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ARAUCANAS ONLINE -- The news from Willow Hill Farm

*** Copyright 2007 www.araucanasonline.com. Unless otherwise noted, all pictures contained within this site were taken by me and are of my own birds. THEY ARE NOT TO BE USED ELSEWHERE WITHOUT MY EXPRESS PERMISSION. Thank you. ***

9/02/2008 - Guess it's time to start making zucchini bread.

08/29/2008 - A hen who disappeared a few weeks back turned up in the yard a few days ago -- with 11 chicks!

Pictures:

The really cool thing about this is that this hen is fully rumpless and has never had her vent trimmed. So it seems that natural fertility is alive and well in my flock.

Here is one of the growing cockerels:

He is about 5 months old. Out of 7 cockerels from this hatch, I got 3 with this exact same coloring -- one tailed/clean head with yellow legs, one rumpless/tufted with willow legs, and one part-tailed/clean head with willow legs (pictured).

7/10/2008 - This rooster needs a home! He's black/red, rumpless & bilateral tufted, with slate legs. He's very sweet, I can't bring myself to eat him, but he gets beat up by the other roosters and driven away from food, so he's quite skinny. Pic:

07/04/2008 - PICTURES from the 4th of July!

BBR Pullet

"Brownie" with her chicks (not really hers, the eggs were from my breeding pen)

Sam loves to feed the chickens!

One-month-old chicks. On the left, a bilateral-tufted rumpless willow-legged duckwing pullet, and on the right a bilateral-tufted rumpless yellow-legged duckwing cockerel.

A closeup of the pullet. She will be showable, but not ideal. It appears that her type will be fair; not bad, not great. It's hard to say how good her coloring will be this early on, and her tufts are very small and not even.

More one-month old chicks, all with willow legs. From left to right: A rumpless, bilateral-tufted, tailed, willow-legged duckwing pullet; a black/red rumpless, clean-headed cockerel with dark willow/black legs; and a rumpless, clean-headed duckwing cockerel with bright willow legs.

A 2-1/2 month old rumpless willow-legged duckwing cockerel. Over the next few months his plumage will undergo a drastic transformation to the recognizable duckwing color pattern.

Willow legs at the feeder. From left to right: A tufted/tailed mixed-variety pullet, a partial-tailed (one tail feather) clean-headed duckwing cockerel; a rumpless cockerel with two very tiny tufts; and a mutt with pink legs on the far right for comparison.

My son Sam lights his first sparkler! He is 19 months old now.

06/24/2008 - I found a hen hiding on a secret nest. I think the eggs are due this weekend or early next week. She's hidden pretty good -- can you spot her?

06/01/2008 - I've got chicks!

I put some Silver Laced Polish eggs under my broodies. Pics:

Pigpen went broody too. I don't know the parentage of her chicks. Pics:

05/21/2008 - I was trying to take some pictures of this trio and my son kept walking into the frame.

04/24/2008 - I've recently lost a couple birds to predators -- mostly coyotes, but I also repeatedly spotted a coupla suspicious-looking bald eagles hanging around the chicken coop. Recently on a trek down to our back pasture, I discovered that they had built a nest in one of our trees.

I managed to snap a (poor) picture of them in our yard. The large wooden fence post to the right is the corner of the chicken yard. The little tree in the center of the picture is one of our 2-dozen new cherry trees.

Despite snow and uncommonly cold weather, it's finally starting to feel like spring. I've got about 40 eggs in the 'bator right now that are due to hatch this Saturday. If the hatch is good, I'll start selling eggs on ebay.

09/04/2007 - New pictures of the recent hatchlings, and a few miscellaneous photos.

"Aries" a 7-month-old cockerel. He has 1 yellow leg and 1 willow leg.

"Brownie" with her unplanned hatchlings. She made a secret nest under the coop, and by the time I noticed she was missing, the eggs were already halfway developed, so I let her hatch them. Five hatched; four are rumpless and 2 of those are tufted. Four are duckwings; one is black-red.

Two-week-old duckwing chicks. The pullet is on the left with the muted red and silver colors. The cockerel is on the right; note the whitish-yellow color with minimal black streaking.

Two 6-week-old duckwing pullets. Both are willow-legged and rumpless. The one in front also has 2 small tufts.

A tufted/rumpless 2-week-old duckwing pullet with wrong leg color.

Another tufted/rumpless 2-week-old duckwing pullet.

In this picture I was trying to show the difference between slate legs (left) and willow legs (right) on 6-week-old chicks.

Another picture illustrating the difference between willow (left) and slate (right).

