A Heritage of Perfection: Standard-bred Large Fowl

[3riverschick]

I have an interesting development, well, interesting to me. I have found that I have come full circle in my view of my birds.

At first, I was looking for faults, and found them....lots of them! ...and found them. I find myself looking at the ones that are still in the "possible breeders" pen and thinking, "that one doesn't look too bad!" I know about being coop-blind, and I hope that is not what is going on with me. I hope that as they mature, they are showing their good genetics.

Anyone else go though this? Have you seen it in most beginners? What do I do to combat coop-blindness? .....oh well, I will just make a conscious effort to be objective and keep kicking the can down the middle of the road..........

HI,
Yup, I am going thru the same thing myself. Yes, I
do think its stages beginners go thru in becoming
a breeder. I think it is just becoming more educated
about one's variety. I am learning it is nice to take notes
as the birds develop. But is not helpful to make conclusions
on the development in just one of those stages. One thing
which has helped me is all these small staggered hatches.
I have a very small flock so use Brinsea Mini Advance
incubators so the eggs don't have to sit for a week
before setting in the incubator. Yeah, I could mix the matings
but don't have a way to separate the chicks at hatch other
than by dyeing the chicks in the shell. Hee, hee, I can just see the conflagration of colors in my Brinsea dome if I had blue, green, and red chicks hatching at the same time, I know the experts
say I should be hatching large numbers of chicks at a time to
get better choices from the breadth and depth of my gene pool.
Seeing as I am too msall an operation for that I am seeing
success in a lot of these small, staggered hatches letting me
see chicks of all ages develop at the same time. I get to see if what I saw in early hatches is problem or possibility by
comparing later hatches to the now older, earlier hatches.
Right now I am seeing about one in five chicks is different in
some way from its' siblings. Whether positive or negative
remains to be seen. Aside from that, I see things I like and
don't like, so I am waiting to see how all the parts fit together before I make final decisions. Is it really a problem? Or just a developmental stage? It's really quite fascinating. I don't
think I would call it coop blindness because you are aware that
not every bird is superior. I think we can avoid such blindness
by striving the refine proper type in our mind's eye. Educating ourselves about the breed and its nuances. Working to perfect
our comprehension of the fine details of the variety which brings the proper image into sharper focus in our mind's eye. The more clearly we understand and try tp apply the "whats and whys" of
that which we are seeing, the less susceptible we will be to coop blindness.
Best Regards,
Karen
.

 

[desertmarcy]

I have an interesting development, well, interesting to me. I have found that I have come full circle in my view of my birds.

At first, I was looking for faults, and found them....lots of them! I was fairly certain that there were no birds worth keeping and that I would just have to select the best of the worst and inch forward. As time went on and the birds matured, I started looking for strengths....and found them. I find myself looking at the ones that are still in the "possible breeders" pen and thinking, "that one doesn't look too bad!" I know about being coop-blind, and I hope that is not what is going on with me. I hope that as they mature, they are showing their good genetics.

Anyone else go though this? Have you seen it in most beginners? What do I do to combat coop-blindness? I know the answer to the last question is to get another eye on them and let that person critique with me, but, alas, there are no large fowl breeders anywhere near me whose opinion I would trust. Most breeders here in my area are raising bantams, Old English Game Bantams, to be exact. I would have to import a breeder or judge to help me.... What else could help? I'm not sure there is a good answer for that.....oh well, I will just make a conscious effort to be objective and keep kicking the can down the middle of the road..........



On another note, I dreamed last night that I was away for a week and when I returned, the people keeping my birds had culled (killed) all the birds in the "possible breeders" pen because they had developed a bad case of mites and they didn't want them to spread to the layer flock.

One of the things that helps me is to take photos of individual birds---lots of them---and study them on the computer. I tend to see things that I don't see when the birds are moving around outside. Then if I see something I didn't notice on the live bird, I can go back and look at the bird again outside and confirm what I'm seeing, good or bad trait. I find I can be a bit more objective looking at a still photo.

 

[gjensen]

I think sharing them with others that have a good sense of what the breed is, helps. Along the lines of Joseph's suggestions to get them to shows, and have them judged by the judge and your peers. The variety of eyes, with the variety of perspectives could be helpful.

With my Catalanas, I had to decide to look at what they could be. It was that, or I was going to kill every single one of them. One breeder that I respect has a good sense of seeing the possibilities. He sees what is wrong, but he sees what is right. If that makes any sense. With a rare breed/variety there is plenty of wrong to get stuck on. Maybe it is important to be critical, with an eye for the possibilities.
His focus on the positives and possibilities has stood out to me. The glass is half full instead of half empty, so to speak.

I do not think we can get anywhere with a breed that is in poor shape, unless we can remain focused on what they could and should be. There is too many negatives to get bogged down in. We have to stay positive.

At the same time, I think we need to remain honest with ourselves about where our birds is at. Maybe it is finding a balance.

