Andalusian

Andalusian chickens are a beautiful blue breed originating from Andalusia — a province of Spain — but have been in England and the United States for a long time.

Andalusians are often used in exhibitions due to their graceful, stately carriage and delicate blue-laced feathers. The ideal feather color is a beautiful slate blue with narrow lacing of darker blue. Male Andalusians have a lustrous blue to dove gray cape, frequently used for tying artificial flies. Andalusian hens are good white egg layers, with very little tendency towards broodiness. Both sexes have long, deep bodies, white skin, and clean, lead-blue shanks and toes. Overall they are larger than Leghorns, and about the same as Minorcas.

THE COLOR BLUE: A unique genetic feature of this breed is the constant recurrence in the offspring of not only all blue chicks, but also the black, white, and black-white colors used in the original matings many generations ago to produce these bluebirds. All of these chicks carry the blue genes and when mated black on white or with other blues in turn produce many blue offspring. In our breeding flocks, however, only blue males of the finest color are used.