Euskal Oiloa ( Basque Thread)

[Maggiesdad]

Girl, with two boys behind her, note wattles on roo on the left


Four girls, with one roo pecking my shoe...


Six boys. Took 3 people and 10 minutes to get this shot! The pattern on the males is very similar, it just varies in shade at this point. But you can see the hackle pattern that the girls don't have.


These guys are five weeks.
They start differentiating at four weeks, and really show it by six weeks.

 

[cbhaney]

Thank you so much, MaggiesDad, great to be here!!!

I see where a couple of members have just set eggs.....
can't wait to hear more from them....so exciting, lol

 

[reereechickens]

Thanks Maggiesdad for the pics!

 

[skylinepoultry]

Nice pics Maggie'sdad. Looks like the EO Family is getting bigger! Welcome everyone. Keep all pics coming if you've just hatched your new chick and older birds.

 

[Maggiesdad]

@ reeree Sure!

these chicks!

So in your last pic with the water pitcher, I'm seeing a roo with head down, fourth bird up. If he's an only boy he get's extra love!

 

[Skeffling Lavender Farm]

Hi and welcome new EO owners. Good luck with the hatches.

These little dudes do have wide heads, I have noticed it from the start. I love their stripy head and the bubblegum pink combs of the young roos and they love to have their head either side of the combs and faces stroked. They will sit on your knee for hours of you do that. I went to a chicken breeding course last Spring and that was on the of the big "take homes", was the wide head was an indicator of vigor and was also looked up favourably by judges. I think in the EOs it's to make room for their well developed brains lol!....they can totally make sense of things especially when food is involved.

I will tell you a story about what I see as their smarts. Thanks for the complement on Speckled Jim. I absolutely love him he's one in a million roos.

So it has been cold enough here, and with us doing chores on 2 levels in the barn (ladder in between) I haven't brought our terrier out in a while. The week before last, I brought him in the barn, took him into the layer coop with about 40 hens of most of my breeds, with Speckled Jim and one lavender D'Uccle roo, he's always been allowed in when we are there.

I have to laugh as both the dog and I got wood shavings in our hair from the huge draft from all those panicky hens taking off from the door way where they greet me daily, to the other side of the coop (it is big 16'by20') as the dog hopped over the threshold in behind me. Specky of course went with them but was on our side of the buck-arking crowd, and he stopped making a noise right away. I threw the scratch down I had gone into to do and said "it's alright" in my usual tone when calming them. Specky is not greedy (like most EOs-they love food and tells the hens about and gives the hens any treats he finds. He started the food buck-buck noise, was trying to get them to come closer to where I and the dog were to get them to eat, because he knows the dog was OK (and had known him nearly 4 years) and I think partly he trusts my judgement of safe. He is the first to raise the alarm when required, but he didn't think it necessary, of course the hens soon calmed down despite my little D'uccle (who sounds like someone hysterical laughing their head off) cackling and buck-arking. I just had to grin anyway at the whole scene. It may not seem like much, but I can safely say, most of my other roos would not have shut up for a while on the off chance it was a problem. Specky knew he and the hens were OK very quickly.

They learn a particular time of day oir item in your had means food, or this sound (bread bags crackling), they learn quickly. Smart is one thing, but good natured as well melt your heart! I think other breeds don't mind them either. Last week I put my breeding groups together. I have five 20 week old EO roos and a pet one from 2010 in the bachelor pads with lots of chanteclers, some lav and wheaten Ameraucanas, a sumatra, a Black penedesenca and a big old Lav orpington (all ranging in age from 20 weeks to nearly 4 years old). We usually move everyone in and out all at once so only one pecking order adjustment. The next morning, the EOs were in a clump and it was as if the Lav Orp was protecting them. Kind of hard to describe, but he was in the middle of them towering over them, wherever they were, mostly just standing up by the fence of the run (when they saw me!). He just stands in the middle of the group and they all mill around him, and that old roo closes his eyes up, I have seen them gently nibble at his wattles like hens do, it's a funny relationship but there definitely is one. The only EOs fighting over the years I have seen is really with the Black pennies who seem to be able to push their buttons, and the BPs can be relentless challengers. They do back down eventually, and the EOs seem to command respect in a mixed group of pure-breeds. They are not rough or pushy, just happy and occasionally excitable but in a good natured way. I would say if you get a roo that is not like that and is aggressive, put him in the freezer because these guys are really not like that.

They certainly vary in temperament between individuals. Speckled Jim, last year in the batch pen and one of this years young now in there (that was in one of my early pics around 4 weeks old sleeping on my knee) both independently learned to jump straight up, to see me, over the other side of the 2 foot high plywood screen (we have it their wire run walls so they can't see the neighbouring hens). They only did/do it when they hear my voice. It's funny, you see this white flash...and I have to chuckle.

As far as black spots. I don't think they should have them on their backs, the ones with the most black were more mottled when young, nearly 2 years ago. But anyone with Millies or spangled birds knows they get more spotty as they get older, and these went from no spots to just getting a few, part of the aging process I think. Some people will hatch them with this and more in their first year, there is just lots of variation still.

 

[sebastopol]

Hi all!

Last saturday, I went to an expo near Pau (France) and I saw Euskal Oiloak there, but no one for sale.
And the french girl who helped with the packing is a member of Eoalak. And she was surprised when I said, "me, too!".

 

[Maggiesdad]

Hello, Sebastopol!

Happy New Year!

 

[skylinepoultry]

Euskal Oiloak Are Awesome!

 

[Cydney83]

x2! Thanks James! I set my second try at EO eggs on Saturday night about midnight! I am waiting until Sunday or Monday to candle...can't wait...I have one from my first hatch! Yes, I know I have to post a pic..