 

[fowlman01]

I think sharing them with others that have a good sense of what the breed is, helps. Along the lines of Joseph's suggestions to get them to shows, and have them judged by the judge and your peers. The variety of eyes, with the variety of perspectives could be helpful.

With my Catalanas, I had to decide to look at what they could be. It was that, or I was going to kill every single one of them. One breeder that I respect has a good sense of seeing the possibilities. He sees what is wrong, but he sees what is right. If that makes any sense. With a rare breed/variety there is plenty of wrong to get stuck on. Maybe it is important to be critical, with an eye for the possibilities.
His focus on the positives and possibilities has stood out to me. The glass is half full instead of half empty, so to speak.

I do not think we can get anywhere with a breed that is in poor shape, unless we can remain focused on what they could and should be. There is too many negatives to get bogged down in. We have to stay positive.

At the same time, I think we need to remain honest with ourselves about where our birds is at. Maybe it is finding a balance.

Sometimes we forget to look for the positive things in our birds. Some of the old timers put more weight on the positives than the negatives.... ..unless there were DQ's.

Walt

 

[Wisher1000]

One of the things that helps me is to take photos of individual birds---lots of them---and study them on the computer. I tend to see things that I don't see when the birds are moving around outside. Then if I see something I didn't notice on the live bird, I can go back and look at the bird again outside and confirm what I'm seeing, good or bad trait. I find I can be a bit more objective looking at a still photo.

I think sharing them with others that have a good sense of what the breed is, helps. Along the lines of Joseph's suggestions to get them to shows, and have them judged by the judge and your peers. The variety of eyes, with the variety of perspectives could be helpful.

With my Catalanas, I had to decide to look at what they could be. It was that, or I was going to kill every single one of them. One breeder that I respect has a good sense of seeing the possibilities. He sees what is wrong, but he sees what is right. If that makes any sense. With a rare breed/variety there is plenty of wrong to get stuck on. Maybe it is important to be critical, with an eye for the possibilities.
His focus on the positives and possibilities has stood out to me. The glass is half full instead of half empty, so to speak.

I do not think we can get anywhere with a breed that is in poor shape, unless we can remain focused on what they could and should be. There is too many negatives to get bogged down in. We have to stay positive.

At the same time, I think we need to remain honest with ourselves about where our birds is at. Maybe it is finding a balance.

Good advice, well appreciated, everyone!

I have to fight, everyday, to stay focused on type. I think it is because, with these birds, the color/pattern is flashy and draws attention to itself. My first thoughts are about color. "That one has too much white in the breast, that one has lots of shafting, that one has barring that is more like lacing, etc."

I must redirect my focus onto the type. "That one has a fuller breast, that one has a better tail angle, that ones legs are straighter or set wider. That one has a wider head".

Of course, then, the better typed ones will have the less desirable color.......... LOL! I guess, the decisions are eventually made, and they determine what your birds become. That is the way this game is played, right?

I really do need to take lots of pics of my birds, not only to be able to study them, but so that I can get some help with critiquing them. I just never seem to get out there with my camera in my hand. I will try harder. I do have one, taken in the last two days, that I took to show my SC partner. We were discussing tails and how the standard calls for barring on all the tail feathers, but you rarely see that. She commented that she has a pic, somewhere, of a bird she saw with that kind of tail. I took the pic to show her one of mine. It's on my phone, I'll try to get it posted. She was so excited! I was so proud.

George, I think you hit the nail on the head. Each point you made was spot on what I needed. I have been thinking I didn't want to show any of these, but instead look forward to the time when I could take nice (nicer) examples. I may just need to swallow my pride and take what I have, to get the help I can't get locally. That is, unless you want to make a road trip to Alabama to help me.........

 

[Wisher1000]

Here is the pic I was talking about.

She is only about 10 weeks old. She has the rounded back that I am fighting (Remember, Joseph?) She also has a white breast, which should be barred and have a definite "shirt front" pattern. Her leg and eye color are good, her barring on her back is messy. Her wings are not as bad as the picture makes them look. She was not happy about being pulled off the roost at dusk and I had just pulled my other hand off of her to allow DH to snap the pic.

Any comments?

 

[NeilsHamburgs]

Is the roundness of back from feathering or do you have roachback?

 

[Wisher1000]

I have heard that term but never a description if it. I suspect that since you asked, it looks like the picture. It is not from the feathering. It is a rounding if the actual back from the wing area to the tail. It is better in some, worse in others, but I know it is not right and must be eliminated.

 

[NeilsHamburgs]

It is a very hereditary fault and hard to breed out.

 

[gjensen]

I have heard that term but never a description if it. I suspect that since you asked, it looks like the picture. It is not from the feathering. It is a rounding if the actual back from the wing area to the tail. It is better in some, worse in others, but I know it is not right and must be eliminated.

Do your birds produce any that do not have it?