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What are
the major differences between Ameraucana and Araucana chickens?
What are
Easter Egg chickens?
Aren't
Araucanas the "original" breed of colored-egg chicken?
Are
Ameraucanas just mongrels produced by crossing Araucanas with other breeds
of domestic chickens?
Who
decided which attributes the Ameraucana breed would consist of?
Which
varieties are recognized by the American Bantam Association and by the
American Poultry Association?
Where can
I get a list of Ameraucana breeders to try to obtain hatching eggs and/or
birds?
Are blue
eggs, from Ameraucanas and Araucanas, lower in cholesterol than white and
brown eggs?
What are the major differences between Ameraucana and Araucana
chickens?
Both breeds lay eggs with shells
colored various shades of blue, have pea combs, and should have red
earlobes. Beyond that few similarities exist in specimens meeting the
requirements of recognized poultry standards. Perhaps 99 percent of
chickens sold as Araucanas (or Ameraucanas) by commercial hatcheries are
actually mongrels (aka Easter Egg chickens), meeting the requirements of
neither breed.
According to the American Poultry
Association (APA), the Araucana breed must be rumpless (no tail) and have
ear tufts. Ear tufts are clumps of feathers growing from small tabs of skin
usually found at or near the region of the ear openings. This feature is
unique in the U.S. to the Araucana breed. This trait is nearly always
lethal to unhatched chicks when inherited from both parents. Tufted
Araucanas, therefore, are always genetically impure, i.e., they don't breed
true and will always produce a percentage of "clean-faced"
offspring.
The Ameraucana breed, on the other
hand, has a tail and sports muffs and beard in the facial area. These
characteristics are true-breeding. Other requirements of both breeds may be
found in the APA's Standard of Perfection and in the American Bantam
Association's (ABA)
Bantam Standard.
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What are Easter Egg chickens?
The Ameraucana Breeders Club defines
an Easter Egg chicken or Easter Egger as any chicken that possesses the
blue egg gene, but doesn’t fully meet any breed descriptions as defined in
the APA and/or ABA
standards. Further, even if a bird meets an Ameraucana standard breed
description, but doesn’t meet a variety description or breed true at
least 50% of the time it is considered an Easter Egg chicken.
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Aren't Araucanas the "original" breed of colored-egg
chicken?
Although the APA Standard claims some
Araucanas came from South America, the ABA Standard is correct in stating
that Araucanas, as described in the our Standards, originated in the United
States.
Historical evidence does not support
the notion that only one type of chicken laid colored eggs in their native South
Americ a. No genetic linkage exists that would require
colored-egg chickens to be tufted or rumpless. It is true the first
recorded imports from Chile combined the traits of rumplessness, ear tufts, and
colored eggs - but those birds resulted from a single breeder combining
several strains and subsequently misrepresenting them as native fowl. An
artist's depiction of the earliest imports in a 1927 National Geographic
article served to perpetuate this myth. The Ameraucana breed was formulated
and standardized, primarily in the north central U.S., to provide a colored egg fowl possessing more
practical and true-breeding characteristics.
Ameraucanas were recognized as a
separate and distinct breed in the early 1980's by the APA and by the ABA.
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Are Ameraucanas just mongrels produced by crossing Araucanas
with other breeds of domestic chickens?
As far as can be determined no
tufted-rumpless fowl were used to create any of the eight recognized
varieties of Ameraucanas. The Ameraucana breed has specific requirements with regard to shape, weights, coloring, comb,
earlobes, and so on. While it is true that commercial hatcheries continue
to cash in on crossbred mongrels by advertising them as Araucanas or
Ameraucanas, it takes much more than eggshell color to make a true breed.
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Who decided which attributes the Ameraucana breed would consist
of?
Because general agreement among
fanciers could not be reached, certain American Poultry Association
officials created an Araucana standard and imposed it on the public in 1976
without benefit of the normally required qualifying process. Quite
obviously this standard was originally a goal to be strived for, but birds
were subsequently developed meeting it’s' requirements. In contrast,
Ameraucana bantams were bred first to conform to a proposed standard, then
achieved standard recognition through the normal qualifying processes. The
small group of breeders who developed Ameraucanas selected its' traits via
majority vote.
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Which varieties are recognized by the American Bantam
Association and by the American Poultry Association?
Eight varieties have been recognized
by both organizations since 1984. They are: Black, Blue, Blue wheaten,
Brown red, Buff, Silver, Wheaten, and White. These same eight specific
color patterns are recognized in both large fowl and bantams (miniatures).
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Where can I get a list of Ameraucana breeders to try to obtain
hatching eggs and/or birds?
Click here for the ABC Breeders Directory. It is also available, in print, from the
club Secretary for $2 to club members and $5 to non-members.
This website also features the ABC Forum.
It is designed to provide a place to buy and sell Ameraucana chickens, eggs
and related items.
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Are blue eggs, from Ameraucanas and Araucanas, lower in
cholesterol than white and brown eggs?
No. This is a very
common question because years ago some hatcheries claimed that these eggs
were reported to be lower in cholesterol and higher in nutritional value
than other chicken eggs. William O. Cawley, Extension Poultry Specialist at
Texas A&M University, wrote a paper, POULTRYDOM'S MYSTERY CHICKEN - THE
ARAUCANA, 10/79, that sets the record straight.
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