

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Quote:
It's an enormous decision. I know I don't spend that amount of money very often and I wanted to get it right. I really did spend last hatching season just waiting for something to go wrong with the sportsman - it seemed like it just had to happen. The only thing that I really wish was different was the window in the door is too small - it's hard to see the chicks hatching in the bottom when the trays up top are full. Of course, if I had a hatcher as well, then that would be not big deal at all, but I don't so I end up laying on the floor for hours at a time with my head cranked to the side trying to see what's going on down there. Brian added a light in the bottom that I can turn on and off from outside and that really, really helped things out. Also, the humidity bucket system is very much worth every penny.