Your set and proud of you. Glad I could help you and so many this year. Its not relly that hard to get started if you do it right. Also, you need to interview or talk to super good breeders even if they only been raising chickens for five years. You can learn from anyone.
Your message brought back a moment in my youth in 19 65 at the Central Washington Fair in Yakama Washington. I was there all week feeding the chickens and had a chance to watch CM Cy Lewis Judge the top two birds for champion of the show. He had to make a tie barker or protest as a Black Cochin Ckl beat a White Rock Large Fowl Ckl for champion of the show. There was a protest by the guy who had the White Rock ckl saying bantams cants beat large fowl for champion of the show. Well I watched Mr. Lewis score each bird and my mentor Bill Morris a Red Breeder kept the score of each bird. The white rock won by a half a point. It was 96 points for the white rock and the Cochin was 95 1/2 points. In my view the bantam should have won.
Heck I grabbed the white rock large fowl at Carl Hoves yard first and then put him on the ground and went with another male. Paid $10. for both males. The male that won matured and won at three shows that year for my junior partner. So much for using my quickest eye in the west training on that male. Never did that again once I make my mind up I stick with my gut.. I should have kept him and I would have won all the big champion ribbons. But he was a bought bird. No fun in winning with a bought birds rather than won you breed and raised yourself.
Non the less my mentor Mr. Morris asked Judge Lewis would you judge a Rhode Island Red Pullet and Hen using the old point system for Robert to learn how you do this..? I would be happy to. So we went out and got a hamburger and coke and came back and started this educationally event. I did not have a note pad, I did not have a reel to reel portable tape recorder. I had a good memory but it was coming at me to fast for a teenager. So I said about every 15 minutes please excuse me I got to go to the bath room. What I did was I had a ink pen and two paper feed sacks empty so I took the brown paper off of the sack and wrote down what they where telling me as fast as I could. Then come back and they would go again and hit me with all this point cuts and stuff about type vs color. And off I would go to the bath room but I didn't and made notes. Finally after about 45 minute's I had all my notes written down and latter that night I got some note book paper and rewrote my notes and every thing they told me on scoring Rhode Island Reds using the old point system and how to breed Red Color if you have faults from my mentor Mr. Morris ect.
I was so excited that night I could hardly sleep in the Poultry Barn in my sleeping bag. I got a 1 hour mentoring class worth $1,000. for free. I will never forget it and was so great full that my Mentor Mr. Morris did this for me. Since then I interviewed many other Mentors and Master Breeders pumping their brains out. You take what you can use and apply it to your program. This was tought to me by my grandpa as a 10 year old. Want to be good at something learn from ten of the very best in their field and apply it to your life and program. It works some think its witch craft but they are not master breeders of old time Standard Breed Poutlry. Keep kicking the can down the road. The tread wont die.
