Euskal Oiloa ( Basque Thread)

[LindaB220]

She's a beauty

Great to see you back. Missed you!!!! EO eggs available? : D

 

[UrbanFarmOC]

She's a beauty

Omg. Gorgeous mama and cute babies! I have a Mille Fleur EO and hoping she'll go broody for me. She's about 7 months old.

 

[CackleJoy]

Omg. Gorgeous mama and cute babies! I have a Mille Fleur EO and hoping she'll go broody for me. She's about 7 months old.

Thank you! She is our first to go broody and a pullet yet, not even a year old. Still thin from setting eggs but she's filled out since.

Great to see you back. Missed you!!!! EO eggs available? : D

Hi It is fun to get back to BYC a little bit. Eggs are coming in nicely. We had an episode with a Blue Ameraucana rooster (i wanted to kill him) and I have to hatch the next bunch of eggs to make sure all of his influence is GONE before I can sell them. We ate Basque eggs for several weeks. I am seeing a few flaws, but overall I am very happy with progress made over my original group of birds.

 

[kathleens1979]

That mama and her babies are adorable!!!

 

[CackleJoy]

A friend in Spain sent me that one...



The North American Basque Hen Association is formed!

The red hen from Spain is shocking. Do we dare hope for that color?
and

Well done! I know forming a group such as the NABHA is a lot of work!

After many months of preparation it is with great pleasure that we invite all basque Hen (Euskal Oiloa, EO) enthusiasts to visit the newly launched North American Basque Hen Association (NABHA) website!

http://nabha.weebly.com

The website outlines the purpose of NABHA, our board members, has an updated version of the Standard of Perfection, a history of EOs in North America, a photo gallery and more so please visit! Expect to see more photos and informative articles and links over the next few weeks.

There is also a form for those interested in becoming a member to fill out and we're really hoping folks interested in the Basque breed will join the new Association and help us decide how to make NABHA of the most value! Once we get things fully organized, members will have access to a Breeder's List, receive email notifications of events of interest to EO owners, and have the opportunity to learn more about the Basque breed through articles and other information sharing venues.

We are very much interested in hearing everyone's ideas or questions so please visit the webpage and share your thoughts!

Promptly filled out the form for membership. We are proud of the efforts we have made here on the farm and deeply appreciate the Basque for their many qualities and easy keeping. I don't always know if I am headed in the right direction and am happy to have the SOP for reference. You have probably seen the pictures of our broody. I have been worried that their tales were getting too much black but it is mostly a thumbprint on the ends. The color has certainly improved and we are seeing far fewer of the white MF pattern Basque. The MF patterning I'm seeing now is simply heavier speckling on a ginger bird. I'll have to show some picks if I have any that pop up. Since we introduced that cockerel from @ronott1 we have not had a single white MF. NOT ONE.

We knew that bird wouldn't last forever with his weakness for sour crop and he died over the winter. We have 2 excellent boys from him that we are using now. We kept a 3rd but as he matured he developed spots in his bloomers. I didn't like that so he is going to the livestock auction.

 

[ronott1]

The red hen from Spain is shocking. Do we dare hope for that color?
and

Well done! I know forming a group such as the NABHA is a lot of work!

Promptly filled out the form for membership. We are proud of the efforts we have made here on the farm and deeply appreciate the Basque for their many qualities and easy keeping. I don't always know if I am headed in the right direction and am happy to have the SOP for reference. You have probably seen the pictures of our broody. I have been worried that their tales were getting too much black but it is mostly a thumbprint on the ends. The color has certainly improved and we are seeing far fewer of the white MF pattern Basque. The MF patterning I'm seeing now is simply heavier speckling on a ginger bird. I'll have to show some picks if I have any that pop up. Since we introduced that cockerel from @ronott1 we have not had a single white MF. NOT ONE.

We knew that bird wouldn't last forever with his weakness for sour crop and he died over the winter. We have 2 excellent boys from him that we are using now. We kept a 3rd but as he matured he developed spots in his bloomers. I didn't like that so he is going to the livestock auction.

It is great you got the genes from him!

I would love to see as many pictures as you want to post. The flock looks very nice now and is likely the first one with new genes in a long time.

Very cool!

 

[GaryDean26]

Thank you! She is our first to go broody and a pullet yet, not even a year old. Still thin from setting eggs but she's filled out since.

Hi It is fun to get back to BYC a little bit. Eggs are coming in nicely. We had an episode with a Blue Ameraucana rooster (i wanted to kill him) and I have to hatch the next bunch of eggs to make sure all of his influence is GONE before I can sell them. We ate Basque eggs for several weeks. I am seeing a few flaws, but overall I am very happy with progress made over my original group of birds.

