Cubalaya Thread For Sharing Pics and Discussing Our Birds

[Jungleexplorer]

I have 3 cubalaya hens that hatched 3 broods each this summer. They started setting in early March and had the third hatch in late August. I took their eggs away from them in October, as they would have continued, but I didn't let them. They needed to go through the molt and rest for next season. I will not let them do more than 2 settings next year, as it wears them out too much.
I've had hatchery cubalayas twice in my lifetime, the first time I had cubalayas I got them from Marti Poultry, those were excellent setters. The second time I got them from Ideal Hatchery and those cubalaya did not set at all
Now some breeds might just simply not be as broody as cubalayas. Some cubalaya lines are not as broody as these are. I assume that most production breeds are not broody unless they are in ideal situations.
I'm not trying to stir up any hard feelings, just sharing my experiences.

One ounce of personal experience is better then ten pounds of theory. Thank you for sharing yours. I'm excited to hear that your cubalayas did so well. I have 1 little hen about 5 months old from ideal but she is so poor looking that I don't even think that I'm going to breed her. I have had her on unlimited starter and vitamin water since I got her as a chick and I bet she still weighs less than a pound. I have 3 cockerels from ideal but they don't look really good either. I am Not really impressed with the quality of the ideal Birds. Never heard of Morti hatchery before. I have 1 good BBR Cockerel and 1 BBR hen and 1 blue red hen from Jim Zook but I would like to Have more than 1 good strain of cubalaya.

Sent from my galaxy s 2 Android phone using voice to text translation.

 

[bruceha2000]

I have 1 little hen about 5 months old from ideal but she is so poor looking that I don't even think that I'm going to breed her. I have had her on unlimited starter and vitamin water since I got her as a chick and I bet she still weighs less than a pound. I have 3 cockerels from ideal but they don't look really good either. I am Not really impressed with the quality of the ideal Birds.

Why do you still have her on starter at 5 months?? I moved my girls to grower at about a month if I recall. Moved them to layer when they finished off the 2nd 25# bag of grower at about 18 weeks. No vitamin water. But they do go out pretty much every day so they are getting a greater variety of foods than if they were in all the time. Of course, they will soon be finding more snow and less food out there!

I have no method of weighing my girls so I don't know if my Ideal girls weigh any more than yours. They certainly aren't big, maybe half the size of the EEs and the bigger Australorp.

A caveat: I'm flying by the seat of my pants and whatever information I find on the web about raising chickens for eggs

Bruce

 

[saladin]

Generally speaking:

My Cubalayas will start laying around Thanksgiving and lay every day/every other day until the weather warms in March. Then they'll rest for one to two weeks and start again and lay regularly until hot weather (May); then it is sporadic.

For the best and strongest chicks: if breeding from a pullet (which I DO NOT do) let them lay for six weeks before introducing the cock.

It is always best to ONLY breed from hens 2 years old and older.

 

[saladin]

If a Hen can't live for 2 years at least then why would you want her in your gene pool? It's not like there ain't more hens out there.

 

[bruceha2000]

Generally speaking:

My Cubalayas will start laying around Thanksgiving and lay every day/every other day until the weather warms in March. Then they'll rest for one to two weeks and start again and lay regularly until hot weather (May); then it is sporadic.

I'll watch for that

Peep laid her first egg the day after Thanksgiving and Fay 2 days after that. Interesting that a breed started in a tropical climate doesn't lay well in the heat.

But it rarely (knock on wood) gets over 90 F here so hopefully I won't see as much of a drop. And March in the south is probably June here so I'll look for the pattern but not by the month.

Actually, if one could find a mix of girls that will lay year round, though individually NOT year round, that would be great. Consistent year round quantity of eggs weekly without extra light would be ideal.

Bruce

 

[saladin]

You can change their pattern of laying somewhat but Cubalayas are winter layers. Expect the same even where you are.

Linda Bayliss changed her's a bit but they were still predominately very early layers.

Actually, it makes complete sense for them to lay in the winter instead of the summer heat. During high heat cocks are less active and not typically very fertile. Thus, if you want fertile eggs and you are in the subtropics then you need to have chickens that lay in the cooler months.

 

[cubalaya]

here in va. mine start laying good after christmas and lay like crazy until july. that is when i worm them in july while they aren't laying much due to heat. they usually start back up laying aug-sept until they molt in the fall. i have a black cubalaya and a young delaware hen that is keeping me in breakfast eggs.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

If a Hen can't live for 2 years at least then why would you want her in your gene pool? It's not like there ain't more hens out there.

