Hatchery "recipe" for EE ?

[fiftyfifty]

Rando, Thanks so much for the info. Nice to get the answer from someone who was actually raising chickens at the time that this was all going on.

What happened with the Araucana has happened with other animals. For example, I was reading on Wikipedia about "landrace breeds" which are "types" of animals adapted to a local environment. They often have a lot of great traits. They are more diverse genetically than what we think of as a modern breed.

One example they gave was Border Collies. The term "Border Collies" just used to refer to the local herding dogs of Scotland. They had thick coats to protect them from the elements and they were selected by the shepherds for their herding skills. But when breeders used them to create today's modern breed of "Border Collies", they wanted a dog that would breed true on all the little physical details. So color and ear conformation etc. are more uniform, but hardiness and herding ability have been compromised. So which is the "true" Border Collie? I guess it depends on your perspective.

So maybe the hatcheries aren't actually misrepresenting their birds when they call them Araucanas. After all, they had the name first. And I sure wouldn't tell a Scottish shepherd, "Your dog isn't a real Border Collie, what you have is a mutt"

 

[sugarbush]

Same is true for alaskan sled dogs. The Malamute and the Husky as we know them today is not what wins the iditarod every year. True Alaskan sled dogs are more diverse than the akc standards.

 

[Old Rando]

I think the reference and comparison to some dog breeds makes the point very well. Some domestic animal breeds are created by a breeder or group of breeders with a specific goal and others are refined versions of certain traits in existence in an older landrace or localized variety.