A Heritage of Perfection: Standard-bred Large Fowl

[Vamvakas]

It is very difficult to keep a club going as it seems the ones that want to lead out in them (the early aggressive leaders) are also the ones to quit breeding after a few years. There seems to be a lot of surface enthusiasm, someone sees a breed, really likes a certain color and decides they want to breed and raise them. After realizing that it actually takes a tremendous amount of dedication and commitment the vast majority will just quit. I've given away a lot more quality fowl than I've sold in an effort to get a breed spread out and into more hands. I am becoming discouraged from doing so as a lot of good birds were lost in the effort. Of course I won't give away my best unless I know said breeder has already been breeding show quality poultry for 10 years or more and has no intention of quitting. I am here to learn from others that have walked the path ahead of me.

Greeks use the old school way as old school Americans did.. Keep the best/biggest rooster/hens and best looking. Breed them without the math and stupid genetics. If you talk about genetics in Greece people will think your an idiot and call you a "malaka".

 

[neopolitancrazy]

I've followed Joseph's posts for over a year and have found him to be a gifted teacher and talented writer. I would strongly suggest to those who find the whole "culture" and language of Standard bred poultry to be challenging to you to hang in there. Being married and working my way through it, I remember it taking 5 1/2 years to do my undergrad and many more years to complete my graduate studies. Things worth learning take time to process.

If it were all readily familiar and did not challenge you and your previous thinking, ask yourself how that would be learning something new?

Still so much to learn myself; so much to try and discover and so much to appreciate.

ditto.

 

[bnjrob]

I suspect the internet social forums meet the need to associate with like minded people. Information is easy to have.

Then, the boom of interest in keeping poultry does not seam to have benefited many breeds. There is still a lack of interest among those that take it seriously. Or want to.

It appears that the breed clubs in the best shape are those with breeds that have the most interest.

It would seam that it would require the right core group to get it going, keep it going, promote it and the breed. Create it's own following, so to speak. The members need to benefit in some way, or it is not worth the money. The club is competing with the internet.

Just my opinions.

Well, if you're talking about the clubs competing with general places like BYC on the internet - I agree.

But the internet is going to have to be used as a tool if the clubs want to remain viable long term. When you're running a club on minimal funding, the internet is the fastest option of getting information out to people inexpensively. And the internet can bring people together when they can't be together in person, allowing online private meetings, educational webinars, and just social chatting with people of similar interests. The internet is also how many, many people get their information these days. Some people don't even read real paper books, magazines, or newspapers anymore. They want everything on their computer, their tablet, their smart phone. If they can't get the information that way, there are many people who just do without. Unfortunately we have become a society of convenience. So it behooves clubs to learn how to leverage the internet to have an active club.

A serious obstacle that I see is the lack of effective leadership in the clubs. Being vocal or even knowledgeable and passionate about a subject does not automatically make someone an effective leader. Clubs run by people who are mostly interested in making themselves look good, garnering friends, being in control of something, or being a club officer because no one else will do the job, are not likely to accomplish much. Neither are clubs started by a faction of people who left another club because they didn't like the original club for some reason.

Leaders of clubs should consider themselves servants of the members. They should have job descriptions and be elected by the members so that if an officer turns out not to be very effective, the membership can vote someone else in that they feel would be more effective. A leader of a club should not remain in the position forever - that causes stagnation and the start of "we've always done it this way so why should we change" kind of attitudes.

An effective leader needs to understand how to anticipate the needs of the club members. They need to understand how to reach both current and prospective members in order to meet the needs of the club as an entity unto itself, as well as meeting the more individual needs of the members. A good leader actively looks for ways to get the members engaged in the club, keep the flow of ideas coming, and generate passion among the members so that everyone works to meet the club goals. An effective leader may not know how to do everything, but they will recognize their own weaknesses and actively seek input and assistance from others who are stronger in those areas.

Clubs should have clearly defined mission/vision statements to help the officers guide the members in meeting group goals. And clubs need both short and long term goals, which evolve as needed, to direct the club activities.

Clubs need to take a stand on issues, guided by the mission/vision statement and goals of the club. Catering to everyone's personal whims and trying to keep everyone happy all the time weakens the club. "People pleasing", for whatever reason, causes a loss of authority and respect - a breed club should be seen as an authoritative resource.

Effective leaders need to understand that people are going to disagree. They may have heated discussions on the subject. And that should be ok. People who care about something can be quite passionate. Better to have a heated verbal argument than have someone boiling under the surface til they explode and shoot someone. A good leader doesn't stop all communication just because people get angry. A good leader guides things so that the passion remains and people can hash things out. Everybody does not have to agree on every single point. The effective leader will be able to coordinate the various opinions to bring things to a general consensus and then make a decision.

