Euskal Oiloa ( Basque Thread)

[ChestnutRidge]

I have 23 week old Heritage RIR pullets that are bigger than any of my other chickens. They are on the bottom now, but watch out next year.

I hatched them from Ron Fogelly's flock. They are an F3 project. I have arranged to get more in January and they will be F4s and should be even better looking. There is a lot of interest in them here in California. On person wants to use them in a RhodeBar project.

WOW! Look at that color.....

Gorgeous, Ron!

 

[masked rider]

Confused... Maybe someone can help me. I have a small flock of Marraduna Basque hen (greenfire) 3 pullets and 1 roo. My problem is no two look anything alike. Here is someone else's photo, but it pretty much looks like my flock, all over the place as far as color just less birds.

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q497/cathybhaney/All16restinginthewagon.jpg I basically have one of each color in this photo, pretty much.

Pullets - I have wheat/red colored millie, one dark wheat/red colored mille (2nd pullet on the right), one nice solid wheat/red (3rd pullet from the right) and the roo.

All the birds are great, friendly, active, chatty, and a pleasure to have, but where do I go from here?

None of them have bright yellow legs either, but most of the photos you see of basque hens don't either and people just go on and on about how great they look. Mine have kind of dull greenish/grey legs.

I am confused, help!!!!! What should a Marraduna pullet look like and what should Marraduna Roo look like. If you don't have yellow legs with either parent, will you have yellow legs with chicks?

Should I start over with another flock?

 

[masked rider]

Here is a link to a Skyline photo of young Marraduna Basque hens.. Note - not much yellow going on with the legs with this group that I can see.

http://www.skylinepoultry.com/images/basque_25__1pe0.png

Is this a good example of Marraduna Basque hen color and markings?

 

[Maggiesdad]

Confused... Maybe someone can help me. I have a small flock of Marraduna Basque hen (greenfire) 3 pullets and 1 roo. My problem is no two look anything alike. Here is someone else's photo, but it pretty much looks like my flock, all over the place as far as color just less birds.

http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q497/cathybhaney/All16restinginthewagon.jpg I basically have one of each color in this photo, pretty much. I can't get this link to work... just gives me a photobucket front page.

Pullets - I have wheat/red colored millie, one dark wheat/red colored mille (2nd pullet on the right), one nice solid wheat/red (3rd pullet from the right) and the roo.

All the birds are great, friendly, active, chatty, and a pleasure to have, but where do I go from here? What are your goals?

None of them have bright yellow legs either, but most of the photos you see of basque hens don't either and people just go on and on about how great they look. I've been reading up on these birds for a year now, and yet to see a post where someone said "your birds stink!"

Mine have kind of dull greenish/grey legs. The Spanish Standard calls for yellow.

I am confused, help!!!!! What should a Marraduna pullet look like and what should Marraduna Roo look like. If you don't have yellow legs with either parent, will you have yellow legs with chicks? No. But they are relatively easy to eliminate
in a couple of generations, if you have some parental yellow to work with.

Should I start over with another flock? Again, what are your goals? If you wish to breed and improve, you will need more stock in the future. But they say you should build the barn before you paint it, meaning the type of the bird has to be there first - body size, and shape, growth rate, egg laying capacity, point of lay, etc. And an accurate assessment can't come until the second season of the bird. (my opinion) I have read behind old timers that say you shouldn't hatch from pullets for this reason.

The Skyline stock and the GFF stock both came from Canada. Everyone pretty much has the same genetics to work with, and there is some interesting stuff mixed in there, that needs to be teased out. This is all just my opinion, and I'm certainly not an expert - heck I just started keeping chickens a year ago.

But I love these birds!

Glen

 

[Maggiesdad]

Here is a link to a Skyline photo of young Marraduna Basque hens.. Note - not much yellow going on with the legs with this group that I can see.

http://www.skylinepoultry.com/images/basque_25__1pe0.png

Is this a good example of Marraduna Basque hen color and markings?

Again - just my opinion - but I would grab the three darkest pullets in the center, cross them with a yellow legged male of good type ( I think the one girl with her head down has yellow feet) , cross my fingers, and everybody else goes to freezer camp!

Here is a thread with some spanish eye candy I put together elsewhere. Not saying any are correct as far as the Spanish Standard, just that this is what they call an EO Marradune...

 

[masked rider]

Hey Glen, thanks for the feedback.. My goal is to have beautiful, healthy, pure bred birds. When people walk up to the farm, they say WOW....

After reading your post, I think my first step is to find some yellow legged birds to work to with because I don't think I can get to the standard from here. BH are great birds and I agree, "I love these birds", but I want them look correctly.

Do you know of a picture of a "top shelf" pair? You know, here is what you goal should be.... this is it... right here... And where does the Mille Basque genetics come from? How did it get in our US birds?
So my mission is to find some closer to the standard stock from somewhere...

But where?

 

[Maggiesdad]

My goals are to breed and improve to the standard, to be able to have a sustainable homestead flock. We will be eating a lot of chicken along the way.

I started with 50 eggs from Skyline, and proceeded to hatch only 50% in my Miller LIttle Giant Styrobator.

Of those 25, I kept 6 pullets and two roos, crossing all six girls with only the best roo. I hatched over 100 EOs, again with 50% success in the styrofoam, and 100% success under 6 broodies (go figure). I kept 6 pullets from all of those, and am watching those closely and taking notes. In retrospect, I should have only used 3 of the six girls, so that will be the quad I go with again this Spring. I went against my better judgement, hatching from pullets, but I gained valuable experience and some good leads in teasing apart the genetic puzzle.

These are the girls I kept, 4 in the first three pics, and two in the fourth pic. All roos go to camp... There's years of room for improvement... I guess that's why they call these things 'projects'! Anyhoo, that's what I've been up to this summer. All you cats hatching EOs from James prior to Jan '12, show us what you've got!

 

[Maggiesdad]

Do you know of a picture of a "top shelf" pair? You know, here is what you goal should be.... this is it... right here... And where does the Mille Basque genetics come from? How did it get in our US birds?

No, I don't know of such a picture.

And while a picture is worth a thousand words, it still wouldn't do justice to so many other important aspects of the bird.

The EO has been in Canada for going on 8 years... your guess is as good as mine as to who jumped what pen where in the meantime.

I've read that an inexperienced breeder can ruin a great line in just 2 -3 years.

I'm determined to have fun along the way!

 

[masked rider]

Here is my mini flock...

Pullet #1 but wrong leg color.. Her foot is not really bent, just the angle



My favorite colored pullet, but no where close to the standard and wonder where it comes from..



And pullet number #3 nice color, but again with the pattern



Here is a couple of the Roo.. He looks pretty good, but no yellow legs. These birds are all 12 to 13 weeks old.



Roo with pullet #1

 

[Maggiesdad]

Here is my mini flock...

Pullet #1 but wrong leg color.. Her foot is not really bent, just the angle



My favorite colored pullet, but no where close to the standard and wonder where it comes from..



And pullet number #3 nice color, but again with the pattern



Here is a couple of the Roo.. He looks pretty good, but no yellow legs. These birds are all 12 to 13 weeks old.



Roo with pullet #1

Do NOT feel bad! These girls are beautiful!!!! The darkest pullet will lay huge eggs, and none of them have their first adult plumage yet. Once the girls get their comb and wattles, the white ticking will be gone. Take notes and dated photos of the different stages, for future consideration. I think all you need is a yellow legged roo, and a couple of seasons!