Poultry Breeds of Spanish Ancestry

[gjensen]

Lacy, I have looked through your pictures a couple times, and I like your birds. I enjoyed looking through them, and I appreciate you taking the time to post them.

I am not going to critique them. I am learning that it is not always easy to get a sure feel for a bird in a photo. Of course, you can identify some particulars etc. The various shots and poses can be misleading. I am not especially qualified to do it anyways. I am starting to and trying to get the particulars of this breed.

You mentioned the black hen that you liked, and that she was too upright. Isn't she about right? My understanding of Andalusions is that their shoulders are pretty high. When I go through the class, I see these as having the highest station. The few Andalusions that I have seen seamed to not be high enough.
There was a lot that I liked about her. I did wonder if her head was not a bit small, but I know how live pictures of these birds are.

Andalusions are unique, and there is none like them. All breeds are unique, but often you can liken them to something else. It is not as easy to do with these. They stand on their own, and it would be silly to develop a new color. To me, Andalusions own this color.

I cannot see why more people that had some room, would not be interested in a flock of this breed.

 

[Lacy Blues]

No, I didn't say she was too high. What I said was that in that photo she was a bit more upright than her normal relaxed posture which was shown in the following photo. She was only relaxed down the smallest bit but you can see it. Andalusians, when they're on high alert can almost stand like a modern game bantam. Ugh. I too thought her head looked a little small in that photo. It may have been the camera angle, not sure, but when I see her "live" she does not make that suggestion to me.

I did my first candle last night at 4 days. 33 out of 42 eggs are still in there!

My daughter's fiance was here and I showed him what they looked like. I told him that next time he was over, I'd show him the same egg and he can watch them develop and then hopefully he'll be around the day that they hatch and he can witness that miracle of life. My daughter was telling him how neat it is when they get older in the shell and you candle them and they plant their foot on the inside of the shell... I like that too, it's pretty cool!

 

[Lacy Blues]

Jason,

Empordanesa is pronounced: em por da nes sa?

Penedesenca is pronounced: pe ne de sen ca? Both words have all short vowels or are there long ones?

Nice birds. Are they close to their standard's weight? Good luck getting that larger coop finished. Of course you have a longer spring early summer in Placerville. Here, we get about a week's worth of spring and early summer combined and then its HOT. This late winter has proven extremely nice outside. Day time temps have been in the 50s to 70s. It's a little cooler right now as we had a temperature change come rushing in two days ago. Holy smokes! Talk about wind!

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote: I hope it works! Lotrimin athlete's foot spray has been mentioned by Dawg53 on here for favus on combs if you end up thinking it is fungal later on...just thought I'd mention it.

I use white vinegar as a weed killer (like roundup) around here. Vinegar is so useful- I really hope it will work wonders for your boy's spots.

 

[gjensen]

No, I didn't say she was too high. What I said was that in that photo she was a bit more upright than her normal relaxed posture which was shown in the following photo. She was only relaxed down the smallest bit but you can see it. Andalusians, when they're on high alert can almost stand like a modern game bantam. Ugh. I too thought her head looked a little small in that photo. It may have been the camera angle, not sure, but when I see her "live" she does not make that suggestion to me.

I did my first candle last night at 4 days. 33 out of 42 eggs are still in there!

My daughter's fiance was here and I showed him what they looked like. I told him that next time he was over, I'd show him the same egg and he can watch them develop and then hopefully he'll be around the day that they hatch and he can witness that miracle of life. My daughter was telling him how neat it is when they get older in the shell and you candle them and they plant their foot on the inside of the shell... I like that too, it's pretty cool!

Sounds more and more like he just might fit in. Sounds like you like him anyways. Congrats.

I like the high station of Andalusions. Sets them apart from the rest. Then with the color, they are all on their own. Nice birds.

I am looking forward to seeing pictures of the chicks.

 

[Lacy Blues]

I hope it works! Lotrimin athlete's foot spray has been mentioned by Dawg53 on here for favus on combs if you end up thinking it is fungal later on...just thought I'd mention it.

I use white vinegar as a weed killer (like roundup) around here. Vinegar is so useful- I really hope it will work wonders for your boy's spots.

So you're saying that ringworm is a fungus? I was thinking it was fungal but I doubt that it is ringworm. I'll keep y'all posted on how it works. He's having some activity on it right now too - it isn't always like that. Seems to come and go.

Sounds more and more like he just might fit in. Sounds like you like him anyways. Congrats.

I like the high station of Andalusions. Sets them apart from the rest. Then with the color, they are all on their own. Nice birds.

I am looking forward to seeing pictures of the chicks.

Thanks George. I'll definitely be posting pics.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Jason,

Empordanesa is pronounced: em por da nes sa?

