Euskal Oiloa ( Basque Thread)

[GaryDean26]

I have had one mean EO cockerel (we culled him about 4 weeks before collecting hatching eggs that year), but all the rest have been easy to work with.

MD, you aren't selling eggs this year? Are you trying to simplify your life (shipping eggs is a of of work) or just saving all the eggs for yourself?

 

[Maggiesdad]

Hey Curtis - I lost my lead cock to a Fox last summer, and my hatch rates were below 50% with my reserve boy. The reserve also has recessive white, and I know a couple of my hens have it too, so I really don't want to move forward until I can replace him. The eggs taste great, but I wouldn't wish them on anybody trying to start a flock.

I need a mess of cockerels to pick a new guy from...

 

[GaryDean26]

Sound about right. Our experience with chickens is that it is always three steps foreward two steps backwards.

We had our EO flock hit by predators last May. We were left with one hen and one cockerel. Our back up was our "B flock" that we had given to friends 40 minutes from us, but their flock got hit by predators a few days after ours leaving them with a single hen.

We had about 20 chicks in May and from them got one pullet that was worth working with and kept one cockerel. The cockerel probably wasn't wroth working with, but he isn't related to either the remaining hens so he is in with them now, and our prized pullet is in with the surviving cockbird who is her sire.

Our flock got MS the end of the summer, so now we are preparing to do a single hatch (we plan to set it in March) and then depopulated to purge the MS from the property and start over again. We will rebuild the Cream Legbar flock, but our Blue Breda are not going to be rebuilt (not enough space or time to make any progress with them). All the EO chicks are going to a lady in South Texas who started out with the breed last fall. We hope to mentor her as she takes over our EO's. We are still undecided on what the future of our Black Copper Marans is. They are the first breed we started working with and after 4 years they are finally starting to shape up. We may keep two breeds, but will be moving this spring and would like to cut our flocks size down. We have been keeping an average of 75 chickens and would like to get that number down to about 15, so keeping two breeds will be a challenge. We may just focus on the Cream Legbars so that we can actually make progress with one breed and let the BCM's go. Being spread out to a half dozen breeds (our Burmese hen recreation project, olive eggers, leghorn color projects, etc are also not going to be rebuilt) we spreed our resources too thin to make much progress with any one breed.

Good luck Glen. I hope that you get some really good cockerels this year. If we get a craving for EO spatchcock in the future we may have to hit you up for eggs in a year or two.

 

[ronott1]

Sound about right. Our experience with chickens is that it is always three steps foreward two steps backwards.

We had our EO flock hit by predators last May. We were left with one hen and one cockerel. Our back up was our "B flock" that we had given to friends 40 minutes from us, but their flock got hit by predators a few days after ours leaving them with a single hen.

We had about 20 chicks in May and from them got one pullet that was worth working with and kept one cockerel. The cockerel probably wasn't wroth working with, but he isn't related to either the remaining hens so he is in with them now, and our prized pullet is in with the surviving cockbird who is her sire.

Our flock got MS the end of the summer, so now we are preparing to do a single hatch (we plan to set it in March) and then depopulated to purge the MS from the property and start over again. We will rebuild the Cream Legbar flock, but our Blue Breda are not going to be rebuilt (not enough space or time to make any progress with them). All the EO chicks are going to a lady in South Texas who started out with the breed last fall. We hope to mentor her as she takes over our EO's. We are still undecided on what the future of our Black Copper Marans is. They are the first breed we started working with and after 4 years they are finally starting to shape up. We may keep two breeds, but will be moving this spring and would like to cut our flocks size down. We have been keeping an average of 75 chickens and would like to get that number down to about 15, so keeping two breeds will be a challenge. We may just focus on the Cream Legbars so that we can actually make progress with one breed and let the BCM's go. Being spread out to a half dozen breeds (our Burmese hen recreation project, olive eggers, leghorn color projects, etc are also not going to be rebuilt) we spreed our resources too thin to make much progress with any one breed.

Good luck Glen. I hope that you get some really good cockerels this year. If we get a craving for EO spatchcock in the future we may have to hit you up for eggs in a year or two.

I am sorry to hear about the problems!

