Here is my two cents worth. First of all these are just chickens. They can feed a family and provide hours of entertainment and we each should feel free to have what ever breed, look, color, or style we want in our backyard.
Having said that I do get frustrated by new ones to the aracuana who start out just wanting the breed because of their egg color, lack of tail, beautiful tufts and personality. All very admirable and just reasons for wanting this breed. And pretty much why we all have fallen in love with them. However because they are just chickens most are purchased with the dollar in mind. No one starting out wants to spend the money, if they could even find them, on birds that are correct to the standard of perfection. So they buy hatching eggs or day old chicks or even adults with no real thought but that they will soon have araucana. Then they find out how awesome they are and think, " my birds are beautiful and I have a roo and a couple of hens, my friends want some, maybe I could sell some hatching eggs on ebay too". So because they are just chickens, they breed them never thinking about what makes an araucana what it is today. This becomes my pet peeve. The Standard of Perfection is in place to give those of us who want to breed and maybe someday show our birds, a sense of direction or a goal to work toward. And if we get down right picky, the only true North American Araucana are the ones that exactly fit the Standard of Perfection.
The BBR per the SOP is a perfect case in point. Unfortunately that color has been all but lost because people have confused wild type with BBR for more than 30 years, so there are alot of wild type BBR running around, with everyone thinking they are the correct color for the Araucana. I will say it again, and risk IRE, there are only two breeders who are seriously working on the BBR in the approved SOP color which is wheaten. This means they have more than 1 rooster and more than 3 hens. They are making adjustments to their breeding program with every hatch, and are always on the look out for ways to improve their breeding strategies so as to produce consistantly the correctly color BBR. They have actual breeding pens where the only birds in those pens are based on wheatn. These people willing open themselves and their birds up to criticism by showing them at APA approved shows knowing that with each show they are learning and getting closer to that correct bird. As a wise friend recently said. You only can know that what you have, is what you think it is, by putting it to the test. The correct Araucana is composed of more parts than just, rumpless ness, blue eggs, and tufts. You have to consider feather color and quality, leg color, body shape and size, comb shape and size, head shape and size, the size of the eyes and how they are set on the head, temperment, and health and vigor.
You cannot judge the correct color for the araucana based on a rooster. You have to look at chick down and adult hen plumage. Plus you have to know the genetic makeup of each bird and how it pairs with the genetic makeup of the bird you are breeding it to. All of this makes a person a breeder, not just a keeper of chickens that happen to have babies. If you want to be a serious breeder of any breed you have to actually know about that breed where it came from, how it came about, where it is at the moment, and have a goal to improve it not just make more of it and hope you get it right.
I am going to stand on my bandwagon and say I, as a serious breeder of Araucana chickens, am in posession of the following which I find invaluable in making my breeding decisions:
Brian Readers book "An Introduction To Color Forms of the Domestic Fowl"
Cathy Brunsons book " Araucana Rings on their Ears"
The National Geographic Magazine April, 1927 containing the article " The Races of Domestic Fowl"
The National Geographic Magazine September 1948 containing the article " Easter Egg Chickens"
David Cauldills book " Araucana Poulterers Handbook "
And last but not least
The 2010 Standard Of Perfection from the American Poultry Association.
I am sure my thoughts will make a few of you upset but please realize I consider myself to be a breeder who breeds toward the standard of perfection. I do also have what I call yard araucana. Pretty birds that do not meet the standard and are not bred from. I also have a project color pen made up of rumpless tufted birds that are not a SOP approved color but do breed true. I know the genetic makeup of these birds and am working to breed their color. I hope to begin showing a few of them under AOV next year.
By the way Caj1985, that hen you posted a pic of is stunning. She has the perfect booty.
Lanae
Having said that I do get frustrated by new ones to the aracuana who start out just wanting the breed because of their egg color, lack of tail, beautiful tufts and personality. All very admirable and just reasons for wanting this breed. And pretty much why we all have fallen in love with them. However because they are just chickens most are purchased with the dollar in mind. No one starting out wants to spend the money, if they could even find them, on birds that are correct to the standard of perfection. So they buy hatching eggs or day old chicks or even adults with no real thought but that they will soon have araucana. Then they find out how awesome they are and think, " my birds are beautiful and I have a roo and a couple of hens, my friends want some, maybe I could sell some hatching eggs on ebay too". So because they are just chickens, they breed them never thinking about what makes an araucana what it is today. This becomes my pet peeve. The Standard of Perfection is in place to give those of us who want to breed and maybe someday show our birds, a sense of direction or a goal to work toward. And if we get down right picky, the only true North American Araucana are the ones that exactly fit the Standard of Perfection.
The BBR per the SOP is a perfect case in point. Unfortunately that color has been all but lost because people have confused wild type with BBR for more than 30 years, so there are alot of wild type BBR running around, with everyone thinking they are the correct color for the Araucana. I will say it again, and risk IRE, there are only two breeders who are seriously working on the BBR in the approved SOP color which is wheaten. This means they have more than 1 rooster and more than 3 hens. They are making adjustments to their breeding program with every hatch, and are always on the look out for ways to improve their breeding strategies so as to produce consistantly the correctly color BBR. They have actual breeding pens where the only birds in those pens are based on wheatn. These people willing open themselves and their birds up to criticism by showing them at APA approved shows knowing that with each show they are learning and getting closer to that correct bird. As a wise friend recently said. You only can know that what you have, is what you think it is, by putting it to the test. The correct Araucana is composed of more parts than just, rumpless ness, blue eggs, and tufts. You have to consider feather color and quality, leg color, body shape and size, comb shape and size, head shape and size, the size of the eyes and how they are set on the head, temperment, and health and vigor.
You cannot judge the correct color for the araucana based on a rooster. You have to look at chick down and adult hen plumage. Plus you have to know the genetic makeup of each bird and how it pairs with the genetic makeup of the bird you are breeding it to. All of this makes a person a breeder, not just a keeper of chickens that happen to have babies. If you want to be a serious breeder of any breed you have to actually know about that breed where it came from, how it came about, where it is at the moment, and have a goal to improve it not just make more of it and hope you get it right.
I am going to stand on my bandwagon and say I, as a serious breeder of Araucana chickens, am in posession of the following which I find invaluable in making my breeding decisions:
Brian Readers book "An Introduction To Color Forms of the Domestic Fowl"
Cathy Brunsons book " Araucana Rings on their Ears"
The National Geographic Magazine April, 1927 containing the article " The Races of Domestic Fowl"
The National Geographic Magazine September 1948 containing the article " Easter Egg Chickens"
David Cauldills book " Araucana Poulterers Handbook "
And last but not least
The 2010 Standard Of Perfection from the American Poultry Association.
I am sure my thoughts will make a few of you upset but please realize I consider myself to be a breeder who breeds toward the standard of perfection. I do also have what I call yard araucana. Pretty birds that do not meet the standard and are not bred from. I also have a project color pen made up of rumpless tufted birds that are not a SOP approved color but do breed true. I know the genetic makeup of these birds and am working to breed their color. I hope to begin showing a few of them under AOV next year.
By the way Caj1985, that hen you posted a pic of is stunning. She has the perfect booty.
Lanae
