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ANNOUNCEMENT for ALL MEMBERS: Save a tree and help keep our printing costs down by signing up for the

new E-CLUCKER! Email Fritz Ludwig (araucana@surfbest.net) to sign up

and receive a FREE egg color chart!

The Blue Egg Clucker Quarterly News from the Araucana Club of America

Winter 2007 Volume 13, No. 4

In This Issue:

General Info Page 2

Photo Highlights Page 3

Davy Crockett Classic Pages 4-5

Show Report from the Davy Crockett Classic Page 6

Fertility and Hatchability Pages 7-8

Show Reports Pages 9

Upcoming Shows Page 10

Introducing Susan Chapman Pages 11-12

Odds & Ends Page 12

On The Cover Reggie Neals silver bantam cockerel and Ann Charles white standard pullet at the Davy Crockett Classic.

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INFORMATION

The Blue Egg Clucker is published four times a year: Spring (March); Summer (June); Fall (September) and Winter (Nov/Dec)

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Club Volunteers:

President Cathy Brunson King George, VA

cbrunson@crosslink.net

Membership Fritz Ludwig 207 Pickens Drive Pendleton, SC 29670-9727 Araucana@surfbest.net

Treasurer Joyce Ludwig Araucana@surfbest.net

Historian Nancy Utterback 11683 North 600 West Frankton, IN 46044 leeutterback@hotmail.com

Newsletter Editor Rosalyn Upson Handbook Editor 84851 McBeth Rd Eugene, OR 97405-9431 rosalyn.upson@gmail.com

Newsletter Anne Cushing Bellingham, WA anne@araucanasonline.com

Webmaster Ann Charles 11418 Shiloh Church Road Mena, AR 71953 contact@SkyBlueEgg.com

Forum Admin Dan Wake Eureka, CA dan@dgwake.com

Show Committee Rosalyn Upson, Chairperson Steve Waters Ann Charles Dan Wake Reggie Neal

ACA Standards Terry Reeder Representative P.O. Box 928 Aptos, CA 95001

ACA MISSION STATEMENT

The Club's Mission is the promotion of the Araucana Fowl as described in the APA's and

ABA's Standards of Perfection through breeding, exhibition, and distribution of

information.

Disclaimer Articles and opinions that appear in the Blue Egg

Clucker do not necessarily reflect the position or opinion of the Araucana Club of America, or its officers. Nor

does publication of said articles constitute an endorsement of views which they may express.

Accuracy of all material is the sole responsibility of the authors. Appearance of an advertisement in the

newsletter does not constitute a recommendation or endorsement by the newsletter or the Araucana Club of

America

Membership Information: Dues are $20.00 for one year with delivery by mail, or $20.00 for two years with electronic

email delivery. When renewing your membership, please send your dues directly to

Fritz Ludwig.

Araucana Club of America 207 Pickens Drive

Pendleton, SC 29670-9727

The dues from your membership go directly towards supporting this non-profit newsletter.

Important Web Links

Araucana Club of America: http://www.araucana.net/

ACA Forum http://aca.araucana.com/phpBB-2.0.21/phpBB2/index.php

American Bantam Association http://www.bantamclub.com/

American Poultry Association http://www.amerpoultryassn.com/

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Photo Highlights

LEFT: From left to right: Dick Dickerson, Reggie Neal, Ann Charles, and Fritz Ludwig. RIGHT: Joyce Ludwig, Ann Charles, Mike Lee and son at the Araucana Table.

Article on pages 4-5.

LEFT: Dr. Susan Chapman

RIGHT: Susan examining one of Fritz Ludwigs Araucanas. Article on pages 11-12.

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Davy Crockett Classic By Rosalyn Upson

The Davy Crockett Classic was held in Lawrenceburg TN on November 10, and had a really nice turnout of Araucana people. This ACA Special Meet was especially gratifying because the National Meet last month was such a disappointment. Much of the credit for the turnout goes to Fritz Ludwig, who devoted many hours to promoting the meet, contacting people, and making everyone who came feel welcome. He and several others who attended have written up reports on their experiences. You can view more pictures of the winning birds by visiting the Club website www.araucana.net/ and clicking the sidebar 2007 Show Winners. Some pictures are on the Forum as well.

