{"id":10997,"date":"2020-11-05T18:27:17","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T17:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novital.it\/the-araucana-the-hen-with-blue-eggs\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T12:46:05","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T11:46:05","slug":"the-araucana-the-hen-with-blue-eggs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novital.it\/en\/the-araucana-the-hen-with-blue-eggs\/","title":{"rendered":"The Araucana, the hen with blue eggs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Araucana<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

The Araucana, the blue-laid hen, has become one of the most popular and desired breeds in the Italian poultry scene in recent years. These chickens are a concentrate of unique characteristics: the absence of tail, the ear tufts or beard, the pea-like comb and the fact of laying blue eggs make it a highly sought-after breed. <\/p>\n\n

Araucana \u2013 History of the blue-laid hen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

is a breed of chickens that came from the New World, more precisely from an area between Chile, Argentina and Peru. But Araucana, let’s say it right away, is only the name they gave it in Europe: in its lands of origin, in fact, it is called Mapuche hen, from the name of the people among whom it seems to have been originally widespread. Let’s take a closer look at why. <\/p>\n\n

The Mapuche are a widespread ethnic group in Chile and Argentina, and Mapudungun, their language, is currently spoken by 440,000 people. They seem to have arrived by crossing the Peruvian Andes and settling in Chile between 800 and 700 BC. The name of Araucani was given to them by the Spanish conquistadors around the middle of the sixteenth century, for a translation of the term Ragco which designated a place where a particular stream flowed (from Rag, clayey water, and Co, clay, in the Mapudungun language). The Spaniards thus renamed those peoples Araucanians, and today this term is regarded with contempt by the local natives. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

Araucana hen with beard. Photo and subject by Giacomo Strigini. <\/p>\n\n

In this particular historical and linguistic fresco, where does the Araucana, the blue-laid hen we know, come from? It is currently impossible to be certain of the origin of the various types of Mapuche chickens and how they arrived in those lands. The chickens brought by the Spaniards were in fact found to be crossed with very variable local chickens. Many had no tails, apparently because the natives preferred them as predators had a harder time catching them. Curiously, even in some European regions, such as Burgundy, local tailed breeds were preferred because foxes struggled to prey on them. <\/p>\n\n

Many hypotheses have been made about the origins of Chilean chickens: a Polynesian, Chinese, even Japanese origin has been suggested according to some. Dutch pirates also seem to have contributed by importing chickens from Asian markets. <\/p>\n\n

In the lands of the Mapuche, chickens were well present, even if they showed themselves with very variable characteristics. These different types were all united by the fact that they laid blue eggs. The first type was very reminiscent of European common chickens, but without particular fixed characteristics, such as livery, or type of crest; some bloodlines laid blue eggs. Among the widespread subvarieties are the Patoja, the Trintre, the bare-necked Huirrupel, the Tufted Copetonas, the Jira, the Tejuela, the Negra and the Perdicita. The second type, called Colloncas, was a hen with blue eggs and no tail, variable in livery and smaller than the others. The third type was made up of the Quetros, normal hens with ear tufts or beards, equipped with tails. <\/p>\n\n

\"Araucana<\/figure>\n\n

Araucana rooster with beard. Photo and subject by Giacomo Strigini. <\/p>\n\n

Professor Ruben Bustos, during the period of the War of the Pacific, between 1879 and 1883, began to work on local chickens by crossing Colloncas and Quetros, obtaining a new breed that combined their characteristics, the Collonca de Ar\u00eates, or “tailed chickens with earrings”!<\/p>\n\n

It was Prof. Salvador Castell\u00f3 Carreras during the First World Congress of Poultry, held in The Hague, Holland, in 1921, who introduced his knowledge of Araucana (which he renamed Gallus inauris), which he had been able to observe at the International Exhibition of Santiago in 1914. As Prof. Carreras had the opportunity to specify in 1924, those animals were not simple native Chilean chickens, but the subjects bred by Prof. Bustos and selected by him to bring together all the most particular characters of Chilean chickens in a single type of blue-laid hen. <\/p>\n\n

If this variety of Araucana is the one that later became established in Italy and in various parts of Europe, in the rest of the world these chickens have had a different story. In England, for example, a breed with a tail, hindquarters, beard and favorites is recognized as Araucana. Although there have been several attempts to introduce blue-laid hens into British territory, it seems to derive mainly from chickens on a Chilean ship that had shipwrecked in the Hebrides. In the USA, on the other hand, breeders \u2013 to overcome the low fertility linked to being tailed \u2013 have created a new breed, the Ameraucana, bearded and with a tail. <\/p>\n

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\"Araucana<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Araucana hens, on the left with beard and ear tufts, on the right with beard.<\/p>\n\n

