Whats up with these ear feathers?

[WoDia]

I didn't do a very good job keeping y'all updated, mainly because we had a problem hen that kept eating Chief Crazy Hair's tuft and there wasn't much to report on lol. Said problem hen ate quite a few of his other feathers to be honest, and also the butt feathers off of my other hens. She got relocated for a spell and Chief Crazy Hair's tuft looks like a lollipop that fell on the barbershop floor at the moment. Not really sure if this is it's final form, time will tell. But I have attached a pic.View attachment 4173717

But gather round for some story time lol. So I got these previously mentioned olive eggs from a friend last year, 11 of them. Only 5 hatched. 4 roosters and one hen (shocker lol). None of the other hatch mates had tufts. Just this guy, and I kept him. Fast forward to this year, I wanted to add some blue eggers to my flock so I put some feelers out and there is a local lady who breeds Araucanas and has a "Blue Egg Project" where she has an Ameraucana rooster over Araucana hens.

I acquired some eggs from her, since we are extremely rural there are only so many places to get chicks around here, it's even harder to get blue layers, and near impossible to get pure Araucana unless it's from her, and she has a waiting list. She also has a few olive eggers. She has people from all over the west coast and PNW coming to her for Araucanas. She said the genetics from her flock are floating all over this area and beyond and she only knows of one other lady anywhere near here breeding Araucanas several hours north of us. I've chatted with her at length over the last several months about all things chicken, Araucana, and tuft related.

Out of the eggs I got from her (6 pure Araucana and 12 from her blue egg project) only a couple are double tufted and several from the blue egg project have beards and double tufts. I mentioned my Chief Crazy Hair (which I will from here on abbreviate as CCH) to her and low and behold, since she's the only person anywhere remotely near to us with araucanas, we have come to the conclusion that my friend (who has only purchased chicks locally) must have gotten an olive egger from her or someone else that has chickens with her genetics floating around in them. So even though CCH is just a barnyard mutt, his genetics are almost definitely rooted in her Araucana flock. Which I found very entertaining, small world and all.

Fast forward to about a month ago. The one hen (her name is Olive, I know, so original) I hatched out of those 11 olive eggs from a friend decided she was going to go broody while I was out of town. My mom was in the hospital and I was 4 hours away with her and had a neighbor checking on the chickens. I told him not to bother gathering the eggs because my brother would be home soon and I'd have him get them, we only have 4 hens laying so no biggie - or so I thought. 2 days after I leave my brother gets back from a trip he was on and was able to relieve the neighbor of his chicken tender duties. My brother informs me that Olive is broody. I told him to just let her do her thing.

Olive and CCH are half siblings, she is an unassuming lavender hen, no tufts, but evidently carrying the tufted gene. 6 of the eggs she hatched are from some RIR hens and fathered by CCH, 2 were her own eggs. Of the eight that hatched 7 of them have at least one tuft, most have 2, but they arent too terribly impressive, they are smaller tufts like CCH's. More akin to a barbershop lollipop than anything. All the chicks were black except for one of Olive's eggs, which is lavender just like her. Lavender is by far my favorite color so I was thrilled that the little lavender one had two very nice looking tufts! I will attach a pic of the little lavender baby too, because wow!View attachment 4173719View attachment 4173720For coming from two barnyard mix mutts with who knows what sort of genetic background floating around in their gene pool this babys tufts are stunning! I told the Araucana lady that she ought to be mighty proud of how strong these genetics are because CCH passed his tufts on to 7 out of 8 of his babies and really knocked it out of the park with the lavender baby!!! The Tufts on this baby are 10x more stunning than any of the tufts on the pure Araucanas I got from her. it's just crazy to me how voluptuous this little guys tufts are to be so far removed from a pure Araucana! Genetics are crazy! Who would have thought CCH with his one barbershop lollipop could have done such great work!

