|
The true blue egg of the Araucana
I have spent a lot of time recently reading and re-reading Cathy Brunson's book ' Araucanas. Rings in Their Ears'. It is a wealth of information not only on the breed as it exists in the States today but on the history of the Araucana in Chile. I was fascinated with the history of the Araucanian Indians whose ancestors, we are told ,crossed the Andes around 700 to 800 BC to settle in central Chile. There are many theories to explain the origin of the blue egg. Professor Castello suggested that the blue egg could have come from a wild South American jungle fowl which laid blue eggs and were domesticated before the Spanish arrived. These birds were a type of American pheasant and were called Chachalaca. The males of which were crossed with domestic hens to obtain fighting cocks.
Apparently some of these hybrids were fertile and laid blue eggs. I will not go into the types derived from this cross or how the American type evolved from them. What I think is important is that this knowledge could with to-days advances in DNA research be proved or disproved. I do not know if the Chachalaca still survives in South America for DNA comparisons to be made but perhaps the DNA of our blue egg birds could be compared to the DNA of the Black/Red jungle fowl. Could this prove that the blue egg came from some other source?
Back to Cathy Brunson's book. It really is marvellous for stimulating thought. In the chapter on the blue egg she states that the two Araucana standards in the U.S. list the blue egg as one of the features of this breed. She also points out that the colour can range from a greyish or violet blue to a tourquoise or greenish blue.
At the AGM of the Araucana Club of Great Britain in 1994 I took along three olive eggs which had been laid by a Barnvelder cross with an Araucana hen. They were lovely olive eggs with a shine that would have done justice in the three of any colour class. My argument was that as they were cross-bred they should not be accepted in the Araucana egg class. I felt that this should apply also to green and khaki eggs, as these colours can be made by crossing the Araucana to any of the brown egg breeds. In her book Cathy points out that the brown egg gene combined with the blue egg gene produces green, olive and khaki and should be eliminated from the Araucana breeding pen.
We must abstain from introducing other breeds and by the selection of clear blue eggs we can redefine the Araucana. At present I have achieved this with the black/reds, all of which lay clear blue eggs. I am still working on the Lavender large fowl as I still get a green tint on these eggs but I believe clear colour will come from continual selection. Years of hard work have gone into breeding the pea comb. Colour and shape have also improved in recent years. However there is still a long way to go to completely stabilise these factors. This can not be done by introducing other breeds. We must all work together to achieve these improvements. One way to do this is to share our stock cocks and the exchange of eggs. I hope this article will stimulate thought and discussion
|
|
