I have never had chickens before in my life but I ordered a Rainbow Layer Assortment from McMurray (25 chicks and 3 extra Auracaunas, the free exotic, and a free Auracana and another "packing peanut") and after worrying myself silly because they hadn't arrived yet, they arrived this morning. 31 chicks, really, really loud and all alive. Two have been a little sluggish but they are smaller than the others and have both drank water and eaten so we'll see about them. I think the Auracaunas are the chipmunk looking ones but is there a reference site somewhere that has pics of chicks so I can figure out what the rest are? I have black ones with white bellies, gold ones, lighter yellow ones, leopard spot ones and chipmunk ones. There are darker and lighter chipmunk ones but I would like to know the real names. It's bad enough that my husband has already named one of these girls Jeremy. I think he forgot that it's an all girl thing.l
Auracana? (Arucana) I don't think McMurry has those.... last I checked they didn't. Are you sure they're not Easter Eggers?
I went to McMurrays web site and looked at the pics of the chicks and compared. The catolog they have also has pics. You could upload a pic here and have everyone give you their opinion of what they could be!
MonsterPrincess, I'm no expert, far from it in fact, but the black ones with white bellies could be Australorps. You could go to www.feathersite.com to look at pictures.
Thanks everyone. I was so exicted this morning that I was shaking when I was fixing their water. My husband was telling me to calm down but now that I'm at work, I can't wait to get back home. I need a webcam set up so I can keep an eye on them. I'll check out the sites and post photos this evening. Betsy
Araucanas/Americanas is what it says on the MCMurray site so I'm assuming that's what I have. Australorp looks like the black,/white belly ones. Yay - two identified!
I believe your McMurray "araucanas" are Easter Eggers.... they are not pure bred Auracanas, which are rumpless and pretty darn rare (there are a couple members who do breed them here). Hatcheries call them "araucanas" or "ameraucanas" but they are mixed with other breeds. They often/sometimes have the beard and muffs, pea combs, green or slate legs, and blue-green-olive eggs, although sometimes they have single combs, no facial feathers, and pink or brown eggs. But, yeah, the chipmunk chicks are likely the EEs. Here are some pics of our girls when they were babies if it helps: Australorp Rhode Island REd REd sex link
those "araucana" or "ameraucana" chicks are probably truly Easter Eggers, however unless you are breeding or showing, you are in luck, as they lay pretty prolifically and often have very interesting colors as adults as far as I know, the true-bred araucana chickens, or ameraucana chickens (NOT the same thing !) are available only through breeders who are careful about their breeding lines ... Candy who has Easter Eggers and thinks they're wonderful