Meet the Araucana chicken. These friendly, alert hens have been called Britain’s original blue-egg layers, and it has made them famous.
There are plenty of other breeds that lay coloured eggs of course, such as the Welsummer, the Maran and, in my part of the country, the Cotswold legbar. But the Araucana is unique in the poultry world for laying eggs with a colouring that runs through the entire thickness of the shell, not just the outside.
Where does the Araucana come from?
The Araucana comes from South America; European traders and adventurers came across them when they began exploring the continent, and flocks can still be found in parts of the Andes.
They’ve been in the UK since the 1930s, when a Chilean ship foundered off Scotland’s west coast and the chickens on board ended up on the Inner Hebrides. At least, that’s how the story goes.
What do Araucanas look like?
The first thing that strikes you about this breed is the face. It’s hidden behind a mass of feathers that form a crest on the head, a fluffy beard underneath and a pair of tufts (or a muff in poultry-speak) that point outwards either side of its beak. To me, it resembles a magnificent moustache like the trademark bristles of television presenter Dick Strawbridge. The hipster in the hen house, perhaps?
Among the 12 Araucana varieties there’s also a tailless strain, although these rumpless Araucanas are a much more common sight in America. It’s not just the feathers that are missing; they don’t have a caudal appendage, better known as the parson’s nose, which gives them an unusual stumpy appearance from the back.
Plenty of poultry breeds have long, even luxuriant tail feathers, so what’s the reason for a tail-free chicken? It dates back to the breed’s Chilean origins, where it was easier for rumpless birds to escape predators and, apparently, being tailless made them better fighters.
For people in the know, there’s nothing new about these perky little birds. The Araucana Society of Great Britain was founded as long ago as 1956, but things really stepped up when a set of breed guidelines was created in the 1970s and a new organisation, the British Araucana Club, began to help maintain the standard and promote the breed. It worked. Today, there are serious breeders and keen enthusiasts all over the British Isles who have fallen for this brilliant ‘back garden’ chicken.
During the summer you’ll be able to see some of those proud owners exhibiting their best prize- winning poultry at agricultural shows and country fairs around the UK, as sure as eggs is eggs.
