Colloncas, Huastecs, & Quechuas

[fuzzybutt love]

hello, new to this thread. I currently have ee's, and have been selecting and keeping the friendly ones. They are just so different, not the friendly you get from taming but this kind is born-in. Even the one raised by a human-hating broody!

Imagine my surprise when i found this thread and the descriptions of the quecha, how friendly they are; the roos single mating (mine did too), sharing space, and how they were so tame........... and that ee's were began by quecha. https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/823212/colloncas-huastecs-quechuas

Soooo my newb question is how do you tell quecha from ee?
Mine would be classed as "north american improved" (ee) by standard.


auction hen, unknown parantage. Short, wide, unusually docile and affectionate. bottom of back had silkie type hair feathers. I didn't know this until her first molt, as she was bare-backed when i got her. Kept a saddle on her off and on to protect these.


Front profile of when i first put them together. He was a TSC chick. (hatchery) Here you can see how round she was in body type; he was very parental towards her and any chicks i brought in. He protected new chicks and hens from the established flock by standing between; sang shrill little songs to the hens. Built nests. I caught him singing to the hens as they laid eggs sometimes! Silly boy. I lost her to heat and sadly put him down the same day since he didn't really have an attachment to any of the other hens. I didn't want him to "suicide" as birds do when they only have one mate.





their daughters, i was pleased to see the wide shoulder wings...


Egg color of my ee's: stony greenish blue, and very pale blue.

Here you can see the unusually large nostrels.


Originally i had pegged my original hen as an ee/ orloff cross; I have another roo and hen i believe to be ee/ wyendotte. As well as another ee that oddly enough went broody (which ee aren't known for) This trio has the colors that i like with the blue speck/ lace on the chest feathers. (he has it too)





I am thinking about the little huastecs and quechas as possible new blood since i'm breeding mainly for temperament. It has taken me a year to find this new roo, the other roo i bought for this flock had buttercup in his line and was too flighty and distrustful of me. Spurs me occasionally. I am particularly interested in whether the roos do get along penned, thus far the boy i have now is tolerating and protecting the little cockerel that one of these chicks turned out to be.

 

[urjtobreed]

Here is a pic of 2 of the chcks I have hatched from the Colloncas hens from Yashar I know there was no other rooster and 1 has a tail and blue skin not black blue beautiful blue I hatched 2 like it not long after they arrived

I would guess the blue skinned chick is a Colloncas x Huastec cross. I have a number of this same cross myself (I crossed them myself, the originals were hatched pure from Yashar). The dark skin and beak at hatch is indicative of carrying at least one Fibromelanism (FM) gene. The Colloncas are not Fibromelanotic and so do not carry the FM gene, The FM gene had to come from somewhere. The FM gene is semi-dominant and will show up in first generation crosses. I wouldn't be surprised if that chick and/or some of its siblings turn out crested as well. You can usually tell the crested chicks at several days old if you look carefully. Their down just above the beak tends to be longer, making for a high forehead look and a squarer flat-topped head shape. Some of the Huastec that I received from Yashar were heterozygous for FM and crested or did not have one trait or both. Therefore the second light skinned chick could also be a cross as well. It does look like it may have the high forehead of a crested chick.

I believe I remember Yashar stating that he runs his birds together and then separates them 6 weeks before he starts saving eggs in the spring. I think last year he separated them in February. I would check with Yashar but he may not have had them separated or for that long before he sent the birds to you. There is debate about how much separation time is needed and it varies by breed. I would have thought that 6 weeks was plenty of time, but I have a chick from an egg laid on October 13th that was obviously fathered by a rooster the was sent to freezer camp on July 14th (for being overly aggressive with the hens). That is 12 weeks! That specific chick could only have come from that specific rooster. It was the only SPQ rooster and the only one capable of passing that specific combination of a beard, wide smooth comb (not sure of the name for that type of comb) and non FM. I am glad I took good notes, otherwise I would not have believed it.

As for the rumpless trait. The Collocas x Huastec that I have hatched have ranged from full rumpless to a full range of partial tails. Rumpless is a dominate trait, but there are other genes that can cause partial tails when combined with the rumpless gene. The pure Colloncas should not carry these partial tail genes as these should have been selected out.

I hope this helps explain some of the off-types that some people have experienced, and hopefully help sort out what is a cross or not. You would not want to sell them as pure Colloncas, but they would make excellent free-range birds.

 

[bardies]

I'll buy some BQO eggs as soon as you are ready.

BQO?

 

[Penny Hen]

BQO?

Black Quechua Olmec

 

[fuzzybutt love]

No comments on quecha?
How do you tell the difference between ee and quecha; or what traits specifically am i supposed to be looking for to breed back towards that type of bird?

 

[ronott1]

No comments on quecha?
How do you tell the difference between ee and quecha; or what traits specifically am i supposed to be looking for to breed back towards that type of bird?

