Euskal Oiloa ( Basque Thread)

[punk-a-doodle]

Thanks Ronott! So excited about this beautiful breed.

 

[Maggiesdad]

Mrs. Fluffy Puffy and others, does that mean the basque hens pretty much stop laying during shorter daylight hours? Thanks.

I have one pullet hatched the last week of March that lays 5 and 6 days straight before taking a day off. My girls from last Nov 14th and Dec 8 have slowed down but are still laying. They are starting their molt.

 

[Flat Rock farm]

Would that pullet be "Lucky" by any chance

 

[Maggiesdad]

Would that pullet be "Lucky" by any chance

 

[buckabucka]

Things get weirder here all the time. I think I only have 2 Basque hens.

When I hatched, it was a big mix of eggs, including olive eggers, wheaten ameraucana, and blue marans. Only one wheaten ameraucana hatched, but there were no birds that looked like a wheaten ameraucana. I assumed this splash bird came out of that very blue egg, and that the breeder had somehow mixed them up:



I've been getting a gorgeous blue egg occasionally, and always credited this splash.


Now, I am fairly sure my strangely-shaped "Basque" pullet is laying that pretty blue egg. Remember this weird hump-back pullet?





I realize she doesn't look like a wheaten ameraucana, either, but I think she hatched out of an Ameraucana egg. She was in the nest today, standing and straining, so I hung around to collect her egg. I did not see the egg drop out of her, but she was the only one in the box, and a couple of minutes later there was a beautiful blue egg, still wet.

This would also explain my earlier confusion, when I announced that 6 Basque eggs had hatched, and then later changed my mind and said there must have been 7 that hatched. It would also explain this rare form of Basque hen!

Now if I could only explain why she doesn't look like a wheaten ameraucana.

 

[mzstre]

Too funny, bucka! Surprise!

 

[naturespace]

Bucka
That is really strange she has a single comb and the exact coloring of a marraduna. Can you trap nest them to know for sure? That seems almost impossible.

 

[mzstre]

I'm not sure about the comb, naturespace. I enlarged the pic and she almost looks to have a modified pea comb. Granted, I AM viewing it on my phone lol! Do you have a better pic of her comb, bucka?

 

[buckabucka]

I'm not really sure what kind of comb she has (it is dark out there now), but I know it is definitely not straight. I don't really know the difference between cushion comb, strawberry comb, pea comb, etc. I can try to get a photo (or see if I have one on the real computer) later.
I would like to actually watch her lay an egg. I was kicking myself for not witnessing it today. The only reason I stepped away for a bit was because she is so skittish and I didn't want to scare her out of the box. She was squatting, as though the egg was imminent, and I heard her making that quiet straining sound.

There was another time she sat for a long while and I found a blue egg in the box, but that time I had left the coop for a while and assumed she never laid an egg, but had been sitting on the blue one. And early on, we had a very small Basque egg, which I was convinced was hers.
Now, I'm not sure.

I know I will find out eventually, although I only get a blue egg every 4 or 5 days. Funny, I'd been scheming to catch the splash hen and put her in with the lavender Ameraucanas. Her egg is so much bluer than theirs that I thought I could at least hatch some blue-laying EEs. I wonder what color that splash has been laying....

 

[Maggiesdad]

Her head just doesn't look Basque to me.. look at the eye color, head shape, comb shape, and lack of wattles.

Plus I can't make out barring and the shade of white legs on her is unlike any I've seen before.

FWIW - My vote... not Basque.