This will be a place to discuss the breeding and conservation of South American Fowls.

Background:

It is believed that the araucanas of South America originated from polynesian ancestry, prior to Columbus. Sea travelors crossed their domestic "Bankiva" chickens to Green Jungle fowl to create semi-sterile hybrids called Bekizars, the resulting roosters of which were used as "Foghorns". They would cage their roosters aboard their small sea craft and use their unique crowing to find each other each morning after loosing sight of each other. While most green junglefowl X Bankiva hybrids are sterile, some would succesfully backcross to a Bankiva hen, thus introducing the greenjungle fowl genes into the domestic chicken. It is believed that such hybrids are the foundation of the south american fowl genetics.

One of the unique characteristics of the araucanas is their blue and green eggs but they have many other unique charateristics. While there is still much to learn of the ancestral araucana races, here is a quick and simplified rundown of what has been gathered to date:


Colloncas
- rumpless clean faced layer of round blueish eggs
- willow or dark legs.


Queteros
- tailed, tufted, and clean legged
- ocasional blue egg, pinkish brown more common
- crow is described as a "laughing crow."


Quechua
- muffs/beards, rumpless, and ?feathered legs?
- large dark aqua blue eggs with white spots
- found as bantam and large fowl
- 4 or 5 toes
- Black Quechua Olmec have blue-black skin, bones and legs, and produce glossy green or blue eggs.


Modern (APA) araucana (Colloncas des Aretes)
- cross between the Colloncas and Queteros
- tufted and rumpless
- blue eggs
- willow or black non feathered legs


Ameraucana
- superficially represents a cross between a Quetero and Quechua, but most today have other domestics mixed in.
- muffs/beard and tailed
- blue eggs
- blue/slate or black non feathered legs


The Oceanic Class document provided a more complete outline.