Ameraucana

Ameraucana close up

meraucanas lay the most beautiful blue eggs. They are a uniquely American breed derived from South American Araucanas, but improved for fertility and lay rate. Most people mix up Ameraucanas, Araucanas, and any mutt that lays a blue egg and calls them all Ameraucanas, or worse yet Easter Eggers, a catch all phrase with little meaning. For an excellent article on the differences in these terms read Ameraucana Myths & Facts by Vicky Thompson on the Ameraucanas Breeders Club MSN group. If you are interested in Ameraucanas you should join both the Ameraucanas Breeders Club (ABC) and the ABC Forum.

Ameraucana have pea combs, black or slate legs, and these wonderful fluffy muffs and beards. blue ameraucana breeder The nice thing about raising the black and blue varieties is that you can run the birds together and still get purebred Black Ameraucana and purebred Blue Ameraucana. The blue color gene is a variant of the black color gene, they occupy the same loci on the chromosome.

Think of the blue color gene as a dilution gene. It dilutes out the black color. Gray is a dilute black. In addition to the American Poultry Association’s (APA)) standard for the breed, our breeding program emphasizes egg color and size and lay rate.

Here is a sample of the eggs laid by our Ameraucana flock. The white eggs in the top right row are Leghorn, the dark egg in the middle is a Welsummer, and

the two tan eggs on the left are Delaware eggs. We are very pleased with our Ameraucana egg color. We specifically select for a dark, saturated sky blue egg color. Ameraucana have an excellent lay rate. They are the first birds to start laying in the spring. The breed, in general, isn't known for large eggs. By hatching out only the largest eggs over several generations we have increased the egg size of our flock. Pullet eggs now average 1.89 oz (53.7 g) just shy of the USDA large classification of 2.00 oz. Eggs from one year old hens clear the 2.00 oz benchmark, and in general, egg size continues to increase with the age of the hen.

Here are some pictures of day old Ameraucana chicks. Even their down has muffs and a beard!

Whitmore Farm employs flock breeding, so when you place an order for day old chicks you will get a mixture of Black Ameraucana and Blue Ameraucana chicks, and occassionally, a Splash Ameraucana chick. Basically, whatever black/blue/Splash color ratio hatches out that week.

For more photos of these breeds and any other type of chicken, see www.feathersite.com

For pricing and to order day old chicks click here.