Description of the breed of chickens Ameraukana, features + photo

Contents

Chickens Ameraukana, description of the breed
Peculiarities of growing
Why ameraukan breeders are offended
Ameraucans-Bantams
Ameraukan chicken owners reviews
Conclusion

How to breed a new breed? Take two different breeds, cross between them, compile the names of the original breeds, patent the name. Ready! Accept congratulations! You have bred a new breed of animals.

Laughter is a laugh, but in the United States of America it is indeed the practice to call a two-breed cross between animals with the compiled name of the two original breeds, even if it is a cross between the first generation and the parents of the “new” breed live in your house.

For example, what is “Schnudel”? No, this is not a schnitzel, this is a cross between a schnauzer and a poodle. And the cockapoo – cocker spaniel + poodle, apparently, will soon become an official breed in the United States.

Approximately the same breed of chickens Ameraukan was bred. South American hens of the Araucan breed were crossed with local American hens. Due to the ability of the Araucan to transmit the ability to carry colored eggs when crossing, crossbreeds also differ in the original color of the shell of the eggs being laid.

In general, in the Ameraucana breed, in addition to the furious name, not everything is so sad. Crossbreeding of chickens began in the 70s of the last century, and a new breed was registered only in 1984.

Serious enough requirements are imposed on the Ameraucana so that the hybrid of the first generation still cannot be classified as a breed.

Attention! In America, all chickens that lay colored eggs of an unusual color are called Easter, and the second name of the ameraucana is: Easter chicken.

But professional poultry farmers are offended by hearing such a name. Because of the nuances of shell color formation, they consider the Ameraucana a breed and not just a “chicken with colorful eggs”.

And the eggs of the ameraucana are really multi-colored, since, depending on the suit of the second parent, the araucana conveys the ability to carry either blue or green eggs. While the araucana itself carries only blue ones.

Considering that the araucana was crossed with chickens of various colors when breeding a new breed, the ameraucana lays eggs of all shades of blue and green.

Adult chickens, by the way, have a very decent weight: roosters – 3-3,5 kg, chickens – 2-2,5 kg. Yes, and the weight of the eggs is very decent: from 60 to 64 g.

Chickens Ameraukana, description of the breed

There are 8 officially registered colors in the breed.

wheat blue

wheaten

Russet

Blue

Lavender

Silver

Black

Dark yellow

White

With so many standard colors, there simply cannot be many intermediate options. And if you remember the predilection of Americans for a variety of color schemes of colors in animals, it becomes clear that such intermediate options exist. But everyone can get their original ameraucans by mixing different colors.

A distinctive feature of the Ameraukan is the sideburns and beard, which are separate tufts of feathers and almost completely hide the head of the chicken, as well as the metatarsus of an unusual dark color.

Ameraukana looks like a proud arrogant bird with large brown eyes, with which she will arrogantly look at the owner after the destruction of a couple of beds of ripe strawberries.

Strong wings will enable the Ameraucana to leave the owner without a crop of fruit on the trees, since contrary to the statement “a chicken is not a bird”, this chicken flies very well.

Of course, this will happen only if you do not attend to the construction of an open-top enclosure for the ameraucana.

Attention! Ameraucana is unpretentious and is not afraid of frost and heat. Its dense plumage with a lot of down protects it well from weather adversity.

Roosters and hens differ little from each other. The scallops of the Ameraukan chickens are small, while those of the rooster are somewhat larger. The tails also differ little: both are set at an angle of 45 ° to the body of the bird and both are of medium size. The tail of a rooster cannot be called luxurious. It differs from the chicken one only in a certain curvature of the feather.

The advantages of the breed are colorful eggs. Moreover, the color and intensity of the eggs of the same chicken often depends on factors known only to the chicken itself. A regularity was noticed that at the beginning of the next cycle of oviposition, the eggshell is colored brighter than at the end. Looks like the ink cartridge is low. But whether the eggs will be blue, pink or green (and in the same oviposition cycle) is most likely determined by the combination of genes that has fallen on a particular egg. Such a scatter is not surprising, given the history of the breed.

The direction of the breed is meat-egg. Moreover, with a good body weight and eggs, the ameraucana also has a fairly high egg production from 200 to 250 eggs per year. The laying hen matures somewhat later than purely egg hens: at 5-6 months, but this is successfully offset by a long production period: 2 years versus 1 year for egg hens.

Important! Of the shortcomings, a very low degree of development of the incubation instinct is noted, but if we recall that one of the parent breeds, the Araucan, does not have this instinct at all, then everything is not as bad as it seems.

However, to guarantee ameraucan, you will have to hatch either in an incubator or under another chicken in which this instinct is well developed.

