Euskal Oiloa-Basque Hens in North America

I am so excited to announce that about 15 Euskal Oiloak chicks just hatched in California out of 21 eggs!  The new owner loves them and is amazed how strong and big they are even after the eggs were mailed from Skyline Poultry in Tennessee!  I know he is going to love them even more when they start hopping onto his hand for attention.

Now we are looking forward to the next lot of Euskal oiloak eggs to hatch as the USA invasion is officially underway.  The second ones were to the same owner 20 days ago and they are pipping right now!

There are more in the incubator in Louisa County, Virginia as a fairly new family to chickens is looking forward to adding these to their new flock.  Their kids will love them!  I am sure there are plans for even more in the USA!  I know James at Skyline has a waiting list, and I can't thank him enough for sharing these.  It's hard not to when they are really great birds.

I will post pics of these new babies when we get them in,  this is a historic time!  Thanks for reading. 

There's lots of great info on the site and here's our resources page Euskal Oiloak if you want to read as much as you can and our forum has lots of enthusiastic Euskal Oiloa owners in Canada, ready to help and share what we know as this breed is so rare and unknown and we have now have over 10 years combined experience with them.  I've had them 3 1/2 years now and can tell you anything you want to know.

Tags: Euskal oiloak, euskal oiloas, basque chickens, basque hens

I wanted to share that  we have our first Marraduna Euskal Oiloa chicks of the year, albeit a bit late!

There are 13 chicks from the paternal line, Speckled Jims offspring and 2 from the maternal line Blondies!  They are strong and already quite tame and friendly. It's too late to hatch any more, so I'll be sure to enjoy these!

The broody mothers, a partridge chantecler and the slightly less careful mothers, two lavender Ameraucanas, are doing great and very proud!  Blondie has been trying to go broody but we needed to send some of her eggs to BC last week, so haven't let her sit!  Here are lots of new euskal Oiloak chick pictures here.  Not sure how to post them here!  So enjoy!

It always amazes me how vigorous and strong these chicks are, always big yellow and fluffy! 

You are in the right place!  Our Euskal Oiloak forum is just over a month old and has over 1000 posts already, many with gorgeous photos of peoples flocks, of all ages!  It seems I am not the only one that is finding this remarkable breed a delight to own!

I am excited because I am no longer moving from the farm and have just set about 30 Marraduna Euskal Oiloa eggs under 3 broody hens, 2 Lavender Ameraucanas and 1 Partridge Chantecler.  I will post pictures when we get some from our two lines!  Thanks for reading, and don't be shy.  It is a great friendly group on the forum and lots of group knowledge and discoveries going on ;-)

Hi Everyone.  Great so see so many on the new Euskal Oilaok forum from the USA, Canada and Spain.  We are getting more information in leaps and bounds, new Spanish links and sites to google translate all the time!  Now we know Oiloak is the plural of oiloa (chickens in Basque)! ;-)


I want to put this pdf file in here with the Skeffling Lavender Farm Euskal Oiloa lineage and photos of all our breeding birds.  More than a few birds will have come from our original trio and I have kept track as well as a newbie could! 

Enjoy the site and all the new information we will post as soon as we discover it!  And if you are Basque and know about the Euskal Oiloa breed we'd really love to hear from you!   Have a great night!

Welcome to the Euskal Oiloa Blog and Website.  A group of Euskal Oiloas Lovers have come together to collect and preserve information on this productive friendly chicken breed in Canada.  Since  2008, Canadians have had the chance to own this extremely rare and unusual heritage chicken breed.  With a recent entry into the US in early 2011, the population is increasing across North America!

We are moved to share how great the Basque Hens are.  They are incredibly friendly, and the Marraduna (brown stripe) variety has a very rare barring gene only found in the Cantabrian Coast.  They are fine layers of large shiny pale to mid brown eggs and the roosters are a good size for meat, making this a wonderful hardy Dual purpose breed.

So enjoy the site and the Euskal Oiloa Chicken Forum!  I am sure we will be adding more information as we have it. Comments are most welcome, we have a contact page and an active forum to ask questions, make connections and share your experiences with this wonderful breed. 

We will add to the list of breeders and maybe possibly owners to help us keep track of the Euskal Oiloa in North America.  Please bear in mind when contacting breeders, the chickens aren't necessarily segregated for breeding year round, as they thrive on free ranging and it it nice for them to have some freedom in the summer.  Due to the extreme rarity, you may find yourself on a waiting list, but it will be worth the wait! :-)

Please drop by our Euskal Oiloa Chicken Forum!