Araucana thread anyone?

[Kassaundra]

Is that true of all araucana, willow legs? I have a silver duck wing female and her legs are white.

 

[cashdl]

Is that true of all araucana, willow legs? I have a silver duck wing female and her legs are white.

White is bad. The araucana is a yellow skinned bird, so yellow legs with other colors over it. They should never have white skin which gives you white legs.

White plumage araucana, blue, and cuckoo should have yellow legs. All other colors except black should have willow (green) legs. Black should have slate legs which is black over yellow skin.


Lanae

 

[Ksane]

Yes, Joe told me that when I got him from him. I don't show or breed so leg color means nothing to me Temperament, however, means a lot.

 

[cashdl]

Yes, Joe told me that when I got him from him. I don't show or breed so leg color means nothing to me Temperament, however, means a lot.

The araucana is know for roosters with excellant temperments. I have had two mean roosters here and they didn't stay and they were not of my breedings. If a roo is not of good temperment it is not going into my breeding pens. I have enough araucana now that I can be incredibly picky when it comes to temperment.

Now as far as leg color goes, I am super picky also with the exception of one breeding pen. It is an unusual color and the leg color is yellow, but I am working towards moving it to willow. It is taking some time.

I merely mentioned his leg color because someone else said that he was the dad of some chicks they have. If anyone is going to try to breed towards the standard of perfection ( which is what helps us all define the araucana as a breed and not a mixed mutt) then they may want to know the finer points of what makes a good representation of the breed in all respects, not just egg color, plumage color, temperment, and tufts. There are alot ( and I mean ALOT) of finer points that make the araucana the unique breed that it is today. Technically he would be considered a Collonca, not an araucana, is he was described by the breeders in Chile. The araucana is technically only the birds that are rumpless and tufted, but that is a topic of discussion for another day.

Lanae

 

[coberdor]

Yes, Roosters are either well tempered or good tasting.

We have a similar saying in horses...

Pretty is as pretty does!

 

[Ksane]

That's wonderful information, Lanae. However, Kass is the one who has the cockerel out of mine and she isn't it in for breeding or showing either. We're both pet owners, love the eggs, the companionship and Kass uses chickens in her gardening. If we're not breeding, showing or selling chicks, if we like just the looks and temperaments of Araucana....is it ok if he doesn't have green legs?

 

[cashdl]

That's wonderful information, Lanae. However, Kass is the one who has the cockerel out of mine and she isn't it in for breeding or showing either. We're both pet owners, love the eggs, the companionship and Kass uses chickens in her gardening. If we're not breeding, showing or selling chicks, if we like just the looks and temperaments of Araucana....is it ok if he doesn't have green legs?

Well it depends on how picky people are. If it were an ameraucana then people would say it was an EE because it doesn't meet the standard of perfection. Now in Chile, there are lots of what some would call araucana but their type is all over the place as far as comb, color, leg color, tails, rumplessness and so on but they all lay blue eggs, thats most important to them.

First and formost though is they are chickens and all chicken breeds are created from something else, so there should not be uppityness with any breed, however while it is absolutely fine to just love how special the araucana is whether they are perfectly correct or not, we would all do well as araucana owners to know the ins and outs of our particular breed of chicken and be careful that we not perpectuate faults simply because we like the looks ( part of the looks of the araucana is the correct color and type) and temperment of the araucana. That would be like saying we really like the ameraucana chicken cause their nice and lay blue eggs but don't worry about the colors that our birds produce and pretty soon according to the standard, do not have an ameraucana anymore. Oh right, thats already being done. LOL!

My point is, if being technical ( which I promise, I rarely get fussy about) anything that does not meet the standard is not an aruacana. But since the araucana does not breed true anyway. Than just going by the standard of perfection means most of the birds we have are not araucana, which is stupid. LOL! I just walked in a circle in my brain.

