EE, Ameraucanas, Araucana, mutts--my rant.

[speckledhen]

Loup, you are probably right. I sometimes call them MBCs (Mixed Breed Chicken). They are a cross of whatever it took to make them, come in all sorts of interesting and unexpected colors and are wonderful birds. I have some mutts in my own flock, tinted/colored egg layers and otherwise and I have no problem calling them mutts myself. Love them all!

 

[ging3rhoffman]

What a wonderful considerate person you are. That was my point also. My momma use to say..If you dont have anything nice to say then dont say anything at all.

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[speckledhen]

All tact aside, I really still have no idea why people are insulted over a chicken. It's a chicken, folks. No one insulted someone's mother, for goodness sake. "Mutt" is not an insult, it's a simple, short word that replaces longer words or phrases. I can go on and on about how beautiful someone's EE is, how I have them myself, what great birds they are and all they hear is "mutt", not all the compliments they are getting on their birds. BTW, I have a mutt dog, too. She's a gorgeous Pointer/Golden Lab cross that to me, is prettier than either breed when they're pure. I could say "designer chicken", but that takes way too long.

Let's put this in perspective, shall we?

 

[sugarbush]

FROM THE ARAUCANA BREEDERS CLUB:

The development of the modern Araucana breed begins with the great Chilean breeder, Dr. Ruben Bustros. As a young man in the Chilean army, he encountered the Araucana Indians in remote areas and observed their unique types of chickens during the 1880’s. He returned later and obtained some of the Quetros and Collonocas stock. Crossing these two breeds, over many years he developed tufted, rumpless birds that laid blue eggs, the first Araucanas. He was visited in 1914 by Professor Salvador Castello Carreras of Spain, who introduced them at the World Poultry Congress in 1918.

Attempts to import Araucana stock into the United States over the years met with great difficulties. The original Quetros and Collonocas breeds were especially hard to obtain because the Araucana Indians had been defeated and disbanded and their birds mixed with other breeds. Also, evidently Dr. Bustros’s flock was not maintained. However, a few breeders managed to get birds with the required traits of tufts, blue egg and rumplessness. But these birds were fairly pathetic mixes of a number of other breeds and much effort was required for improvement. However, there was no common goal among these few dedicated breeders until the 1960’s when Red Cox started an Araucana breeders group. His untimely death set things back, and it wasn’t until the late 1970’s that the Araucana was recognized as an official breed.

From the Ameraucana breedres club:

No history of the “Ameraucana” could be complete without understanding some of the history of the “Araucana” breed. But one should first understand that the “Araucana” as we know it, was never a “pure” breed, even in Chile.

In 1925, Mr. Keller of the Pratt Experimental Farm in Pennsylvania wrote about his small flock – the first Araucanas imported to the USA. The earliest imports were mostly of selected rumpless and tufted varieties. Later imports were made up of “Araucanas” of all types, among which were bearded muffed tailed varieties, all of which then were bred here in the USA. All of these were at that time labeled “Araucanas”.

Standard, the “American Araucana Breeder’s Association” was still attempting in 1977 to get acceptance of an APA Standard that would include BOTH tufted and bearded, rumpless and tailed. But that organization soon folded, without success. As should be clear by now, all the arguments about what was the “original” Araucana were just so much nonsense and misunderstanding, and continues much so today, as there never was any such “pure” breed. The new “Araucana Standard” clearly was adopted as a “GOAL” to be achieved in future breeding; as no such proven “type” had yet been “qualified”.

After the adoption of the APA “Araucana” Standard in 1976, those breeders who had been carefully breeding and improving the bearded muffed types of “Araucanas”, were out in the cold, ruled “out” for exhibit as no longer “Araucanas”. Nevertheless those bearded types were continuing to be shown, as “Araucanas” – sometimes as “American Araucanas”.

So how is todays ameraucan/araucana stock related to hatchery stock? The hatchery stock is what Mr Keller started with in 1925...hatcheries have continued to breed them as they were in 1925...this is why if you order 100 EE chicks from a hatchery you will even get a few rumpless birds, most will lay blue eggs, most will be tailed and bearded.... Breeders took these birds and selectively bred them to the standards...hatcheries have not...It is still the same genetic line......And the hatcheries still call them what they always have....they are not misrepresenting what they sell...they are what they have always have been for as long as they have been selling them.​

 

[Reinbeau]

In the grand scheme of things, they lay nice green or blue eggs and make me happy. I call them Easter Eggers and couldn't care less if they're considered mutts or not - heck, I'm a mutt, for that matter, or, as I call my self, Heinz 57 Varieties. Enjoy your hens and their lovely colored eggs.

