Grizzly roos /Fly fishing/ breeding reference

Being a `pond lies at the bottom of it' and not a `river runs through it' sort of fisherman, I was unaware that there are 10,000 roos crowing together every morning, out in Colorado, for fly fishers.

While rooting around for chicken/turkey genome info. I came across this handsome fellow on the Mich.State Univ. Poultry Genome page:



And another shot from the journal Nature:



(both photos by Tom Whiting)

I wanted one. But, now I know that the closest I'll get is a hackle in a tackle shop. The first link below is a short interview with Henry Hoffman (started with a five dollar breeding pair of `Grizzly' Bantams). Many years later he `passed on' his stock to Dr. Tom Whiting. The Whiting interview (2cnd link) is extensive (with observations of the roo farm by the interviewer) and, though Whiting focuses on breeding for hackles, the information could be of use to anyone breeding for any specific trait. Sebright would probably be doing something along these lines if he was still alive.

http://www.westfly.com/feature/oldfeatures/feature_30.htm

http://www.uncleginkscave.com/GC-WhitingHackleFarms.html

enjoy! (does anyone else have these?)

I was really surprised the first time I heard about Genetic Hackle. I didn't realize it was that big an industry and the capes brought such big bucks. It is the one time you want to keep the boys over the girls. I think Whiting has the monopoly on the best capes, etc. I would love to see their farm.

Carla, I've had the first photo for a while now, and just hunted down the origin.
Whiting's article is excellent. In which he also painted quite a picture:

"The origins of the Darbee/Miner hackle stock are largely Mediterranean and English class chickens, predominately the Blue Andulusion breed from southern Spain and Old English Gamecock from England. These breeds are tall, strong, fast, lean, tenacious, rangy survivors. Many fighting cock lines are largely derived from these stocks. Add to this heritage about 60 years of selection for maleness in secondary sexual characteristics, such as long hard feathers and vigor, and what emerges is a chicken with a personality only Attila the Hun could love. These aren't gentle barnyard or fancier chickens, but demons in hackle disguise. And your goal is to look at their feathers, objectively and carefully. Well I have news, he ain't exactly going to cooperate."

"You see every hackle rooster seems to realize who exactly is responsible for sentencing him to a solitary cage for the last 6 months, with nothing to look at or listen to other than lots of other confined roosters. And he also realizes he probably has only one good chance to hammer the living [h*ll] out of you. So he typically doesn't pass up this golden opportunity In fact, it's easy to be convinced he's saved up all his fury and hostility for this one special moment with you. And you want to look at his feathers!?. Even with goggles, gloves and armor, if you can emerge from this encounter unpunctured or bleeding, you might be hackle herder material. My particular favorite is when they claw climb up your face, and then launch themselves from atop your head. And then you have to go catch the [SOB] as he eludes you then ambushes you from under the cages. Your sentiments can quickly shift from wanting to evaluate their necks to wringing them. Some of my most sheepish moments in life have been after hurling an especially bad rooster across the barn in utter frustration, only to watch them flutter and sail to the floor, ruffled and cackling indignantly, with every single other rooster in the shed chiming in to let you know they all witnessed your little moment of weakness. The mocking din can be deafening. 99.9% of humanity would walk out right then, for good. The few who would stay, and actually get back to work, are the true hackle herders."

Guess I'll just be happy with our good old Red Sex Link Roo.
John

wow, that just sounds awful. :|

what's the difference between a grizzly and a crele?? i'm guessing the origin of what bird was used to get the desired coloring??

Genetic hackle birds can be ordered off line if anyone is interested.

The difference between Grizzly and Cree is that grizzly is black and white barring and cree looks like "crele" with a little black in it.

here is a pic of one of my birds



Termite

Termite, just wondering, what color is that roo considered? Approximatly how much for a hackle type bird like that or even eggs? I would love to get some of those colors in my flock just for fun. There is a breeder locally named conranch that has hackle birds. He wont sell anything, no eggs or hens or even culls. I would love one to have as a pet type bird or to cross into my laying flock to get more color
Thanks, Mike

Mike,

Go here:

www.theriaultflies.com

This is where I got my start from. He has good birds going back to the Darbee lines. They produce good dry fly necks and saddles that will tie larger dry flies and wet flies.

I think eggs are $55.00 a doz. and you can also order hens with eggs (I would not do this, but you can if you want).

Denny Conrad has great birds but he understandably don't want to create competition for himself.

Termite.

I forgot to mention the rooster above is a from a blue bred to a barred bird. It would be considered "barred dun" in fly tying terms or just blue barred in chicken terms.

A person with some pen space can also start to breed these birds from "normal" chickens, it does take a period of years but is a fun experiment and can make you a few bucks if you sell the feathers on ebay.

Termite

so, just a normal blue bird bred to a normal barred bird? Did either of them have dun in their heritage? It is deffinatly dun, not blue. I would love to get some long saddle in my wyandottes just for fun. I have dun right now and want to get dun barred.

Well, there is blue dun and brown dun (in fly tying terms) I have both blue and brown. Blue dun is just sexlinked blue and brown dun is sexlinked "dun". Now for the longer feathers you will have to get some "genetic hackle stock" or some good phoenix stock.

The bird in the picture has 1/4th phoenix blood and 3/4 genetic hackle from the link I gave you in the last post.

Termite.