The Blue Andalusian, es, Andaluza Azul, italic=no, is a

breed A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...

of domestic

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

indigenous to the

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Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

in south-west

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. It is distributed through much of the countryside of Córdoba and

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

, and is concentrated particularly in the area of

Utrera Utrera () is a municipality in south-west Spain. It is in the province of Seville, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. As of 2018 it has a population of 52,617. The town is of great historical interest. It was occupied by Muslims in the ...

, which is considered the heartland of the breed. In 2009 the population was estimated at birds. A very different type of Andalusian, more intensely blue and with blue-laced plumage, was created in England from birds imported from Andalusia through

selective breeding Selective breeding (also called artificial selection) is the process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits (characteristics) by choosing which typically animal or plant mal ...

and

cross-breeding A crossbreed is an organism with purebred parents of two different breeds, varieties, or populations. ''Crossbreeding'', sometimes called "designer crossbreeding", is the process of breeding such an organism, While crossbreeding is used to main ...

with birds of other breeds.

History

There is little information on the early history of the Andalusian. Blue chickens from Andalusia were imported to England no later than 1851. The creation of the "international" type of Andalusian, with blue-laced plumage, is attributed to the English, whether in Andalusia or in Britain. Two breeders in particular are thought to have started this process, which took many years: one named Coles, from

Fareham, Hampshire Fareham ( ) is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour, between the cities of Portsmouth and Southampton in south east Hampshire, England. It gives its name to the Borough of Fareham. It was historically an important manufact ...

, and a certain John Taylor of Shepherd's Bush, in west London. Another claimant was

Augusta Legge Augusta Legge, Countess of Dartmouth (18 February 1822 – 1 December 1900), born Lady Augusta Finch, was an English philanthropist. Brought up in Warwickshire, she was the daughter of Heneage Finch, 5th Earl of Aylesford, and his wife, the forme ...

who was the countess of Dartmouth.K. D. Reynolds, Legge, Augusta, countess of Dartmouth (1822–1900)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 12 March 2017
/ref> Andalusians were shown at

Baker Street Baker Street is a street in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. It is named after builder William Baker, who laid out the street in the 18th century. The street is most famous for its connection to the fictional detec ...

, London, in January 1853; they were not included in the original ''Standard of Excellence'' in 1865. Andalusians reached the United States in about 1850–1855, and were included in the first edition of the '' Standard of Perfection'' of the

American Poultry Association The American Poultry Association (APA) is the oldest poultry organization in the North America. It was founded in 1873, and incorporated in Indiana in 1932. The first American poultry show was held in 1849, and the APA was later formed in respo ...

in 1874. The breed arrived in South America in 1870, and was first shown in Germany in the same year. A bantam was created in the 1880s.

Characteristics

The slate-blue plumage of the Andalusian is caused by a dilution gene, which, in combination with the E gene for black plumage, produces partial dilution of the

melanin Melanin (; from el, μέλας, melas, black, dark) is a broad term for a group of natural pigments found in most organisms. Eumelanin is produced through a multistage chemical process known as melanogenesis, where the oxidation of the amino ...

which gives the black colour. Not all Andalusians are blue: birds with two copies of the gene have near-total dilution, and are off-white; birds with no copies have no dilution, and are black; those with one copy have partial dilution, and are blue. Blue birds occur, in Mendelian proportion, twice as often as each of the other colours. All are present in the population. The earlobes of the Andalusian are smooth, white, and almond-shaped; the crest is single and of medium size, with five well-defined points. The skin is white and the legs and feet are black.

Use

Andaluza Azul hens lay about 165 white eggs per year; eggs weigh . Blue-bred white hens lay the largest eggs.

References

{{Chicken breeds of Spain Conservation Priority Breeds of the Livestock Conservancy Chicken breeds originating in Spain Animal breeds on the RBST Watchlist Animal breeds on the GEH Red List Chicken breeds