Friday, May 9, 2008

Chicken Update

First of all we do not have Ameraucanas as I originally thought. Matthew was told we have Araucanas. I thought the store was fooling him because all the information I saw made the chicks look like Ameraucanas.

I called the store back, they are not the friendliest folks in the world, and the lady I spoke with said they were Araucanas. She, however, could not answer any of the other questions I was asking in regards to variety. Also, many places try to sell unsuspecting people Ameraucanas or Araucanas when, in fact, they are neither. The birds are simply a "mutt" and are classified as Easter Egg chickens, due to the blue-green shells of the eggs they lay. I was trying to express this known fact to the lady at the store, did I mention she was rude, and she kept repeating herself saying. We have Araucanas and they ARE Easter Egg chickens. Fine. Thank you ma'am. Have a nice day. I suppose I will assume these are Araucana chickens. There is no real way to tell until all of their adult plumage is grown.

Both breeds, Ameraucana and Araucana, have different characteristics and the Easter Egg chickens, the mutts, have a mix of everything.

I don't really care either way. I just wanted an answer that the lady at the store was unable to supply. I think that irritated her. I'm sure we will love our little chicks a whole bunch. I'm very excited that all six look a little different. Their wing feathers are starting to grow. I'll take more photos next week to see a real progress in their growth and development.

We have named two for sure. Custard and Hawk (short for Mohawk). The other four names we are working on. They are all still living in a box under a heat lamp in the entryway. They act exactly like infants at this point. They sleep hard all day. (I have to make sure they are breathing) and peep ALL night.

The photo is an Araucana hen. No idea if our chicks will look like this or not. Supposedly Araucanas are tuftless, no real tail feathers. They are even supposed to be missing the coccyx bone. We shall see. I've learned Araucanas are also intelligent and rather docile which will be fun to have.

6 comments:

Jessica said...

Okay, so...............I saw that picture and immediately thought, "HOLY COW those things grew fast," and then I snapped back to reality and realized the sheer impossibility of that idea.

I'm kinda embarrassed to admit that.

Katie R. said...

ha! I'm learning too. No need to be embarrassed. They will grow fast just not quite that fast. :)

LadyD said...

For some reason I was reading it as Americanas and Iraqanas. I really thought that is how you would pronounce that spelling. I started to think something was weird here, and then I saw the u in the Araucanas. Whew!

kristi noser said...

Do they have to have a green card?

kristi noser said...

no habla "eggs-spanol" HHHHAAAAAA
I "crack" myself up!

Katie R. said...

Kristi you are great. I have a very ridiculous joke my dad thought up when Matthew and I were first living in Baldwin and had a big flock of chickens. My dad thought it would be funny to put a sign on the chicken coop that said:
"Topless Chicks". Isn't that horrible? Matthew wanted to add to the sign and have it say "...and bottomless". I said absolutely not. Both guys are Christian and they wanted to put that junk on my coop? I'm sure they were just teasing me. I hope.

The sign never went up! It's certainly not going up now either.