Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[LozzyR]

I finally got a chance to watch the video. I am definitely going to channel my inner rooster a bit more! I can pick everyone up already but I don’t have anyone who wants to sit on my lap. This will be fun.

I’m thinking if any of my girls might be convinced to sit in my lap, it might be Tegan. She hung out with me yesterday whilst I got washing off the line.

 

[Ribh]

Well, if they also share those fatal genes, then they are probably still very closely related to the Chilean araucana, but the crests are definitely different from what is considered standard for the breed in the Americas... I think this speaks quite a lot towards some of the things @Shadrach has said about local breeds. And it does fit in well with evolutionary theory. That two identical breeds separated by significant distance and probably different crossings into the lines, (because you can only straight line breed for so long before things start to go horribly wrong... as previously demonstrated by some royal houses ) will start to develop differently. I’m sure the Marans lines here bear very little resemblance to those where they began as a breed.

I think that the intensive breeding to weed out that genetic fault in the Ameraucana, may be a part of it. Like the overselective breeding in pugs and bulldogs resulting in breathing issues, and afghan hounds and standard collies with their super narrow skulls not being the brightest of breeds (Sorry Lassie!). I do forget if the Araucana Blue gene is a dominant one... but because of the Rumplessness, difficulties breeding them because of it, the fatal gene, and the general rareness of the breed in my area I didn’t really consider them for my flock.

@Shadrach has mentioned before that the Marans in his part of the world are nothing like the Americas. [I do pay attention, Shad. ] If I remember correctly, blue & white are dominant. Something else happens to produce brown.

Those Aracaunas I've seen here don't seem to have the extreme exaggerated anythings: not crests, beards or muffs & while I know some people do have rumpless I've never seen one. Again a lot of birds would be in the *pet* category & not bred to standard.

 

[featherhead007]

A short word on dust bathing: It's OK to be near your birds while they dust bathe, but don't do what I just experienced. I was close,,,, two hens got up and shook the dust off (Doing the shake)
I was fairly covered by spraying dust and sand, (All over me, even in my face) I guess I knew it was coming, so it serves me right, to be that close I guess.

 

[Shadrach]

Well, if they also share those fatal genes, then they are probably still very closely related to the Chilean araucana, but the crests are definitely different from what is considered standard for the breed in the Americas... I think this speaks quite a lot towards some of the things @Shadrach has said about local breeds. And it does fit in well with evolutionary theory. That two identical breeds separated by significant distance and probably different crossings into the lines, (because you can only straight line breed for so long before things start to go horribly wrong... as previously demonstrated by some royal houses ) will start to develop differently. I’m sure the Marans lines here bear very little resemblance to those where they began as a breed.

I think that the intensive breeding to weed out that genetic fault in the Ameraucana, may be a part of it. Like the overselective breeding in pugs and bulldogs resulting in breathing issues, and afghan hounds and standard collies with their super narrow skulls not being the brightest of breeds (Sorry Lassie!). I do forget if the Araucana Blue gene is a dominant one... but because of the Rumplessness, difficulties breeding them because of it, the fatal gene, and the general rareness of the breed in my area I didn’t really consider them for my flock.

I feel I should point out that most of what I "know" about chickens is learned from keepers here. It makes better sense if one remembers that it was probalby the Spanish that introduced the first chickens to the Americas and I assume they headed into Canada from this source.
Chicken keeping here in Catalonia is documented as far back as the Roman Empire and further South in Spain from North African migration. They've been at it a long time.
Rather than trying to maintain a fleet to defend their borders the Romans settled land in the new territories by giving it to lower rank army officers who were considered loyal to Rome. This was going on BC.
If I can take credit for anything it's trying to resurect knowledge that has been forgotton.

 

[featherhead007]

A short word on dust bathing: It's OK to be near your birds while they dust bathe, but don't do what I just experienced. I was close,,,, two hens got up and shook the dust off (Doing the shake)
I was fairly covered by spraying dust and sand, (All over me, even in my face) I guess I knew it was coming, so it serves me right, to be that close I guess.

I guess!

 

[BY Bob]

totally due to the poor wording on my post! But I think it’s too late to edit... nope! Added one word in and that should clear up the confusion for any future readers. Sorry for wording things so weirdly there! My key point was meant to be that from what I’ve seen personally, and read, Easter Eggers can be a very pushy, domineering breed. Hawk is downright aggressive to other Roosters, a jerk to people, and I dare not free range him. Some of his girls are pretty “assertive/mean” as well, but they are mostly in a flock together so it’s not too bad.

Well of my 3 EEs 2 were complete jerks, Jabberwocky and Aurora. Only Maleficent was sweet. So 2/3 are bad?

 

[BY Bob]

my phone died mid post... but basically
Ameraucanas were extensively bred from Auraucanas to eliminate the genetic defect while still laying exclusively blue eggs. Easter eggers are a first generation cross breed with one Ameraucana parent. This is an unstable cross, so if you breed two Easter eggers together your chicks could range anywhere on the spectrum going back several generations in traits to their great grandparents.

for instance with dogs:
Labrador+ Poodle=Labradoodle (a fairly uniform cross breed)
Labradoodle+labradoodle= genetic chaos; with offspring anywhere from seemingly pure Lab through looks like almost pure poodle.
If you pulled the most “labradoodle“ like pups and bred them to to each other and their parents (Backcrossing), after enough generations you could establish the labradoodle as it’s own breed to where Labradoodle +labradoodle= labradoodle

This is what happened in the case of the Ameraucana. The blue egg gene in the Ameraucana is not dominant. Easter eggers can produce a high range of egg colors as they are F1 Ameraucana cross hybrids. There are other things that go into eggcolour with only two true shell colors, white and blue. Brown is a coating with many different genes affecting it, and when you cross a blue and a brown layer you often get green, a chicken that carries the blue shell and a variety of brown coating genes.

Crested Cream Legbars, however, have two Dominant Blue genes so they will only ever produce Blue or green laying offspring in a first generation cross.

it’s a confusing topic to start with. I’m focusing on a niche multicolored egg market which is why I’ve spent so long looking into it and trying to wrap my head around what would be best to add into my flock. The CCL has strong blue genetics, but is a smaller and far less frequent layer. I have been breeding their F1 Offspring into my flock but don’t have any pure CCL or Ameraucanas, as of yet

That was a great post and very educational. I may save that one. Thanks so much.

 

[BY Bob]

BeeBees, Sunshine, Hen-Rietta

Hello ladies.

 

[Shadrach]

A short word on dust bathing: It's OK to be near your birds while they dust bathe, but don't do what I just experienced. I was close,,,, two hens got up and shook the dust off (Doing the shake)
I was fairly covered by spraying dust and sand, (All over me, even in my face) I guess I knew it was coming, so it serves me right, to be that close I guess.

Tap and Hurry have the habit of coming straight into the house after a dust bath and shaking the dust off in my kitchen area!
I try hard to intercept them if I'm in and paying attention.

 

[BY Bob]

She's very bright.

I like to think she has had a good trainer as well.