Description and characteristics of the Araucana chicken breed, breeding features

The South American breed of domesticated chickens, the Araucana, is known for the fact that its representatives have a bright, interesting color, and laying hens produce large eggs with blue or turquoise shells. The breed is decorative, but, with proper care, it acquires high practical value. What else is interesting and why is Araucana popular? Let's try to figure it out.

Benefits of Breeding

The Araucana chicken breed has many advantages, which makes its breeding quite profitable and interesting. Poultry farmers (amateurs and professionals) are increasingly choosing it, since birds have a lot of positive breed qualities:

• tasty, moderately fatty meat;
• large eggs, pale blue or green;
• high productivity, which is determined by early puberty;
• vitality and unpretentiousness;
• ability to adapt in unfavorable conditions.

Origin of the breed

The Araucana is an ancient Chilean breed of chicken. It was first cultivated by the Araucana Indians, who lived in small settlements located in the foothills of the Andes. The aborigines were very interested in hens laying colored eggs and warlike tailless cockerels, as if specially created to participate in cockfights.

This breed was unknown to anyone for a long time. They first talked about it at the World Scientific Poultry Association, held in The Hague in 1920. Since that time, the breed has gained popularity, began to be actively bred and was included in the international standard.

Description and characteristics of Araucana chickens

The main feature of Araucana chickens and roosters is the complete absence of a tail, although English and Australian standards allow for a small tail. The turquoise tint of the eggs is another important property of the breed. Each of them weighs up to 60 grams. The unusual shade of the shell is responsible for the green bile pigment - biliverdin, produced by the body of females and entering the shell at the stage of its formation.

The breed standard also implies a special head plumage. Three combinations are allowed: beard and sideburns, tassels or tassels and beard. The breed standard also allows 12 varieties of body colors:

• wild;
• golden mane;
• black-red;
• wild blue;
• blue golden mane;
• blue wheat;
• wheat;
• silver-maned;
• black;
• blue;
• blue bordered;
• cuckoo

The chickens themselves are small birds weighing from 1.6 kilograms (females) to 2.5 kilograms (males).

What do they look like?

The unusual appearance of chickens of this breed gave rise to several theories. According to one of them, modern Araucana chickens are a cross between ordinary chickens and wild pheasants. There is no scientific confirmation of this assumption.

In addition to the tailless, short body and small head, decorated with bright plumage, representatives of the breed can be distinguished:

• slightly convex chest;
• wings tightly fitting to the body;
• powerful belly;
• four-toed paws of a blue-green hue,
• eyes with an orange tint;
• small standing comb;
• beak curved downwards;
• thick plumage.

Breed productivity

Araucana chickens are bred mainly for their large eggs of original colors. The breed is an egg-laying breed - each hen produces from 160 to 180 eggs per year.

The majority of females begin to lay eggs by the age of 6 months. A little later, individuals of the late brood - autumn or winter - lay eggs. The bird is capable of producing eggs all year round, with the exception of molting periods.

Breeders are actively crossing Araucana chickens with other breeds. The result is unpretentious, resilient offspring with good breed qualities. Particularly good results were achieved by crossing these birds with Russian Crested chickens.

Araucana meat is also valued - it is excellent in both taste and nutrient content. But it is useless to specifically fatten birds for meat. Overeating will not result in an increase in muscle mass for them, but in obesity.

Character of birds

Roosters of the Araucana breed are known for their quarrelsome disposition and, while defending their territory, can attack both strangers and their own. There are known cases of demonstration of aggression even towards its own owner.

Chickens are peaceful, but they have another drawback. Most females lack the instinct to hatch offspring. Therefore, it is possible to obtain purebred chickens from eggs only by incubation.

Main pros and cons

The popularity of Araucana chickens is increasing year by year. Growing them is quite profitable and has many advantages. The most valued are good egg production, unpretentiousness, high immunity, immunity to diseases and original appearance. But when deciding to buy chickens, you should keep in mind that there are certain difficulties in breeding:

1. High price for birds.
2. Lack of instinct in females to incubate eggs.
3. Low meat productivity.
4. It is difficult to acquire purebred individuals of the Araucana breed, since it is small in number. Due to inexperience, you can purchase an outbred chicken or a crossbreed.

Nuances of maintenance in a private household

This rare breed requires special maintenance. Living together with chickens of other breeds leads to mixing of genes and gradual degeneration of the breed. It is recommended to keep chickens in small families, in special cages or enclosures.

Arrangement of the premises

The room for keeping Araucana chickens is arranged in a classic style - in the same way as for birds of any other breed.Acceptable conditions of detention are in cages, enclosures or free range. The area of ​​the room should be calculated so that no more than 4 chickens can be accommodated per 1 square meter.

It is preferable to keep them in enclosures. This will avoid fights between males. The room is divided into enclosures using bars, each of which accommodates 1 rooster and no more than 8 hens.

It is necessary to take care of a sufficient number of perches and nests. On a wooden, earthen or concrete floor there should be a bedding of dry hay, sawdust or sand.

The optimal temperature for birds to mate and breed offspring is from 17 to 20 degrees Celsius. On long winter evenings, a source of artificial lighting will be needed; for the hot period of the year, a ventilation unit should be provided.

