Pictures of Possible APA Standard Marans Please...

[amazondoc]

I do love that icon --

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[littlepeddler]

To be exact the APA board directors made a decision at the meet to neither accept or reject the BCM's. BUT to have another meet SOMETIME in 2010. And so like you say Mike if they had not.....it probably would have resulted in the process starting all over again.



And they are are on the borderline of being accepted if the next generation can measure up to the young birds that were submitted.

And the condition of the birds improved.

Any organization of breeders can hold the meet as well.

As stated before......they (BCM'S) were just not quite ready.

Brenda

Haste Makes Waste!!!

 

[OSUman]

I was there and from what i saw on the score sheets either the birds were phenomenal or the needed some work. there was on pullet that won Best of breed that was just stunning.

 

[Ryu]

I sat with some judges at the Nationals banquet in IL. The BC Marans were 'Deferred'. They are being given another chance to get enough birds that meet standard at the National show next year without having to reapply. I don't think there were any rule changes made.

It was very educational. I'm hoping the Illini show will help BC Marans breeders focus their efforts. There were some nice birds there.

I think an online show or something of the sort before the next National would be helpful.

 

[amazondoc]

Quote:
There definitely are some APA rules being changed, but I don't know the exact dates those changes will be in effect.

It was very educational. I'm hoping the Illini show will help BC Marans breeders focus their efforts. There were some nice birds there.

I wish I had been able to go! And I agree with you, I think it will be a great help in focussing our efforts. Folks need to remember that most Marans folks ARE new to showing, so of course most of us still have lots to learn!

I think an online show or something of the sort before the next National would be helpful.

I think we'll be having lots of discussions about preps for showing before the next show.

 

[amazondoc]

Quote:
I was very proud of that hen. I got to see her when Bev stopped at Dick's place on the way up to Springfield, and I wanted to take her home with me!

 

[OSUman]

I wanted some of those Marans to but none had marans or aracaunas for sale and they were the main meets there.

 

[SBRUSH88]

The straight skinny on APA Qualifying Process and Changes - from Sam Brush, APA Vice President and member of the Standard Committee -

Just wanted to ping in here and clear up some of the misinterpretations and confusion on all of this, since it has been a little bit like that story about folks whispering something going around a circle, and by the time it comes back around things are totally different!

First, there has been NO change of APA rules or process with regard to the regular admission/recognition guidelines for new large fowl, bantams, waterfowl, turkeys or guinea fowl. Proposed new breeds and varieties still have to go through the process stated in the APA bylaws - propose a standard, show a certain number of birds (very minimal) at shows in the years leading up to the tentative qualifying meet, furnish signed affidavits from 5 breeders, provide a proposed Standard, pay the established fee per variety, and hold a successful qualifying meet that includes 50 specimens, multiple exhibitors, with some birds shown in each of the four age/sex classes (e.g. cocks, hens, cockerels, pullets).

The "change" that everyone seems to be talking about, and which the APA board should have explained more clearly

has to do with a new alternative process for recognizing bantam breeds and varieties which are already recognized by the American Bantam Association. This underwent a final Board vote at Belvidere and is now fully implemented. That process requires many of the same things as the usual admission process (application fees per variety, recommended Standard description, but instead of the qualifying meet, all those breeds/varieties need to do is document that 200 birds of that type were shown somewhere in North America over the past two years. If the proposal is for a breed with several varieties coming in as a group, then each of the varieties must have at least 20 birds shown in that variety over the two years, and 200 overall for the breed. The Standard Committee still has make a recommendation to the APA board and then the Board votes on whether to admit them or not. Again, this ONLY applies for currently recognized ABA bantam breeds and varieties. If folks want to get Self Blue Minorca Bantams recognized by the APA, then they would need to go through that alternative process including the documentation that 200 have been shown over the past couple of years. If a new variety of bantam, say Paisley Leghorns, are desired, the proponents would have to coordinate with both the APA and ABA on the process for doing that so that we don't end up with conflicting descriptions.

If we have a new variety of large fowl to propose, they go through the usual, rigorous process.

Getting back to the specifics of the BC Marans qualifying meet, the qualifying meet judge Dave Anderson and the Standard Committee members all worked hard to consider all factors for that qualifying meet, and the result was what I think is best described as a deferred decision. While there were some bright spots and modest consistency among the young birds (cockerels and pullets), the condition and standard quality among the older birds drew the overall picture down. Considering that it was quite an early show to be trying for a good string of well conditioned birds, and recognizing that there were some quality birds in the mix among the young stock, the APA felt that a flexible approach was to simply ask that the qualifying meet effort be "extended" to include another showing where hopefully additional exhibitors and a better caliber of show specimens might confirm that the variety was sufficient to recognize. If some of the Marans photos on BYC are any benchmark, those quality birds are out there, and there just needs to be a more coordinated wrangling of quality entries to get to the mark. As I remarked to some of my committee colleagues, there are classes of already recognized large fowl varieties at the largest shows in America that have lower overall quality than what the BC Marans had at Belvidere. Judges don't like to see that caliber of poultry showing up either, but sometimes it happens. The Marans group took a good run at it, and hopefully they understand what the weaknesses were which caused the APA to refrain from full endorsement until another day.

Hope this clarifies what transpired, and explains that there really aren't any "new" rules bouncing back and forth regarding recognition for large fowl. The changes that have been crafted for the ABA-recognized bantam process were all carefully thought out and developed over the past two years until we got to that final vote in Illinois. Some say all this is STILL too tough, but the perspective of the Standard Committee and Board is that proposed new breeds and varieties need to demonstrate that they have a solid level of standing and sufficient quality, interest and merit to gain recognition. It is a tough crucible for them to go through, and that is the way it should be.

Now, if someone wants to get Cuckoo Marans bantams (which are in the Bantam Standard) recognized by the APA, then they might see about doing it via the new process for admitting breeds or varieties already in the Bantam Standard.

Thanks for reading this too-long of a post.

Sam Brush
APA Vice President and Standard Committee Member

 

[SBRUSH88]

And yes, that male of 3chickens would have been a welcome participant among the males at the Marans festival in Illinois. Very nice! Replicate him a dozen times or so and that class would be a lock.

Sam Brush
APA Vice President

 

[amazondoc]

Quote:
Thanks SO much for explaining this. It really is confusing!