I am not worried about them dying of natural causes within two years; I am worried about predators. I have lost 24 chickens to predators in the last two months and three of them (Cubalaya pullets from Ideal) were in cages and had their heads eaten off through the cage walls. It is an all out battle just to keep my birds alive where I am because of an overpopulation of predators. I have four game cameras out, motion detector lights on the coops, traps set all over, and I go out spot lighting several times a week and do some predator calling in the day time as well. I don't have much problem in the summer months, but it gets bad in the winter.

Jim said that he was planning on breeding the BBR hen he sent me, so I am assuming she is old enough. He sold me a pullet, but a hawk attacked it the day of shipping so he sent me an older bird (guess I am not the only one with predator problems). I think Blue Red he sent me is a pullet, but she is every bit as big as the BBR hen he sent me, so I don't know.

As far as there being more hens out there, it took me six months of looking to even find the three birds I bought from Jim. The stuff I got from Ideal looks like garbage and I will never order cubalayas from them again. Some of the chicks had defects when I got them and died within a few days. Several of them just died later on for no reason (perfectly healthy one day, stone cold dead the next). One four month old cockerel just fell over one day. I hand fed and watered him for a week trying to save him. He was alive, but totally immobile. I started a thread to discover the cause, but we never did. The conclusion in the end was bad genes. I ordered from Sandhill as you suggested, but they never sent me a single chick even though I let them keep my money without question for four months after the shipping date. I finally wrote them to just check and see what was going on and they seemed offended and sent me my money back (even though I did not ask for it back). I have gone to fairs, flea markets and spent endless hours searching the internet for cubalayas for sale for the past 7 months and if it were not for you giving me Jim's name, I would still be empty handed except for the one little pullet and three cockerels from ideal (and they could fall over dead at any time). So, yes, there may be other hens out there, but they are not easy to come by.

I would very much like to have some of your birds. So, when you have some for sale, please let me know

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Why do you still have her on starter at 5 months?? I moved my girls to grower at about a month if I recall. Moved them to layer when they finished off the 2nd 25# bag of grower at about 18 weeks. No vitamin water. But they do go out pretty much every day so they are getting a greater variety of foods than if they were in all the time. Of course, they will soon be finding more snow and less food out there!

I have no method of weighing my girls so I don't know if my Ideal girls weigh any more than yours. They certainly aren't big, maybe half the size of the EEs and the bigger Australorp.

A caveat: I'm flying by the seat of my pants and whatever information I find on the web about raising chickens for eggs

Bruce

Well, actually I am using Nutrena Country Feed Chick Starter and Grower 18% crumble. It says on the bag to feed it for 22 weeks. My cubalayas are caged because I have a free range flock of over 50 American Games and I don't want them to compete with them until I have a lot more older cubalayas. I am just trying to get some good cubalaya breed stock right now. Once I feel comfortable with the quantity of cubalayas I have, I will let them free range. I live in a very harsh environment and it takes a tough bird to make it here free ranging.

 

[bruceha2000]

Well, actually I am using Nutrena Country Feed Chick Starter and Grower 18% crumble. It says on the bag to feed it for 22 weeks.

Ah, OK, that makes sense. I wonder why their starter and grower are the same protein level. I thought the idea for starters was higher protein for the first few weeks.

I'm using a Vermont company's product - Poulin Grain. Their starter is 20% protein, the grower and layer 15%. The big difference between the latter two is the calcium level in the Layer. I see they also have an "Egg Production Plus" that is 18% protein and a wee bit higher than the layer on a couple of other ingredients. I have to wonder why they make 2 different things that would appear on the surface to be for the same purpose. I might check out the EGP since the girls aren't likely to find too much free protein out in the yard during the winter.

As far as there being more hens out there, it took me six months of looking to even find the three birds I bought from Jim. The stuff I got from Ideal looks like garbage and I will never order from them again.

That is really unfortunate because my experience with Ideal was exactly the opposite. All arrived safe by airmail the day after they were shipped. The Cubalayas were munched into the corners and I did suggest to them that their shipping boxes have curved inside corners. They replied "thanks for the suggestion" but I don't know if they will. They were 100% on sexing

I don't know Cubalaya bird quality but they look good to me in general. They have proper lobster tails that they NEVER raise. That doesn't mean they are breed quality, I'm sure there are many flaws that keep them from being SQ. The only surprise, genetics explained here, was that only one is a BR as ordered. The other is a splash red. I guess I should consider myself lucky, you can't order that color

The only physical "ailment" is a bent toe on one of the EEs but I don't think she started that way because we didn't notice it until she was at least 2 months old. I wonder if she caught it on something and broke it and it healed crooked. It flexes with her other toes but curves to the side instead of down. Doesn't seem to bother her.

Bruce