Cubalaya Thread For Sharing Pics and Discussing Our Birds

[cubalaya]

Has anyone considered an outcross to another Wheaten-colored breed in order to increase size? Wheaten Ameraucanas are somewhat similarly shaped...

large orientals would be the better choice for grading imho

 

[saladin]

Has anyone considered an outcross to another Wheaten-colored breed in order to increase size? Wheaten Ameraucanas are somewhat similarly shaped...

That is just scary.

 

[bruceha2000]

That is just scary.

That is what I thought and I don't even breed chickens! A Cubalaya with a beard? Gotta be a DQ.

 

[gallorojo]

When considering an outcross to increase size, it would be best ( simplest /fastest ) to use the most similar breed you can find that would be larger, hence the typical ( and sensible) suggestion to use large oriental breeds. That being said, you can use anything you want , some things will just take longer to breed back to type. You could use a Jersey Giant, it would just take twice as long to get good type back than if you used a Shamo. I would probably not use an Ameraucana, and only because they are not all that big, not all that good of layers, and are skinny. The beard is frankly of no concern, you can breed that out in 2 generations, and when it's gone, it's gone. By the time you regained good breed type from outcrossing to the Ameraucana, you would be back to square one. If I used a dual purpose breed if I'd pick the hugest one possible because you will lose most of the size trying to regain good type using anything other than an oriental breed.

 

[4hmom]

When considering an outcross to increase size, it would be best ( simplest /fastest ) to use the most similar breed you can find that would be larger, hence the typical ( and sensible) suggestion to use large oriental breeds. That being said, you can use anything you want , some things will just take longer to breed back to type. You could use a Jersey Giant, it would just take twice as long to get good type back than if you used a Shamo. I would probably not use an Ameraucana, and only because they are not all that big, not all that good of layers, and are skinny. The beard is frankly of no concern, you can breed that out in 2 generations, and when it's gone, it's gone. By the time you regained good breed type from outcrossing to the Ameraucana, you would be back to square one. If I used a dual purpose breed if I'd pick the hugest one possible because you will lose most of the size trying to regain good type using anything other than an oriental breed.

this is what i was thinking to use a similar breed my birds got out crossed to malay some generations back to reinvigerate(sp) but from my expereience the cubalaya type seems to be dominate.

 

[cubakid]

Almost everything about cubalayas is dominant. But blue eggs and muffs are dominant as well. Shamo works well, as well as most any oriental breed.

 

[saladin]

As has been stated any Oriental will work. However, you can/should make it easier on yourself as a breeder if you will try to find a breed with similar type traits.

Peacomb instead of cushion comb
No wattles/smallish wattles
White legs or very light yellow legs
Red eyed as opposed to Pearl (not heard to find in any Oriental breed)
Long tail as opposed to short tail (harder to come by)
Red earlobes instead of white
Upright carriage but not as upright as a exhibition Shamo (use a real pit Shamo instead)
Use the female as a grade and not the male. Male should be, if possible, the Cubalaya.

With all this stated it would appear to me that the 'ideal' grade would be the Thai.

(I've never used a Thai in my Cubalaya grading. LOL)

 

[saladin]

Oh, the one breed I would NEVER use to grade into the Cubalaya is a Sumatra.

 

[fowlsessed]

Use the female as a grade and not the male. Male should be, if possible, the Cubalaya.

Could you please explain this? I just always thought it would be best to use a Cuba hen under grade fowl as hens tend to pass on their traits better, but then I've never done any of this kind of breeding, and don't know much about breeding period, just thought that's what I read.
Thanks,

 

[saladin]

The old adage is 'Keep your male line pure.'

Usually you are grading for a reason: weight, height, etc. Thus this is easiest to obtain from the female side. Besides, if you 'keep the male line pure,' you can breed multiple hens even of various breeds to work toward a straight Cubalaya which will be at the base genetically diverse.