My first blue egg came with tragedy. :(

I went out about half an hour ago to check on the birds and collect eggs. Our white silkie man was still acting up so I got him out of his pen and carried him around 10-15 minutes, took a couple of pics of him, cleaned the eggs I collected and took him back out. There was squawking in my other pen where I had just collected eggs a short time earlier. When I went to look, our single Araucana had gotten her foot twisted in the bit of slack on the rope of the chicken door and hanged upside down and died. Her first egg was nearly laid when she met with her death. I gently popped it out and put her to rest. I am so so sad. She was such a nice bird and my only white Aracauna hen. :(

I feel so guilty. We are so careful every night to make sure we don't leave any slack or hurt the birds when we close the door. I didn't realize the new line had enough slack for that to happen. I fixed it but too late this time. It's been a really bad day and this just made me bawl.

Bye bye Bernardo. :(

Badseed, So sorry to learn of your loss. I have a mostly white Ameraucana. Notice the spelling difference. The Araucana breed is limited to chickens that do not have tail feathers. They actually have no coxis ...... the little knob at the end of the chicken that has the tail feathers on it. Your dear bird likely had tail feathers. My hen looks a great deal like yours. Half of my personal flock are Ameraucanas. I have 11 Ameraucana hens in various colors plus 2 black (lost 1 recently) and a Blue Ameraucana roo. Kelly

Thanks.

If you scroll to the last pic on the site I am going to post, I have two that look like the bird on the left and the one I just lost, looks like the one on the right. She did not have feathers that stuck off her rear like a tail, but a very short rear with feathers that sort of curled around or barely stuck past her vent, for lack of better terminology. Someone here identified her as an Aracauna on another thread. http://araucanasonline.com/page2.html

Awww, Chele, so sorry the chicken died. I had that happen to a chicken one time :~( Which of your girls claimed that bird?

Lana

oh so sorry thats heart breaking

All of the white birds are Jazzi's. She had that one, the white leghorns and one other type I'm not sure about yet, but all the white ones. She ran out of names and let Morganne name that one but she thought it was a boy since it had a "mustache". LOL That is how she came to be called Bernardo.

The kids seem to be taking it okay and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I bawled. Usually when I fear something, it's because I have a gut feeling. The rope made me nervous but I was afraid of catching one in the rope when we closed it. I never thought one of the birds would get stuck in it during the day. :(

I've come to learn that animals ALWAYS do the unexpected and you really can't think of all the trouble they find to get into. You just do the best you can and improve as you learn...usually the hard way, sigh. Ask me how I know :)

I know. It just makes me sad. I think part of it is selfish too as I'm upset that was my only Araucana. I would not have felt nearly as bad if it was that mean rooster or one I had 5-6 of and I don't think that is right either. I just feel bad. I know stuff happens but I'm still a big baby. LOL

Badseed, Since your bird did not have a coxis .... it also had no tail feathers. I believe you had a real Araucana. They are kinda rare in comparison to the Ameraucana breed. I've seen Araucana shown at the Washington State Fair 1 time in 5 years locally. In that same span I've seen Ameraucana birds shown a few hundred times. I simply indicated that your bird was rare and given the % of 1 out there vs the other choice I stated the obvious. I thought you had made a misspelling. Losing an Araucana is many times worse than losing an Ameraucana. Ameraucana day old chicks sell for $2 locally. I'd bet you paid much more than that for your precious and now deceased hen. Again I am even more sorry for your loss. I have 3 show class Ameraucana chickens. The remaining 11 hens are just pastel blue/green egg layers and one of them is a mutt (lays an olive drab green egg). I like her eggs the most because of the unique color.

Hey Kelly! No conflict. :) I'm certainly no bird expert. I probably would not have known what to call her had someone here not told me. LOL I actually got laughed at a couple of months ago for calling one of their rumps tucked as opposed to tailless. Tucked was a good description but bad terminology. chuckle

When I bought them, I bought varieties of layers, brown, rainbow, etc and the silkies. It's been fun trying to figure out who is who but I was promised a few special birds. I got a lot of very special birds. :) Actually buying mixes was quite economical. It gave us a chance to try a lot of different breeds too.

Badseed, We should all remember ... chickens are extremely dumb animals. If there's a way to die within reach .... they'll find it sooner than later. I used to set out conibear traps at low spots under my fence where skunks were obviously crawling to go snatch eggs going under my fence. I placed the traps on the outside of my fence line bordering the chicken run. My Partridge Rock hen stuck her head through the fence and tripped the trap spring ..... just one more way for a chicken to find a way to die sooner than it should have. Obviously it was a great way to catch skunks but also an even easier way to kill all my hens. I don't do it any more.

bad,
if you have away to hatch hatching eggs i know a breeder (who is a friend) of true tufted/rumpless Araucanas who sells hatching eggs or in warmer months she sells chicks. they are rare but not that rare ya just have to find a good breeder with pures like ur girl is all. if you are interested let me know and i will send you a d-mail with info to get in touch with her. i know ya can't replace the one you love and lost but if you would be interested in seeing about mabe getting some like her to raise let me know.
silkie

I'm almost afraid to say anything, but we've not had any problems with other critters. I saw two raccoons run across the field one night but they hadn't bothered the chickens. Another night when we came home, one raccoon ran across the driveway. I think he had been visiting my pond. A few nights ago, I saw what I believe was a possum, dive into the ditch tile. Most nights the chickens are in now by 7:30 or 8:00 but we don't lock them up right away. The dogs do bark if they hear or see anything, even from inside.

