Euskal Oiloa ( Basque Thread)

[Henthused]

Anyone ever seen a "Lady Grey" Basque rooster?

We are excited to use him in our Zilarra project. Too bad he's not heterozygous, but I'll take focusing on the Silver gene first. Yay!

Hi Kristi,
Just saw your post. Your "Lady Grey" is very pretty. Blondie and Willow, the 2 EO pullets I got from you this spring are doing great. I am looking for them to lay pretty soon. Speckles, the other EO finally settled down.

 

[Mtn Margie]

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.....

 

[Flat Rock farm]

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.....

Hi Mtn Margie: Here is a link to the North American Basque Hen Association website and a link to the Standard of Perfection and what things to look for in your birds as far as qualities and things that are disqualifying of the Marraduna.

Hope this helps
http://nabha.weebly.com/standard-of-perfection.html

 

[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.

 

[Mtn Margie]

Thank you for your info. Perfect!

 

[Mimzy]

Hello ,
I am living in Habitant Nova Scotia.
I am picking up my Euskal Oiloa Rooster today, and I am pretty excited!
I am a new Chicken owner and just finishing the coop in time to pick him up.
However I have been unable to find the same breed of laying hens, and from all that I have read, it seems they would be a very nice rare breed to start out with.
So far I have this one little hen whom my friend and I kind of rescued.
She was laying in the mud, both eyes swollen shut,and no feathers on her head.
Apparently she was henpecked practically to death.
I took her home , gave her a bath, fed her Kefir and cream of wheat, and 2 weeks later she is a happy bird, eyes open, feathers growing back,and very affectionate watching us build a coop for her and friends!
Does anyone one know where I might buy Heritage birds rather soon as I don't want to introduce the new Rooster to just this one chicken.

 

[Flat Rock farm]

Hello ,
I am living in Habitant Nova Scotia.
I am picking up my Euskal Oiloa Rooster today, and I am pretty excited!
I am a new Chicken owner and just finishing the coop in time to pick him up.
However I have been unable to find the same breed of laying hens, and from all that I have read, it seems they would be a very nice rare breed to start out with.
So far I have this one little hen whom my friend and I kind of rescued.
She was laying in the mud, both eyes swollen shut,and no feathers on her head.
Apparently she was henpecked practically to death.
I took her home , gave her a bath, fed her Kefir and cream of wheat, and 2 weeks later she is a happy bird, eyes open, feathers growing back,and very affectionate watching us build a coop for her and friends!
Does anyone one know where I might buy Heritage birds rather soon as I don't want to introduce the new Rooster to just this one chicken.

Hello Mimzy, here is a link to a fellow in NS that may be able to help you with some EO hens?

http://riverbendfarm.weebly.com/

 

[alibabba]

Hi, just a quick note from SE PA...

Have a cockerel about 5 months.. Already have 3 other breeds that I am keeping. I have no Basque hens.

Anyone interested?

 

[Flat Rock farm]

This thread has been quiet for some time. How's everyone's EO's doing? Here are a few pictures of my 2015 keepers

 

[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.