Reputable Araucana breeder? I would love some hatching eggs or chicks.

[ejlittle62406]

I am getting a group of young araucanas next week. I would sell you some hens. I live close to Quincy and Hannibal.

 

[AlilSassy]

Okay so I got into contact with a gentleman who has beautiful birds (by my standards) and have been corresponding with him via email. His last email to me left me thinking. I am impressed by his reply and challenged my thinking on the Araucana. I'll post our my email to him and his reply. I'd like to get your thoughts on it as I am not really sure what to think really.

Me:
"I visited your site again and looked closer at your flock.  As I said before they are all beautiful! But I did notice a few things that I hadn't before. I saw some of your chicken have single combs, not many have willow legs, and you're getting just over half of your flock laying blue eggs.  Have you been actively trying to breed these issues out of your flock or just been rolling with it? Either way is fine but I just wanted to pick your brain a little over it."

His reply:
"Howdy Andrea, I do not recall that description of my current flock situation. There were some corrections that were made because the site crashed and was rebuilt from the first year of being public 5 years ago. I thought I had made all corrections. Sorry.  At that time I did not include turquoise eggs as blue eggs. Turquoise eggs are some of the bluest eggs but they must be evaluated after Sunset and in diminished light because  the intense light reflects off of the orange yolk making a blue egg look turquoise or even a pale green. About 90% of my stock lay blue eggs. Most of my birds have green legs, but some have yellow legs, black legs, or even white legs or blue legs. Many pure white birds have green legs here. The show strain of Black birds that I have are not of my strain here and not hybridized with my strain. They are different with much lower quality chick production and much higher fertility rate. They can be black combed or black and white feathered with green and black legs.
Mapuche race chickens are not historically a color breed of chickens. Trying to make them conform to the inbred low diversity European/Roman chickens produced from 4 thousand years of inbreeding, is a poor reason to create that as any criteria for evaluating them. I believe Darwin is correct and that diversity insures that a species is viable producing traits that will be better suited for our Planet. Veterinarians and other scientists are concerned  that low diversity, immune compromised, antibiotic enhanced outcomes, has left many animals vulnerable to diseases and potentially unable to survive without antibiotics.

 Color is the last thing I consider as quality. I am against the "Standard of Extinction" that has been put forward as a "Standard of Perfection" for showing Araucana types of Mapuche race chickens. It is unscientific and has no genetic qualifications to address purity and assumes  feather color is the goal along with other low diversity outcomes. Truth should be respected, otherwise the goal is just for "Whimsical Fancy" and not the benefit and/or potential benefits that are possible with this superior chicken breed that is probably like the birds the Romans started out with. Strait combs are extremely rare in my birds but it is common in the South American Mapuche Race chickens. In my birds straight combs are associated with pink egg layers. My research shows that it is not that way in South America. I have only been raising them for 45 years of the 100 years they have been known to exist and I do not know it all. I know my strains came from Chile and  I have kept them pure. I am proud of my accomplishment in isolation from the modern Araucana World with a different Standard in each Country that does not include flock genetics needed to keep these birds viable. That is the only realistic goal in a future  that honors truth. Good luck with your goals. Thank you for your interest in these birds. Let me know if I can help."

What are your thoughts?

Was this Edd in CA? Sounds very familiar...I spoke with him at one of his properties for almost 2 hours lol... If so that's where I got my Araucana from. I drove an hour n a half to pick them up and he gave me 30 extra eggs for the trouble lol... wish I had been more experienced at hatching when I got them as I got 26 to last week, and many died at/around lock down, and I am not sure if it was me, the machine or the fatal gene to blame... I got 4 to hatch... all but maybe 10 out of 63 were fertile mind you... Kick myself every time I think on it... I will get more next year from him, he said I was likely the last set going out this year, he has some new ideas for next year.

Got a white clean faced, pink legs... white single tuft, pink legs... White splashed with black (wings appear to be filling in like laced birds), mottled legs(pink)... black clean faced, dark legs, pink toe tips... I can post pics of them in a few weeks when they feather out some if you like... all 4 appear tailess right now.

I also have a red rumpless, clean face Araucana from a seller on ebay... again great fertility, but I'm still learning hatching... gary209 is that seller. I just received 21 eggs from another Araucana ebayer, might have lavender gene, we'll see how those go. The second one, I sent a message to, and negotiated off ebay, got ALOT of extras.

post if you find any good ones Bullets

 

[AppleJackAcres]

Yes that is Edd. He doesn't breed toward the SOP, and he doesn't breed for color. It would be a genetic mess to clean up his birds to show them. JMO. Check out http://www.araucana.net/. We have a list of breeders from every state. It's $20 to join for 2 years and you would receive our newsletter, and member list. We also have a facebook group - Araucana SOP breeders. Steve Waters does have nice birds. His price range is reasonable. I bought my cock bird from him for $165 with shipping.

 

[Dickmeyers on the Nshore]

You could try Murray and Mc Murray Hatchery. We got some from them!

 

[AlilSassy]

You could try Murray and Mc Murray Hatchery. We got some from them!

You got rumpless birds from McMurray? I thought I read they were a mixed group of Araucana and Ameraucana?

 

[Dickmeyers on the Nshore]

You got rumpless birds from McMurray? I thought I read they were a mixed group of Araucana and Ameraucana?

The ones we purchased are the "easter-egger" vareity or Ameraucanas. Not sure about them carrying the Araucanas specifically, but it doesn't hurt to ask. We know what its like to seek an elusive species- were in the same boat, or "coop" if you will, in search of reasonably priced started copper marans.

 

[AppleJackAcres]

Hatcheries only have Easter Eggers. Select few have real Ameraucana. Always check the spelling.
Hatcheries will never have Araucana. They are too difficult to breed.

Edd claims he is a hatchery but he only does Araucana, nothing else.