Ameraucana

Ameraucana is a chicken breed developed in the United States in the 1970s by breeders seeking to fix the blue egg laying trait found in the South American Araucana breed while breeding out the Araucana's lethal genes and lack of a tail, producing a hardier, fully tailed bird with the same distinctive blue eggshell color. The breed was recognized by the American Poultry Association in 1984 and comes in several standardized color varieties, distinguished by a pea comb, muffs and a beard of feathers around the face. Because true Araucana stock is difficult to breed and keep due to those lethal genetic factors, Ameraucana became the more practical and widespread blue egg layer among American poultry keepers, though the name is sometimes loosely applied by hatcheries to blue or green egg laying mixed stock that is not the standardized purebred. It is kept today mainly by backyard flock owners valuing its blue eggs and calm temperament.