Breeding Araucanas

[BluebirdHomestead]

Looking forward to having you join the group.

Thank you! Really excited about the beginning of this journey.

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

Look who’s here. With her little White Marans friend.

 

[Trish1974]

View attachment 1988688 View attachment 1988687 Look who’s here. With her little White Marans friend.

She is adorable! Congratulations!

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

She is adorable! Congratulations!

Thank you! Does she look like a Silver Duckwing to you?

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

View attachment 1988688 View attachment 1988687 Look who’s here. With her little White Marans friend.

Aww she’s adorable!

 

[Trish1974]

Thank you! Does she look like a Silver Duckwing to you?

Right now, yes she does. The wild type chicks change SO much as they age there is no telling what you'll end up with!

 

[MaeIstrom]

So the way I stumbled upon them - I had been chatting with a local Ameraucana breeder because I wanted to start a little olive egger project and I reached out to ask if she had any started pullets.

If you want olive eggers do it the other way round, Araucana rooster over a breed that's known for laying. They did a study in England crossing Araucanas to Leghorns both ways and they found egg production only varies 10-15% from the mother so it's the difference between 170 olive eggs a year or 250+. My Araucana/Isa Brown cross just started laying and so far she's laying at least 6 eggs a week compared to the 1 every 2 days that her Ameraucana hatchmates are laying.

 

[Brahma Chicken5000]

If you want olive eggers do it the other way round, Araucana rooster over a breed that's known for laying. They did a study in England crossing Araucanas to Leghorns both ways and they found egg production only varies 10-15% from the mother so it's the difference between 170 olive eggs a year or 250+. My Araucana/Isa Brown cross just started laying and so far she's laying at least 6 eggs a week compared to the 1 every 2 days that her Ameraucana hatchmates are laying.

Can you post the link to this study please?

 

[MaeIstrom]

Ask and ye shall receive. Credit to Nicalandia who originally posted this information to one of my threads.

Productive Performance of Easter Egger Crosses of Araucana and Schijndelaar roosters with White Leghorn hens: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ae4f/d9522c44c1bf01195d72f7d799a3e5107a17.pdf

Excerpt from the research:
"The highest hen-day egg production was observed in group L with 283.1 eggs laid until 35 weeks of age and predicted annual egg production of 311.2 eggs that is corresponding to modern accomplishments of high-producing lines of this breed (21). The lowest egg production was registered in decorative breeds Schijndelaar (S) – 95.1 eggs (predicted annual production 132.5 eggs) and Araucana (А) with 148.4 eggs (predicted annual production of 179.4 eggs). The two experimental groups exhibited a strong heterosis effect induced by the maternal line with regard to this trait. Their productivity was similar to that of White Leghorns. A predicted annual egg production of 270-280 eggs from Easter eggers is a promising result, which could be further expanded with inclusion of other breeder combinations."

 

[BluebirdHomestead]

Ask and ye shall receive. Credit to Nicalandia who originally posted this information to one of my threads.

Productive Performance of Easter Egger Crosses of Araucana and Schijndelaar roosters with White Leghorn hens: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ae4f/d9522c44c1bf01195d72f7d799a3e5107a17.pdf

Excerpt from the research:
"The highest hen-day egg production was observed in group L with 283.1 eggs laid until 35 weeks of age and predicted annual egg production of 311.2 eggs that is corresponding to modern accomplishments of high-producing lines of this breed (21). The lowest egg production was registered in decorative breeds Schijndelaar (S) – 95.1 eggs (predicted annual production 132.5 eggs) and Araucana (А) with 148.4 eggs (predicted annual production of 179.4 eggs). The two experimental groups exhibited a strong heterosis effect induced by the maternal line with regard to this trait. Their productivity was similar to that of White Leghorns. A predicted annual egg production of 270-280 eggs from Easter eggers is a promising result, which could be further expanded with inclusion of other breeder combinations."

This is awesome information!! Thanks for posting this. That’s really interesting. In my case I’m going to have to work with what I have to get my Olive eggs since I only have room for a few more here and it’ll be the Araucanas. I’ll be putting the Araucana rooster that I hopefully get from my Jan 13 hatching with my 2 Marans pullets (one BCM, one white).