Euskal Oiloa ( Basque Thread)

[naturespace]

I have a question:

I really like this breed and eventually will get some -- mostly because I do not own an incubator and I am learning about all this.

I found this link to EO hatching eggs on ebay and was wondering about the photos of the roosters pictured. Are those white sickle feathers acceptable or not -- in the photos pictured?  I think they look very beautiful.... Just wondering.

Here is the ebay link:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/15-Marradun...725?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item257d20f49d

These chickens are just beautiful and are definitely on my list to get...

It looks to me that there are several people selling 100% EOs that are not taking into consideration the years it can take to have a true SOP Marraduna EO. The gene pool is so small that only a few people I know of are taking the time get good breeding stock. Color is only on small part of what it means to have a good breeding flock of EOs in North America.

I would encourage people to enjoy their birds and leave breeding to those with over 100 chicks hatching per season and culling for the standard and health. Many of these birds are closely related and have issues when born like splayed legs or low hatch rates, even when they were fertile.

Just my opinion.

 

[Flat Rock farm]

Decided I am completely in over my head. Didn't know I was going to need a doctorate in genetics!

CackleJoy I really know nothing about the genetic stuff and I openly admit it. I try to follow the SOP and pick birds for my breeding groups based on that alone and I think I am getting pretty good results.

 

[GaryDean26]

I have a cockerel who is more colorful than any I've had in the past. Is this coloring acceptable?

The black trousers on the cockerel is caused by a lack of the correct columbian restrictor gene. If his type is better, then I would keep him. I would just would make sure to not pair him with one of our "deer" color hens. If with a correct "leonado" colored hen (err...yellow-orange), then you should see some cockerels out of him that have the correct colored trousers with the added benefit of better type and vigor than you could expect from the wimpy cockerel.

FYI - The Standard for the Cream Legbar cockerel is black barring on the hackles and white ear lobes. The EO's standard is for the dark orange barring on the hackles and red ear lobes. This guy has red lobes and the dark orange barring on this hackles. SOP Cream Legbar also have a crest, and off white (cream) saddle feathers (similar to our "Blondie" EO cockerel in the front right corner) . Both the EO's and Cream Legbars however made it to North American not conforming to their respective breed standards, but the barring and lobes seen to be the most reliable indicators between the two breeds.

 

[CackleJoy]

She's a beauty

 

[Maggiesdad]

8 week olds chasing me in the yard...



well, that one guy is around 14, lol.

 

[GaryDean26]

Veteran breeders, I have a question. What are the top two "traits" to choose for and against in your stock. 2 pros and 2 cons. I have a crew of youngsters from Sand Hill Preservation that I will need to be choosing from. They are the Marraduna color.and I guess if you have hen and roo points to consider, that would be helpful. Your thoughts.....

For...
1) Vigor
2) Utilities

If you want more specifics I would say under the category of vigor I would choose growth rates because they can be a good indication of the overall health and ability of the bird to thrive.

If you want more specifics on utilities I would say egg production in the first year. I would choose this because with growth rates you already are going to be keeping your meatier birds to meet the requirements for meat for this dual purpose breed and by track egg production it is going to help with the second function of a dual purpose bird. Note: Both a reduction in weight and a reduction in egg production are signs of inbreeding depression so by tracking these two thing you are focusing on the strongest birds which all goes back to #1 which is vigor.

Against...
1) illness
2) poor body type

Never breed any bird that has ever had any major sickness no matter how good it is or how health it is after it recovers. The old heritage lines didn't medicate their flocks for everything under the sun. They cull weak birds and breed the strong ones. They developed breeds that were disease resistant and that thrived on the farm. The Basque was preserved because it had gained these qualities by being bred in village flocks over 100's of years. It is know for its hardiness and so it would be a shame to let weakness be bred and ruin this breed.

Poor body type. The Basque should have a full breast. If it doesn't extend past the tip of the beak it may be too lean for a dual purpose bird. It should have a long downward sloping back. The longer the back the better for producing productive layers. The legs should be strong. The keel straight and following the line of the back. The body should be wide. I think if I have to choose one thing to cull for from the body type it would a narrow body. If hips are a lot more narrow than the shoulders, the tail doesn't make a tent shape from the back, or there isn't at least 3 finger widths between the legs then it is too narrow.

Note: yes you can evaluate rooster for laying ability, but that is easier to do with hens. If you have questions on how to do that ask the group.

 

[GaryDean26]

Ya...this thread had been really quite. I have got a few inquires for EO recently so that is a good sign. People are still interested in the breed. I personally am was not able to offer anyone any EO's I finally bit the bullet and went to a one breed flock. The EO's were number three on the list of breeds to make my single breed so I passed them on to others. Predator attacks 18 months left me with just a single cock, two hens, and about 15 chicks. From the 15 chick i kept the best pullet (who was about the best EO I bred in 4 years with the breed) and paired her with my remaining cockbird who was her father. I kept the best cockerel from the 15 chicks too. He wasn't the best cockerel I had breed but I still put him with the two remaining hens who were both unrelated to each other as well as unrelated to the cockerel. I did a since hatch in the spring for a man in Brownsville, Texas who was starting with the breed. He had raised commercial layers for 20 years but had never bred chickens. He had bred doves though so I think he has the ability to do a good job with the EO's he will give the commercial hatchery layers a break moving forward and just work with EO. I had 16 EO hatch from the trio and pair and shipped them all to the man starting with the breed. I hope he got a good group. I felt that we had made a little progress in 4 years and hope that the new owner will be able to build on that. Our first year the EO's were all over the map in terms of type, shape, vigor, utilities, size, etc. We choose to not cull based on color in the first 3 years but did cull for production, type and size. We were just starting to see some noted improvements in utilities and type. I hope that some of those passed on.

 

[GaryDean26]

I see hatch rates go up and down from year to year. I think that a lot of it has to do with where I place the incubator. When I had the Brinsea Eco 20 and Genesis 1588 in a bathroom in the house that only had a very small window that was 6 feet high and three interior walls I was getting 65%-95% hatch rates. When the incubators were moved from the house to an out building the hatch rates dropped about 30%. I bathroom had a steady room temperature with high humidity. The out building would have 40-50 deg temperature swings during the incubation process, large humidity swings, it had no exterior walls, larger windows, etc.

I also know that the parings make a difference in hatch rates. About 10% of my pairings have resulted in really low fertility. I know that one of those was from a hen that was unrelated to the cockerel she was paired with (they were different breeds), but three of these low fertility pairings were closely related (same breed from the same breeder).

I have only shipped eggs twice this year but they actually got higher hatch rates than I do (they must not have a 40-50 deg temperature range in their hatch room). It may be worth it to ship eggs as long as they are to someone that is an experienced hatcher, they know what hatch rates you have been getting, and are willing to work through the problem with you to help advance your line.

 

[RFR of CA]

Above are some of my first birds that I hatched from those I bought from Greenfire in 2011. Below are some of from my 2016 group.






Rare Feathers Ranch

 

[Flat Rock farm]

My two breeding pens for 2017. Eggs are now in the incubator