Cubalaya Thread For Sharing Pics and Discussing Our Birds

[cubalaya]

Dels came from Highspringschix in north Fla. They are a combination of Braden and Holtman. She bred for meat and eggs, sells both. I have been trying to get an open tail, and starting to see some success......stan

my dels are holmes , harter, and whitmore and i have been trying to get rid of the pinched tails and keep the yellowest legged ones with good size and color. eggs are extra large. the cubalayas would be a great choice for what you want to do, i can keep 2 to 3 hens with one cock year round with no problem.
the hen pictured is very nice and i would want all my wheaton hens to look like that only a little stouter and heavier. she is zook bloodline?

 

[Jungleexplorer]

It might be a misconception on my part, but I am thinking that the Cubalayas have a more sociable nature, are better layers and will give me a better carcass. I don't want birds that are man aggressive, or that need to be isolated . I am thinking that I could have a small flock of Cubas kept together in good sized breeding pens ( maybe 3-4 hens with a cock ) where that may not be possible with games. Plus, of the game birds I have seen, I am just not interested in the banty type size. I understand that there are larger game birds, but they have a much more aggressive personalities?? Am I just missinformed, or am I close??....stan

I am not expert on the subject of Gamefowl, but my experience has been that animals tend to follow the nature and training of their owner. I have about 75 American Games on my farm right now. Most of them I hatched in an incubator and raised in a brooder. Some I took extra time with and trained them to eat out of my hand when chicks, others I spent no time with. The ones I spent time as chicks with are very friendly towards humans and will walk right up to my feet and some will still eat out of my hand. I can pick them up and pet them. The ones I spent no time as chicks with have turned almost wild and I can't get within 50 feet of them in the day time. The last one I caught (at night) and tried to handle, bit the crud out of me several times and drew blood. I still have a scab from the chunk of skin he took off my hand.

The Bible say, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6) I believe the same holds true for animals in most cases. It is what you train it to be. This is not to say that animals do not have inherent instincts that control them, but I believe God gave man the authority of dominion over the animals and we can train them to our desires. If this were not true, you would not see a single man climb into a cage full of lions and tigers at a circus everyday and survive. (To answer the critics) Yes, there are few example of exceptions where trained tigers did attack their trainer, but these are the extremely rare exception to the rule. The rule is that you can train animals to you conform to your desire.

 

[fowlsessed]

I am not expert on the subject of Gamefowl, but my experience has been that animals tend to follow the nature and training of their owner. I have about 75 American Games on my farm right now. Most of them I hatched in an incubator and raised in a brooder. Some I took extra time with and trained them to eat out of my hand when chicks, others I spent no time with. The ones I spent time as chicks with are very friendly towards humans and will walk right up to my feet and some will still eat out of my hand. I can pick them up and pet them. The ones I spent no time as chicks with have turned almost wild and I can't get within 50 feet of them in the day time. The last one I caught (at night) and tried to handle, bit the crud out of me several times and drew blood. I still have a scab from the chunk of skin he took off my hand.

The Bible say, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6) I believe the same holds true for animals in most cases. It is what you train it to be. This is not to say that animals do not have inherent instincts that control them, but I believe God gave man the authority of dominion over the animals and we can train them to our desires. If this were not true, you would not see a single man climb into a cage full of lions and tigers at a circus everyday and survive. (To answer the critics) Yes, there are few example of exceptions where trained tigers did attack their trainer, but these are the extremely rare exception to the rule. The rule is that you can train animals to you conform to your desire.

X2, good post J.E.
@ T.C. I believe you are not really misinformed, just not fully informed. There are some birds like those you mentioned and there are the total opposites. Good Game breeders cull man-fighters and generally prefer calm birds; and some types of games are large, size doesn't really play a real part in the birds inherent aggression. With some strains of games you can keep several hens together with a single cock, especially related hens. But still, for the production of meat and eggs, there are much better breeds than games, which are not bred for those things. As time goes on we may start to see strains especially bred to be excellent producers of meat and eggs (possibly at the expense of their original properties) until then, I don't recommend games to those people looking for good-looking, hardy, self-sufficent chickens that can still produce eggs like a Leghorn and meat like a Broiler. There are many heritage breeds out there that can out produce the games and are still hardy and attractive. Cubas are great, though still being perfected.

 

[tigercreek]

@ T.C. I believe you are not really misinformed, just not fully informed.

Very gracious of you Fowl!! Thanks for the post. I pretty much agree with you and Jungle, but I believe we cannot overlook the inherent tendencies of any animal. Sure, they can be trained, but there are just too many stories from folks on here that raised a rooster from a chick and now can't go in the yard without being attacked. I would prefer to start with a breed that is not historically bred to fight. I believe it is somehow geneticly inheritated. Additionally, I want a larger bird just for the astetics. Larger eggs and a larger carcass. And I don't know that I have seen a game that is better looking than a Cubalaya, so why flirt with anything else?? Still learning, and hoping you guys with Cuba experience will continue to help educate me. ...stan

 

[tigercreek]

my dels are holmes , harter, and whitmore and i have been trying to get rid of the pinched tails and keep the yellowest legged ones with good size and color. eggs are extra large. the cubalayas would be a great choice for what you want to do, i can keep 2 to 3 hens with one cock year round with no problem.
the hen pictured is very nice and i would want all my wheaton hens to look like that only a little stouter and heavier. she is zook bloodline?

You looking for this?? I remember seeing pics of your Whitmore birds and they looked pretty nice. Really hard to
find good Dels. .....stan

 

[saladin]

@ T.C. I believe you are not really misinformed, just not fully informed.