"Tara" with her 6-week-old chicks. The big blue one is a pullet and a total cutie.

08/06/2007 - We butchered some of the cull cockerels this weekend. I took these photos because they are a great illustration of white skin vs. yellow skin and rumpless vs. tailed. As you can see, the cockerel on the left is white-skinned and rumpless, whereas the cockerel on the right is yellow-skinned and tailed.

This is the makeshift butchering station at our new house. Bucket of bleach solution & cold running water = good. Coffee cup on table = bad.

Here they are all plucked and ready to clean. We butcher in the chilly early morning to avoid flies. These are actually not terribly small birds -- my husband just has really, really big hands.

07/23/2007 - Pictures! Eight chicks hatched -- seven survived.

New chicks, hatched 07/20/2007. From left to right, two duckwings or duckwing-types and a blue or blue/gold chick.

Chicks again -- same as above except for a white OR buff OR wheaten-type BBR in the back. I can't tell this early.

Three of the chickies with one of them moms.

The white OR buff OR wheaten BBR chick with two of the mommas. Try to catch a chick and those hens will try to peck your fingers right off!

Two of the mommas with a few of the chicks.

A lovely tufted wild-type BBR chick. It was raining that day and lighting was poor inside the coop, but I really like this picture.

A black-red cockerel. I named him "Diablo."

Diablo has yellow skin. I'm not sure what you would call his leg color.

"Harry" a blue gold cockerel.

Harry again. I love the distinct lacing on the breast of this bird.

"Splash." Not for breeding, but I'm keeping him because I like his looks.

A blue-red-gold cockerel. Again, not for breeding, but I'm keeping him around 'cuz he's pretty and fun to photograph.

I also like to convert chicken photos to black-and-white to give them an old-fashioned look. A few examples are below. Some are duplicates of the color pics above.

And, last but not least -- here are our other two new arrivals:

07/21/2007 - Three broody hens just hatched out 7 new chicks!!! It looks to be 3 duckwings, 2 wild-type BBR's, 1 blue, and 1 white OR buff OR wheaton-type BBR (can't tell yet). A couple have bilateral tufts. It's too early to tell about tails or leg color yet. Pictures coming soon!

05/07/2007 - Here are some new pictures of this spring's hatchlings. They are 2-1/2 months old now.

Here's some of the gang; Newton the golden duckwing cockerel is in front. In the next few months, his coloration will change drastically. The hackles and saddles will grow in golden or silver, the shoulders will turn red, the chest will turn black, and a dark wing bar with light tips will appear.

Another shot of Newton. Huge tufts on this bird.

I adore this little pullet! Pigpen is her name. When she hatched she was covered in egg yolk, which stuck to her and kept her fluff plastered down for about a week, while all the other chicks looked fluffy and cute.

Pigpen again...

She's so cute!

04/05/2007 - Here are some pics of a few of the hatchlings!

Alamo - Golden duckwing (light). Clean headed, tailed, yellow legs. Will use with rumpless/tufted slate-legged BBR hens in an attempt to produce willow-legged offspring.

Aries - AOV. Well balanced bilateral tufts, tailed, with yellow/willow mottled legs. Will use with rumpless, slate-legged BBR hens in an attempt to produce willow-legged offspring.

A closeup of Aries' oddly mottled feet.

I have lots of rumpless blacks with beautiful tufts, unfortunately they all ended up with white skin and will not be used for breeding.

Harry - AOV (blue). Bilateral tufts, rumpless, yellow legs with black shading. May or may not use for breeding (is a nice bird and has yellow skin, but I'm not too interested in breeding blues).

Newton - Golden duckwing (dark). Well balanced bilateral tufts, rumpless, pinkish-gray legs. Will probably not use for breeding unless type and conformation are excellent.

Pigpen - AOV. Well balanced bilateral tufts, rumpless, willow legs. Slightly undersized. Will use with a tufted/tailed willow-legged BBR rooster.

...and a pic of my son, just for good measure. :-)

02/27/2007 -- On the 24th, 19 chicks hatched! The breakdown is as follows:

COLOR:

White: 1 chick = 7%

Black: 6 chicks = 40%

Blue: 1 chick = 7%

Duckwing: 5 chicks = 33%

Black/red: 2 chicks = 13%

TUFTS:

Tufted: 13 chicks = 87%

RUMPLESSNESS:

????? (not sure yet)

Here are some pics:

02/11/2007 -- Last night I candled all my eggs. I removed 12 eggs total: 2 from my own hens (showed blood rings) and 10 from the ones that were shipped (they candled clear). So I have 38 total remaining. Of those I'm not 100% positive they're all alive, there were quite a few where the shells were so thick that I really couldn't tell. In any case, I'll keep my fingers crossed for a good hatch! The next candling will be on day #18 (February 21st).