As we were leaving last night, the cats were fighting over something, which turned out to be squirrel pieces and parts. Ewwww.

Silkie, that would be wonderful! I may check into getting a few more of several breeds and if I do, they'll probably all come from the same place. I'm not sure I've seen the white Araucana offered anywhere though. It's been quite a while since I've looked. I joked with my husband that I see us having all these small coops all over with different birds. LOL The kids will end up doing 4H next year. ;)

Badseed,
I am sorry to hear of your loss. It's heartbreaking to find her that way.
:(

Sue

Thank you. It was just such a freak thing. Had I not been out there in hours, I could see it. I had just come in from feeding them and collecting eggs and it probably was 20 minutes later at most that I went back out.

I like to take time to pull weeds, grasses, whatever is near or get them straw or hay or bread just for some variety and hang out with them. It's not much easier to lose a pet than anything else. I keep trying to tell myself they are "farm animals" but I've not bought into it yet. LOL

Badseed, If its any solace today .... but the older you get and the longer you have chickens and the more of them that die ... your finding one dead chicken gets a bit easier to take. I've had about 50 die from whatever means you can conjure up in 5 years. I'm tired of losing them to whatever but at least it seems to be less heartrending. If you have 75 chickens .... losing one may not be so significant. Numbers just might make one in many seem less significant. That's been how I've handled it. I'm a bit crustier than the average new poultry enthusiast so time has made problems take a different perspective and become smaller problems. Time heals all wounds ... or is it ..... wounds all heals or both. LOL

Hey! Good news! At least one of my birds is an Ameraucana! Much to my surprise, I just collected a greenish blue egg! I can't believe it took this long. The birds are now 31 weeks old.

Yeah! badseed!
I am supposed to have the same breed, but a banty. so far the eggs she gives me are just kinda dark cream colored. Do they change with age or are the color you get at the start of laying what you always get? We are going to have to do some chicken/egg trading at the RU. It should be a interesting one.
George
My eggs are so little it takes 3 to make a good egg sandwich, but at least she is working the best she can.

I was so happy to find that blue egg. I think I have four birds I was not sure about. I thought two were Partridge Rocks and two Ameraucana possibly but wasn't sure. Then I thought two might be Light Brown Leghorns. I think I have all three. LOL

So far as I have read, blue eggs range from very pale blue, to almost turquoise, to very pale green to an olive green. I don't know enough to swear to anything. I did read you could cross certain white egg layers to a good blue egg layer and have a chance of getting a blue egg layer. Someone else will have to tell you if you have a brown egg layer or if the egg could get more blue. I'm clueless! The egg you are describing (size and color) sounds like my silkie eggs. I've been blowing them out to make ornaments. You do need about three to make up a full sized egg. LOL

Have a great day George!

Badseed,

I'm sorry about your chicken! I only have 4 chickens, they all just started laying eggs this past week, and now I have more eggs than I know what to do with - I was wondering how you blow the eggs, I would love to make some egg ornaments for our tree, but I'm not sure where to start. And if the guineas ever start laying, it might be a good thing to do with their little eggs, or at least some of them.

Hi Beth!

Nice to hear from you. We still miss Bernardo but it's okay. It's mostly the guilt. I just never want to be okay about the death of anything.

I tried all sorts of things from the web advice I could find then did something else. Instead of buying a blower, we tried different things mentioned on the web. Then hubby went to Tractor Supply and bought me the biggest syringe they had (for giving cows shots) and the largest gauge needles. You don't need anything else! I pull the handle back to fill the syringe with air. Gently poke a hole in both ends of the egg and use the needle to pop the yolk. Then just push the plunger gently to fill the egg with air and watch it run out the other end. It works best with room temp eggs. And you have to put the air in gently or the egg will bust. Getting the yolk out is the hardest part a it's so thick.

Once you get the egg out, use the syringe full of water to clean out the egg. Again, do it gently. Then set the eggs, hole side down to drain. After they dry, use a bit of white glue around the holes to keep them from splintering. Then you are ready to decorate!

Thanks, Badseed!

I never would have thought of that! That's a wonderful idea. I'll pick up a syringe this weekend. Thank you so much!

I don't want hubby's head to get too big, but it was his idea. I read somewhere that you could use a pump like the ones for blowing up soccer and basketballs. We have a few of those so I tried one. First you had to find something to pierce the egg, then something to bust the yolk, then something to blow it with. Hubby thought of and bought me the all in one tool. LOL

Hi all juat to stop by and say hi..The chickens are so pretty..

Tracey

Thanks, Badseed! I'm going to the tsc today anyway so I think I'll pick up a syringe and try that on the duck eggs!

Cool! It's kind of fun! Just remember, room temp eggs and don't push really hard on the syringe (unless you enjoy blowing egg all over yourself and anything within 2 feet LOL).

I wish I could get some of the big eggs somewhere locally. I have a bunch of silkie eggs done and several larger beige and brown ones.

Hi Tracey!

Badseed,

Do you have pictures of your finished eggs? I'd love to see them!

I have not finished them yet. Each year we come up with a new theme, make and/or buy ornaments and do the tree. This year we chose rustic/country and made most of the ornaments from salt dough. I can't make up my mind what to do with the eggs yet (and kind of like them as they are, natural). LOL I do have about 30 blown and waiting. And with six daughters, the decision is not always mine!

well, be sure to take some pictures of your tree when you are finished!