 

[speckledhen]

this is why if you order 100 EE chicks from a hatchery you will even get a few rumpless birds, most will lay blue eggs,

Not really sure that's true. It would be a very rare occurrence to get a truly rumpless EE from a hatchery and seems that most EEs lay green eggs or bluish-green rather than blue. Yes, I know some do lay truly blue eggs..I said most, not all, lay greenish eggs.

No need to post all your blue EE eggs here.

However the standard evolved, it is still the standard. If you enter a APA show with your Ameraucana, it had better be an Ameraucana, not an EE or you're wasting your time.

I repeat, for a backyard flock, it does not matter what you have. Enjoy them!!! If you are selling eggs or chicks from your flock as Ameraucanas, they must be one of the accepted colors, etc. I would personally do my research before buying hatching eggs if I truly wanted Ameraucanas, but if someone sold me hatching eggs from what they said were Ameraucanas and I got some of those Columbian patterned EEs out of it, I'd be asking for a complete refund. That is my last contribution to this thread. I think I'll go back to the Barred Rock/Dominecker argument.

 

[AHappychick]

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that is the funniest smiley I have ever seen

 

[LoupGarou]

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Well, let me counter with this story, just to put things in perspective. I have owned Toy Fox Terriers for the last 20 years. I love this breed--I can never think of myself without a TFT in the future, even though I don't consider myself a "small dog person." My first experience showing these dogs came in the United Kennel Club, where they were originally registered, competing in the Terrier group. To me, these dogs are all terrier. They are game, highly intelligent, and focused verminators. No one who has owned them can deny that they are *terriers* despite their placement in the Toy group in the American kennel club.

About three months ago, I was at an AKC show. I was exercising one of my dogs outside (properly carrying a waste bag and paper towels, as required), when we crossed paths with a woman and her Smooth Fox Terrier. The TFT and the SFT both did the bounce and rock solid stand, staring each other down, as typical of terriers. There is no aggression in this move--it's called "sparring" in the terrier ring, but it really indicates the alert terrier attitude. The woman with the SFT laughed at the little one sparring with her bigger dog, making the comment that she thought that TFTs were cute, but that she "couldn't get past their prick ears" and that she "preferred real terriers. I didn't chuckle, replying that my dogs were real terriers. We chatted for another moment while our dogs went about their business, but the fun of the morning was tarnished for me. That single offhand comment stung, perhaps in a way that she did not intend for it to sting. But it bothers me even now, clearly, since I can remember the encounter so vividly.

In just a single second, my dog was not only found wanting, it was dismissed entirely. This little dog was one of my "bred by" dogs, of which I am inordinately proud. She, Holly, has every ounce of terrier spirit and energy that any SFT, JRT, WFT, APBT, SBT, ST, or any other terrier might have, plus she is gorgeous to boot. I value her highly, as a pet, as a show dog, and as a producer of my future champions. She remains untarnished in my eyes, simply because I am confident in her value. However, what if I'd been a new exhibitor? What if my pride in my beautiful little dog had been diminished just because of some unthinking words spoken by a person that I had never met before and would never meet again? We, as human beings, need to be more aware of how our words affect other people. In my opinion, this world suffers from a lack of courtesy, courtesy that could be easily managed just by finding a single kind thing to say or even by keeping one's opinions to oneself.

Edited to add pictures of Holly


With one of her puppies (Aug. 2008)

Posing as a jewelry model for a crafter that I know

With her ribbon and prize from winning Group 4, Bred by Exhibitor

Plotting her escape

 

[roosty]

Spekeledhen

Not really sure that's true. It would be a very rare occurrence to get a truly rumpless EE from a hatchery and seems that most EEs lay green eggs or bluish-green rather than blue.

Mine lay a blue egg...I have to say that they are not from a hatchery though. But blue egg it is. White and brown egg on either side to compare.

No green in that there egg!

 

[sugarbush]

Here is blueberries egg (the silver hen) I don't have a white egg to compare to so I cracked a brown to show the white inside next to the blue inside of the blue egg.....She is Meyer hatchery stock...