I found some information that might just help you. There is a procedure that can kill the MS or MG bacteria during incubation. The temperature is raised during incubation which kills the bacteria. It lowers hatch rate but the chicks will be disease free.

It is worth a try for you!

More information:

Quote:

 

[GaryDean26]

We are going the egg dip method to treat the MS. I considered the heat method (and still may), but our incubators have knobs that you have to turn to set the heat and it always takes about 3-4 days of guess and check to get the heat to the right place, so I really didn't want to change the heat setting. We also plan to treat chicks for a week after they hatch. We are down to several breeding trios right now and our flocks look the best they every have. Set back aren't always a bad thing. We have had our fair share of them. We have learned a lot from each one and the flock always benefits from that and comes out stronger and and more refined than it was going into the set back.

 

[FVRM]

I need some breeding advice. i only have 3 maradunas, 2 are hens and 1 is a roo. The hens are excellent and the roo is decent. But since I only have these three would it be better to breed the roo to only one of the hen and breed one of their offspring roos to the other hen?

 

[Maggiesdad]

That's a tough call... You'd do better to hatch everything from both hens, in pedigree cages, then mark the chicks and track their growth. Noting as your go along, which pairing had better vitality and vigor. Then make your decision for the next pairings after that. Remember, numbers are your friend - you're looking for that one good bird out of 100, and that takes 200 chicks to get a good male and female. Not many folks are willing to work with those kind of numbers, and that's the kind of love and devotion it takes to move a breed forward. And if you're not moving forward, you're backing up.

That's probably not what you wanted to hear...

 

[GaryDean26]

MD is correct that it is a numbers game. A breeder that grows out 200 chicks of a single breed and variety said that you might not need to grow out 200 to make progress, but that she felt that you would defiantly need to grow out at least 50. With that, there was the understanding that you grow out at least 10 chicks for every one that you keep in your flock.

I would go ahead and breed both hens to the cockerel this year and plan on hatching 25 chicks from each hen and tracking who their mother is. Then I would set up two breeding pens. If the hens are close to perfect then I would use the 3-in 1-out breeding plan and breed the best cockerel back to his mother in both pens the first year, breed their best son back to the hen again in the 2nd year, and their best son back to the mother again in the 3rd year (three years of inbreeding) then in the 4th year I would select the best cockerel from each pen and breed the best pullet from the opposite pen back to that cockerel and continue for the next three years breeding pullets back to the cockbird. After 3-in through the foundation hen and 3-in through a cockbird I would have an established blood line and continue by pair mating birds to the furthest related birds on the property. Type would stay consistent and as I breed to further related birds in the bloodline vigor would return.

If the hens were not perfect, then I would still track 25 chicks from each hen and set up two breeding pens, but any pullet that was better than her mother and in the top 10% of her grow out group I would put in the breeding pen with her mother and then breed the best cockerel from the opposite breeding pen to them. the following year if any pullets were better than the two hens in the pen they came from and in the top 10% of their grow out group I would add them to the pen they came from and breed the better of the best cockerel from the opposite pen. I would keep the breeding group to a number where I could hatch at least 10 (20 would be ideal) chicks from each hen in the breeding pen, so if I was going to hatch 60 chicks I would only have 2-3 hens in each of the two breeding pen. I would not add younger pullets to the pen unless they were better than older hens. Also, I like to use hens that are at least two years old for breeding, so in addition to my two breeding pens I would have a laying flock where "pullet" would grow out and not go into a breeding pen until the start of their 2nd laying season.

 

[FVRM]

Thank you Maggiesdad and GaryDean26 for the info and I'll be saving the breeding "recipe". I know the EO genetics are already tight so hopefully my breeding goes well

 

[Flat Rock farm]

That's a tough call... You'd do better to hatch everything from both hens, in pedigree cages, then mark the chicks and track their growth. Noting as your go along, which pairing had better vitality and vigor. Then make your decision for the next pairings after that. Remember, numbers are your friend - you're looking for that one good bird out of 100, and that takes 200 chicks to get a good male and female. Not many folks are willing to work with those kind of numbers, and that's the kind of love and devotion it takes to move a breed forward. And if you're not moving forward, you're backing up.

That's probably not what you wanted to hear...

Totally agree with MD, all good points.

I hatched about 50 EO's last year and only kept 6.