Cubalaya Thread For Sharing Pics and Discussing Our Birds

[Vcomb]

Full brothers 9 months..........

......and full sister also 9 months.

Front view of brothers.

Those are indeed spangled.....but spangled on a different allele. They appear to be the birchen allele (in otherwords, brownred spangles. Which is the direction you want to head if you want mottled as the blacks are modified brown reds after all.

 

[Vcomb]

Saladin are you saying that in cubalayas that color is spangled, so what is this color called?

This bird has spangling and dominant white. In D'Uccles and I believe Old English Game Bantams they call this "Gold Neck". The amount of white in the neck does make me wonder if this bird is also showing the columbian gene as well.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Saladin. I was wondering what you think about the welp chick pics I posted. I agreed to keep everyone updated on their progress, as no one seems to know the origin of Welp's cubalayas.

 

[troyer]

My Welp Hatchery BBR Cubalaya chicks at 28 days old.












Once again, these two chicks show the different colors that the other chicks are. I guess they could be male and female. It's hard to get a good picture of their tails, but they do look like they are lobster tail like (wide and droopy). All of the chicks seem strong and are growing fast.

Nice chicks except for the high tailed one. #3 in the back on the right is a nice enough chick just has a high tail. I've had chicks with tails like that at that age and usually by the time they reached 4 months the tails were down where they should be, but sometimes they just don't go down. I select for the ones that hold their tails below horizontal at hatch thru adulthood. Picture #1 is a cockerel, #2 is a pullet and #3 and #4 look like cockerel and pullet pictures.

 

[cubakid]

Top is male, then female, pair( high tailed male) then pair again.

 

[saladin]

jungle,

Though I can tell you all about down coloration in Cubalayas and the like; I really don't give chicks a second look except for obvious deformities like crossed beaks and crooked toes.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

jungle,

Though I can tell you all about down coloration in Cubalayas and the like; I really don't give chicks a second look except for obvious deformities like crossed beaks and crooked toes.

Ok. I just don't know what a BBR cubalaya is supposed to look like at this stage, so I am was wondering if their color is about right. Not that it is really important now that I have some good birds (ordered these chick before I know that I was going to get some real birds), but since no one seems to know where Welp got their breeding stock from, it might be a pleasant surprise if their chicks are not the garbage that Ideal tries to pass off as bbr cubalayas. So far the chicks seem good. A couple died within 24 hours after I got them, one within two days and one about four days later. The one that died later, I probably killed trying to save it. It had a ton of egg shells embedded in it's abdomen where the yolk sack had dried. It was not doing well so I tried to remove the eggs shells by gently rubbing the area with warm water. That dried yolk sack was like concrete and it took like two hours to get it clean, and I think it was just too much for the little chick. The rest seem strong, perfectly developed and vigorous. There is only one chick that is smaller then the others.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Nice chicks except for the high tailed one. #3 in the back on the right is a nice enough chick just has a high tail. I've had chicks with tails like that at that age and usually by the time they reached 4 months the tails were down where they should be, but sometimes they just don't go down. I select for the ones that hold their tails below horizontal at hatch thru adulthood. Picture #1 is a cockerel, #2 is a pullet and #3 and #4 look like cockerel and pullet pictures.

There are only two chicks in these pictures. The (male) one with the high tail is the same one in the other pictures. He only lifted his tail like that for a second when he got spooked by the rapid shutter sound of my dslr camera that I had set to continues shooting.

 

[wood&feathers]

Ah Troyer, I am content to drool...maybe down the road I can figure out how to purchase from you PA folks.

We had snow, then sleet/grapel this morning. It was hilarious to see the young birds react to icy stuff on the ground. Lots of flying and jumping straight up. Suddenly I look out on the hill this morning and half the flock is roosting on low trees to keep their feet warm. They were chasing the ice pellets and gobbling them like bird seed for a few minutes. I can see where pellet salt would be extremely dangerous to chickens.

A couple years ago my husband brought home a bag of rock salt - I gave it away quickly and suggested I have a garage full of sawdust, that should work just fine to get traction on ice. We are talking about family pets here.

A couple young hens are spending half the day in the nest boxes. I don't know if they are thinking of brooding or just staying in the cozy warm and away from the cocks.

 

[wood&feathers]

I may be just starting on this journey, but I got a few recent pictures last week.



This black and red cockerel was born last May. The white cock and wheaten hen are part of the original trio and will be age 2 this spring. The dog on top of the hill is my LGD, Vixey.



This is one of 3 nearly identical hens, 2 from May and one from July. All hold their tails around horizontal and are a little weak in the beak/face structure. Ivory here however makes up for it with personality. Even with the snow today she managed to rustle up a half frozen salamander. She is trying to learn to "knock" on my kitchen window without the flock noticing.