Cubalaya Thread For Sharing Pics and Discussing Our Birds

[cubalaya]

agree with cubakid on the comb. woods and feathers, just read the apa standard for cubalaya every once in awhile and take a good look at your breeder birds. look at older photos of cubalayas and look at pics posted on here. cubalayas breed pretty true to type. selection is the key.

 

[tigercreek]

Woods n Feathers-
Shippensburg is about 40 minutes from me. Pretty close in the big scheme of things. You are welcome to stop in then if you are that close!! Troyer lives about an hour east of me, and Zook and Bender live about 2 hours northeast of me. There are also some other people with the Cubes who aren't on forums. PA is a good state to be if you like Cubalayas!!

You are making me want to take a road trip to Pennsylvania! But I'm not surprised, it was your discourse early in this thread that decided me on Cubalayas on the first place. .......stan

 

[cubalaya]

Since this seems to be the Cubalaya thread on BYC, I wanted to take a few minutes to make my case for why this a great breed. In my opinion, this is THE IDEAL "homesteader's" chicken breed. Why? Let me list off the reasons!!

1) Foraging ability- they are the best foragers of any breed we have had, they FAR SURPASS any American or European Dual purpose breeds, which just get fat and lazy and hang around the feeders. The Cubalayas will roam literally 5 -10 times farther away than any other breeds we have had, except some mixed breed bantams.

2) Predator avoidance- they are good at avoiding becoming dinner themselves, very, very fast, alert, good flyers, agile. We never lose adults, sometimes, a small chick, but never any adults. The males WILL defend their flock, I have seen therm attack hawks, cats, and dogs, and WIN.

3) Very hardy- neither cold nor heat really bothers them, I can't say the same for the fat, panting, dual purpose fatties. I have never had any get sick, get mites, anything like that. I have never even seen them suffer at all in heat or cold, and we have lost other types of chickens in both extreme heat and cold before.

4)Amazing brooders- the best broodies I've ever had, they all, 100%, go broody at least once a year, often twice, and go broody the first year. They never poop the nest, attack chicks, abandon chicks, anything like that. I have never had cocks bother sitting hens, or bother even newly hatched chicks. They will brood chicks for months, trying to cover huge nearly full grown chicks at night. They will easily tolerate moving to a broody coop to set, and they are DEDICATED, I have had them hatch muscovy eggs.

5)Great temperaments- they are wonderful, pleasant birds!! Very friendly, curious, NOT AT ALL NOISY OR FLIGHTY!!! Very relaxed around people, they don't scream when picked up, or even when they are going to the knife, they have courage and stay calm. They are also the most intelligent chickens I have had, they can figure out things that seem beyond other chickens. They are NOT "game", the cocks can be more aggressive than some breeds, for sure, but, they are not "homicidal maniacs". I have the greatest respect for gamefowl and the breeders of them, but, I am looking for the ideal, sustainable, low-input chicken, and the games, although fantastic in many ways, would need more input from me to keep them from killing each other. The cubalayas are the best choice I can find for temperament without being "dead game".

6) Slow growers, and normal layers- So, why do I list these 2 as positives? A fast growing bird will need more food, and better food, to maintain growth and be healthy. My goal is to eventually produce all my own feed, so, most of the birds feed has to come from their own efforts. I don't see fast growing birds as well suited to that, they are more well suited to be fed heaps of grain, with foraging as more of a vitamin supplement. I have friends from Mexico, Laos, and Zambia, there are no bagged chicken feeds there, yet, everyone has chickens , and somehow they survive. Also, the normal layers comment-they lay in spring thru fall, and STOP in the winter. This is great!! There is no food to forage here in the winter, and no market for eggs then, so, why should they even lay? I sell pastured eggs, well, in the winter, they sure are not pastured, so, I can't honestly sell them as such, plus , the market I sell them at is closed. So, what do I do with all the dual purpose breeds who stupidly lay eggs all winter? I'm in the process of phasing them all out, in favor of birds that lay when the grass is green, and quit in the winter.

7) Finally, they are BEAUTIFUL!!! Hard to beat such elegant, graceful fowl. Why should productive livestock not also be beautiful to watch?

I feel strongly these are a much better choice for people just looking to put eggs and meat on the table in a sustainable way, than any dual purpose breed ever will be. No, these are not super productive, BUT, they are very low input, which, it seems to me is way better if you primarily want eggs and meat for your own family, for the least work, time, cost, and hassle. And they are beautiful, with great personality!!

will repost this for newer readers of this forum. this description of the breed is exactly why we have them.

 

[gallorojo]

Thanks for the re-post Cubalaya.
I still agree with most of that as a generalization of the breed. Since I wrote that, I have a few more years experience and many more birds raised. I have unfortunately had sick birds, poor mothers, feather pickers, man fighters , egg eaters, you name it. Flighty ones too. The vast majority of my Cubas have been as I described above , and, on the whole they are a good choice if you want a smaller bird that's not flighty. I do cull out ones that I feel don't meet my standards for temperament, broodiness, and health. They are the best breed for my purposes I've found yet. I don't like large breeds, too inactive for my liking, nor do I like extremely nervous breeds. I need a bird that can mostly fend for themselves and survive ok. So, every individual Cuba wont be perfect, but, overall, they tend to be a real pleasure to work with. They would be even better if I had them all standard size. I'm getting there slowly but surely, I'd love to have a more respectable carcass and larger eggs, both will and are coming along with increasing weights. Some of my young birds already look great, my original birds were very beautiful, elegant, and stylish, but quite gracile, delicate boned things. I'm pushing hard to get them up to a nice solid meaty big boned bird with all the style and grace intact.

 

[4hmom]

i agree with most of that except the regular laying part, but thats just my cubalayas the way they lay is late fall to early spring and then late spring to early fall. thats when i get eggs from mine. i also agree on the temperment espesaly.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Question. There this an eBay seller that is offering hatching eggs. Tracked him down using his eBay name and he is Jerry Coupal and he lives in Riverview, Florida. I was wondering if anyone knows anything about his cubas?

 

[4hmom]

ive never heard of him. does he have standards or bantams?

 

[gallorojo]

Also never heard of him. Can't find any eBay listings for Cubes right now. What varieties does he have?

 

[bruceha2000]

"NOT AT ALL NOISY"

Not so sure about that one

Fae is pretty quiet. Peep was so named because she peeped a lot when she was little. Now she "Squarks" a lot.
I'm pretty sure she is saying "Hey, got any goodies?" and she says it A LOT.

But they are cute little birds, very pleasant. So, so on the laying, not quite 2.5 per week.

Bruce

 

[gallorojo]

My comment about them not being noisy was a refutation of the Henderson chicken breed chart which says pretty much nothing good about Cubalayas. It says they are noisy, mine have never been noticeably more or less noisy than the vast majority of breeds we've had. It also says they are terrible layers which has never been the case for my birds, when they are laying, I usually get 4-5 eggs a week per female. They do go broody a lot, but they are steady layers for me when they are not broody.