Araucana thread anyone?

[Chiko]

Tufts are easy to take care of, just leave them alone.  I don't do any maintenance on my birds tufts.  The only time they are a pain to keep pretty is when another bird get jealous and picks the tufts out.  Not cool.  Figure out who it it and move them to another pen.


I am not sure if it is a pullet or a roo.  Too young to tell for me.

Lanae

lol None of my birds are jealous and she lives with 2 other teens who are just as pretty as her so they will not get jealous I guess I'll have to wait and see on her gender :/

 

[cashdl]

Ok so here are the oldest chicks I have hatched and raised all from Lanae's stock that I purchased.

Black pullet I think


Silver duckwing pullet


Bluish pullet, cuckoo cockerel, black pullet


solid white double tufted cockerel,

I am loving the color on the cuckoo roo. Especially his big dark spot.

Lanae

 

[MA Mama]

I have a question for you all. I have some Araucana eggs hatching at the end of next week (God willing - I had an AWFUL hatch last time, humidity issue?, only 40% lived) and I would like to find homes for any possible extra chicks right away, before my kids and I get attached. I have several great homes lined up IF I have too many extra. I know that you can see tufts as soon as they are dry, but is there a chance that good tufts only become visible as the chick ages? I am talking about good tufts here, not small tufts. I don't want to unknowingly give away any potentially decently tufted babies. So I guess my question is... is any chick with decent tufts very identifiable at birth? Thanks in advance for your input!

 

[shanshan51]

I am loving the color on the cuckoo roo. Especially his big dark spot.

Lanae

Thanks Lanae,

Would he be a cuckoo / splash?

 

[cashdl]

I would consider him a Cuckoo splash. He is so pretty. He has a nice shape also.

Lanae

 

[cashdl]

I have a question for you all. I have some Araucana eggs hatching at the end of next week (God willing - I had an AWFUL hatch last time, humidity issue?, only 40% lived) and I would like to find homes for any possible extra chicks right away, before my kids and I get attached. I have several great homes lined up IF I have too many extra. I know that you can see tufts as soon as they are dry, but is there a chance that good tufts only become visible as the chick ages? I am talking about good tufts here, not small tufts. I don't want to unknowingly give away any potentially decently tufted babies. So I guess my question is... is any chick with decent tufts very identifiable at birth? Thanks in advance for your input!

I have no real answer for you. I have had tufted chicks hatch with huge cotton balls on their face only to grow up to have barely their tufts. It does seem to me to be though, the chicks that hatch with long wispy tufts, and long full tufts do tend to retain the length of the tufts later but there doesn't seem to be a way to say, " Wow those are going to be georgous" . I would just keep everything with tufts and watch them grow.

Lanae

 

[shanshan51]

I would consider him a Cuckoo splash. He is so pretty. He has a nice shape also.

Lanae

I am trying to think of 3 colored pens to set up soon. I was thinking of putting him with the two solid black pullets. Since I have so few colors that have grown out I am perplexed

Eventually he will be with the two older cuckoos that I got from you but he has not gained their respect yet and they will bully him. And the Roo I got from you (silver birchen) will go with the blacks. Then the double tufted white with the two solid whites I got from you. Trying to work out the genetics in my head

 

[cashdl]

I would possibly save a good tufted black roo from what you hatch if possible to put with the cuckoo girls. I have heard it helps darken up the cuckoo color. I have never tried it though. Since all my cuckoos were splash cuckoos you have the splash dilute running around in there and you want to counteract with black. I do have a nice blue cuckoo splash pullet here but she has a full huge tail. I am going to sell her as a blue egger because I am not working with cuckoo or splash.

I will trade you a solid white pullet for the silver duckwing pullet, if you want to continue with the whites. I hatched out two or 3 cleanfaced whites from eggs I purchased from another breeder, at least one of them should be a pullet and completely unrelated to any of my birds, as this breeder has a closed flock and I have not gotten birds or eggs from him before. It would give you diversity.

Lanae

 

[shanshan51]

I would possibly save a good tufted black roo from what you hatch if possible to put with the cuckoo girls. I have heard it helps darken up the cuckoo color. I have never tried it though. Since all my cuckoos were splash cuckoos you have the splash dilute running around in there and you want to counteract with black. I do have a nice blue cuckoo splash pullet here but she has a full huge tail. I am going to sell her as a blue egger because I am not working with cuckoo or splash.

I will trade you a solid white pullet for the silver duckwing pullet, if you want to continue with the whites. I hatched out two or 3 cleanfaced whites from eggs I purchased from another breeder, at least one of them should be a pullet and completely unrelated to any of my birds, as this breeder has a closed flock and I have not gotten birds or eggs from him before. It would give you diversity.

Lanae

We the plan was to do a black, a white, and a duckwing pen. However he is the oldest Cockerel that I have at this point. The others are a month or two behind him. So I wanted to use him to breed when they are starting to lay until I get the solids going. I too do not want to breed for cuckoo but rather stick to the accepted colors.

Is the white pullet laying?

 

[cashdl]

The possible white pullet is too little. I have 4 white chicks and I figure at least one has to be a pullet. LOL! They are 3 weeks old.


I think I am going to wait till all the whites get about 3 to 4 months and then sell them as a starter flock depending on what gender they all turn out to be.

You could always hang on to him for a little and then sell all the cuckoos together as a breeding set and concentrate on the 3 colors you want to work with.


Here are some new photos I took of my birds.

The first two are of Marco Polo one of my mottled roos, just to show how much they can change as they mature.

two months

five months and what a difference.

This is what happens when a bird is hen pecked.

Before After

This is my wheaten pens and the chicks I am getting

Phoenix Nierti Ginger Tufted Pullet



Lanae