Lavender Ameraucana Breeders .... UNITE

[Ravynscroft]

I know you asked Walt, but I'll stick my nose in here - just for clarification as to the petition for self-blue.   You can't submit the petition until you have the 5 APA members, who have been breeding the variety for five years and are willing to sign an affidavit to that.  Our five member breeder team are Paul Smith (TX), Jean Ribbeck (WA), Barbara Dodington (Ont-Can), Debra Hogan (CA), and Christina Korfus (WA).

In addition to the five APA members who have been breeding the variety for five years at the time of the petition, you should also show that there have been at least two shows with 4-4-4-4 (Cocks-Hens-Cockerels-Pullets).  We couldn't quite make those numbers, so we have yet to fulfill that obligation, although I was able to show, with meet reports that accompanied our petition, that we have had self-blues entered in meets across the country, at least since 2009.  Once that obligation is met, then Walt can assign the first of two qualifying meets - that's where the 5-5-5-5 shown by APA members come in.

You can read our proposed Standard, as well as the cover letter to APA and the meet reports (the link to the meet reports is in the APA cover letter), at http://www.ameraucanabreedersclub.org/self-blue sop.html

So, theoretically, if we had met the conditions for the 4-4-4-4, we could have had our first qualifying meet this year, the second qualifying meet next year, and be done in two years.  It is going to take a bit longer as we still have to get the 4-4-4-4 numbers out of the way before our qualifying meets can be placed.

Susan answered it correctly below your post. There is a lot of fives to insure that the promoters of a breed stick with it for at least five years. The average time for people to stay in poultry is 2-3 years. The APA is looking for a long term commitment and the five year rule will do a good job of insuring that we don't include more breeds that are now basically extinct. People rush to get birds in the Standard and then abandon them to either leave poultry or ......more often get another breed or variety in just to say they did it. There is a lot of ego things going on over these Standard admissions.

The APA wants to insure that due diligence is done and commitment shown for the long haul. There will be no more "drive by" admissions to the APA Standard. By drive by....I mean non APA members getting things added or changed in the Standard and then disappearing from the poultry scene or moving on to their next money making scheme. That's not happening any more...and it happened a lot before we changed the rules.

Has anyone here seen Black crested white Polish? Barred Leghorns? Rose comb or single comb Cuckoo Dorkings? They are in the APA Standard.....but don't exist any longer. If we had the five year rules they would not have been in the Standard.

Walt

Thank you both for your in depth responses... I appreciate learning to understand the process behind what is needed for acceptance, whether I will actually use the knowledge or not remains a product of the future, lol...

 

[fowlman01]

 

[Shaffer]

 

[fowlman01]

I posted it, I know what it says. Read the first sentence.

 

[samouw]

How far is that from Hollywood Fl? I have many I would love to show. Only problem is I'm taking the family to Gatlinburg Tennessee this weekend and I'm going to Nyc in October so my pto is all used up.

Well, Inverness is mid-state, so you're probably 3-4 hours away.

 

[samouw]

Some probably are and some are interested in making quality. I have had the problem to distinquish which ones are serious breeders in the past with this color and other breeds I have had that is why I am reluctant to sell birds.

Agreed. Sometimes it is very difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff.

 

[samouw]

Maybe the name will get changed to lavender in the future?

I have read that feather quality can suffer when breeding lav x lav. For someone like me just starting out, what would be a good number of birds to work towards? (Realizing I am just a hobby breeder and want to produce nice birds, not really interested in selling - maybe showing some day.) Would it be best to have a black-split rooster and several lavender hens, or aim for a good lavender rooster and a mix of lav and black-split hens?

Obviously I'm still in the research phase.

Highly doubtful. The APA has already established a precedent to name any breed with the "lavender" color pattern as self-blue. To change that in the future would mean that all of them would have to be changed and I personally, can see no good reason for it.

As I and others have stated, the name self-blue and lavender are interchangeable for the same coloration.

 

[Ravynscroft]

Some probably are and some are interested in making quality.  I have had the problem to distinquish which ones are serious breeders in the past with this color and other breeds I have had that is why I am reluctant to sell birds.

I completely understand that... and there are way too many 'puppy mill' people out there...

Sorry, Jean and Walt my birds did not come out of self blues but were decedents of birds called  Lavender Araucanas.

I hadn't heard that, that's interesting to know... from the UK version?

 

[FowlStuff]

Sorry, Jean and Walt my birds did not come out of self blues but were decedents of birds called Lavender Araucanas.

Yes Harry, we know that lavender (lav) breeds true and that is one reason I started them and dropped blues (Bl) that don't breed true. All lavenders come from other lavenders. It is simply genetics, but some want to hold on to the past and resist change no matter what has been scientifically proven. They are painting themselves into a corner.
Many of us grew up being told Pluto was a planet, but now it isn't by definition so we don't call it one and the text books have been corrected.
I've read many times that blue shelled eggs were "lower in cholesterol and higher in nutritional value" than other eggs, but decades ago tests proved that was wrong so we don't repeat the falsehood and have printed the correction.
Long before my time fanciers came up with a self blue variety of chicken. Some birds may have even been genetically self blue, but science proved that the true breeding self blue/gray looking variety was really not genetically blue (Bl) but rather lavender (Lav). So most of the world, including North American breeders of Ameraucanas, Silkies, Orpingtons and several other breeds, started calling them "lavender".
Can you imagine someday when they say my "lavender silver" variety will have to be recognized as "self blue silver"? Oh, and that list goes on...self blue wheaten, self blue self blue, etc.

 

[Ravynscroft]

Maybe the name will get changed to lavender in the future?

I have read that feather quality can suffer when breeding lav x lav.  For someone like me just starting out, what would be a good number of birds to work towards?  (Realizing I am just a hobby breeder and want to produce nice birds, not really interested in selling - maybe showing some day.) Would it be best to have a black-split rooster and several lavender hens, or aim for a good lavender rooster and a mix of lav and black-split hens?

Obviously I'm still in the research phase.

@pips&peeps

Since this question was ignored would you be willing to advise here, Jean? Please? I'd also like to know what you think about it as well since I've heard conflicting advice previously... thank you...