Chicken Breed Focus - Euskal Oiloa (Marraduna Basque)

[3riverschick]

Yes gootziecat,
I wonder too. especially because the main color in Basque is like a golden cuckoo. it's not something simple like white or black .
it's a color that needs to be learned to be bred correctly. it always helps to have a couple of big movers and shakers in the breed to educate when you have something like that .
I hope noone ever brings the blue gene into the Basques. It will be the ruination of the breed. Blue/gold project birds quickly taint a gene pool. Especially when newcomers don't understand how to select proper coloring in the chick down and juvenile feathering. Heterozygous Birds end up getting sold as pure and the new owners end up polluting their flocks with unwanted genes . I watched it happen in Marans, I would hate to see it happen in Basques.
best,
Karen

 

[skidoolady]

Nice looking. I wonder if they are cold tolerant.

yes they are

 

[allosaurusrock]

Gosh! They are so pretty! I need to stop looking at breeds! I want to breed a rare breed and save it from extinction. but then I can't show.

 

[3riverschick]

There are some APA approved breeds which are quite rare. light Sussex is one . it's a variety that's rare, so is speckled Sussex .
take a look at the breeds approved by the APA standard of Perfection . then take a look at the Livestock Conservancy list of critical breeds. cross-reference them and I think you'll find there's a bunch of breeds to choose from that you can help conserve and show at the same time.
Take time to discuss your chosen breeds with some veteran breeders to make sure the gene pool is large enough for you to help bring conserve the breed . some breeds ( or varieties within a breed) are just on their way out. there's just not enough of a gene pool to save them.
The Basque hen has a good start in North America . it just needs more serious breeders to love it and to insist that it be bred in the proper patterns.
Thanks,
Best,
Karen

 

[The Moonshiner]

Not to say that the Marans people aren't dedicated they are, but frankly I don't think the blue genes should ever have been allowed in that breed. it just has created so much Havoc .

Curious why you say this? What was wrong with blue being allowed in your opinion and what havoc did it cause. Blue coppers and blue birchens are my favorite marans.

Yes gootziecat,
I wonder too. especially because the main color in Basque is like a golden cuckoo.

I didnt think they were at all like golden cuckoo. I seen a barred wheaten pattern myself.

 

[3riverschick]

Hi Moonshiner ,
the problem is not with blue gene. many times a heterozygous Blue bird is sold as pure when people in a breed have just started out incorperating it into the breed. then people who have pure Birds end up polluting their flocks with blue when they didn't mean to because they don't understand how the blue gene works .
not only that according to elite breeders, most breeds can't maintain more than 3 varieties if you want to keep all three varieties robust .
so why do we have to have a blue everything . we have already have at least five colors of Basques.
let's let's preserve what we have. make them more robust instead of continually making more colors to the point where the colors aren't really robust because there aren't enough people to go around for the colors.
Best,
Karen

 

[The Moonshiner]

​

Hi Moonshiner ,
the problem is not with blue gene. many times a heterozygous Blue bird is sold as pure when people in a breed have just started out incorperating it into the breed. then people who have pure Birds end up polluting their flocks with blue when they didn't mean to because they don't understand how the blue gene works .

I saw this info in your other post also.
Its not correct. Thats not how blue works. Its not recessive. It doesnt hide in a bird unseen.
I think working with blue is the best genes for newcomers or anyone getting into genetics or breeding for color because it is so easy to understand.
A hetero for blue is blue not a colored bird hiding blue. With blue whether it has one gene, two genes or none it is simple for anyone because what it has is what it shows.
Its easy to breed in and just as easy to breed out.
I dont get your ideas. Maybe youre confusing blue with lavender or idk.

Anyways i cant see how blue hurt marans or any breed or ever would ruin a gene pool.
Its too easy to see so its no problem to keep out of ones birds if they want to.

 

[The Moonshiner]

Also still curious about the Basque is like a golden cuckoo statement.
Idk about all their colors but I think im thinking of the same variety as youre talking about but the ones I had were wheaten based with barring. They hatched with the wheaten pattern down and grew to look wheaten. Nothing like golden cuckoo or at least what I have seen in golden cuckoo marans.