Fritz Ludwigs Show Report

I believe we should express our appreciation to the Lawrence County Poultry Club for the courtesies and hospitality that we received from them at the Davy Crockett Classic Poultry Show in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee on November 10. They held their show in a very nice facility, and even the motel was a good one. There was tasty food available at the show at a fair price.

Joyce and I set up a table to represent the Araucana Club of America, and there were many nice comments about the way we represented our breed club. The show committee even supplied the table for us, as well as three padded chairs. This gave us an opportunity to answer a lot of questions about our Araucanas.

The show was made up of 36 exhibitors and more than 550 birds. The majority of entries were Bantams. There were only 9 Large Fowl, 7 of which were Araucanas. Attendance was not as good as was expected.

The best part of the show was the fact that 5 members of the ACA were present, 4 of whom showed their Araucanas. Ann Charles drove from Arkansas, and showed both Large Fowl and Bantams. Reggie Neal and his wife, Debbie, came from North Carolina, and he showed Bantams. Fritz and Joyce Ludwig came from South Carolina, and had Large Fowl to show. Michael Lee and his wife Debbie were showing Bantams, and joined the club at the meet! Dick Dickerson, one of our most recent members who lives in northern Tennessee, visited also.

It was wonderful to be able to enjoy the camaraderie of fellow ACA members. We had a chance to meet personally those with whom we have corresponded by email and the occasional telephone call. Best of all was the chance to

compare notes, to share triumphs and failures, and I believe we gained new respect for each other. We hope that we will be able to have this level of active participation at other shows.

We found that the show judges were strict but knowledgeable. Our first impression was that some of our birds had been judged unfairly, but closer inspection showed that they had imperfections that we had not noticed, or they did not meet the standards for color. One judge was particularly well informed about color, and some of our members benefited from his remarks about breeding for the different color standards.

A number of previously ignored award plaques and show ribbons were inventoried by Ann Charles and Joyce Ludwig, and some of them were given out to the appropriate show winners. Many people were impressed by the fact that our club would make these awards. This netted a lot of good publicity for the ACA.

Several of our members wanted to sell some of their excess birds, and they were pleased with their sales. One individual returned to her home with more birds than she had arrived with, even after selling out!

Each of us used different routes to get to Lawrenceburg, and I felt that the one that Joyce and I had to use was the worst! We traveled many miles through highway construction, and I decided that I did not want to have to make the return trip on that road. Since we have some friends who pastor a church in Murfreesboro, it seemed appropriate that we use the Interstate Highway to visit them, as a mechanism to avoid the bad road.

When we arrived at the church on Sunday morning, we were greeted by an usher, and we told him that we would join them if they could find a

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place for our chickens, as it would be too hot for them to stay in the car. He showed some surprise, but quickly recovered and suggested a small storage room where our boys would be cool. It was only after the church service that we learned that the storage room was adjacent to the Childrens Church room, and that the roosters had served as their amen corner. We were able to take the birds from their boxes, and a number of the children and some adults enjoyed seeing them, and learning about Araucanas. I believe we even met one prospective ACA member at church!

Ann Charless Report

Winning Champion Large Fowl was great, of course. But two things made a big impression on me at the Lawrenceburg Special Meet. The first was the camaraderie and cooperation amongst the Araucana exhibitors. They are just a nice bunch of people and very willing to help each other out. I felt as though we were all competing as individuals at the show, but not against each other.

Second and equally impressive was the overall quality and uniform breed type of the Bantam Araucana hens and pullets as a whole. A judge could look at that particular group of birds and although they were present in mostly different varieties, they all looked like a breed, having the same good Araucana type. That says a lot for the efforts of our Araucana breeders who are so far flung and few in number.

