Re: Araucanas/Americanas

From: Jill. (news_at_REMOVETHISkintaline.co.uk)
Date: 03/17/05 

Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 23:38:57 -0000

Andrea Midtmoen Fease wrote:
> Hi Jill,
>
> I answered Selene also, but I think you might be able to see
> trends in breeds, I seem to have. For instance, the wyandottes range
> from calm to don't-touch-my-eggs-or-you-hand-is-gone, but they seem
> to be more touchy than, say, my orpingtons, who generally laze around
> and let me do almost anything to them.

Yes but you are only seeing the trends of the birds from the breeders you
buy from
Our wyandottes are as laid back as any Orp we have
BUT I know of folks who swear never to have an Orp on their place because
they have had such bad expereinces
I can imagine that an Orp with a bad attitude is a seriously nasty piece of
work

>
> We rotate our stock out to keep to about 75, some are pets, some
> are second-year layers, most are first-year layers. All are
> hand-raised and get lots of attention as they grow up, so they all
> have a good chance to be mellow. But like dogs, some breeds seem to
> be calmer than others.

Yes -- but then we have had Leghorn hens of different colours [and
strains ] who have chosen to spend half their life in close proximity to
humans around here -- despite the books and general opinion being that
Leghorns are flighty and rather standoff ish

>
> So I do think you can get a trend.

Only from the breeder you use

 Of course you could get a
> bunch of, say, orpingtons that were bred from a nasty rooster and get
> all meanies. But I was just curious if anyone had real problems with
> the araucanas/americanas, or if they seemed "normal".

Yes -- they are pretty run of the mill
Very few scarey stories but neither a multitude of soppy urchin stories
either
Easy ose

 Sometimes when
> you breed for fancy colors or different egg colors or whatever, you
> get some other not-so-desirable traits that follow the traits you're
> breeding for.

That depends on how you select
We ahve a lot of cockerels here - in the breeding pens and the spares [ and
the not got around to eating yet]
There is not one in any of the breeds that would consider being aggressive
to us
And certainly we would never have anything like that in a breed pen.

Others - with different criteria -- may judge differently
Hence my assertion that you need to know your hatchery [and where they get
their birds from !]
:~) 

--
regards
Jill Bowis
Pure bred utility chickens and ducks
Housing; Equipment,  Books, Videos, Gifts
Herbaceous; Herb and Alpine nursery
Working Holidays in Scotland
http://www.kintaline.co.uk