young araucana flock

[rhoda_bruce]

Well I have been having my araucanas since they were very young. They hatched out about in June. 2 days ago I copied the recognized Araucana varieties and decided I would take inventory of my birds. I have been having a few concerns about separating them into color varieties.
I only have one blue. Its a tailed, untufted roo. The only girls I have for him are 2 americanas that have a blue color to them. So I am considering breeding out as much of the American bloodlines out as I can.
I have one gorgeous Black Breasted Red roo, rumpless but untufted and one pullet for him for sure; tailed, but with tufts........possibly more ( I'll get to that soon ).
I have one female buff and one female white....both rumpless, but untufted. I am thinking of putting the white with the blue roo, in the hopes that they either keep his blue and correct foot color, but get rumpless from her or if I can reproduce her colorations and obtain a white roo. And with the buff, I am thinking of putting her with a Golden Duckwing ( rumpless roo with clean face ) to possibly bring out the gold better.
Anyway I have no mates for some and whatever doesn't come out desireable I can utilize in the kitchen or sell locally, but I am attracted to the breed and wanted to perfect my flock just a bit.
I have a mystery roo, that I think might be a silver duckwing. I really don't know and I don't know much about posting pictures either, but its on my to do list.
Now here is my biggest problem......I have several black araucana chickens. Some have rust colors mixed in their feathers and some have white streaks. I'm not sure if the ones with rust are best put with the black breasted reds. Then the ones with the white streaks......I don't know if I should put them with the Silver Duckwing......or if I should put all the primarily black birds together and say,"Whatever." The ones with the white streaks look sorta like Birchen, but that is not a recognized variety. My bird with the best tufts are in that color.

 

[lauralou]

I can't be of much help to you here, other than to tell you that if I were you, I would put both the buff hen and the white hen in with the blue roo. I would expect to get blues and blacks out of the buff hen. Although buff is a pretty mysterious color, and could include lots of unexpected outcomes... But you'll never know till you try!

The white hen is a little trickier, because we don't know if she is dominant white or recessive white. The only way to know for sure is to breed her and see what you get. If she's a dominant white, she will throw white offspring. All of them will be white, or half will be white, depending on how many genes for white she is carrying. If she is recessive white, I would expect blue and black chicks.

As far as the oddly colored black birds, pictures would be very helpful. (And fun!)

 

[lauralou]

Hmmm.... I just pulled out my Standard of Perfection and discovered that white araucanas should have yellow legs, not willow. I didn't know that.

Does your white hen have yellow legs? And do any of the others have yellow legs? Because I might change my mind about who she should be put with. And then again, I might not.

If you end up with whites, you can always try to breed the willow leg color out.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

my white has yellow legs. The only thing wrong with her ( other than being alone ) is she has no tufts. I could look at my other birds and see if I have a light colored roo with yellow feet. I had studied them a while back, but I didn't take notes. I might even just order some more chicks, to have a bigger selection.
I have the standard of perfection and I have a book on Araucanas sold by the club's website, but I don't have a lot of visuals to go by.

 

[lauralou]

Order more chicks.... Yes, feed the addiction....

 

[rhoda_bruce]

You know, you might be onto something. I believe it might be an addiction.