And the effective leader doesn't take everything personally every time someone has a complaint or criticism.

Not everyone is born an effective leader. But a person can become an effective leader through educating themselves - lots of free and inexpensive leadership classes out there these days - and also through being open minded and thinking of themselves as a servant of the members rather than a king looking for recognition from others.

Without effective leadership, a breed club isn't going to do much for a breed or the members.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

Greeks use the old school way as old school Americans did.. Keep the best/biggest rooster/hens and best looking. Breed them without the math and stupid genetics. If you talk about genetics in Greece people will think your an idiot and call you a "malaka".

Yes, but as a "malaka" I can tell you that a knowledge of genetics can be very helpful. Necessary? No. Helpful? Very much so.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

For a long time now, I've thought that the time of breed clubs is passing. The primary reason for a breed club was to be connected to other breeders and to read about their adventures in a newsletter. On-line tools have very much assumed that space and with an instant gratification benefit. I think there are certain tried and true breed clubs that are part of the institution, but as a whole, I see us moving towards a mooring in the APA/ABA and online support groups like here on BYC and Facebook.

 

[racertomtom]

Greeks use the old school way as old school Americans did.. Keep the best/biggest rooster/hens and best looking. Breed them without the math and stupid genetics. If you talk about genetics in Greece people will think your an idiot and call you a "malaka".

The American old timers new a lot more about genetics than people give them credit for, they just didn’t have a name for it and couldn’t explain why things were the way they were. It was called experience.

 

[bnjrob]

For a long time now, I've thought that the time of breed clubs is passing. The primary reason for a breed club was to be connected to other breeders and to read about their adventures in a newsletter. On-line tools have very much assumed that space and with an instant gratification benefit. I think there are certain tried and true breed clubs that are part of the institution, but as a whole, I see us moving towards a mooring in the APA/ABA and online support groups like here on BYC and Facebook.

I think there is still a place for breed clubs - if the clubs will work on improving their leaders' leadership skills and start taking more of an advocate/resource role for the breed and the breeders. There are more people getting interested in the utilitarian aspects of poultry that may be turned off by clubs that focus mainly on exhibiting poultry, but by opening up things to help people understand that you can breed to a standard even if you don't want to exhibit and making non-show people feel more welcome, then that may garner more support for a breed and the breed club. It's almost like some of the breed clubs don't do much because they expect the APA to do things. The APA does have a good setup as far as the organizational aspects/leaders etc. But they can only do so much when it comes to some things within individual breeds.

 

[bnjrob]

The American old timers new a lot more about genetics than people give them credit for, they just didn’t have a name for it and couldn’t explain why things were the way they were. It was called experience.

They sure did know a lot. About all kinds of things. I spend a lot of time reading antique literature on all kinds of subjects and am amazed at how much they knew and did, despite not understanding the full science behind things they did and not having words to describe some things.

 

[3riverschick]

They sure did know a lot. About all kinds of things. I spend a lot of time reading antique literature on all kinds of subjects and am amazed at how much they knew and did, despite not understanding the full science behind things they did and not having words to describe some things.

You can see this in the history of the LIght Sussex. They were created out of 3 breeds. One was eWh based and 2 were eb based. The early breeders had a time with brassiness and tinted undercolor. They discussed many a tme how to rid the brassiness and how to balance undercolor to get best top color. It is obvious now they were dealing with eWh/eb heterozygotes. or plain eb based Columbians. Over time they figured out they could get rid of the brassiness by having all white underfluff. They had found the eWh/eWh Columbian but didn't know it's name as the locus wasn't named till later. By the 1930s we see the breed being described as "pure white to the skin" and without brassiness. Without knowing the gene and locus names, the breeders had winnowed a pure eWh Columbian out of a multi locus/multi color foundation.
Best,
Karen

 

[rancher hicks]

I'm asking this question here because I believe there are some MORE knowledgeable people here.

I've got two roosters. One a Birchen Marans and one Delaware.

My Marans have always matured early, the Dels not so much.

However They're combs are bright red and they're at least three months old, yet they seem awfully small in size.

The Marans roosters are good size boys. The father of the Del on the other hand seems smaller than either of his possible fathers. All chicks are raised on 20% protein feed.

I know this rooster has a white tail feather but I'm working to size right now. Both he and his son have nice broad chests and are acceptable.

What could be the problem?