Cubalaya Thread For Sharing Pics and Discussing Our Birds

[troyer]

Ok, I finally got photobucket to work on here. Pictures are of my Blue/Black project birds around 17 weeks old.

Those are some nice looking pullets from my perspective. It looks like their tails are down.

 

[cubakid]

Jungle , I wanted to address your remarks about showing.  Cubalayas are in the AOSB class, the All Other Standard Breeds miscellaneous group.  Schmudde showed his birds as Cubalayas, not as Orientals. I think when you asked the Judges and they snickered or gave you funny looks, that was rude and inappropriate. There are good and bad Judges, and some know and love the breed, and some don't...I wish personal feelings or experiences with a breed didn't matter, but, they clearly do. Some breeders try to avoid showing a breed if the Judge is one who dislikes their breed...and, conversely, if you know that a Judge loves and keeps your chosen breed, you might be wise to be sure and enter that breed in the show they are judging!!  I also did want to add that it can be taken as poor etiquette to talk to or in any way bother Judges while they are " working", just something else to consider....Cubalayas are not a joke, and the Judges were probably snickering at you as a newbie, not the breed, which, as I've stated, is rude anyway you want to look at it.  Cubalayas WIN shows in this area routinely!!  WINNERS  are no joke!

Regarding the lack of competition when showing Cubalayas- OK, so, when you show, it goes by  sex and age, color variety, breed, then class.  So, if you were the only person who entered Cubalayas in your local show, then, yes, you would win best of breed by default as long as your birds don't have disqualifications. It's unfortunately easy to be disqualified however, so, if you are not disqualified outright, then you have birds that basically meet the Standard, which, is certainly good to know and worth being proud of in itself. The real competition is in winning the Class in my opinion, that is usually very hard to do, and is a real accomplishment. When I say Cubalayas win around here, I mean winning the class or the whole show. There is only one way to show or one category to show them in, with such a rare breed, the competition really is vs. the other breeds in the class, and in the show, rather than within the breed.

I should also add the judges around here never even bring up weight, nor are birds weighed anymore , for better or worse. The only birds I've ever seen disqualified due to weight were bantams that were way too large, never seen it even discussed in large fowl. You should know that there are regional differences in showing, around here, the American, Mediterranean, and Continental classes are usually poorly represented, and some breeds I would not consider rare I literally have never seen shown.  We have some awesome breeders of Asiatic, AOSB, and English classes, and some great breeders of a few selected breeds in the other classes. I know in some areas the American class is huge, and AOSB poorly represented...it all depends, every area is different.  

Here in CA, Largefowl are comparatively unrepresented, usually numbers from 200 in the smallest shows to up to 800 in the large shows. But averaging about 300 usually. AOSB usually has at least 50 in the smaller shows up to classes of 100-150. The only large competition is usually the English class and AOSB and something from the two will usually win best Largefowl. Mediterranean classes are nice in numbers but the quality is not yet as high as the AOSB or English. There are some pretty nice large white rocks but they are not shown often.

I hope nothing I said was taken as putting down your birds, I started in your shoes only seven years ago.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Jungle , I wanted to address your remarks about showing. Cubalayas are in the AOSB class, the All Other Standard Breeds miscellaneous group. Schmudde showed his birds as Cubalayas, not as Orientals. I think when you asked the Judges and they snickered or gave you funny looks, that was rude and inappropriate. There are good and bad Judges, and some know and love the breed, and some don't...I wish personal feelings or experiences with a breed didn't matter, but, they clearly do. Some breeders try to avoid showing a breed if the Judge is one who dislikes their breed...and, conversely, if you know that a Judge loves and keeps your chosen breed, you might be wise to be sure and enter that breed in the show they are judging!! I also did want to add that it can be taken as poor etiquette to talk to or in any way bother Judges while they are " working", just something else to consider....Cubalayas are not a joke, and the Judges were probably snickering at you as a newbie, not the breed, which, as I've stated, is rude anyway you want to look at it. Cubalayas WIN shows in this area routinely!! WINNERS are no joke!

Regarding the lack of competition when showing Cubalayas- OK, so, when you show, it goes by sex and age, color variety, breed, then class. So, if you were the only person who entered Cubalayas in your local show, then, yes, you would win best of breed by default as long as your birds don't have disqualifications. It's unfortunately easy to be disqualified however, so, if you are not disqualified outright, then you have birds that basically meet the Standard, which, is certainly good to know and worth being proud of in itself. The real competition is in winning the Class in my opinion, that is usually very hard to do, and is a real accomplishment. When I say Cubalayas win around here, I mean winning the class or the whole show. There is only one way to show or one category to show them in, with such a rare breed, the competition really is vs. the other breeds in the class, and in the show, rather than within the breed.