I am very jealous. When we got EO's in 2012 I wanted to raise them 100% natural. No vaccinations, no medications, naturally hatched, etc. Our other breed were all pair mated and we only hatched in incubators with hatching baskets so that we could petigree everything. It was a lot of work and in many ways took some of the fun out of owning chickens. The EO's were going to be our utility flock. We were going to cull based on growth rates, mature weight, egg laying ability, hardiness, and friendliness. Rather than keep them separated into breeding groups were were going to let them free range 24/7 in one flock.

The first year we had to hatch all our EO's under a Marans because we didn't get any broody EO's. We still haven't had any broody EO's. I didn't do very much research on the EO's and just made the assumption that if thy were a 6# dual purpose hen that we would get a fair number of broodies.

Well our Basque didn't go quite as planned. They aren't quite like the heritage breeds were were expecting. We love the jumbo eggs and friendly hens even if we do have to hatch them in an incubator.

 

[LindaB220]

I am very jealous. When we got EO's in 2012 I wanted to raise them 100% natural. No vaccinations, no medications, naturally hatched, etc. Our other breed were all pair mated and we only hatched in incubators with hatching baskets so that we could petigree everything. It was a lot of work and in many ways took some of the fun out of owning chickens. The EO's were going to be our utility flock. We were going to cull based on growth rates, mature weight, egg laying ability, hardiness, and friendliness. Rather than keep them separated into breeding groups were were going to let them free range 24/7 in one flock.

The first year we had to hatch all our EO's under a Marans because we didn't get any broody EO's. We still haven't had any broody EO's. I didn't do very much research on the EO's and just made the assumption that if thy were a 6# dual purpose hen that we would get a fair number of broodies.

Well our Basque didn't go quite as planned. They aren't quite like the heritage breeds were were expecting. We love the jumbo eggs and friendly hens even if we do have to hatch them in an incubator.

I'm thinking of banty cochins.

 

[CackleJoy]

It is great you got the genes from him!

I would love to see as many pictures as you want to post. The flock looks very nice now and is likely the first one with new genes in a long time.

Very cool!

It is not always easy to get photos of a Basque

These are the nosiest chickens! Most of them end up like this

I am very jealous. When we got EO's in 2012 I wanted to raise them 100% natural. No vaccinations, no medications, naturally hatched, etc. Our other breed were all pair mated and we only hatched in incubators with hatching baskets so that we could petigree everything. It was a lot of work and in many ways took some of the fun out of owning chickens. The EO's were going to be our utility flock. We were going to cull based on growth rates, mature weight, egg laying ability, hardiness, and friendliness. Rather than keep them separated into breeding groups were were going to let them free range 24/7 in one flock.

The first year we had to hatch all our EO's under a Marans because we didn't get any broody EO's. We still haven't had any broody EO's. I didn't do very much research on the EO's and just made the assumption that if thy were a 6# dual purpose hen that we would get a fair number of broodies.

Well our Basque didn't go quite as planned. They aren't quite like the heritage breeds were were expecting. We love the jumbo eggs and friendly hens even if we do have to hatch them in an incubator.

Well we had NO IDEA Basque ever went broody. This pullet is about 10 months old. She figured out how to escape the Basque pen and then invited all her girlfriends out too. It took us several days (almost 2 weeks) to finally Basque-proof the Basque pen.

My husband may have had a few frustrated words to use.

Then she proceeded to hide out in some palms in February. We had no idea where she was (it was a multi-trunked tree with VERY dense foliage, can't see inside it without crawling on hands and knees) but happened to find her in early March on 15 eggs! We were astonished as she had survived some really bad rainstorms. We moved her into a pen and 3 days later she hatched 11 chicks!

We were somewhat astounded.

Omg. Gorgeous mama and cute babies! I have a Mille Fleur EO and hoping she'll go broody for me. She's about 7 months old.

Certainly worth hoping for but you might need a few more to hedge your bets. We have grown out about 15 pullets and this is our first broody. You need more Basque.

 

[CackleJoy]

Just for fun. Our old gal, descended from GFF stock. I have no idea if any improvement was done with the bloodline before I bought her as a chick. We purchased over a dozen chicks the first time around and roughly 1/2 of them were MF. The best of them were a light Ginger color and this is what a molting has brought us. She is the only one of the original generation we have left.


This is the next generation of GFF x import blood





Heavier barring even into the fluff. Zero of the white MF so far, a little muddiness such as seen on the bottom pullet and a few black speckles where they don't belong, as seen on the top pullet.
It's a pretty distinct improvement!