I'm going to breed Aracauna's for show, how should I get started?

[WooingWyandotte]

I'm banging my head against the wall. Which Araucana lines are the best? Does anyone know of a good breeder? Any tips on the breed? Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

 

[Stacykins]

Ohh, might wanna stop by the thread in this section just for Araucanas, there are a lot of good people who work with the breed! I got some of my starter stock from Lanae, who is a member here and has excellent quality large fowl araucanas. Her website is Cash's Blue Eggs . I also got eggs from Chicken Scratch Poultry . But there are many others that sell excellent quality hatching eggs too. Since the breed has both bantam and large fowl as standard, you'll need to decide what you want to work with. And since you want to show, stay within accepted colors .

One tip is that hatching eggs seem to be more delicate than other breeds. So getting hatching eggs shipped is a bit more of a gamble than other eggs. But careful incubation, a bit of luck, and you should have healthy chicks! So hatch rates tend to be lower, which it seems can be disappointing. Plus you have the lethal tufting gene at work, which theoretically means 25% of a hatch, if the parent stock was both tufted, will be dead in shell because they are homozygous for the gene.

 

[cmsdvm]

If you want to show, the person with the best show record in the nation is Steve Waters. He breeds large fowl whites and bantam blacks. His website is http://www.swaraucana.com/SteveSite/Welcome.html

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

Due to being rumpless I know they have fertility issues, too....

And I second Steve for the best you can buy...I've seen his birds at several shows and they are exceptional!

 

[bantiebabe1200]

I don't know a whole lot about Araucanas, except that they are very awesome birds when bred to standard.

I did find an add in Exhibition Poultry Magazine that might help you. This breeders name is Ann Charles, she was the 2010 APA/ACA National Champion with a black Araucana. Her websites are Araucana.com and SkyBlueEggs.com

Hope this helps, and good luck!

 

[Illia]

Yep, both Ann Charles and Steve Waters are two very good people to go to.

 

[WooingWyandotte]

Thanks so much for all these helpful references!

Now as for the tufted question, is it best to have tufted hens and a tuftless roo? Or a mix of tufted and tuftless? And how bad is the fertility rate? 30%-40%?

 

[ruthless]

Read this thread and learn a lot about Araucanas, lots of pictures too.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=288425

 

[Illia]

I always do it tufted roo over clean faced hens. It is so much easier to find ONE male versus a bunch of females who are tufted.

A few of my girls are indeed tufted too though, and in that case, I usually just take my chances with the whole 25% dead thing.