I am really hoping it's a hen, but I always assume it's a rooster until proven otherwise, just to keep my heart from breaking. The comb is getting awfully large to be a hen, but CCH has a massive comb so I'm holding out a very small sliver of hen hope.

I just thought you fellow chicken folks might get a kick out of my story coming full circle with CCH and his lineage, how he passed his barbershop lollipops on to all but one of his offspring, and enjoy the pics of his voluptuous tuft baby!

Thank you for the update! Chief Crazy Hair’s tuft is adorable! He’s grown into a very handsome roo. Looking forward to seeing what the lavender chick (and siblings) will look like at maturity. I love the coloring. Beautiful. I hope your mom is doing well after the hospital. Keep posting photos of all your adorable Tufties. I had Araucanas years ago, and I totally adored them. You’ve got me wanting to raise them again!

 

[CluckinOnTheYakus]

Thank you for the update! Chief Crazy Hair’s tuft is adorable! He’s grown into a very handsome roo. Looking forward to seeing what the lavender chick (and siblings) will look like at maturity. I love the coloring. Beautiful. I hope your mom is doing well after the hospital. Keep posting photos of all your adorable Tufties. I had Araucanas years ago, and I totally adored them. You’ve got me wanting to raise them again!

I will have to take some pics of the others, Olive, aka Big Broody Judy is very cantankerous and I only get to interact with the babies at bed time when it's dark or she goes full velociraptor on me. There were 3 that hatched a day after the others and she abandoned the nest so I threw them in the incubator. The lavender one was one of them, and when I went to reunite them she took the 2 little black chicks but flogged and pecked the lavender one. I stole one of her other babies so the lavender one wouldn't be alone and put them in my brooder, so I get unlimited photo shoots with them.

I've always wanted Araucanas and never dreamed there would be a breeder in our teeny tiny town so I felt like I won the lottery! These are my first Araucanas and I cannot wait until they start laying, I am an absolute sucker for blue eggs.

My mom spent a month in the hospital, she had sepsis which ruptured her spleen and caused several abscesses in her abdomen. They drained 1.5 gallons of abscess fluid out of her (!!!!) but she is home now and getting better every day! It was a very scary time. The only good thing that came out of that whole ordeal was Olive going Big Broody Judy in my absence and hatching little Tufty here. Which sounds like a marvelous name for the little fella!

 

[Buckeye Amy]

Great story! I would love to see more pics of your babies. I'm a huge fan of barnyard mixes, especially blue/olive egg layers.

 

[ClickityChick123]

So adorable!

 

[WoDia]

I will have to take some pics of the others, Olive, aka Big Broody Judy is very cantankerous and I only get to interact with the babies at bed time when it's dark or she goes full velociraptor on me. There were 3 that hatched a day after the others and she abandoned the nest so I threw them in the incubator. The lavender one was one of them, and when I went to reunite them she took the 2 little black chicks but flogged and pecked the lavender one. I stole one of her other babies so the lavender one wouldn't be alone and put them in my brooder, so I get unlimited photo shoots with them.

I've always wanted Araucanas and never dreamed there would be a breeder in our teeny tiny town so I felt like I won the lottery! These are my first Araucanas and I cannot wait until they start laying, I am an absolute sucker for blue eggs.

My mom spent a month in the hospital, she had sepsis which ruptured her spleen and caused several abscesses in her abdomen. They drained 1.5 gallons of abscess fluid out of her (!!!!) but she is home now and getting better every day! It was a very scary time. The only good thing that came out of that whole ordeal was Olive going Big Broody Judy in my absence and hatching little Tufty here. Which sounds like a marvelous name for the little fella!

So nice that you kept that sweet little Tufty safe and added a sibling for company. Very adorable chick. It’s good that Olive was accepting of the other chicks, but it’s always sad to see one be rejected. Glad you were right there for the rescue.

I’m happy to hear that your mom is on the mend now. Such good news. I hope that she continues to get stronger every day.

We look forward to seeing new photos of your adorable chicks.