QUECHUA /Tojuda/ Ameraucana/ Easter Eggers{ In vino veritas

[Resolution]

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Hi. The Chinese blue egg laying chicken is a very recent introduction to China. It was brought there from Argentina in the late 1980's and is part of an ongoing high altitude experiment. The Chinese minister of agriculture of that time initiated the migration of Urban Chinese into regions of CHina where few if any people have ever lived. They've built a new lake- larger than any artifical lake in existence. Unfortunately, production chickens do not exhibit high hatch rate and mortality is high in these regions.
They have brought over the Quechua and crossed it with the Tibetan high altitude fowl to produce a new breed. Its name escapes me too.

 

[Kassaundra]

Okay, I've read this thread twice, now I'm slightly more confused then I started. Please forgive my ignorance on this subject as I am very new to chickens. Thought I had a handle on EE, ameraucana, and arucona... this was my understanding: arucona= tufts no butt, ameraucana= muffs, beard (winter face) dark legs, blue eggs, specific color combos, pea comb, EE's = any combo of the previous that doesn't fit "standard" and lays a blue or green egg.

Now quechua ??????? the pics showed them buttless is that a "standard"? And what is this of pink, yellow, lavandar eggs????? Which rooster is it that has the unusual "laugh" type crow? If I start w/ female EE's and add a quechua male as breeder, keeping the flock closed to outside roosters, breeding daughter, gdaughters etc.. back to the original quechua is that what you are talking about preserving the heritage? Will that get the colorfull eggs you mentioned (yellow, pink, lavendar)?

I know my "classification" of the three breeds was over simplified, just trying to KISS. Thanks for any clarifiction you can provide. I'm sure I have other questions but my brain is to busy processing info right now.

 

[Resolution]

Quote:
~ 2,500 B.C. - before there were any such thing as an Ameraucana, an Araucana or an Easter Egger , a subspecific race of the Pacific Junglefowl, of hybrid origin, was intentionally introduced (by seafaring peoples who originated in southern Indonesia) to Koro Island, and Marquesas Isles and the Gambier Islands.


Over the next thousand or so years, many of these islands were abandoned by human beings leaving the subspecific hybrid race(s) of Pacific Junglefowl to fare for themselves.
As the aforementioned islands were originally covered in very fragile ecosystems, human colonists made their new homes uninhabitable. They did this by wide scale environmental damage which rendered the once fertile islands relatively barren. Consequently, the Pacific Junglefowl naturalized on these islands met ecological challenges via adaptation.

One of the greatest issues of these islands is the typhoon season. The islands are regularly smashed by typhoons with catastrophic results.
The primary food of some of these desert isles races of Pacific Junglefowl are flies. Their faces are covered in fine down and many exhibit insulative velvet patches beneath their eyes, which may be helpful against the glare of the sun. An additional trait unique to this group are insulative patches of downy feathers that cover the ear regions and extend beneath the throat-the throats being densely feathered.

Modern Poultiers describe these traits as muffs and beards.

One island race - a morph- slightly different on each desert island to become established, enough to allow for harvesting by visiting seafarers, was the Koro Sea subspecies of the Pacific Junglefowl. Another was the Marquesas race of the Pacific Junglefowl.

The Koro Sea Junglefowl is the progenitive ancestor of the Quechua. ~ AD 1000-1100 , seafarers carried the Koro Sea Junglefowl to North Western South America. They traded Pacific Island Junglefowl races including that of the Koro Sea morphotype for thesweet potato. The sweet potato would become the fuel of the Polynesian expansion. The Koro Sea Junglefowl became an important domesticated animal amongst the Queshua speaking Indians of North Western South America. It is highly likely that at least a few Seafarers remained in South America. We do not know how much ongoing trade as going on between the Quechua speakers of South America and the Marquesan language speakers. It is possible that their contact was more than infrequent. How often we cannot know at this point.

The Koro Sea Junglefowl is essentially similar in most respects to the Quail Bantam. This is because Dutch explorers collected progenitors of the Quail Bantam in the Gambier Islands. The original Koro Sea Junglefowl produced a wide range of egg shell colours ranging from reddish taupe to pale ochre yellow and greyish white. None were blue or green. The Quechua Indians released this diminutive island breed into their farmlands where it became a larger, more robust bird. This may have been a product of a richer environment, access to more food and less exposure to typhoons. It may be that additional genetics from the Marquesas Junglefowl contributed to hybrid vigour.

The Quechua fowl developed alongside the Quechua speaking Indians in NW South America for a very very long while before the Europeans came.
At some point during the 16th or 17th century Spaniards recognized the value of the native fowl and crossed them with some large bodied highly domestic fowl native to Europe. The eggs of these birds were likely similar in colour with that of the Koro Sea fowl until they were admixtured with the white egg producing European breed.

