Euskal Oiloa ( Basque Thread)

[Meg2000000]

I have had my flock of EO,s for about a year now, I got them as day olds and they have been handled daily. All have lived together quite harmoniously up until about a week and a half ago, The roosters seemed to figure out what they are and have become quite scrappy toward each other to the point where I have had to separate them. I had figured it would come to this at some point but reading through this thread it seems as though the EO roosters are a little less aggressive. What I really am beginning to dislike is how nasty they are to the hens, Is this the general consensus of this breed or do I just have a couple of thug roosters holding a ticket to the freezer ?
Thanks John

Hi BayWest. I've noticed that the Basque roosters tend to be very friendly and mellow (although I have one currently that is a punk). My roosters have always treated my ladies really nice. The only problem I've had is I had a rooster with 3 hens and he started pulling out feathers because he mated them too often. I put in 2 other hens I borrowed from a friend to see if that solves the problem. Maybe try separating the roosters and give them each some hens that way they'll each have their own flock and won't be fighting over the ladies anymore.

I've heard that mean roosters produce mean hens and mean hens produce mean roosters. I just hatched 11 Basques so I will see if there are any misbehaved ones in the next few months. If that rumor turns out to be true I am definitely culling/eating/or giving away the mean rooster. It's hard to enjoy your chickens when you're always having to discipline (or run away from them in my case! haha)

 

[Meg2000000]

Since it was nice out, I got a few pictures of the older Marraduna Basque's.
All four together



The lighter chick


All three same colored chicks. One has a black tail


All again. Lighter towards the bottom left.

They are soo cute!! I love when they're that age! Congrats!

Those ladies look like what we need here!

Thank you! I think they're so beautiful! The red on the girls and boys is amazing. They're simply stunning.

Meg...it's nice to have you back..........Hey I've got ghreenfire birds and Skyline birds...........now I need some Spanish blood....write me if you are gonna have some extra eggs....I'm IN for them...........Mike

Thank you.. it's so good to have time to be back on BYC!



YES - we are going to have hatching eggs available soon. I would say within the next month. If you guys are interested, please PM me. We're concentrating on growing our flock right now so we will only be offering 1 dozen eggs to each person.. Once we get to the bottom of the list then we can send out more. WeWe got a pretty good hatch rate on the second generation (at least I think it's good for a first hatch!) I set 19 Basque eggs and 20 days later 11 of them popped out of the eggs and started running around. I helped 2 more out of the shell but they passed away (I think I helped to soon...) We hatched both Basques and Pita Pintas (another Spanish breed we are establishing). 10 out of the 19 PP's hatched but I had to help out some of them.. I'm pretty sure the temp and humidity was off and that's why they had difficulty. Hatching is stressful!

 

[texasmomma]

There is a family I Aubrey, TX that has the basques. I got mine from them.

 

[mzstre]

Hi BayWest. I've noticed that the Basque roosters tend to be very friendly and mellow (although I have one currently that is a punk). My roosters have always treated my ladies really nice. The only problem I've had is I had a rooster with 3 hens and he started pulling out feathers because he mated them too often. I put in 2 other hens I borrowed from a friend to see if that solves the problem. Maybe try separating the roosters and give them each some hens that way they'll each have their own flock and won't be fighting over the ladies anymore.

I've heard that mean roosters produce mean hens and mean hens produce mean roosters. I just hatched 11 Basques so I will see if there are any misbehaved ones in the next few months. If that rumor turns out to be true I am definitely culling/eating/or giving away the mean rooster. It's hard to enjoy your chickens when you're always having to discipline (or run away from them in my case! haha)

We had one roo that was a punk as well. He's now in the freezer. My husband nearly did a celebratory dance when I finally agreed it was necessary. That boy was terribly aggressive to men & my boys. I could handle him, but it was just too much. It shouldn't be a chore or stressful to deal with your birds.

 

[ronott1]

Hi All!

Megan wanted me to post the pictures of her Marraduna Basque:







Megan2000000s EO Marraduna Basque Hens.

 

[Meg2000000]

Thanks Ron!!!

 

[Maggiesdad]

WOW!

 

[ashandvine]

Ashandvine, I try hard to work my way through the genetics bog. There are some real whiz folks on here, and they sometimes can thump you up pretty good if you get it wrong! Since Mottle is expressed as a homozygous (both genes the same) recessive, then if both parents express the gene (mottled or mille) then all the offspring would also express it. Genetically:
Parents m/m, m/m, then all offspring would have to be m/m also.

YEY! Now I have to find the woman who is interested in working on the m/m pattern. I surmised that this might be true given what I do know about genetics (I am pretty familiar with BBS as I do work with it here). Thank you for confirming this. Ahhh, thumping. Yes, yes. (rubbing a few choice scars I learn quickly that way.

I've heard that mean roosters produce mean hens and mean hens produce mean roosters. I just hatched 11 Basques so I will see if there are any misbehaved ones in the next few months. If that rumor turns out to be true I am definitely culling/eating/or giving away the mean rooster. It's hard to enjoy your chickens when you're always having to discipline (or run away from them in my case! haha)

This is a known phenomenon (aggression running in lines) and it is even known to happen in other species, so do yourself a favor and mark your chicks you think will carry the genetic guff and be ready to sell or cull. One thing that MIGHT help is if you hand raise them so they don't learn from the parent but usually it is a genetic predisposition.


Looking over submissions I am guessing my girls are too light compared to the recent pics and I don't think the cockerels here have the same tight U shape/short backs. Camera... where are you?

 

[Meg2000000]

Ash - I never have my camera when I need it either! I got so used to using my phones camera that now it's full and won't take anymore! Ugh the perils! Haha

All of our babies have been hand raised and we do plan to cull the punky ones. Meanness takes the fun out of having chickens in my opinion!

 

[Meg2000000]

Hi everyone. This is Johnny, Megan's boyfriend. Meg's taking a well deserved nap right now so I thought I'd upload some pics of the chicks for her. Apologies if the quality isn't great!
The chicks are doing great, the Pita Pintas that we helped out of their shells (they're the sticky looking ones in the pics) are looking like they're definitely going to make it. We're so proud of them!
The EO's are strong little suckers, they're already scratching at their bedding and going out exploring when we open up the brooder.