I am just guessing and am offering this up to move discussion on. In the EE world, there are Easter Eggers that come from hatcheries and are usually called Araucanas or Ameruarcanas. Many of those are the North American Quecha that were brought to the US A long time ago from South America.

There is a whole other group that is really Non Standard Ameraucana as defined by the Ameraucana Standard from the 1970s. This group is not what you are looking for if you are looking for EEs that are Quechas.

They are all great birds though!

 

[fuzzybutt love]

I had a hatchery roo, and thus far carefully selected barnyard ee's. I have heard a firsthand account from my DH's relative how in the 70's they had owned a flock of ee's that came from the hatchery and laid a yellow egg. I was sooo excited! I told him they were worth $$$, did any of the family still own stock from them- sadly they butchered the whole flock and ate them not knowing the value. As sad as it is it does confirm that the hatcheries DID originally have some quecha stock. I live in MI and it is likely that they ordered from a hatchery in/ not far from here. I also purchased a hen a year ago that laid a pink egg inside and out; not a brown or "tinted" egg! I had to get rid of her though because my rooster outright hated her and i wanted her to be happy.

No purebreeds/ culls here! I have been intrigued by the single mating and overall friendliness of some of these ee "mutts" and have been selecting for it. I may have been unknowingly selecting for quecha traits, so i'm wanting to know what they are specifically?

 

[poularde]

No comments on quecha?
How do you tell the difference between ee and quecha; or what traits specifically am i supposed to be looking for to breed back towards that type of bird?

You need to check out this thread. Great info. My understanding is that EEs can be used with the Quechua to add more diversity to the Quechua. I have a few Sweet Potato Quechua that I have crossed with my Ameruacanas. The Quechua have a smaller head and body type. Much more wild looking. There is a Quechua thread here also.

 

[Penny Hen]

No comments on quecha?
How do you tell the difference between ee and quecha; or what traits specifically am i supposed to be looking for to breed back towards that type of bird?

Well that depends on your definition of EE. If you mean by EE those chickens that have modern production breeds added to the mix (this is referred to by some as North American Improved Quechua) then you would want to be breeding away from everything that they put in. You want fluffy beards and muffs. You want pea combs. When you look at them from the top the tail should be pointed. When you look at them from the side the tail should be carried high not low or level. In truth the easiest way for you to take your flock backwards would be to get an Ameraucana roo from a breeder not a hatchery and keep breeding them to a new AM roo every year. Because the Ameraucana (the ones that meet the Standard of Perfection) are a Quechua. They do not represent all the genetics of the Quechua but of a specific line that was brought to the US in the early part of the last century. Indeed because they have been bred to fit the Standard of Perfection which is very restrictive on colors they have lost some of the color genes that they used to have. According to the Standard of Perfection even a full blooded Ameraucana who is a non standard color is considered an EE even though he has all rest of the physical requirements. So it gets confusing when you talk about EE's to know whether you are talking about hatchery EE's that have other breeds mixed in or as I like referring to them, AM EE's which are of pure blood but maybe mixed colors or non-standard colors

All of the following are a type of Quechua: Auracanas (tailless, blue egg, pea comb, ear tufts), Ameraucanas (tailed, blue eggs, pea comb), British & Australian Auracana (tailed, blue egg, pea comb, crest), Collonca (tailless, blue, green, lilac and yellow eggs, pea comb clean faced or bearded), Huastec (tailed, ?egg, crested, melonistic skin), Black Quechua Olmec ( tailed, ?egg, bearded, black skinned), Quechua de Areites (tailed, ?egg, eartufts and beard, pea comb), Collonca de Areites (tailess, ?egg, pea comb, eartufts, S Am version of the Auracana), Ameraucana EE (tailed, blue egg, bearded), Hatchery EE's, Americanas or North American Improved Quechua (tailed, blue, green, olive, brown, pea or straight or hybrid comb, some bearded some clean).

Forgive me if I murdered the Spanish spelling of "Areites". "De Areities" means "with earings". Many of those that I listed as"?eggs" is because I know that they lay colored eggs but I can't remember what the color range is. Most of these do lay a blue but some lay other shades as well. The blue eggs are caused by a chemical that is produced in the bile of the liver. I don't know if anyone has studied yet what makes the yellow or the lilac egg color. Brown is caused by a "paint" coating that is put on after the shell is formed. The blue is part of the shell itself and is genetically linked to the peacomb. The brown coating is what turns a blue egg green or olive.

For the best understanding of the amazing history of these birds I recommend reading Yashar and Resolutions threads on them. By studying their DNA scientist have proven that the Polynesians reached South America bringing their ancestors here. In fact just after I posted this I noticed Poularde had posted the links to these two threads.

 

[Penny Hen]

You need to check out this thread. Great info. My understanding is that EEs can be used with the Quechua to add more diversity to the Quechua. I have a few Sweet Potato Quechua that I have crossed with my Ameruacanas. The Quechua have a smaller head and body type. Much more wild looking. There is a Quechua thread here also.

I thought it was the other way around that the Quechua brought more diversity to the EE's. At least diversity in color patterns.