So enjoy your beautiful araucanas but this is a thread to learn and promote araucana, which means learning what makes a correct araucana whether we have them or not. I was not meaning to pick anyones bird apart but information is king and there is no such thing as too much information, only how we choose to use it or not.

Also please beware, that right now you may have no intention of promoting or breeding the araucana but, I can promise you everyone one of us serious breeders that strive every day to breed to the standard of perfection, had not intention of breeding, but we have all been so captivated by this breed that we just had to learn more, and have more, and then you are hooked. They are a sneaky little breed. They crawl into your brain and occupy every waking moment.

Lanae

 

[Kassaundra]

I did not realize they do not breed true. My two bbr are brother and sister and both tufted. Their both being tufted means I would get a hight mortality rate w/ the eggs, but I'm not to keen on breeding brother and sister. Even in line breeding they don't do that it is mother/son, father/daughter. When you say they don't breed true do you mean if I have two bbr (male and female) the offspring may be some other color entirely or are you refering to the rump(less)ness, and tufts?

 

[cashdl]

I did not realize they do not breed true. My two bbr are brother and sister and both tufted. Their both being tufted means I would get a hight mortality rate w/ the eggs, but I'm not to keen on breeding brother and sister. Even in line breeding they don't do that it is mother/son, father/daughter. When you say they don't breed true do you mean if I have two bbr (male and female) the offspring may be some other color entirely or are you refering to the rump(less)ness, and tufts?

I am speaking only of the tufts. Rumpless to rumpless gives you rumpless. But the main feature that sets the araucana apart from other blue egg laying breeds is the tufts. They are the only recognized breed that is tufted. The tufts do not breed true. Two tufted birds will give you a portion of cleanfaced birds simply because the tufting gene is lethal in two copies, so any living bird only has 1 copy of the tufting gene and can only pass it on 50% of the time.

Your two BBR are based on wild type which is important to know. BBR can be based on wild type, partridge, and wheaten. Wheaten is the correct color for the large fowl araucana and wild type is the correct color for the bantam araucana. Partridge is not correct in any araucana. The differences are only visible in the hens, but it is a important difference for showing and breeding.

Lanae

 

[KirstenJL]

Hi all, I'm pretty new here. I have Araucanas-to-be (hopefully--they hatch next week!), and I've been slowly working my way through this thread (and taking notes as I go). I'm wondering if the Araucana standard of perfection is out there anywhere except for the big SOP for all the breeds. I find discussions of various aspects (like the leg color discussion above) here and there, but it would be helpful to see everything in one place. Also, I'm fairly well-versed in genetics in general, but I don't know much (yet) about poultry color genetics and I don't recognize all the colors by looking at them (like the wild type/wheaten/partridge example above). I'm wondering if there's a single publication/site somewhere that explains the action of the various color genes along with photos of each color?

Do any of you show at the Ohio Nationals in November in Columbus?

Also, back in 2010 (post #978, p. 98), smoothmule proposed creating a site where photos of everybody's stock were submitted over time so you could see how each chick developed. Did this ever happen?

I've seen lots of mention about the excellent temperament of this breed, especially the roosters. I'm working on housing for my yet-to-be Araucanas and I'm wondering how many roos you all keep together. I have a 6 x 8 shed-type coop and a big electronetted run (3200 square feet) that is occupied by a BIG hatchery Sussex roo and 9 girls, mostly Sussexes and Orps. Can I add the much smaller Araucanas to this group (my hatchery girls would raise them among the rest) or would they just get beat up? I also have a smaller 4 x 4 A-frame coop that I am going to get about 100 ft. of electronetting for. How many Araucanas would happily go in here, do you think?

And I've read enough to realize that I may be opening a can of worms here, but while I'm clear about the difference between Ameraucanas/EEs versus Araucanas, I'm pretty fuzzy about the differences between Ameraucanas and EEs. Anyone care to enlighten me?

By the way I LOVE this thread! All the photos are beautiful and there so much great info here. Thanks!

Kirsten