Red Pile Chickens

Well there were a couple of vaccinations, papers, and then there were ? growth enhancers ?, and a receive rare chick free.

Hmmm.....I always had the vaccinations done, I don't remember any kind of growth enhancers (I would avoid something like that anyway, but would assume they would be for the meat chickens??). The free chicks thing was always fun, I usually got some kind of Polish or some other funky-looking critter. It's been several years since I have ordered any, I've cut back a lot on my poultry.....but what I have gotten from them in the past has continued to keep my population going very well with future generations here.

How do the colored egg genes work? For example if you had a cross between araucana and something else, would the hens of that cross lay colored eggs?

Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. It's the luck of the draw, I guess. Most of mine lay big, sky blue eggs, I used to have one that laid the prettiest pink eggs you've ever seen. Aracaunas are probably the most prolific layers I've got, and the eggs are large for the size of bird.

I didn't realize that the araucanas were so prolific? More prolific than the Japanese or RI red?

What is the going price for an araucana hen?

My Aracaunas seem to have a longer laying season than the others....it never fails, the first and last eggs of the year are always blue ones. The Japanese are much more broody, though. I haven't kept a lot of the Rhode Island Reds, but it seems to me that they tend to "burn out" and quit laying at a younger age....I have had Aracauna and Japanese hens several years old still laying like it was their first season. And..I like all the neat colors the Aracaunas come in, lol.

Price varies by where you get them....I think the last hens I bought full-grown were at an old hillbilly swap meet, and paid $5-6 each for them, but they tend to go for closer to $10 apiece (and sometimes higher in the early spring) at the exotic sales. Keep in mind that if you buy adult hens, you want to either get them in the fall or the very early spring, often moving them once they have started laying will throw them off laying for quite some time.

Welp, I guess I'm looking for them at the right time, finding them before time is up is going to be the problem I guess. How many years do they lay well? Most bantams?

I went out to check for eggs this morning and the hen my girlfriend gave me had laid its first egg for me. I didn't have any clue what kind of chicken it is or what the rooster with it is. It laid a colored egg. Do any others besides araucana's lay colored eggs? I looked over the hatchery and none of those besides the araucana said anything about colored eggs. Haha, do I have one and not even know it?

This is off subject, but the most prolific layer I've ever had are barred-rocks. The barred-rock eggs are significantly bigger than the colored egg too. Right now my barred rock is laying 1 egg per day even with it still being cool outside a lot of days. Is one a day good? Do you get more?

Well...what color was the egg? There are some that will lay white eggs with a slight olive tint to them, and many different shades of the brown eggs. The easiest identifier of the Aracaunas are the "ears".....they have tufts of feathers coming up from kind of under/behind the base of their beak that stick up and look like ears, and they have a rose comb. Otherwise, they really don't have any distinctly identifying color or pattern to the feathers.

Barred rocks are good layers, but in my experience seem to be more seasonal around here...something you don't have to worry about as much as I do. And my Aracauna eggs were always larger than the barred rock eggs. Barred rocks tend to be good broody hens though. If they are laying daily, they are doing good. I've had very few that will lay more than one egg a day, and even those didn't lay 2 every day, just occasionally.

Well I think it does have the "ears." They are pretty short though, half an inch or less, does that sound right? The egg was a light blue/green. Yeah, the barred-rock is always the first on the nest in my experience, agressive about it too. The hen in question though is mostly black, but I guess that won't help any. I am pretty excited about getting some more hens though. My parents enjoy the eggs I produce for them and they are going to take care of them all through college for me. Do you ever try to breed for traits or do you just let them have at it?