Reggie Neals Report

The Araucana Special Meet in conjunction with The Davy Crockett Classic was indeed exciting. My wife and I were exhausted upon arrival after traveling 13 hours mostly in the dark. Joyce at The Richland Inn (host motel) was a delightful lady, allowing us to check in early.

When we arrived at the show building, we meet Robin, show secretary, another wonderful lady. Robin allowed us to leave our sale birds inside overnight. The birds were excited to get water and food after the long ride.

The most encouraging and exciting events of the meet included, meeting Ann Charles, Fritz and Joyce Ludwig, and our newest member Mike Lee,

his wife Debbie and their son Alan, and the making of history by having 4 Araucana exhibitors showing their birds at the same show.

I am so encouraged about next years show season, knowing that the ACA is promoting our chosen breed through the efforts of Fritz and Joyce Ludwig.

Mike Lees blue bantam hen

Ann and the Lees discuss bantams

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Davy Crockett Show Results

Breeder Name Size Variety Sex Prizes

Ann Charles Snow Large White Pullet Champion AOSB 1st Place Best of Variety Best of Breed

Fritz and Joyce Ludwig #3 Large White Cockerel Reserve AOSB

1st Place

Reserve of Variety

Reserve of Breed

Ann Charles Ruby Large BBR Pullet 1st Place Best of Variety

Fritz and Joyce Ludwig Pickle Large Black Cockerel 2nd Place

Fritz and Joyce Ludwig Sideburns Large Splash (AOV) Cock 1st Place

Best of Variety

Reggie Neal Bobby Bantam Silver Cock 1st Place Best of Variety Best of Breed

Mike Lee Bantam Blue Hen 1st Place

Reserve of Variety

Reserve of Breed

Reggie Neal Bantam Golden Duckwing Hen 1st Place Best of Variety

Ann Charles Sterling Bantam Silver Duckwing Pullet 1st Place Best of Variety

Reggie Neal Bantam Black Pullet 1st Place Best of Variety

Mike Lee Bantam Blue 2nd Place

Reserve of Variety

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Raising the Bar for Fertility & Hatchability in Araucanas

By Ann Charles

Part I - Inheritance

It seems that the Araucana as a breed often gets a bad rap for traits that other more common breeds can take for granted. Most articles written by the scientific and/or poultry community talk about the problems associated with Araucana -- Rumplessness, tufts, low hatchability, poor fertility, and failure to thrive. Invariably, poor performance in these areas is attributed to either the tuft or the rumpless gene. From my own experience with the breed I think it is more probable that low fertility, hatchability, and vigor is more often due to the management and breeding practices of the breeder who may be concentrating on other areas like tufting or color, and neglecting fertility and hatchability. Araucana breeders all have their own experiences with the breed and we can learn much from each other. I have a different view point than most since I set eggs every week of the year through all kinds of weather and conditions. This article is primarily about my own experiences from working with the breed over the last five years. My flock has made substantial progress from where I started. Except for one hen (good old Delilah), my first Araucana were poor layers, had poor egg shape, and low or non existent fertility. But I was glad to have them! They were a start. The fertility problems existed in both the hens and the cocks. The hundreds of hatching eggs that I bought from many, many sources had a lot of the same problems. Of course, for hatching eggs, I was mostly limited to what I could scrounge on either Eggbid or Ebay since most Araucana breeders dont ship hatching eggs because of unrealistic expectations of the recipients (and rightly so). As one long time breeder once said, "It is a waste of good eggs."

