Araucana thread anyone?

[smoothmule]

Illia,
What a nice hatch! Miss Josephine is a jewel. Definitely post updates. I just moved some more chicks out to a larger brooder tonight. They live the first few days to a week (depending on how many I hatch) in a hamster cage on my desk with a light. I just have 2 teensy Serama chicks and a turkey poult with leg issues in here right now. The others were getting rambunctious so they were ready to go. Got a few Araucana eggs to hatch in the next couple of days, one is an early bird and pipped already.

 

[Jen286]

This post is copied from another thread. I'm new here, so please excuse me if that breaks forum etiquette or anything. I was told that this thread would be the more likely location to find some of the resident Araucana experts.

I bought ten chicks that were supposed to be Araucanas, but after some more research I'm unsure. Most of them looked tufted as chicks, but only one has developed really notable tufts now at about 7-8 weeks old. Most of them look more like the photo below where there are some stunted little feathery bits that are present, but not as pronounced as the ones that I'm seeing in most of the Araucana photos I'm finding.



Also, only a few of them really appear to be rumpless. One seems to be pretty much on par with breed standard in color (I think this is considered silver duckwing? Maybe just silver. There are some nuances to color and pattern that I'll admit I don't fully grasp yet), having bilateral tufts, and being rumpless. That said, this is my first dealing with this breed and I'm less than confident in that. Here's a not so great photo of her, but the only one I snapped while I was in the coop today that shows her face and rump from a decent angle.



The research I've been doing is pointing towards Araucanas being a pretty difficult breed to meet breed standard with, so is it possible that the variation in traits is just part of the tendency of Araucanas to not meet standard, or do I probably just have Easter Eggers that were mislabeled?

 

[MA Mama]

OK so Illia's Josephine has a comb that is the same size as my Araucana who I THOUGHT was a roo! No wonder I keep saying he doesn't act like a roo!!!! But my other Araucana of the same age have much smaller combs than that. Can their comb sizes in teh same gender be significantly different. Clearly Jospehine is a SHE but maybe so is my "roo" with the same comb size??? I did post pics on here a long time ago, and you guys all said "roo", too, so I'm not crazy.

Illia that crested is so cool!

 

[Illia]

If it is fully adult and past laying age, it's gotta be a gal. But otherwise it might be a male. After so many weeks of age it's more the redness and lack of feathers around the face that start to give away the gender rather than just the comb. But of course, the most give away is the bodily feathers.


Jen286: Welcome! I'm sorry to inform you though, but, you very very likely have Easter Eggers. The one on top does indeed have a color that Araucanas can come in, but it appears to have beard/muffs (not an Araucana thing) and you mentioned getting them all and they were supposed to be Araucanas, well, if you got them from a feedstore or a breeder who never mentioned the name Easter Egger to you to in proof that they aren't Easter Eggers, they're Easter Eggers.

Rumpless Easter Eggers are very rare, you might possibly just have some plucked tails or very slow growers, feather wise. The two chicks in the background of the last image for example, those are just slow tail growers which often points to them being male. If you post more pics in the EE Braggers thread I can help you out with sexing them.

Although EE's are sold as sexed pullets, most often people end up with one cockerel at some point or another.

 

[Stacykins]

Congrats on Josephine's babies! They're all so precious!

I just added to my flock too. Three little 'canas hatched last night. One tufted, two cleanfaced. It is so nice to be hatching my own chicks on a regular basis, finally! I've been so heavy on the males, thus far. Of the chicks I got from Gary Ramey's eggs, all but one were boys, doh! Same with the olive eggers. I just want some girls, darnit, haha!

 

[Cciprnancy]

What does everyone do when they get too many roosters? I really don't want to eat them.

 

[cashdl]

Congrats on Josephine's babies! They're all so precious!

I just added to my flock too. Three little 'canas hatched last night. One tufted, two cleanfaced. It is so nice to be hatching my own chicks on a regular basis, finally! I've been so heavy on the males, thus far. Of the chicks I got from Gary Ramey's eggs, all but one were boys, doh! Same with the olive eggers. I just want some girls, darnit, haha!

I know what you mean. From my wheaten pen I have something like 7 roo chicks and 1 pullet. But from my duckwing pen I have some really nicely tufted pullets and am hoping for at least 1 tufted roo.

Lanae

 

[shanshan51]

What does everyone do when they get too many roosters? I really don't want to eat them.

We have 2 auctions in our area that run 3 Sundays a month. I take all my cockerels / roos there as soon as I know I wont need them. Some get eaten some go as pets. I get between 5-20 per rooster.

 

[Stacykins]

I've been able to unload a few locally. The rest go to freezer camp, for me. Nothing tastier than home raised!

 

[Illia]

I've been able to unload a few locally. The rest go to freezer camp, for me. Nothing tastier than home raised!

Same here. If he's tufted he will go to a new home, if he isn't he'll become some delicious food. Araucanas and Araucana based Olive Eggers really are my favorite when it comes to the meat subject of chickens.