Mixed genetics and their (dis)advantages

[chickengr]

At risk of starting to wax on too long,

The term Ameraucana is the result of major conflicts within the Araucana breeding history.

The original birds were from the Araucana region from Chile. Even at that time they were mixed breed birds as European domestic stock had infiltrated the native fowl.

Out of this Chilean heritage came the bird we think of as Araucana, but there were different forms....a tufted rumpless and a tailed type. These had been refined by a Spanish professor (whose name escapes me at the moment) and shown on Exhibit in Chile in the early 1900's.

British interests were piqued, and some of the blue layers came back to England and then to Europe.

From these lines developed the Araucana, which in Europe is tailed, and the Cream Legbar (from Punnett's studies).

In America there was a furious debate as to what the Araucana should look like. There were breeders with muffs and tails and there were breeders with tufts and no tails. The rumpless tufted side won out with acceptance into the APA first, sometime in the 70's.

This left a lot of breeders with muffed and tailed types out in the cold as they could not show in the Araucana category any longer.

So.....they created their own category. They created the American Araucana....or Ameraucana. That standard was accepted in the early 1980's.

So in America, Araucana must be willow legged, pea comb, tufted (although you have to have tuftless to breed as tufted to tufted is lethal), and rumpless.

The Ameraucana is pea combed, muffed, slate or willow legged, 8 standard colors, and tailed.

In Europe, the Araucana standards remained with tufts and tails and even muffs. (By now I've forgotten who has what standard....I think the Australian also has crests).

Ah yes, the convoluted history of those Chilean birds, which were mixed types with tails, tufts, crests, muffs, blue or brown eggs...to start a breeders frenzy in Victorian Europe spilling over to today.

LofMc

I am not familiar with EU SOP but we have rumpless araucanas, ameraucanas and english araucanas (tailed and crested).

my rumpless araucanas are super fertile. out of 6 eggs 1 dead in the shell (tufted parents) and 5 hatched.