There is a mountain of good information available both on the internet and in books on what a hen's egg should look like, how big it should be, it's shape, how big a clutch should be - and how all of these contribute to fertility and hatchability. It is a fact that a hen that lays a large (2.0 oz.), well formed egg, and lays frequently and steadily will have much better fertility and hatchability than a

hen that lays occasionally and/or inconsistently and has poorly shaped eggs. The Standard for Araucana calls for a medium sized egg. In my Large Fowl Araucana I select for a well shaped slightly larger egg (around 2.0 oz) since this is better for hatchability. My goal for all my large Araucana hens and pullets is to lay a 2.0 oz egg with excellent shape and color 5-6 times per week. In my Bantams I want the same thing but with the eggs closer to 1.3 oz each and a steady lay of 3-5 eggs per week seems to be adequate to keep them at 95-100% fertility. The fluff around the vent area is of huge importance in Araucana. A number of articles about breeding Araucana recommend that you trim the fluff on both male and female birds to help insure close contact and good fertility. If you only have a few birds and you are just starting out this is obviously your best option. You need numbers before you can start culling hard. But from the beginning I rarely trimmed fluff and now I don't have to do it at all. I simply culled the birds that had fertility problems and kept the ones that didn't. Now have consistently good fertility. My flock seems to have evolved to accommodate any breeding problems inherent with the rumplessness and if you take a close look at the fluff of my most consistently fertile birds, they have "light" fluff. I would hope that we could one day change the Standard for large fowl to require "light fluff" to make up for any drawbacks that the rumplessness may have on the actual mating process. I recently had a nice big rumpless Black Breasted Red Araucana pullet start laying a beautiful 2.0 ounce blue egg. Unfortunately she had inherited some pretty heavy fluff. After 2 months in the breeding pen and not a single fertile egg I faced the option of trimming her or culling her. She is now a nice pet in a New York neighborhood where fertility is frowned upon (no roosters are allowed). Check your best breeding birds and you will probably find that they have light fluff.

On low fertility, if you have four hens that are giving you a steady average 50% fertility (and it can't be blamed on environmental conditions) then the chances are that all of your hens aren't fertile 50% of the time across the board. What is more likely happening is that two are fertile most of the

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time, and two are fertile rarely, or never. That is a very important concept to remember. Cull the infertile birds if it is consistent and cannot be contributed to a known management problem, and keep the fertile ones. Suddenly your fertility can go through the roof overnight. Same thing with the cock birds. And, in my experience, fertile birds will usually produce fertile birds. It is reported that heritability of fertility and hatchability is supposed to be fairly low. But, assuming management is consistent, that leaves not much besides inheritance for the source of both desirable and undesirable traits. If a hen has poor fertility, poor egg shape, and heavy fluff and that keeps her fertility low, consistently, it is most likely due to inheritance.

I think the one important thing that Araucana have taught me is that they are not a "cloned" breed. Unlike other breeds, and due primarily to low overall numbers, you will rarely see Araucana that all produce alike or even look much alike, except for individual strains or flocks. We have very few long term Araucana breeders in the country and most of them have closed flocks. You will see specific traits in each flock that the individual breeder may have specialized in, especially for the breeders who are raising exhibition Araucana. So when you get Araucana breeding stock and/or

hatching eggs from Araucana breeders it helps to remember that each bird needs to be evaluated as an individual. Some may be excellent show birds, but the breeder has been happy with 50% fertility, and 25% overall hatchability from eggs set (which is apparently common in show birds of all breeds). Some show bird breeders actually breed for poor egg laying ability so that their hens don't draw down during the show season due to heavy egg production.

By selecting your best birds for as many positive traits as possible, with each breeding season, your Araucana should keep improving over time. There are a lot of breeding and selection methods available and any breeder should choose the ones that suit them best. The same methods do not work for everyone. The most important thing is just to keep at it, with your goal being overall genetic improvement of your Araucana flock with each year's hatch. Just don't forget that selecting for fertility, hatchability, and vigor should be at the forefront.

Part II Management To be continued in the next Clucker issue!

Rear shot of an Araucana pullet with light fluff. When stimulated by the rooster in preparation for breeding she will drop and flatten the fluff at the same time that she raises the rump feathers. An unobstructed breeding contact is

achieved in this way. Heavy fluff is not so readily moved aside and tends to accumulate a buildup of feces, on both the rooster and the hen.

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Show Reports

November 10 ~ Lawrenceburg, TN, The Davy Crockett Classic has its own separate page.

