| Ameraucana | |||||||||||||||||||
A Blue Ameraucana cock |
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| Country of origin | USA | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Notes | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Blue egg layer breed | |||||||||||||||||||
| Poultry (Galloanserae) | |||||||||||||||||||
The Ameraucana is a breed of chicken developed in the United States. The name is a portmanteau term of American and Araucana (a related breed). Ameraucanas come in both a large and bantam variety. Eight colors are officially recognized for poultry shows by the American Poultry Association: Black, Blue, Blue Wheaten, Brown Red, Buff, Silver, Wheaten and White. There are several project colors, including Lavender.
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Ameraucanas are similar to Araucana thy are gravely chickens because both have pea combs and lay blue shelled eggs, but they have many differences and are completely different breeds. Ameraucana traits include full tails, muffs, beards, and slate or black legs depending on the variety. Bantam cocks weigh 30 ounces and bantam hens weigh 26 ounces while large fowl cocks weigh 6½ pounds and large fowl hens weigh 5½ pounds.
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 description as defined in the APA standards. Further, even if a bird (that possesses the blue egg gene) meets an APA 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.
The American Poultry Association's American Standard of Perfection contains breed and variety descriptions of all recognized standard breed poultry in North America. This means if your bird does not meet a color requirement, it is in Easter Egger. However, it is highly unlikely to see an Easter Egger which meets all APA standards yet doesn't have the correct color. They almost always mutt birds, or those descended from the Quechua.
While most all hatcheries claim to sell "Ameraucanas", "Americanas", or "Araucanas", none of them do. They all sell mutt Easter Eggers.
Ameraucanas were bred from Easter Eggers, a mixed non-standard breed derived from breeding the native South American Araucana with Old World varieties. The APA officially accepted Ameraucana as standard breeds in 1984.
The characteristic muff and beard of the Ameraucana are present in U.K. Araucana as these traits are present in the Mapuche and Quechua de Artes founder stock imported into Europe from the Falkland Islands. The fully feathered faces of the founder stock are of vital importance as they insulate the birds against the frigid cold of southern coastal South America. Winds from Antarctica bring the temperatures to below zero for months at a time. Blue egg laying chickens brought to the Falklands by Argentinians, traded from Mapuche and Quechua speaking Indians, were later exported from the Falkland Islands by British guano and fishing fleets. The Ameraucana is descended of U.K. Araucanas brought into North America during the World Fair in Toronto and Montreal's 1967 Expo. Molecular data retrieved from specimens of known provenance in the Falklands, U.K., Shetland Isles and Canada, proved to be closely related. Consequently, the Ameraucana is probably closer genetically to the South American founders than the North American Araucana. In about 1976 a group of people imported some Chilean Araucanas. At least one of these people kept his flock breeding only among themselves. Chicks from their blue eggs looked similar to the British tailed Araucanas and the Ameraucanas, however most do not meet the standards of those breeds. They resemble Falkland island birds, and are descendants of the founder birds of Chile (Quechua).