Poultrymad Araucana

The Araucana originates from South America. Specifically the area of Northern Chile populated at the time by the Arauca tribe of aboriginals. Blue shelled eggs, produced by these birds, reared by the Arauca's were being reported as early as the Mid Sixteenth century.

Poultrymad Araucana©

Introduced to the UK in 1930, the breed standard was created in 1969 at a council meeting of the Rare Breeds Society. The Araucana is classified as light soft feather in varieties of Large, Bantam and Rumpless. Rumpless indicates that neither the Cock nor Hen have tail feathers.

All the Araucana types lay strong shelled eggs that are coloured throughout the shell (the inside colour being the same as the outside) with blue being the favoured colour. The blue egg factor appears to be very dominant when the birds are crossed with other breeds. These birds are much sought after by enthusiasts and breeders alike because of their unusual eggs. The general appearance of the Auracana is of a Game type, not the Old English Game but more of the Asiatic type, being deep in the body and wide at the shoulder with a horizontal and fairly long back, except in the Rumpless variety.

Another characteristic of the Araucana are their full beards and ear muffs. Tufts of feathers that grow outward from the side of the head that resemble ear muffs. The combs displayed on the male birds both in large and bantam varieties can vary in their shape and conformation and are usually described as 'pea type'.

Poultrymad Araucana lavender hen - Poultrymad©

The birds themselves come in a variety of colours including Lavender, Blue, Black, Cuckoo, Silver Duckwing, Gold Duckwing, Black/red, Blue/red, White and Spangled.

They are a dual purpose fowl being good layers of medium sized eggs and having a plump, well fleshed carcass.

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