Penedesenca is pronounced: pe ne de sen ca? Both words have all short vowels or are there long ones?

Nice birds. Are they close to their standard's weight? Good luck getting that larger coop finished. Of course you have a longer spring early summer in Placerville. Here, we get about a week's worth of spring and early summer combined and then its HOT. This late winter has proven extremely nice outside. Day time temps have been in the 50s to 70s. It's a little cooler right now as we had a temperature change come rushing in two days ago. Holy smokes! Talk about wind!

thats how they are pronounced good job !
The cockerels are on the smaller end of the standard but still in there. My hens seem average.
we had the wind too.
I am higher than Placerville at about 3400 feet.
its not as hot generally and is cooler than Placerville our last frost is usually mid to end of May even know Usda says we are a 8 lol. Tell that to the tomato plants lol
I am in the zone where when it snows we can get a lot but generally melts quick. we are lucky to have the shade of the trees in the summer , and does not get to cold. We had 12 degrees a few mornings this winter but that was when you where well below zero. We generally get a lot of rain in winter up here and can get snow anywhere from 6 to 12 times generally. so far just 3 times this winter. 2 times it barely stuck on the car. In December we had about a foot.
I like it up here though and so does the chickens

 

[Lacy Blues]

My bantam hens must have heard the threat the other day. We've gone from 8 - 10 egg/day to all of a sudden getting 10 - 12 eggs a day. There is still one, however, who's comb is still somewhat shriveled. Hopefully she'll come out of it soon.

 

[gjensen]

My bantam hens must have heard the threat the other day. We've gone from 8 - 10 egg/day to all of a sudden getting 10 - 12 eggs a day. There is still one, however, who's comb is still somewhat shriveled. Hopefully she'll come out of it soon.

How many do you plan on hatching? Of each?

 

[Lacy Blues]

Oh, I don't really know. The first pen had two girls in it and I collected enough to fill up the incubator... 42 eggs. 7 of them were from the little black girl being mated with the splash but I was saving her eggs because she had been in with the same rooster as the girls in the pen. The last one of her eggs that I collected wasn't fertile. After I started the incubator is when I put the splash in with them. Also, there are 3 young buckeye eggs in there. I just wanted to find out if they're fertile.

I don't know how many I'll hatch from that splash male. I don't really like him but he is small and size is the main thing I'm breeding for in these. I really want to get that black guy set up with a couple of really nice girls. I expect really nice babies from him. The other blue guy with lots of white? Maybe a smaller number from him too. So, I guess I need to get the blue one set up so that between those two roosters I'll have one incubator load. Then, hopefully by the time that happens the splash I want to put with the black will be back into laying again and I can start collecting eggs there.

I don't have a pre-determined number of chicks in my head, I just kind of shot gun it I guess. I get what I get. After the next hatch, I can cull the blue and splash. I certainly wouldn't breed back to them. Just trying to get a wide variety and hopefully not too closely related yet as with this hatch, I'm only on my 5th generation.

I got 14 eggs out of that bantam pen today! I counted last night, as I went through and weighed them all, and there are 18 girls in there.

In my large fowl pens, I'm not getting any eggs right now. I've separated two girls to get used to a new pen. They laid a couple eggs then quit. I'm going to give them a mash tomorrow of cornmeal with buttermilk and cayenne pepper. The pen where my really big guy is with his mother, I'm thinking I will move her to another pen with another girl... don't know which one yet and then bring him to her every couple days. Right now, when he grabs her, she resists and squawks and he lets her go.

In the other pen, the one I told you about already George, where the girls are eating their eggs, I'm not getting any eggs either. I'm thinking I will put them in a new coop that has a really dark nest. Maybe if they're someplace new, they'll use the nest... I can dream. If I can't get them to stop it, I may have to cull. The splash girl, I wouldn't mind so much but the other one has the same father as the big boy. I'll just tell you his name instead of trying to allude to him... his name is Gadzooks. Dumb I know, but what can I say? Anyway, Gadzooks and this girl share the same father but have different mothers. She's a really good sized hen with nice long legs. Her color is very splotchy though so her looks and her size is about all that's going for her. I suppose I could mate them together.

The large fowl black male that I have in that pen, has fantastic feather width and quality. That is his best point. My birds don't have good feather quality and I don't know why; this male is directly from Sandhill that I picked up a couple years ago from a woman in California that needed to find a home for about 25 roosters. He's a nice looking bird but his legs are shorter than I'd like and he doesn't have much of a slope to his back. So, we'll see what happens here.

Are you going to be able to make it to that Unifour show you guys have been talking about? I hope you make it. You deserve to be able to have a bit of fun once in a while.