Araucana : what do you call one that...?

[Jkturnerpl]

Hello,

I have fallen in love with the Araucana breed. I have just started to collect and breed a flock of different colors. What would you call a tufted bird, and does happen to have a tail? I got my first one from my last six hatches. Anyone what to venture to name it?

 

[Jkturnerpl]

The Araucana have tufts and not tail, Americana have beards or muffs and tails, so what is a tufted bird with a tail?

 

[donrae]

I don't breed, but isn't it just a crop-out, a bird that doesn't conform to the standard and would be culled from your breeding program? Your bird wouldn't be anything, except an easter egger.

 

[Jkturnerpl]

I was going to sell it, but was not sure what to call it. I would not breed it either. Thank you though. I talked to another person who breeds Araucana and they said that in South America they mixed two breeds to get rumpless and tufted araucana. One was a tufted and tailed bird that laid brown eggs, and the other a rumpless clean faced bird that laid blue. Hence the blue green tufted and rumpless Araucana. I forget the one, the other started with a B. I will have to talk to her again to remember. So a tufted and tailed bird had a name once.

 

[hdowden]

its called an easter egger thats it

 

[Stacykins]

I am going to give my opinion, as someone who HAS purebred Araucanas.

An Araucana with tufts (not muffs and beard) and a tail IS still a purebred Araucana. In fact, many people keep tailed Araucanas in their breeding programs, because a tailed hen has better fertility. The tail is important in helping a rooster make proper contact during the cloaca touch, which is why rumplessness can lead to lowered fertility. Also, it keeps birds from developing a shortened back, which can crop up with many generations of rumpless breeding. Technically rumpless already results in a shortened back (minus the tailbone, oil gland, and tail feathers), but it can become crippling.

SO if you have an Araucana with tufts and a tail, congrats! She isn't an Easter Egger! If you breed her to a rumpless rooster, because rumpless is dominant, you will get chicks who are (hopefully) tufted and rumpless. She just can't be shown, since a tail is a DQ.

Edit for spelling

 

[cashdl]

An araucana with tufts and a tail is considered a Ketro or Quetro depending on where you live. It absolutely is not an EE! Many breeders, myself not included, use tailed araucana in there breeding program since the tail if fairly easy to breed out and tufts are harder to get. I do not have tailed birds in my breeding program, but would not be adverse to using one if it was perfect in every other way.

Remember that the araucana was originally created from a tailed and tufted bird crossed with a rumpless and cleanfaced bird. If you want to breed her, get a rumpless roo and roughly half of the chicks will be rumpless and 25% will be tufted.


Enjoy your araucana.


Lanae