In general, the Ameraucana has a docile disposition. No, this is not a disadvantage. The disadvantage is the aggression of single amaraucana roosters towards people and other animals. Since the Americans really do not like the slightest manifestations of animal aggression towards people, they work on this flaw in the breed, isolating the aggressive bird and trying to keep it out of breeding.

Peculiarities of growing

In addition to the need to get chickens in an incubator, there are no special nuances in keeping and feeding ameraucana. For feeding chickens, a special compound feed for chickens is quite suitable. If it is not possible to feed such feed, it is quite possible to prepare feed for chickens on their own from crushed grains with the addition of animal protein and premixes.

As an animal protein, you can use not only traditional boiled eggs, but even finely chopped raw fish.

Important! These chickens need only clean water. It is better to use filtered or at least settled water.

Ameraukans need long walks, so free access from the chicken coop to the aviary is vital for them.

When buying chickens, it must be borne in mind that the most viable broods that were born in February-March.

Why ameraukan breeders are offended

To understand what the resentment of breeders is based on, you will have to figure out exactly how the eggshell is colored. After all, outwardly, the Ameraukans really do lay multi-colored eggs. So why can’t they be called Easter like other chickens that lay colored eggs?

The color of an egg is determined by the breed of the hen that laid it. This is the outermost layer of the shell. For example, Rhode Island lays brown eggs, but the inside of the shell is white. And the brown “paint” is relatively easy to wash off if the egg lies, for example, in chicken manure for several hours.

The Ameraucana, like its Araucan ancestor, has really blue eggs. The shell is stained by the pigment bilirubin secreted by the liver. The shell of the ameraucana egg is blue inside. This, by the way, makes it very difficult for the eggs to be translucent. Thus, both Araucan and Ameraucana carry only blue eggs. Moreover, they are truly blue, and not just “Easter” – painted on top. And the surface color of ameraucana eggs is determined by a combination of genes responsible for the blue and brown color of the surface layer. In this case, the outer layer of the egg can be blue, olive, green, yellow, and even pink.

In addition to the fact that “Ameraucana only lays blue eggs”, there are also problems with the international recognition of this breed.

The Ameraucana standard is only adopted in the US and Canada. In the rest of the world, only the Araucan standard is recognized, including the one with a tail. Although there is a difference between the tailless araucana and the tailed ameraucana even at the genetic level. Ameraucana lacks the lethal gene responsible for the development of brushes in Araucans.

However, at international exhibitions, all chickens that do not meet the Araucan standard are classified as “Easter egg-laying” chickens. This is what offends the breeders who work on the ameraucana and impose strict requirements on the breeding stock.

Ameraucans-Bantams

Breeders bred a decorative form of ameraucana – Bentham. Small ameraucans differ from large ones only in size – the weight of birds is up to 1 kg, and the weight of an egg is on average 42 g. The rest of the requirements for the breed of miniature ameraucans are the same as for large chickens.

Ameraukan chicken owners reviews

Unfortunately, in the -speaking space, ameraukana is still very rare and there are practically no reviews of -speaking chicken breeders about exotic chicken. In the English-language forums, the reviews are mostly reduced to discussing the problem of egg color. Due to intra-breed splitting, the breed is not yet settled, the color of the egg often does not meet the expectations of the owners.

The review of one of the few owners of ameraukan, who lives in Barnaul, can be seen on the video.

The video of another owner from the city of Balakovo convincingly proves that ameraucan chickens actively lay eggs even in winter.

Valentina Rudometova, 55 years old, Bulakhovka village, Belarus

Very calm birds. They quickly get used to their own, but beware of strangers. Eggs are laid almost every day, and they are multi-colored. Each chicken, if not its own color, then its own shade of eggs. Neighbors willingly sort out colorful products. They are interested, but I’m a penny.

Viktor Samokhin, 62 years old, Suvorovka village, Crimea

I became interested in colored eggs, after reading on the Internet, and ordered a hatching egg in Germany. When they hatched and grew up, he cursed everything in the world. I did not believe the information that they fly well, I thought they embellished, because they had never seen live chickens. I’m used to others, who with such sizes even run away from dogs on foot. No, ameraucans do fly. They got into the habit of spending the night on trees in my and neighbor’s gardens. I had to build an aviary. He barely lured them there with food, otherwise they had already decided that the Crimea reminded them of the American prairies. Now, when they are sitting in the aviary, there are no complaints about them. Eggs are regularly laid even in winter. In our Crimean winters, they don’t even need a heater. They walk in the aviary all day long even when the frost hits. But it rarely happens to us.

Conclusion

The Ameraukan breed is gaining popularity in Our Country and, perhaps, soon there will be at least a few Ameraukan heads in every yard.