During the 19th century, Quechua speaking Indians carried these birds to Argentina and eventually traded them with Falkland Isles farmers. The feral populations on the settlements there -crofts and ranches inter bred with big bodied chicken breeds developed in France and the British Isles.
Argentinian poultry scientists crossed the now Europeanized or "improved" Tejuda Quechua with Southern South American races including the Collonca, which is where the Tejuda Quechua accrued the ability to produce blue eggs. The birds were refined further until they were demed the most ideal chicken breed of all the cold weather regions of South America.
At this point in time, the Tejuda Quechua was analogous with North America's Rhode Island Red - at this point in time a brand new invention-

Eventually, this Tajuda fowl originally of the Quechua speaking Indians was to be demed the winter layer and sent abroad during the World Fair- twice-
The first World Fair the birds were called the World's Fair Quechua but the second World Fair- the birds- a slightly more 'improved' line were called Easter Egg chickens and all sorts of hype followed them.

To keep it simple- the answer to your question is complex.

1. Koro Sea race of Pacific Junglefowl is introduced to the Quechua speaking Indians who maintain the birds as village fowl of great religious import.
2. European vintners ( wine farmers) improved the Indian's village fowl by interbreeding it with their very tame, over-domesticated, large bodied fowl.
These birds Quechua or Tejuda, as Kollonca has defined them, were celebrated for their calm dispositions, dual purpose and extreme hardiness to cold.
3. Quechua are introduced to the western coast of South America where they are crossed with European breeds to, once again, improve upon them.
Blue egg laying Collonca are also bred into the stock.
4. The first generation of these birds were released into the hands of the World's Fair and the fair they were married to the project at this point .
They are studying over the notes - not in disagreee]ment - they would become known as the Ameraucana.
5. The second generation of these birds -much more thoroughly domesticated- were introduced to the Americans/ they would become known as the Easter Egger.

I'll actually answer your questions - not sure where i was going here...

 

[kano]

To clearify things. Now in Argentina and in Peru you don't find peasant chickens that lay blue and green eggs as easely as in Chile. About the Falkland poultry they were trade in Punta Arenas ,Chile,by sailors that took them to the islands.(as far as I know). To know more about this reed this : www.araucanas.co.uk/history.html

 

[hallerlake]

I would look around at there and treat yourselves to a really good rooster.

Where would one find a really good rooster?






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I don't disagree about the "big ugly roosters". I've never seen one of these hens that are not lovely as the day is long. For whatever reason, the males that develop from this same stock a huge, ugly and many are pathological rapists, which I won't tolerate.

Younger roosters tend to be bad about this regardless of breed or lineage but the big commercial hatchery stock roosters are just brutal.

I would look around at there and treat yourselves to a really good rooster.

I'm sorry about broken up cyber article but it's difficult to edit so much text in one continuous post.

 

[coq au vin]

This is what I have...the only pullet I'm keeping from my batch of EEs from Ideal. She's very old-school-type, I think, and has just finished doing a wonderful job of broody duty.

The rest of them are either too diluted with Leghorn blood and/or are afflicted with the mental illness of feather-picking. I don't believe it's dietary and boredom is not an acceptable excuse for birds on pasture and doted on like mine are...they're just mentally deranged and I think this is prevalent amongst Ideal's EE stock. Potential mental illnesses aside, it's been my experience that well over half of Ideal's EEs will lay a blue, not green, egg. Both of these observations are based on two different flocks assembled a year apart.

Now I need to figure out the next step(s) to establish my North American Quechua flock/line.

 

[Resolution]

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As you know, I Love this photo and the hen is just perfect in my eyes. Feather pecking comes about because the birds are missing certain nutrients in their food.
The tinted egg layers have higher requirements for some micronutrients -lower for others. Of course I'm going to tell you how badly you need foragecakes for your flock...as they are the end of feather pecking...

 

[coq au vin]

I get that nutrition and boredom would certainly cause it, but don't you think that some lines can be just plain genetically programmed to be feather-eating monsters? Would you recommend anybody breed birds that have this habit? Or cull them? I just find it curious that the one in the photo does not participate in that nonsense while the others do it like monkeys grooming each other.

 

[Resolution]

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Its almost certainly not genetic. Lysine levels are probably too low and they are not getting something in their diet in the way of protein- once the birds have learned the habit its a real chore getting them to quit. Foragecakes are so much more interesting to peck at than feathers or eggs...you may also want to supplement with quinoa- for blue egg layers at any rate.

 

[coq au vin]

Thanks, Res. I'm glad to hear that you don't think they're mentally nuts. This issue is driving me insane though and I must get to the bottom of it before I'll get any more of these beauties.