I should also add the judges around here never even bring up weight, nor are birds weighed anymore , for better or worse. The only birds I've ever seen disqualified due to weight were bantams that were way too large, never seen it even discussed in large fowl. You should know that there are regional differences in showing, around here, the American, Mediterranean, and Continental classes are usually poorly represented, and some breeds I would not consider rare I literally have never seen shown. We have some awesome breeders of Asiatic, AOSB, and English classes, and some great breeders of a few selected breeds in the other classes. I know in some areas the American class is huge, and AOSB poorly represented...it all depends, every area is different.

Thank you so much for this extremely informative response. You answered a lot of my questions about showing. I want to say that I did not bother the judges while they were judging. I knew better then that. There was a table with judges and other staff around it and I very patiently waited there until they asked if they could help me. They are sticklers for rules there in OK. I remember reading in the show rules that if a shower removed their bird from it's cage before the show was over they would be BANNED FOR LIFE! Seems a little harsh to me.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Here in CA, Largefowl are comparatively unrepresented, usually numbers from 200 in the smallest shows to up to 800 in the large shows. But averaging about 300 usually. AOSB usually has at least 50 in the smaller shows up to classes of 100-150. The only large competition is usually the English class and AOSB and something from the two will usually win best Largefowl. Mediterranean classes are nice in numbers but the quality is not yet as high as the AOSB or English. There are some pretty nice large white rocks but they are not shown often.

I hope nothing I said was taken as putting down your birds, I started in your shoes only seven years ago.

No worries friend. I am not easily offended. First off, they are not really "My birds", they are Privetts, I only raised them. Second, even if I did breed them, I would want honest unbias advice on them. I am a realist, and truth is truth, and I value truth above my own personal feelings. And third, as a servant of Jesus, I have been arrested for preaching the Gospel, faced prison and torture in a communist prison, had Malaria 9 times, been told twice by doctors that I would die, lost an adopted daughter because of religious persecution and have been banned from certain countries for the sake of the Gospel; I don't think a little honest criticism about one of my chickens is going to hurt me. But thanks for the consideration, it is always nice to see people who care.

 

[gallorojo]

What is usually graded in to get the blue color?

The blue actually came from blue red Cubalayas. You don't have to go outside the breed to get blue, but to get blacks, you have to get some someone else made , or make your own. These have a lot of other breeds mixed in there in small percentages, but, I will say they have NO Sumatra blood at all.

Both pullets have very nice permanently low tails. Both have good heads overall, but, both have cushion combs, and single spurs. The cockerel does have a pea comb. The black pullet has the better spread to her tail, but, a shorter tail. The blue one isn't pinched, but could ideally have more horizontal spread, but, the length is longer on her.

 

[Felix1]

I'm new to chickens but wouldn't a blue bred to another color give you half blue half black? So you wouldn't need to go out in that case either?

 

[gallorojo]

You are right of course! I guess I will add this line of blues didn't start by an outcross to a blue or a black breed at all. They have had black Cubalayas bred in recently , but there were solid blue females before ever using a blue or a black breed. They were more the result of a happy accident originally rather than any plan to make blue Cubas, although its sort of become that by now.

 

[4hmom]

out here in colorado there is very little oriental competition it's just a few of us. also there are only about100-300 large fowl most of wich aren't aosb the other classes are fairly well represented. in the bantams there are between 200-500 on average. most are game bantams or feather legs. in the aoccl class there are between 10 and 25.

 

[cubakid]

Our aoccl will have cubalaya bantams maybe at one show. But our bantam classes usually hit between 500-800 or more.

 

[Triple Willow]

No worries friend.  I am not easily offended.  First off, they are not really "My birds", they are Privetts, I only raised them.  Second, even if I did breed them, I would want honest unbias advice on them.   I am a realist, and truth is truth, and I value truth above my own personal feelings. And third, as a servant of Jesus, I have been arrested for preaching the Gospel, faced prison and torture in a communist prison, had Malaria 9 times, been told twice by doctors that I would die, lost an adopted daughter because of religious persecution and have been banned from certain countries for the sake of the Gospel; I don't think a little honest criticism about one of my chickens is going to hurt me.  But thanks for the consideration, it is always nice to see people who care.

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