They're Here!

While we were waiting for the Araucanas to hatch, we did indeed fit the extra A-frame coop with wheel casters.

Not getting any safer!

A day early, the hatch began.  After reading at length about the perils of shipping eggs and poor Araucana hatches in general, I was really hoping at least 2 of the 22 eggs would hatch (to break the broodies and so each baby would have a sibling for company).

As usual with all things chicken, I have been lucky.  Eleven eggs hatched!  Of the ones that didn’t, about half seemed infertile based on sloshing sounds inside and the rest seemed to have died late in incubation, caused by the lethal tufted gene.  I didn’t have the stomach to open any up after the hatch, and I never candled them either during the incubation, preferring to let the hens do their thing undisturbed.

I have a rainbow of chicks!  I’ve spent all week working on sorting them all out and naming them.  I’m trying to hand tame them to the degree that the hens will let me.  I’m bribing them with dried meal worm treats which have been a big hit!

Kiwi here has come by his/her name honestly.  And despite the miserable pose, this chick is the one closest to the ideal, with a tiny tuft on each cheek and no tail.  Another chick, Oriole, has a single tuft, and they’re the only ones I think.  I only see one, Dove, with an obvious tail.

We’re not out of the woods yet.  After I had purchased the eggs, I found that Araucana chicks tend to be fragile, with some post-hatch mortality conferred by even one copy of the tufted gene.  They’re also highly prone to Marek’s disease, and apparently suffer from inbreeding depression from a limited gene pool.  My thoughts are to just treat them like I have all my other chicks and let the hens raise them with the flock.  Anything I raise here has to be able to thrive under my conditions.  They all seem quite vigorous so far.

While I sure didn’t plan on hatching 11, my plan is to keep them all until they get their mature feathering when I’ll know their genders and colors.  Then I’ll come up with a breeding plan.

Meanwhile, Goldi, then Clucky weaned the black chicks, so I posted them on Craig’s List today.  Jet, Onyx, and Ebony all ended up being boys, and Jet especially is masculine, chunky, and beautifully iridescent.