kentucky specks?

[grammanenan]

I just hatched 6 Specks yesterday and today... need more info - lets keep the dialogue going

 

[grammanenan]

Latest info I have on the breed is:
Monte Bowen Plevna KS [email protected]
John Mead Milford CT
Shady Lane Hatchery
And the folks I got my hatching eggs from on this forum from Oregon

I also have found some phone numbers during a google search, but don't feel comfortable posting them myself

 

[Peradventure]

The following is some information from Jay of the Kentucky Specks yahoo group:

"I talked with Roy Stacey last night. For those who do not know Mr Stacey he is the man that named the breed. He named the breed in 2006. He had to give the birds a name to show them in a SPPA show. Before 2006 they were simply known as speckled bantams. He named them Kentucky Specks because the birds was from Kentucky and hey were speckled. Thats how the name Kentucky Speck came about.

Roy has had these birds for over 60 years. He wrote an article for them in the Poultry Press and he is going to write a follow up article with pictures and information about type. Roy is the person that is responsible for the breed.

As for type. The leg color of the Specks should be yellow or yellow with black mottling.The leg color should not be white. Roy culls ALL birds with white legs. . . .

The birds come in two comb types. Straight and Rose. The birds are primarily black and white. The roosters can show a little red. The roosters should not be heavily red and any roosters showing heavy red color should not be used to breed as they are not specks. They are incorrect.

Roy says he would be glad to write a standard for the breed. The birds are very hardy. They lay very well for a bantam and make for very good broody birds.

Roy is a poultry judge. He raises several types of birds. His Old English Game Bantams are some of the best birds in the country. He is hands down the person responsible for the breed and thus the only person who should be able to write the standard. He is the person who is responsible for the specks that we all have in our flocks now. Either directly or indirectly. It is my opinion that we should take him up on his offer to write the breed standard and we should follow it.

Roy doesn't have an E-Mail address and I will not give out his phone number. Jay"

 

[Poultriary]

I have more updates. Roy, the "discoverer" or "creator" of the Specks (depending on who you talk to-the controversy around these guys has become quite entertaining) has written a draft Kentucky Speck Standard.

We have definite plans to hold a meet at the 2012 Ohio National in Columbus. I have suggested on the Yahoo Group that one of the other two meets should be the Kentuckiana Show in Shelbyville, Kentucky the following May. I'd personally like to see that be the last of the three required showings. When we figure out where the other one will be, I will let everyone know.

 

[The Breaker]

I have some information on the Kentucky specks they have Ben around since the 1800,s but were just called speckled bantams but 75 years ago a man in Kentucky found them in a barn and really started to organize the breed in fact I have a single comb cockerel a single comb pullet and a rose comb cockerel and a rose comb pullet directly from the blood line of those birds.Don't be fulled by what some people say this breed is very reel

 

[Lovely Emily]

I personally think that these birds, in reality, have a similar history to Bow Lake fowl, that someone unknowledgable 'made' them from a bunch of 'Bantams' (there are alot of people who think Bantam is a breed), then sold them as a breed to someone without specifying what breed. Someone noticed that they bred true, and named them for there homeland and color, and voila! I don't know who started the rumor that KSs are a historic breed, but, I am not willing to doubt or believe it unless there is proof of some sort. This is why, when a breeder discovers a group of birds that breed true, it is important that that breeder does not embelish a story just to sell the breed.

Emily

 

[Lovely Emily]

Chicken Boy, where did you hear that about KSs? It may be true, and we want to believe it is. Think of how amazing it would be to rediscover a heritage breed after having it 'fall through the cracks'. It always helps to have a refference point.

 

[The Breaker]

well I have never heard of the breed in till a couple of days ago I saw on a news letter from the Arkansas poultry club this dude was selling out all his stock off Kentucky specks he said they were rare and there is even a Kentucky speck Yahoo group so I did some research to make shure that this wasn't an attempt to sell some cros breed bantams and the data added up so I whent to go buy them and he told me all about the history of them.

 

[The Breaker]

here's some pics of my Kentucky specks.here's the hole grouprose comb cockerelrose comb pulletsingle comb cockerelsingle comb pullet

 

[Poultriary]

Emily & Chicken Boy,

I can assure you that these are not any sort of hoax F1 hybrids. I'm 3 generations in to breeding them and they are quite stable in their characteristics in a manner that would not be indicative of a recent hybrid.

The only variables I 've really seen are in the leg color, with some whites showing up.

The only real debate at this point is whether Roy Stacey "rediscovered" them or created them years ago. If Mr. Stacey developed the breed rather than simply bringing them to the attention of the poultry world, well, he did a fine job. They are great birds.

But, to me it's irrelevant. Kentucky specks are gentically stable, have great personalities, are good layers and they provide me with a great deal of pleasure in keeping them. I'd love to be able to show them as an ABA-accepted breed at our local shows and at national shows in Stockton and Columbus; but if that never happens, I will continue to breed them, promote them, and sell fertile eggs to those who are interested in them.

Denis, founder of the Yahoo Group and contented Kentucky Speck keeper.