"White Americans"?

[kefiren]

Yesterday, my grandmother popped out with this: "Your great uncle, way back, bred 'White Americans'."

I wonder what breed she was referring to? She is pushing 100, and I bet she was reminiscing from about 70 years ago or so.

Could she mean Ameraucana?

 

[StarLover21]

Bet so. Some people call them Americana's.

 

[collaire]

Nope, I don't think so.

Bet so. Some people call them Americana's.

 

[ChickenWisperer]

It's possible. Probable? Not at all.

Ameraucanas as we know them weren't accepted into the APA 1998. The first Araucanas were imported in 1925 if I remember correctly... Once word got out, "Araucana fever" spread, and that's when the hatcheries started to blantantly lie to the public, outcrossing the birds with whatever they could find to produce mongrel easter eggers. However, different breeders were breeding for different things - some for the tufts/rumpless look and some for the tailed/muffed/bearded. As far as I know, most were breeding for what we know the Araucana to be today.

However, in 1976 the SOP for the Araucana called for tufted and rumpless birds. Thats when breeders who preferred the muffed/bearded/tailed look started to breed the "Ameraucanans".


I don't know much about game birds... but she could also have been talking about American gamefowl. Ask her what color eggs they laid.

 

[Illia]

As stated above. They might be American Games.

Ameraucanas even as the name didn't come along til the 80's. Blue/Green layers came before, but the name wasn't til at oldest the 70's I would assume.

 

[kefiren]

Holy cow! You mean he may have raised fighting birds?

I'll have to ask her more questions. But there sure was lots more of those kind of things in the olden days, even here in Mass.

On my husband's side there was a close relative in the olden days who ran racoon hunting. He bred both the racoons (so that they could drag the scent and have one at the end of the trail) and the dogs. He actually kept the racoons as pets. One racoon bit off his finger one day when he was giving it candy.

I think the olden days were a much different, much less politically correct and if I may say so, testosterone-ish times!

 

[Illia]

Hey, I was personally shocked to hear from some local guy around here a story of his how he was saying back in the old days there used to be fights in our backwoods. I still can't believe that now, because I believe we're one of the very very few chicken owners around here. It's nothing but endless rainforest and loggers, and of the few chicken owners out here, they just have a couple sex-links, bantam mutts, and barred rocks.