Preparing a walking yard

If the birds will live indoors, then it is necessary to organize a walking yard. This is a space surrounded by a metal fence at least 1.5 meters high. The leeward side is covered with plywood panels. For the summer, they build a canopy - protection from sun rays and rain. The walking yard should have a sufficient number of feeders, drinking bowls, a container with chalk and gravel, and an ash bath.

Installation of feeders, drinkers and ash baths

Feeders should be installed on a hill to avoid the formation of puddles. During the period between feedings, containers should be washed clean and uneaten food should be removed. Spoiled food can cause significant harm to health.

Birds should always have fresh, clean water freely available. This is especially important in the summer heat.

Ash baths are necessary so that birds can clean their plumage. Deep containers are filled with a mixture of ash and sand.Having bathed in this mixture, the bird reliably protects its feather cover from the penetration of skin and feather parasites.

Seasonal molting and break in egg production

Every year at the end of August, chickens begin molting season. This period is quite difficult for birds and is accompanied by a break in egg production. But with good care, proper feeding, and a vitamin diet, the egg production of birds will decrease slightly or not be affected at all.

Planned herd replacement

Egg production in Araucana chickens lasts 10 years. The most active period lasts two years, then the number of eggs laid decreases significantly.

Those females that have stopped laying eggs should be replaced with new ones. It is quite difficult to buy purebred Araucana chickens, so it is recommended to raise young egg-laying chickens yourself. This process is accompanied by certain problems, but all of them can be solved:

1. To increase the percentage of fertilization, every 20 days it is necessary to trim the thick feathers around the cloaca of the chicken and rooster.
2. Most Araucanian chickens lack the brooding instinct. In order to produce chicks, eggs are placed in a home incubator or placed in the nests of chickens of other breeds for hatching.

Diet

Overeating is the main consequence of an incorrectly composed menu. A large amount of food quickly leads to obesity in the bird, and hence a decrease in egg production. The diet for Araucana chickens is prepared according to the classical scheme. Its main principles are:

1. Sufficient amount of protein food. Sources of protein are earthworms, fish waste, legumes, bone meal.
2. Sufficient amount of carbohydrates. Carbohydrate foods - grains, potatoes, pumpkin.
3. Fats. Good egg production depends on their quantity.Suppliers of vegetable fats are corn and oat grains.
4. Food rich in vitamins. The vitamins necessary for birds - groups A, B, D, are contained in silage, yeast, and bone meal.
5. Sufficient amounts of minerals, especially calcium. This mineral is necessary for the formation of a strong shell. Ash, shells, and crushed shells are rich in microelements.

The diet must be carefully adjusted so that the amount of a particular product does not exceed the maximum permissible daily dose.

Adult chickens

Adult birds should eat at least three times a day. In the morning and evening they give dry grain, and in the afternoon they prepare a liquid nutritional mixture based on grain crops. The daily requirement for one adult chicken should be about 150 grams of feed.

In the summer, birds receive vitamins and microelements from grass. In the cold season, a vitamin supplement is prepared based on crushed pine needles. Young chickens are given feed with a high protein content for active growth, and sources of calcium (chalk, crushed eggshells).

Chicks

Chickens of the Araucana breed are fed according to the classical scheme. The first week they give crushed boiled eggs, millet porridge, cottage cheese and greens. At a week of age, add greens - nettles, dandelions, clover. It is allowed to provide nutritious feed for chickens. A prerequisite for proper feeding is fresh drinking water in sufficient quantities.

Breeding Features

Chickens of the Araucana breed have some characteristics that cannot be ignored when breeding the breed.

• presence of a semi-lethal gene;
• congenital taillessness.

If you do not pay attention to them, you will not be able to breed a sufficient number of viable purebred chickens.

Semi-lethal gene

The semi-lethal gene is responsible for the shape of the tufts on the bird's head. These are sideburns, beard and tassels. The gene is called semi-lethal because if it is present in both parents, non-viable offspring may appear. This happens when the family is formed incorrectly. To avoid the risk of losing offspring, it is recommended to mate birds as follows: one of them should have tassels on its head, and the other should have a beard.

Congenital taillessness

Birds of this breed lack the lower vertebrae that make up the coccyx. The absence of a tail led to the development of dense plumage in the rear of the body. This interferes with the mating process, which is a big problem. Under normal conditions, its percentage is no more than 60.

The procedure for cutting off five to six centimeters of long fluff around the cloaca of a chicken and rooster can significantly increase it. This increases the probability of fertilization to 90-100%.

Possible diseases

Pedigree chickens have strong innate immunity and are not susceptible to disease. Infection and infection with helminths can be caused by improper care and lack of prevention.

The most common parasitic infections are:

1. Feather mite. The disease is incurable, infected birds are doomed.
2. Pooh-eater. Sick birds are treated with insecticides. In humans, this parasite can cause an allergic reaction.
3. Helminthiases. The disease is transmitted from wild birds that enter the chicken coop.
4. Fleas. Infected animals experience severe skin itching, become restless, and lose their appetite.

A mandatory preventive measure to protect Araucana chickens from the penetration of all types of parasites is regular treatment of the chicken coop with special complex preparations.