October 21-22, 2007 ~ Stevenson, WA, The Pacific Northwest Poultry Association Northwest Winter Classic Poultry Show Exhibitor: Steve Waters, Marysville, Washington White Standard Pullet: Reserve Champion Large Fowl, Champion AOSB, Best of Breed, Best of Variety White Standard Cock: Reserve of Breed, Reserve of Variety Black Bantam Cockerel: Reserve of Breed, Reserve of Variety

October 21 ~ Augusta, NJ, Sussex County Poultry Association Fall Show Exhibitor: Jean Blancato, West Milford, New Jersey Black Standard Cock: Best of Breed, Best of Variety, 1st Place Standard Cock (AOV):1st Place, Reserve of Breed, Reserve of Variety Standard Cock (AOV):1st Place Standard Black Pullet:1st Place Standard Blue Hen (AOV):1st Place

October 20 ~ Guthrie, OK, APA District Meet Exhibitor: Ann Charles (SkyBlueEgg), Mena, Arkansas White Standard Pullet: Champion AOSB (Judge 1), Best of Breed, Best of Variety Silver Duckwing Bantam Pullet: Best of Breed, Best of Variety, Bantam BB Red Hen: 1st, Best Of Variety, Reserve of Breed Standard BB Red Pullet: 1st, Best of Variety, Reserve of Breed : October 14 ~ Columbia, SC, South Carolina State Fair Exhibitors: Fritz and Joyce Ludwig, Pendleton, South Carolina White Standard Cockerel: 1st Place Standard Black Cockerel: 1st Place Standard Splash Cock: 1st Place Standard Splash Hen: 1st Place

October 6 ~ Great Falls, Montana, Montana Poultry Fanciers Big Sky Poultry Exposition Exhibitor: Steve Waters, Marysville, Washington White Bantam Hen: CHAMPION OF SHOW, CHAMPION BANTAM, Champion AOCCL, Best of Breed, Best of Variety

September 27 ~ Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Southeast District Fair Exhibitor: Ann Charles (SkyBlueEgg), Mena, Arkansas Silver Duckwing Bantam Pullet: Champion AOCCL, Best of Breed, Best of Variety Black Breasted Red Bantam Hen: Reserve Champion AOCCL, Reserve of Breed, Best of Variety White Standard Pullet: Reserve Champion AOSB, Best of Breed, Best of Variety Standard Black Breasted Red Pullet: 1st, Best of Variety, Reserve of Breed Standard Black Breasted Red Pullet: 1st, Best of Variety, Reserve of Breed Bantam Black Breasted Red Pullet: 1st Bantam Red Pullet (AOV): 1st, Best of Variety

Canadian Show Results

Comox Valley Fall Fair, Courtenay, BC - AOSB champ - Black cock by Omega Blue Farms

Saanich Fall Fair, Saanich, BC - Best of Breed - Black cockerel by Richard Collard

Luxton Fall Fair, Victoria, BC - Best of Breed - Black cockerel by Richard Collard

Fraser Valley Winter Show, Abbotsford, BC - district meet - AOSB champ (full class) - Black cockerel by Richard Collard

Cowichan Feather Fanciers Winter Show, Duncan, BC - Best of Breed - Black hen by Omega Blue Farms

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Upcoming Shows

DECEMBER 2007

December 1, 2007 - Orangeburg, South Carolina, Orangeburg County Fairgrounds. Sandlappers Poultry Breeders Association Fall Show. Contact: Brian Paul Witt, 2056 Old Stagecoach RD, Cassatt, SC 29032. Ph: 803-432-1067, Email: bpwitt@bellsouth.net

December 1-2, Connersville, Indiana. Indiana Poultry Breeders Association 56th Annual Winter Show. Contact: David Wulff, 943 North My Lane, Connersville, IN. Ph: 765-825-0621

