Chicken Breed Focus - Ameraucana

Pics

sumi

Rest in Peace 1980-2020
Premium Feather Member
8 Years
Jun 28, 2011
39,162
27,174
1,302
The Ameraucana is an American breed of chicken developed in the USA in the 1970s. It was derived from chickens brought from South America (Chile) that carried the blue egg gene and was bred to maintain the blue egg colour gene of that breed. There is also an Ameraucana bantam variety and both the LF and bantam variety were added to the APA Standard of Perfection (SOP) in 1984. Recognised varieties are: Black, Blue, Blue Wheaten, Brown Red, Buff, Silver, Wheaten, White.

The Ameraucana is one of the few chicken breeds to lay blue eggs, another being the Cream Legbar, which also have an Araucana influence. The Ameraucana breed shows many similarities to the Araucana breed, such as pea combs and of course the blue egg gene. The Araucana however has earmuffs and is rumpless, whereas the Ameraucana has a tail and is muffed and bearded. Their earlobes are small and round, wattles small or absent, earlobes, comb and wattles are all red. Their shanks are slate-blue, (tending to black in the Black variety). In Australia and UK both Ameraucana and Araucana breeds are viewed as varieties of the Araucana - tailed and rumpless.
Less rare than Araucanas, Ameraucana are still considered quite rare. They are often confused with Easter Eggers (EE's are often advertised and sold as Ameraucanas), which can lay blue AND green eggs. Differences Between EEs, Ameraucanas, and Araucanas

Details:

Breed purpose: Dual Purpose
Comb Type: Pea
Broodiness: Average
Climate Tolerance: All Climates
Egg Productivity: Medium
Egg Size: Medium
Egg Colour: Blue



Rooster - Pic by @Silver Spring Farm


Hen - Pic by @Dearest


Eggs - Pic by @FLF

Breed page: https://www.backyardchickens.com/products/ameraucana

Ameraucana breeders and owners, please tell us about your experiences with this breed and please show off your birds!

We have a bunch of other awesome breed-focus threads for you to enjoy. You can see all of them here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/chicken-breed-focus-project.975504/
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sumi, thanks for the info on the difference between Ameraucana, Araucana and Easter Eggers. It's going to be fun to read reviews and (hopefully) see photos from folks that own them. My girl is an EE but of course, she was sold by someone that insisted she was either an Ameraucana or a Araucana...love her just the same!
 
Nice introduction Sumi, gotta love those blue egg layers. Have to throw in a thumbs up to the bantam Ameraucana, nice little birds, really good egg layers for a bantam, would say they lay over 200 eggs a year, color is usually a greenish blue, they are not terrible broody and easy to discourage if they do, sweet birds, no trouble with the flock,,, only real negative I can think of is they are good flyers and have a tendency to want to roost in trees (though they are at least smart enough to go in the coop when the weather gets bad).
Little Lavender girl (lavender is not a recognized color by the breed club).
700
 
Last edited:
That's a beautiful pic and bird, @Kelsie2290 ! Gorgeous colour...
 
We have a silver Ameraucana who is nearly four years old. She is shy and timid, with us and with her flock-mates. If we do need to catch her for some reason, after we've finally caught her, she is docile. We know never to try to take an egg from the nest while she is on it. The eggs have remained on the smaller side, and she never lays in the winter (she stops when molting in the fall and then doesn't start up again until late March here in southern Wisconsin). She particularly likes to watch me while I'm gardening and waits for me to toss her choice weeds or worms that I've accidentally chopped in two. She always stays at least five feet away from me. Our lone Ameraucana goes to roost about an hour before the other hens. She has never been broody. We used to have two of these birds, and both acted the same (they were raised by the same breeder; probably same parentage). The other one was killed by a raccoon. The eggs, while small and not that plentiful, are wonderfully pretty. She does not lay every day...I would say four times per week (from late March through late September).

And here is Tonks:

 
Last edited:
I got six "Ameraucana" (I assume they are likely EE's but all I wanted was colored eggs so either works wonderful for me!) chicks this spring and can't wait to start getting eggs. I didn't know how pretty the birds were before purchasing some, they are beautiful and I have loved watching them grow.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom