Araucana
Lavender Araucana
Lavender or Black Araucana
Colour - Lavender (Powder grey)
- Black
Their unrivalled egg shells are a lovely blue/green - turquoise colour.
Specific features are feather ear tufts, muffs and beards, they have a small feather crest and are completely absence of wattles, with a very much reduced comb, which is flat & small. Once males are mature you will see that they have (or should have) three distinct lines/ridges.
The Araucana breed lack obvious secondary sexual characteristics, i.e. comb, wattles, making them very difficult to distinguish males from females at a young age while still growing. Because of this we often have to keep them longer to be sure so this can mean customers will have to wait a little longer for them to be cleared to go!
A lighter - medium breed originating from Chile, which can often be a little more shy than their larger cousins, but which are generally good foragers & more often than not, kept not only for their distinctly special egg colour but also for their for uniquely different looks as well.
They do come in others colours, however we prefer to keep only the very popular Lavender (grey) colour you see pictured above and have recently introduced a handsome black rooster to the flock so approximately half the chicks born from fertile eggs will be black and half lavender from this flock.
Araucanas can have the reputation of being flighty however we have found our line of Lavender Araucans to be calm and generally easy going. However care is needed to ensure their muffs and crests do not grow to obscure their eyes - effectively making them blind. A careful trim with nail scissors around the eyes now and then is all that is needed to remedy this.
We find these gentle ladies a great backyard hen - they tend to keep reasonably close to their hutch or place of safety, and are good chickens for children, as they are small enough to pick up and cuddle - whereas big breeds like Orpingtons - while docile - can be a little daunting for small children due to their size.
They are moderate - good layers that can be a little inconsistent at times due to their tendency to go broody.
We do our best to sex the Araucanas, which can often take longer than any other breed, and we do our best to get this right, removing all the obvious males as they are identified, however due to the difficultly to determine their sexes correctly, while still young, we can not guarantee females and we will not take any males back and exchange them for a female after purchase.
So we therefore no longer take back males & replace with females, and it is under this understanding that you purchase this specific breed.
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