Cubalaya Thread For Sharing Pics and Discussing Our Birds

[troyer]

Great color on the blue, good lacing. What is she crossed with?

She is 7/8th cubalaya and 1/16th standard dark cornish and 1/16th golden sebright.

 

[troyer]

What color is the light brown and white one in the picture second from the bottom?

The closest I can come in my mind is that she's a silver wheaten splash with blue. Some of you experts may give your opinions also.

 

[Oldhound]

The wheaton pullet in the same pic is a beautiful cinnamon color.

 

[troyer]

Is this 4 1/2 month old cubalaya cockerel a brown red?

 

[DaveK]

He looks to be a spangled brown red. How big is he? Looking at his frame and potential for robust bulk. Love his short but very deep skull. Are there female counterparts or another cockerel like him? Cool bird.

Is this 4 1/2 month old cubalaya cockerel a brown red?

 

[troyer]

Full sister and brother to the above spangled brown red cockerel bottom picture is of all three together with some other colors.

 

[gallorojo]

Troyer, your birds are looking really good. I have a few full siblings at home, and they do not look that good. I have one black mottled pullet worth keeping, another that is not shaped right, but not horrible. I have a wheaten spangled cockerel that is horrible, crow headed, with high , pinched tail, and a black mottled cockerel that also has a high tail. I have not gotten any good males from this mating so far. I do have a mottled black pullet from the same father , but a different mother , I have high hopes for her, but, she is still very young. It's great to have her because all the others are from full sibling matings, and the female parent was a pretty poor bird. Having a different mother, and a mother that is a better Cubalaya overall is great. It also means the mottle gene is buried in a lot of my birds, so it can keep popping up. I do have some decent whites from the mottled cock crossed with blacks, but all have blue legs.

 

[wood&feathers]

Crow headed - yup, I've seen that in a lot of this year's pullets, beak like a seagull, forehead weak and kind of caved in looking? The cockerels it doesn't seem to show up? With them tails seem to be the major problem - the one with the best head and beak is distinctly high tailed. The one with the best tail is sort of narrow backed and only OK in the face/beak department.The yellow legs also only showed up in a couple pullets, not in this batch of cockerels.

Troyer, you have some mighty fine eye candy running your yard! All the nit picky flaws we mull over until deciding mating pens next spring shouldn't detract from enjoying these flashy, graceful characters in action.

 

[gallorojo]

Crow heads is a serious problem in the breed. Really it's a general fault for most breeds, it tends to indicate weaker, unthrifty, poor producing birds. It seems to show up most, or first, in the females, as the males will naturally have a heavier, shorter, skull and beak anyway. This is a major issue to me personally, because crow headed birds are not as functional, and it really isn't what the breed should be anyway, orientals should have nice, short, heavy heads and beaks. If you look at the Schilling illustration of the cubalaya hen, you can see just how short the ideal beak should be. I decided that this year, this would be the number one thing I'd cull against. I originally tried picking them out at hatch, but, it's hard to do. I can pick them out for sure by 8-10 weeks though. It helps to have a comparison, I use a Ko shamo as my "good example", and a Leghorn, or a Polish, as my "bad" example, i.e., I hold up the cuba and compare it to the other 2 breeds, the ones that look more like a Leghorn head get culled, the ones that are closer to a Ko get kept. I also did make a big point to get a new cockerel with a good head and beak, and to put together matings I thought would produce some nice chicks. Some matings have given me bad results, the blacks, whites, spangles, mottles, produce 75% horrible crow headed chicks, and the 25% of nice ones are not great, but acceptable. My wheaten matings have been much better, maybe 80% have good heads and beaks, with maybe 25% having superb heads. High tails are a bad issue as well since they are a disqualification. !!!

 

[troyer]

I have plenty enough crow heads!