Cubalaya Thread For Sharing Pics and Discussing Our Birds

[gallorojo]

They look good, you have made great progress over the years.
I saw pics yesterday of cubalayas from Cuba, pictures taken in Cuba. I will explain more soon.

 

[cubalaya]

please post if you can

 

[gallorojo]

I'm checking with my source...I will say though that at least what I saw looked pretty severely degraded/crossed up. I do not think all the troubles they have had the last 60 or so years have been good for "fancy' poultry on the island. The pictures were taken at a show, the best they had to offer would have been an instant DQ for many reasons here in the USA. I imagine there may yet be good ones elsewhere on the island, but, who knows?

 

[fowlsessed]

I'll be in South Carolina after tomorrow, so if any of you cuba breeders are there and have any birds available, please let me know.

Thanks,

 

[cubalaya]

I'm checking with my source...I will say though that at least what I saw looked pretty severely degraded/crossed up. I do not think all the troubles they have had the last 60 or so years have been good for "fancy' poultry on the island. The pictures were taken at a show, the best they had to offer would have been an instant DQ for many reasons here in the USA. I imagine there may yet be good ones elsewhere on the island, but, who knows?

just another reason that communism or even socialism will not work for a country. i saw an article a while back that said there 'might' be some pure birds in places near the middle of the island. you would have thought that some cubans that made it to florida would have brought some birds with them but maybe they were lucky to just escape with their life. one guy that i sold birds to calls them castro's chickens so i have to remind him that the cubalayas were there long before castro.

 

[gallorojo]

I know there are still good Cuban games on the island, and that good Cuban games have made it to Florida. I would have to imagine that they have got utility chickens of some sort there as well. My guess is that the Cubalaya "fell through the cracks" so to speak, even in it's homeland. I would guess that there, as over here, since they are are not truly game, most of the game fowl folks shun them, and, since they are not super meat birds or super layers of huge eggs, or fast growers, they were not kept as utility birds. My guess is they were probably always more of the fanciers, showmans bird, and I would think both Communism, but, more importantly, the fall of the USSR, which was terrible for Cuba, put real pressure on a lot of people. I think it's some version of the situation here in the USA , with added pressure of economic disaster for years on end. Even here, the breed has few breeders. The fluffy butt people think they are evil gamefowl and won't touch them, the game guys think they are dunghills with fancy feathers, and farmers sure are not going to raise something so slow growing. You know the heritage people are fixated on the American class, so who will keep there birds going?

 

[cubalaya]

maybe the city dwellers or the petchicken movement. i don't know. my delawares grow faster, lay bigger eggs and taste pretty good. although their temperament is not the same and delawares only come in one color. don't think delawares get broody like cubalayas. imho the cubalaya is perfect for the small farmer homesteader that free range their birds and needs some eggs and meat and a self sustaining flock. the cubalaya also looks better than most chickens in the yard. there is a niche somewhere in there for them.

 

[fowlsessed]

is there enough emphasis umong breeders on keeping the oriental gamefowl personality in the cuba? I don't seem to recall much mention on the subject.

 

[fowlsessed]

Also, an interesting discussion that gallorojo and cubalaya are having. I do think that they present a useful fowl, but are easily beat by many other fowl for laying and meat and foraging is pretty good in some of the production breeds. but then ther's the cubas personality. so I don't think they'll ever reach that same popularity that we see in many other production fowl.

 

[fowlsessed]

like I said, I'll be in SC today. This guy has some birds that he's selling as "cubatalayan" probably cubas. I haven't talked with him yet so I don't know any other info but here's the pic he had on the ad.

what do you guys think? I thought it was pretty good, except the white fluff at the base of the tail. How about leg color? And white earlobes? Please mention anything you see that I should know about this bird. I hope when I get more info I can run it by you guys to see if It might be worth getting some of these birds.

Thanks,