Ideal and Araucanas?

[hinkjc]

I don't know why they don't carry ameraucana, other than getting good stock is tough and maintaining pure colors takes more space than breeding EEs. I can understand not carrying true araucana, as there are numerous challenges with them, even selective breeders have to deal with. For instance, the lethal tuft gene alone on araucana would not prove profitable for a hatchery. Too many losses means not enough money. Plain and simple.

 

[bockbock2008]

My feed store got chicks in yesterday. There were four troughs of chicks. One trough had all little yellow chicks and was labeled as grey leghorns (still not sure about this one), one bin was RIR and the other two bins - you'll love this- one was marked arauconas and the other was marked black australorps. The "australorp bin had NO black chicks in it. But all of the chicks were very cheeky if you know what I mean. The other bin marked araucona bin was filled with feather legged chicks. I started snooping and found the boxes they came in. One was marked RI one was marked leghorn and the last box was marked "lt. brahma" and "AR". I had them change their signs because last year I bought chicks there and they were labeled autralorps and they turned out to be black sex links. I was not very happy.

 

[Illia]

I think it is the same reason a lot of their breeds get ruined or get crossbred. Ideal once sold real Madagascar Game from an actual breeder, I believe from Georgia, but since Madagascar Game don't lay enough eggs, like any other breed, they crossbred it to a better producer who looked somewhat alike. In their case. Turkens. So in the end, their games are now just a really ugly Turken. (no, I don't think Turkens are ugly - but the product they made sure is!) And with Araucanas and Ameraucanas, I believe they just weren't getting enough sold, and the Araucanas weren't doing well enough. So - They crossbred them. Also, you get more buyers if the breed you sell is claimed to lay "rainbow colors of eggs, from blue to green to even pink!"

Really it is all about productivity and hardiness - I bet their Wyandottes look nothing like show-qaulity Wyandottes because they simply lay better. And hatcheries need a better egg layer for a big demand. Plus, breeding Araucanas to look true takes some study with the tufted and rumpless genes - And I don't think they had the time or people for that, so they just mixed them, who knows. . . Sadly I doubt asking a hatchery why would ever get an answer. I'd love to try and ask though - The whole Araucana/Ameraucana = EE thing is on my mind all the time.

 

[prov31gal]

Quote:
that is awsome! i am so glad you did that! did they give an excuse?

 

[ajablu]

The birds I got from Ideal were typical Easter Eggers. They lay blue, mint green, pinkish and light borwn eggs.
They were good layers though and I knew they were EES when we ordered them.
If you want Araucanas there are some breeders on here. We got a few from Jody and love them.

 

[frizzles7859]

I would stay away from Ideal hatchery they have a lot of crossed breeds that they say are pure breed I had that trouble 2 years ago.not only that but not one of them lived a week after i got them. Had trouble getting to refund my money.
If you want some pure breed check out McMaurry hatchery.You can also check on the internet I just put in what i'm looking for and it will bring up breeder that have them maybe someone close to where you live.

 

[Illia]

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How'bout no hatchery? Or better research. . . Our Murray McMurray Brahmas often had odd things with them, like single combs and wrong body types. . . Our Turkens were obviously crossbred, as some weren't solid colored. Our "Araucanas" were, well, obviously Easter Eggers. In our batch of Brahmas we got one that looked like it was crossed with a RIR, sadly it didn't live very long either.

When it comes to the Araucana deal - Go with breeders, as no hatchery sells them or Ameraucanas. When it comes to "purebred" chickens, most common breeds (RIRs, BRs, Australorps, BOs, etc) will be purebred - But the less popular and common ones are more than often crossbred. Take their polish and "tophat" varieties for example - More than half of them are crossbreds. Their houdans were created by crossing Ancona w/Polish, their "newer" colors were crossed with other birds such as leghorns, and aren't even finished projects. One person even got an EE/Polish cross in their "tophat assortment"

 

[key west chick]

I dont really want any more araucanas. I do have 2 true ones I got from a breeder. I know the store will get EE's its just sad that the owner of the store doesnt know any better. No wonder most of the general public is so misinformed.

 

[ChickenWisperer]

So far, I've been very happy with my ideal birds. All have been amazing quality (from a hatchery, and from the rumors I had heard about their quality), have been mostly friendly, and I only lost one chick - one got an impacted crop, but we were able to save her. Two died because of my families ignorance about chickens (aka I was forced to put them in with the large birds WAY before they were ready to).

I'm going to be ordering again. Of course, I'm not looking for show quality - I'm looking for good pets that are hardy and lay eggs well.

My "araucana" from them was, of course, and EE - but she's a good girl and lays a pretty blue-green egg. All the rest - the faverolle, langshan, cochin, and sussex have been decent quality - wonderful, compared to some pictures I've seen from other hatcheries.

I do have to say, they wouldn't give us a refund for the chick we did loose. But I barely remember anything about the incident.

 

[WRRgator]

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That is not necissarily so, that the "owner doesn't know any better". My family owns & operates two feed stores in Florida & we have started our chick days already. We sell Ameraucanas. We label them Ameraucanas becuase that is how they are labeled when they come to us. I have never seen a breed called Easter Eggers. As far as I can tell that is just a name they are called by pretty much everyone on this website. The rest of the feed stores label them as such for the same reason we do, because that is how they are labeled from the hatchery. I dont breed the birds but I have no reason to believe all these hatcheries dont know what they are talking about.