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4 Araucana

Оглавление

Lavender

Characteristics

Colour: Blue-grey, with a small pea comb. Also Blue, Black/Red, Silver Duckwing, Golden Duckwing, Blue/Red, Pile, Crele, Spangled, Cuckoo, Black and White varieties.


The Araucana is an ancient breed and was named after the Araucano tribe of Native South American Indians who lived on the high plains of the Andes mountains in Chile. In the early sixteenth century the Portuguese explorer Magellan recorded seeing blue-egg-laying poultry resembling the Araucana, and later in the same century the breed arrived in countries around the Mediterranean. The British type of Araucana was developed in Scotland by George Malcolm from birds carried on a Chilean ship that was wrecked in the Hebrides in the 1930s.

The Araucana does not lay many eggs, but the eggs are spectacular: mainly blue or green but ranging from greenish-blue to violet-blue to greyish. The shell is unique in that it is the same colour both inside and out. The Araucana are hardy, grow quickly and mature fast. They are content to be housed in a pen as long as there is a regular supply of fresh grass.

It is believed that in 2006 the Spangled variety became extinct, but hopefully in some remote corner of the world there are still Spangled Araucana to be found. The breed originated in the Andes, but varieties are now found worldwide.

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