Cubalaya Thread For Sharing Pics and Discussing Our Birds

[troyer]

I culled eight cubalaya cockerels and four cubalaya crosses and most of them averaged 2.5 pounds dressed and ready for the crock pot. We mixed up a marinade and froze them in it. We took some of it out of the freezer a couple days ago, roasted it over an open fire and that was some good meat.

 

[troyer]

Update on my white cockerel. His tail is still growing.

 

[gallorojo]

Looks good so far.

 

[fowlsessed]

those pics are of sumatras, as you most likely know. But I was wondering if I could breed cubalayas to look similar to that, on my cubas I would like to see longer legs, bigger tails and more upright stance than I see on lots of cubas. Could I breed for all those things that I like without 'violating' the standard and breeding something that would be considered a "junk" bird? The pictures aren't even exactly what I would be breeding for, it's just kinda similar. Oh, and would it be possible for me to get a nice big tail while still keeping it below the horizontal?

Thanks for your responses,

 

[gallorojo]

It would be possible to do everything you are asking about and still stay within the Standard as long as the tail is below the horizontal, has the nice fanning spread, and the top line stays one complete line. It won't be easy though. If you get the tail too long with too short of legs, when the tail hits the ground, it makes a hump, which ruins the top line. Some of the modern US strains of Sumatras have the multiple feathering trait, which no Cubalaya I know of has. Multiple feathering makes more feathers in the tail, so you get a fuller, richer, tail. Some strains of Cubalayas have fuller tails with broader, longer tail feathers than do others. Cubalayas are not a true long tailed breed, they look like it because of the tail shape and angle. Do some strains need fuller, longer tails? Yes, absolutlely. However, making the tails into true long tail territory in my opinion is moving away from both the standard, and what the breed is, was, and is meant to be. There are lots of lovely true breed longtails around, so I'd sooner see people just keep some of them rather than make Cubas into longtails. I had some project "Cubas" gifted to me with very small percentage phoenix blood less than 12% for sure, and they still showed very long beaks, white ears, and pinched tails, and were very very flighty. They did have lovely long full tails, but the rest needs some work still!!

As for getting the leg length better, and the stance--Yes, both need improvement in many strains. That's an easy fix though, cross in a Shamo or Thai or Malay, and you will get the longer legs and more upright stance immediately. It will however take a while to remake the tails again, but the legs and the stance of the larger orientals tends to dominate for a long while. The real problem with what you want is that by using say a shamo you will get your stance and longer legs, but shorten and pinch the tails, and change the feather width and texture, for several generations. If you use a true longtail, you will mess up pretty much everything for many many many years, but get a beautiful , long full tail. Now, if we only had some Minohiki here in the USA, you would really be in business, but, alas, we are not so fortunate.

So, what you want is possible. It would be hard and take a long time. Adding longer legs and a more upright stance is in keeping with the standard more than making tails as full as what you have pictured. They should not be as upright as a shamo though, or as leggy, just in some cases more than they are now. Some strains could stand fuller tails, but, it may be better to get that from another strain of cubalaya rather than a longtail breed.

 

[fowlsessed]

Thank you very much gallo. That's pretty much what I thought.

 

[fowlsessed]

Shamomans birds pretty well have all that I mentioned, the duckwing could use a bit more of a tail for my liking though. These are great birds, fit into my ideal. I'll have to contact him and I'll be one step ahead, not having to cross in shamo or anything.

 

[gallorojo]

If you can get some birds from Mr. Bender that would be great. The wheaten cock in particular is awesome, I think that one is ( or was-those are some old pictures) a Brush cock or at least a very good Schmudde line cock from somebody. I used to have GDW with a tail almost just like the BGDW you pictured. Awesome feather width and tail spread, but tail a bit short. He does also sell hatching eggs quite a bit, I have gotten hatching eggs from him before. He is a member on here, but almost never posts.

 

[fowlsessed]

As I looked at those pictures I realized that they are a tiny bit to extreme, I'd rather have those hands down than most birds I've seen. But this cock seems to be a little better. I like upright like I mentioned, but those are almost to upright, and those legs put them a little to far of the ground, lol

 

[wood&feathers]

Gallorojo, when you refer to multiple feathering, are you talking about the sickles or secondaries? How many should a mature cubalaya cock (or hen) possess? The cock I bought from cubalaya had 4 or 5 sickles last year, but only one normal set of secondaries. This year hes tail is coming in thicker and I can't wait to see it grown out - it looks like there are more of both feather types coming in. My question - is this about the age of the cock? Can you see if multiple feathering will appear in a bird's first year, or does it take more time to develop? Or perhaps what you are describing isn't really present in cubalayas :-(

The wheaten hen that came from Virginia has a really full tail coming in this second year. At the moment it looks layered, like there are more feathers. She holds it kinda high though...