December 1-2, 2007 - Victorville, California, San Bernardino County Fairgrounds. Pacific Coast Bantam Club & Inland Empire Poultry Club Double Show. Contact: Juanita Hall, 10170 Sunland Blvd., Sunland, CA 91040. Phone/Fax: 818-353-6749, email: jelh123@earthlink.net, webpage: http://home.earthlink.net/~jelh123/

December 8, 2007 - Hartwell, Georgia, National Guard Armory. Hart County Bantam Club 30th Annual All Breed Bantam Show. Contact: Keith Sokol, 795 Ridge RD., Hartwell, GA 30643. Ph: 706-376-3211

December 8-9, 2007 - Shawnee, Oklahoma. Oklahoma State Poultry Federation 91st Annual Show. Contact: Steve Jones, 9677 Butler Lane, Poetry, Texas 75160. Email: ghia4me@sprynet.com

JANUARY 2008

January 12-13, 2008 - Lake City, Florida. Florida Sunshine Classic. Contact: Danny and Norma Padgett, 15930 W St Rd 238, Lake Butler, FL 32054

January 12-13, Stockton, California, San Joaquin County Fairgrounds. Pacific Polutry Breeders Association 61st Annual Winter Show. Contact: Teresia Renwick, 13333 Quraterhorse Dr., Grass Valley, CA 95949, Ph: 530-268-2488, email: renwickranch@sbbmail.com. Daniel Fry-Shaw: 530-620-1031

January 19, 2008 ~ Jefferson, Georgia, Jackson County High School Agriculture Building. Northeast Georgia Poultry Fanciers Association 2nd Annual All Breed Show. Judges: Gary Overton, Tim Bowles, Don Juencke, Phil Bartz. Contact: Janet Collins, 1023 Westbrook Rd, Commerce, Ga. 30530, 706-336-6866 (home), 706-372-8925 (cell). Club Website: http://www.negapoultryfanciers.com

January 19-20, Fort Worth, Texas. Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, P.O. Box 150, Fort Worth, TX 76101-0150. Phone: 817-877-2400, website: http://www.fwssr.com

January 26, 2008 - Inverness, Florida, Citrus County Auditorium. Central Florida Poultry Breeders Association Show. Contact: Tom Carey, 352-344-8204, or Chris Stefan, 352-583-8270.

FEBRUARY 2008

February 16, 2008 - Newnan, Georgia, Cowetta County Fairgrounds. The Chattahoochee Valley Poultry Association Fourth Annual Show. Contact: Beth Smith, 770-251-6510, email: jerry.o.smith@att.net.

MARCH 2008

March 1, 2008 - Zanesville, Ohio. Muskingum County Poultry Breeders Association First Annual Show. Contact: Carl Baker, 740-453-1583, carl_n_lezlee@hotmail.com.

March _, 2008 - Pryor, Oklahoma. Northeast Oklahoma Poultry Club Spring Show.

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Introducing Susan Chapman, Ph.D. By Rosalyn Upson

Susan Chapman is an Assistant Professor at Clemson University who is doing scientific research using Araucanas. She recently joined the Club and I thought that it would be a good time to introduce her and describe her research projects.

Susan graduated from University College London and then obtained her Ph.D. in Developmental Biology at Kings College London. From there she came to the University of Utah for further training as a Postdoctoral Fellow and Research Associate before coming to Clemson University this summer as an Assistant Professor.

She began using chickens to study embryonic development early in her scientific career. Her involvement with Araucanas is a result of her research interests in the causes of inherited deafness in children resulting from middle and inner ear problems. It is very common in scientific research to use animal models of human conditions because of the difficulties in directly studying humans. She checked the scientific literature for any examples of deafness in chickens, and came across some information that tufted Araucana chickens are sometimes deaf. To follow this up, she went onto eBay and contacted Ann Charles, who was selling Araucana hatching eggs. Ann provided her with a number of eggs and Susan studied the embryos to see if there were any middle or inner ear defects. Unfortunately, she was unable to document any such defects, although outer ear abnormalities were common. However, outer ear defects dont result in deafness, so these werent useful to her. Because some tufted Araucanas can have other facial and throat deformities, she determined

that occasional reports of deafness were secondary to these other gross defects and not intrinsic to the tufts gene. This was disappointing, and she ended her work on tufts.