Very gracious of you Fowl!! Thanks for the post. I pretty much agree with you and Jungle, but I believe we cannot overlook the inherent tendencies of any animal. Sure, they can be trained, but there are just too many stories from folks on here that raised a rooster from a chick and now can't go in the yard without being attacked. I would prefer to start with a breed that is not historically bred to fight. I believe it is somehow geneticly inheritated. Additionally, I want a larger bird just for the astetics. Larger eggs and a larger carcass. And I don't know that I have seen a game that is better looking than a Cubalaya, so why flirt with anything else?? Still learning, and hoping you guys with Cuba experience will continue to help educate me. ...stan

I think Cubalayas are an excellent choice for you. I will say that anyone that had a Game which attacked them (manfighter) didn't have a very good Game as Games have been culled for manfighters for centuries; seldom will you see one, when you do it should be culled.

Several of us have tried our best to educated folks on this site as to the nature of Games. They are most misunderstood on this site; it is sad.

 

[bruceha2000]

I believe the same holds true for animals in most cases. It is what you train it to be.

Ain't it the truth! I worked at a Veterinary hospital on weekends when I was in college. Go in at 7 AM, all the puppies would come to the front of their cages ... except the Doberman Pincers. Those poor little things were afraid of their shadows. Yet people dock their tails, cut their ears and train them to be guard dogs.

Peep, my 6 1/2 month old BR Cubalaya decided today that she should go broody

The nearest rooster is several hundred yards away, across the road and down some. I don't think my girls even equate the crowing (all day long) with an animal related to them. And this little girl wants to sit on a non fertile egg until it rots. When last seen she was brooding a plastic egg I put in when I picked her up (she was NOT pleased) to get the egg she had laid. Since I discovered her with her egg AT roost time, I don't know if she decided the larger thing under her wasn't her egg and went to roost or not.

Bruce

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Ain't it the truth! I worked at a Veterinary hospital on weekends when I was in college. Go in at 7 AM, all the puppies would come to the front of their cages ... except the Doberman Pincers. Those poor little things were afraid of their shadows. Yet people dock their tails, cut their ears and train them to be guard dogs.

Peep, my 6 1/2 month old BR Cubalaya decided today that she should go broody

The nearest rooster is several hundred yards away, across the road and down some. I don't think my girls even equate the crowing (all day long) with an animal related to them. And this little girl wants to sit on a non fertile egg until it rots. When last seen she was brooding a plastic egg I put in when I picked her up (she was NOT pleased) to get the egg she had laid. Since I discovered her with her egg AT roost time, I don't know if she decided the larger thing under her wasn't her egg and went to roost or not.

Bruce

Do you want her to hatch eggs? You can break her off the nest if you want to. Otherwise, I would get here some fertile eggs to set on. I have chicks hatching right now. One of my Silver pullets was laying in an old shed and I had no idea until after she had been setting on them for a few days. I decided to let her try, but when that cold front hit a few weeks ago, she abandon the nest (this is why I normally won't let pullets try to hatch eggs). I don't know how long she had been off the eggs but they were stone cold when I checked them. I broke out my hova bator and put them in it to see if any were still alive. After a couple days I did a candling and to my surprise, 10 out of 14 eggs were still alive. I am excited to see what they turn out to be. I believe they are from this hen and roo.

 

[RachaelS]

@ T.C. I believe you are not really misinformed, just not fully informed.
Sure, they can be trained, but there are just too many stories from folks on here that raised a rooster from a chick and now can't go in the yard without being attacked. I would prefer to start with a breed that is not historically bred to fight.

I have heard the same thing from Dual Purpose breeds also. I myself had one that hated my daughter (age 5), would run across a field just to attack her, got rid of him and taught her how to act around them, he was a Barnevelder. My Step mother in law has a mix breed cock that is mean as nails, from the looks he is Dark Cornish X. So it does happen with with any breed/type. Which I am sure you know LOL!!!! I mean there are a TON of posts, on this forum, about mean boys and most are not game birds......

Also, I think here at BYC, people that may not be the most experience owners (like me) have a cock and don't how how to really deal with them. I don't think it is a breed issues, more of a handler issue. Of course is this is in my own humble opinion.

The only reason I don't have games (as much as I REALLY like them) is they tend to fight each other. I like to let my groups forage and don't want to deal with that. So I just watch this thread for the info and pretty pictures

I really want some Cubs also, they look game but don't really act like it. In other words, I could let them out to forage with out dealing with losing a cock or two. I could be wrong on that also.

 

[saladin]

Cubalayas are not game though they have a completely Game ancestry. You can allow them to free range together quite well. Just make sure you either have no hens with the males or enough for each cock to have his own harem.
I have only had one Cubalaya that was a manfighter. I ate him. Do not tolerate manfighters among Games or breeds that recently originated from Game ancestry.

Games are not trained. They are born with an instinct to fight one another not humans. They are generally very human friendly and affectionate. People that tell you otherwise simply don't know what they are talking about. They like being held. Yes, you may have a biter but that is not manfighting. I understand the dominion post, but Gamecocks aren't tigers/lions. If you could train a bunch of Gamecocks to sit in the same pen with each other without fighting then they would no longer be Gamecocks. They would simply be chickens.

Game strains can lose their gameness (called 'dunghills' by Game keepers).

All the Med. Class (egg layers) are nothing more than Games which became dunghills and selection was made for eggs instead of gameness.

The meanest roosters on the planet (toward human-beings) taken as a whole will be traditional farm type chickens. Why? Because they have not been selected for human-friendliness. Yes, you can start, but I wouldn't expect it to happen overnight or even in 5 or 6 generations. The Game breeders have been doing it for 3,000 years or more!!!!

The meanest rooster I ever met was a Leghorn!