Araucana \u2013 Breedal Characters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The Araucana has a rounded, almost oval body, with a slightly raised trunk. The shoulders are broad and strong, the wings, carried horizontally, are well adhered to the body. The tail is absent, so the trunk ends with the plumage of the saddle, well rounded. The tarsiers are smooth, fine, with four fingers. The neck, of medium length and equipped with a thick coat, ends with a robust head with a pea-like crest that does not lie at the back, with red earlobes, a strong beak and the presence, depending on the variety, either of beard and favorites, or of ear tufts, or tufts and beard. Wattles must be poorly developed, if not completely absent in bearded subjects. The ear tufts, when present, must be as symmetrical as possible; beard and favorites never too developed and quite adherent. Roosters reach 2 \u2013 2.5 kg, females 1.6 \u2013 2 kg. There is also a bantam version. <\/p>\n\n

Various liveries of the Araucana are recognized, each of which tolerates certain colors of the iris, beak and tarsi. There are the white, black, blue, melanized wild, blue, golden, blue, silver, wheat, blue, sparrowhawk, black-red and blue-red varieties. <\/p>\n

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\"Araucana<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Female Araucana with ear tufts.<\/p>\n\n

Blue eggs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

But the Araucana, in addition to its unique appearance, is known all over the world for the color of its eggs, which have earned it the name of blue-laid hen. These, in fact, weigh about 50 grams and have a light blue shell, very beautiful and characteristic. Hens of this breed can lay up to 220-250 in the first year of fetation. <\/p>\n\n

What is the color of the shell due to? A dominant gene, Olive (O), which promotes the presence of biliverdin and zinc-bound biliverdin during shell formation. These substances, deriving from the degradation of the haemoglobin haemoglobin group, colour the shell blue, which also takes on this colour inside. The final color of the egg, however, is also due to the deposition on its surface of protoporphyrin IX, a brown pigment. Thus, in order to have blue eggs, genetically in addition to the O gene, the genes responsible for the white color of the shell must be present. When the genes that make the egg brown are present, the O gene causes the hens to produce green eggs. <\/p>\n

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\"back<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Detail of the back without tail. Subject and photos by Giacomo Strigini. <\/p>\n\n

Thus, if we mate our blue-laid hen with breeds that lay white-shelled eggs, we will have in F1 animals that produce blue eggs; while if we mate it with breeds that lay brown shell eggs we will get hens that lay eggs of a more or less intense green, the so-called Olive Egger. The darker the color of the shell of the parental race, the more intense and darker the green of the eggs of the Olive Egger in F1 will be. <\/p>\n\n

A curiosity: the breeding of Araucana and Ameraucana in the United States has been extremely successful because the word has spread that blue eggs have a lower cholesterol level and are therefore healthier. In reality, the eggs of the Araucana have been shown to have normal cholesterol levels, slightly higher than those of the commercial layers Isa Brown and Livorno utilitarian. <\/p>\n\n

Reproducing the Araucana<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

The Araucana can be a somewhat complex breed to breed successfully, due to two of its physical characteristics: the absence of a tail and the presence of ear tufts. Let’s see why. <\/p>\n\n

The absence of a tail in Araucana is due to a dominant gene, the Rumpless (Rp), which causes the absence or reduction of the caudal vertebrae. This leads to the absence of a tail and uropygius, and represents a limitation to the animal’s fecundity in various ways. First, lacking the support base represented by the tail, mating is, for roosters, more difficult to complete precisely for purely mechanical reasons. Secondly, it seems that the mortality in the egg of subjects homozygous and heterozygous for this gene is higher, and that it affects embryos between the 17th and 21st day. Finally, a lower survival was found in chicks up to 2 months of age when they have this characteristic. <\/p>\n\n

To complicate things there are the ear tufts, in the variant of the Araucana that presents them. In fact, the ear tufts are due to a gene, Et, which is also dominant, which produces fleshy pads at the level of the ears that bear tufts of feathers. Well, this gene, in the case of homozygosity (Et\/Et), is lethal and causes the death of the chick in the egg. So all Araucana subjects with ear tufts that we can observe are heterozygous (Et\/et+). However, not even the condition of heterozygosity is without risks: its presence causes a percentage of deaths in the egg in recent days that varies between 20% and 25%. <\/p>\n\n

So by mating two animals with ear tufts we can expect to get about 2\/3 of chicks with ear tufts and 1\/3 of chicks without tufts. In addition, we know that we can have up to 37% of deaths in the egg during incubation, a significant percentage, to which would be added any deaths from lack of posterior. It is important to take this into account to avoid being excessively disappointed in case of scarce hatching with this breed. Also for this reason, if you decide to start raising the blue-laid hen starting from the eggs, we recommend that you buy a certain number of them in order to have a better chance of obtaining breeding pairs. <\/p>\n

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\"Araucana<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Araucana hen with tufts and beard.<\/p>\n\n

Conclusion<\/h4>\n\n

In short, the Arucana, the blue-laid hen, is a beautiful breed that represents a challenge for any breeder who wants to try it. But the original appearance and beauty of the eggs will certainly repay every effort made in its breeding. At Novital, we are there for you every step of the way, from incubating the eggs<\/a><\/strong> to feeding your animals<\/a><\/strong>, to help you achieve success with this beautiful breed. Happy breeding!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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