However, all was not lost, because she has become interested in the rumpless trait and its potential usefulness as a tool to study neural tube defects, including Spina bifida, the second most common birth defect in humans, which affects about 1 in 2000 live births. In the developing embryo, the neural tube develops into the spine. Here is what she has to say about this:

My lab is also interested in neural tube defects and in particular caudal spinal birth defects involving malformation or degeneration of the vertebrae. The Araucana species of chicken are rumpless, lacking tails. The tail either does not form or degenerates and there is evidence of malformed lumbrosacral vertebrae. Analysis of the morphology and molecular mechanism of the rumpless phenotype in these birds may be useful in understanding Spina bifida and caudal regression syndrome in newborns.

She has several students and one Postdoctoral Research Fellow doing research in her lab. Martin Kundrat, the Postdoctoral Research Fellow, and two undergraduates, Purvi Amin and Shannon Canty, are working on the rumpless project. A graduate student, Megha Kumar, is continuing Susans previous work on middle ear development.

The original description of the dominant rumpless gene (Rp) was done by Walter Landauer at the Storrs Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of Connecticut in the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1940s Edgar Zwilling, who was also at the Storrs Station, looked at the effects on embryonic development of the rumpless gene too. But after that, no one did any further research. Now sixty five years later, Susan is undertaking a new detailed study comparing embryonic development of normal chicks and those with the

Megha Kumar

Martin Kundrat

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dominant rumpless (Rp) gene using the improved techniques now available. In addition, the chicken genome has now been sequenced, providing a powerful tool to identify genes involved in chicken development. For example, many of the genes involved in tail development in other animals such as mice have been identified. Thus a survey of these genes in chickens to see how they are affected by the rumpless gene should shed some light on how the rumples gene works.

It would be a tremendous help if the gene for rumplessness could be identified. Unfortunately, the classic way of identifying a gene by comparing the differences in DNA from normal and rumpless chickens, called backwards genetics can be a very difficult process, requiring much more manpower and money than Susan has available. However, she is hoping that she might be able to get some clues about the identity of this gene from what the people in her lab discover about its effects on tail development. She hopes for some good luck!

Since moving to Clemson University, Susan has continued getting fertile eggs from Ann Charles. Fritz and Joyce Ludwig live only about 20 miles from Clemson. They invited her to visit their home and she saw a live Araucana there for the first time! They save any birds that die for her to use in anatomical studies.

Purvi Amin Shannon Canty

Susan feels very strongly that her research in developmental biology should be directed toward understanding important health concerns, not just advancing scientific knowledge. Thus, her current research efforts are directed toward understanding congenital deafness and neural tube defects. The Araucana Club wishes her well, and we hope to get updates on her progress. Its rewarding to learn that our special breed might contribute to scientific progress in understanding a common birth defect.

Odds & Ends

New Membership Dues In the last issue we introduced the electronic version of the newsletter. Around 16 people have signed up for it, which isnt enough to avoid a rate increase. However, we want to pass on some of the huge savings of electronic delivery to those who signed up. When you renew your subscriptions, consider the value of electronic delivery. Here is the new fee structure: Mail Delivery: $20 for a 1 year subscription Electronic Delivery: $20 for a 2 year subscription We are now set up for PayPal, so you can renew your membership at our website (Araucana Club Membership Form sidebar) if you wish.

Show Committee A Show Committee has been set up to improve the process of setting up the National Meet and the Special Meets. This was a consequence of the unattended National Meet this year. The goal is to select a venue for the National Meet that has at least 5 breeders who commit to showing ahead of time. The recent Davy Crockett Classic had 4 members showing, so we are hopeful that it can be arranged. The members are Rosalyn Upson, chairperson, Steve Waters, Ann Charles, Dan Wake, and Reggie Neal.