 

[3riverschick]

​

I saw this info in your other post also.
Its not correct. Thats not how blue works. Its not recessive. It doesnt hide in a bird unseen.
I think working with blue is the best genes for newcomers or anyone getting into genetics or breeding for color because it is so easy to understand.
A hetero for blue is blue not a colored bird hiding blue. With blue whether it has one gene, two genes or none it is simple for anyone because what it has is what it shows.
Its easy to breed in and just as easy to breed out.
I dont get your ideas. Maybe youre confusing blue with lavender or idk.

Anyways i cant see how blue hurt marans or any breed or ever would ruin a gene pool.
Its too easy to see so its no problem to keep out of ones birds if they want to.

,-------
I guess I should have been clearer. I was talking about chick down . a lot of times it's hard for newcomers to understand what blue looks like in the chick down if it's heterozygous . as far as problems with the blue gene there are health issues associated with a blue gene. there are studies out there on the net . honestly I would have to go digging to find them. I found them before but I didn't book Mark them . so that's another problem with the blue.
For a long time in rough and smooth Collie dogs the fancy did not believe the blue gene could contribute to health problems.
finally science progressed to the point where we found out we were wrong.
you can get health problems in Collie dogs if you breed the wrong colors together . not a double dilute , we already knew about those health problems. I'm talking about health problems associated with breeding heterozygous Blues in collies. that was a real stunner for the breed.
so when I started in poultry, I went looking to see if I could find problems associated with the blue gene in poultry and I did . that's why I think it's bad for the blue Gene to be introduced into a breed unless the people doing it have a formal breeding plan and know exactly what they're doing . a lot of newcomers to a breed haven't progressed to that point yet.
they're just bringing blue into their Birds because they want to breed the color.
Best,
Karen

 

[The Moonshiner]

Hi Moonshiner ,
the problem is not with blue gene.

,-------
I guess I should have been clearer. I was talking about chick down . a lot of times it's hard for newcomers to understand what blue looks like in the chick down if it's heterozygous . as far as problems with the blue gene there are health issues associated with a blue gene. there are studies out there on the net . honestly I would have to go digging to find them. I found them before but I didn't book Mark them . so that's another problem with the blue.
For a long time in rough and smooth Collie dogs the fancy did not believe the blue gene could contribute to health problems.
finally science progressed to the point where we found out we were wrong.
you can get health problems in Collie dogs if you breed the wrong colors together . not a double dilute , we already knew about those health problems. I'm talking about health problems associated with breeding heterozygous Blues in collies. that was a real stunner for the breed.
so when I started in poultry, I went looking to see if I could find problems associated with the blue gene in poultry and I did . that's why I think it's bad for the blue Gene to be introduced into a breed unless the people doing it have a formal breeding plan and know exactly what they're doing . a lot of newcomers to a breed haven't progressed to that point yet.
they're just bringing blue into their Birds because they want to breed the color.
Best,
Karen

I can see how some might mistake a hetero blue chick for a black chick or even the other way around. Its not usually hard to see the difference but must admit i do have bbs silkies and sometimes even when theyre grown i get some blues that are so dark that a newbie could mistake them.
Anyways that line of thinking still doesnt hold water for me cause chickens have to be grown and breeding to effect the line or gene pull and i dont see that there would be enough confusion about seeing the blue color in grown breeding birds to be polluting their pure lines.
I can see maybe mistaking a chicks color but no way of confusing their color all the way to breeding age no matter how unknowledgable one is. Blue is just to simple to be ruining lines or breeds in any way close to how youre explaining it. Imo

I dont know anything about breeding collies but I raised danes for years and years and i think they have the same worries with the merle genes as collies as well as danes also have harlequins thrown in the mix for health concerns.
Danes also have blues and yes im aware of health issues with blues in dogs but dogs and chickens are apples and oranges. Ive breed my share of both and they dont really relate much. Imo.

Ive raised many breeds with blue and have several different breeds now with blues in my breedings. Ive never heard of any health issues with the blue gene or every seen any health issues that can from breeding blues. I dont think there are any and the first quote above said the issue wasnt because of the blue gene.... Not there is an issue but you dont know what it is?
I dont think im gonna be able to agree with you thoughts on tbe subject.