02/03/2007 -- At 4:30 this afternoon I set 50 eggs in my brand-new Hovabator 1588. Thirty-four of the eggs were from my own breeding pen, consisting of my rumpless/tufted golden duckwing rooster, Galeno, and the three hens Steve Waters gave me (a tufted/rumpless white, a tufted/rumpless black, and a tufted/tailed white).

Since all of the birds in this pen are tufted, there will be significant mortality. I'll have to keep my fingers crossed. The other 16 eggs are from Jean of Macopin Farm in New Jersey (thanks Jean!!!). They're all due to hatch on February 24th -- I'm so excited! I can't wait to see what I get!

10/28/2006 -- Wilbur was killed by an animal! Now two of my three breeding roosters are dead. I still have Galeno, who is a great roo, but I need another duckwing rooster that's not related to any of my current birds before I am in any shape to sell hatching eggs again. I did get three new hens, a gorgeous black and two beautiful whites, from Steve Waters. They're adjusting well to their new home. Thanks Steve!!!

09/07/2006 -- Thus far, no new additions to the flock. I have ordered numerous batches of hatching eggs and put them under proven broody hens, but to no avail. In other news, I entered a chicken in the fair for the first time! He was the only "Araucana" that didn't get disqualified. Here's a pic of "Wilbur" with his scorecard:

And here's a pic of Wilbur at home:

I couldn't enter him as a golden duckwing because he has too many faults -- he doesn't meet the color standard for his variety. His comb is also very poor. I would've entered Galeno, who has better type, but he was molting and only has 1 tuft right now.

Anyhow, I'm at the point where I have multiple bilateral-tufted, rumpless, duckwing-esque breeding birds, only 1-1/2 years after getting my first Araucanas. All things considered, I think I've got a good start.

07/06/2006 -- Skunk and Quetzal's last eggs -- all 9 of them -- hatched. Unfortunately, only a few are keepers. I also have another broody hen sitting on 7 eggs from Ann Charles of SkyBlueEgg. They're due to hatch on the 13th of this month, and I'm very excited. I hope to have multiple breeding pens set up by next spring, and start selling eggs again.

05/06/2006 -- Skunk died of fighting injuries. This is quite a tradgedy for me -- he sired wonderful babies. Fortunately, I have a broody hen sitting on 9 eggs sired by him. Hopefully, the hatch will go well and I will get one last batch of offspring from my favorite roo.

I have my work cut out for me -- I will probably need at least 2 more breeding coops. I don't know when I'll have time to work on that!

03/21/2006 -- Hatched 4 more of Quetzal's babies from the incubator. Three are bilateral-tufted, two are bilateral-tufted AND rumpless. For some reason, I have the feeling they're all boys.

03/21/2006 -- Quetzal's babies are 5 months old now! The girls are laying lovely little green eggs. I am currently incubating 1 dozen eggs from my own Araucanas, and when they go broody I hope to get more hatching eggs from an unrelated source.

There have been dogs around lately, which concerns me greatly. All my Araucanas can easily fly their 6-foot fence, and often do when the grass looks greener.

I think I am going to buy a paintball gun and go dog hunting on my day off. These dogs run in packs. I've had a couple encounters with them, but never been able to get close enough to catch them or see if they have tags. There's no way for me to find out who owns them. But I figure when the owners get tired of cleaning paint off their dogs, maybe they'll keep their animals on their own property.

12/30/2005 -- Quetzal's first hatchlings are now 3 months old, all still alive and healthy, and I am very pleased with the results. 2/3 are tufted, 2/3 are rumpless, and 2/3 have willow legs & yellow skin, although not necessarily all in conjunction.

I have moved all my chickens to my new house -- they are staying temporarily in a fenced-off section of my pole barn while their coop is being built. I have 10 birds total and am thinking of selling 3 (I have already had offers -- people e-mail me all the time asking if I have any for sale).

Their coop is almost finished -- it will be 6' X 8' inside and the run will be 25' X 25', housing 12 to 15 birds quite comfortably.

It's time to start planning spring hatching! I will be hatching as much as possible from the Skunk X Quetzal mix that has given me such good results. I also want to add new blood to the flock with eggs from Ken Deavers, skyblueegg.com, and maybe more from Pat Wright.