A Heritage of Perfection: Standard-bred Large Fowl

[newmanmichael]

Breed clubs are made strong by members like Bob Blosi. It takes promotion and a core group of hard workers.

Walt

I've never had the privilege of meeting Bob. What club did he start? I'd love to learn how to lead a club.

Update: Disregard.. I found out he was involved with RIR and I'm sorry to hear he has passed.

 

[brahmabreeder]

posting to subscribe

 

[gjensen]

I've never had the privilege of meeting Bob. What club did he start? I'd love to learn how to lead a club.

Update: Disregard.. I found out he was involved with RIR and I'm sorry to hear he has passed.

He was involved with the Plymouth Rock also. Walt's use of Bob as an example, was a good one. He had a knack for stirring interest in people, and for promoting the birds. I do not know that you will find many like him.

There is a mature gentleman near me that in some ways reminded me of Bob. Mostly his enthusiasm. He is more into plants than birds (though he has them), but his enthusiasm is infectious.

Even here on BYC, Bob stirred an interest in his Reds and Rocks. I would even say a lasting interest. There are quite a few people that did not have them (on here), before Bob started his thread. It is difficult to know just what kind of impact that he had. A man or woman like him, with that ability, and the open forum we have today could make an impact. I do not know that the impact Bob had could be duplicated, but a real impact .

That is what some of these breeds are lacking. True fans that are sincere enthusiasts, that actively promote the breeds and not themselves. An interest in the birds is one thing we all have in common. We see things differently, but we like the birds.

The internet has some advantages and usefulness. It is not all good. Everything costs. There are quite a few people that have influenced my outlook and expanded my paradigm. People that I would have never heard from otherwise. Some on here, and some in other places. I am grateful to have had that opportunity.

I noticed some remarks on breed promotion not long ago, and I think they were right. Much of what a breed club does or should do is promote the breed. For many breeds, there is a lack of active promotion. There re still quite a few that could use active promotion. Ironically, many are some of the most practical options and attractive birds to look at

 

[3riverschick]

The Marans roosters are good size boys.

Wow! What a body on that Marans cock !

Woot! Woot!

 

[Vamvakas]

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

What is eWh/eb heterozygotes?? Sounds like a formula code to hack into the new Wolfenstein game just released about 1 week ago..

 

[3riverschick]

What is eWh/eb heterozygotes?? Sounds like a formula code to hack into the new Wolfenstein game just released about 1 week ago..

2 different locuses for poultry. There are a bunch of them. They are the canvases upon which the color and modifier genes interact.
Light Brahmas are built on the eb (Brown) locus with the Columbian gene plus Black and White(Silver?) genes. This means the
underfluff is tinted. It takes the proper hue of underfluff to create the proper top coloring in the bird. When a bird is built on eWh (Wheaten) Columbian ( plus Black and Silver genes) , the feathers are white to the skin. The underfluff isn't tinted and no need to balance underfluff color to get proper top color. Now eWh Columbian black and white birds can still show black peppering/stippling in the white parts. But that's because the breeder allowed too much black in the black parts, not because the genetic make-up
of the underfluff had anything to do with it. One problem in eWh Black and White Columbians is the desire for a superhackle.
This is when the black bleeds thru the bottom of the hackle feathers( instead of entirely lacing the feather in white. The hackle
looks like a solid black necklace around the bottom of the bird's neck. Breeding for superhackle can put too much black in the bird
and result in black stippling in the white areas. A no-no in Light Sussex.
In Light Brahmas, it's ok to have some stippling in the white areas because it can show up as a resulting of balancing the hue in
the underfluff to get correct top color.
So while the early Light Sussex breeders were trying to figure out how to get rid of the stippling and brassiness, they ended up with birds which were eb and eWh, carrying one gene ( allele?) from each locus. Reading the early works of Outram and Sharpe, , one can see they were intrigued by birds which sometimes showed less black stippling/brassiness than others. Those were the heterozygotes. From them they started breeding for birds with the "stay white" gene. Which wouldn't get brassy due to sun, food, or foul weather. Those were birds which were pure eWh and/or moved from the White gene to the Silver gene. I am not sure about this last point because I haven't checked if any of the 3 breeds had a White gene in them or if all were due to Silver. In any case, it's a fascinating history of breeders using the art of breeding to accomplish what we do now with genetics.

Also, in the early works, one reads a lot about how to house /what to feed one's Light Sussex to avoid brassiness. That's because they were still working with eb/eb/ or eWh/eb birds. Once they got the breed moved to eWh/eWh those admonitions disappear from breed lit.

Best,
Karen

 

[Yellow House Farm]

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?

The old adage is one-in-ten is worth moving forward. Are you hatching enough chicks to have a pool for selection? Even the best lines can show high levels of variance. If you're only raising up a few in each breed, it all becomes a question of dumb luck.

If you actually want to breed towards a goal, you need to hatch enough to ensure a selection pool. If you want to keep one males, try to raise at least ten. If you regularly keep only one male, you will soon need to add new blood which with eliminate any "progress" of selection made.

 

[racertomtom]

The old adage is one-in-ten is worth moving forward.

I've never heard that. Have you found it to be beneficial or a worthwhile target?

 

[3riverschick]

I've never heard that. Have you found it to be beneficial or a worthwhile target?

Yup, one in ten is classic advice. Or 10 in 100, etc.
Best,
Karen

 

[rancher hicks]

The old adage is one-in-ten is worth moving forward. Are you hatching enough chicks to have a pool for selection? Even the best lines can show high levels of variance. If you're only raising up a few in each breed, it all becomes a question of dumb luck.

If you actually want to breed towards a goal, you need to hatch enough to ensure a selection pool. If you want to keep one males, try to raise at least ten. If you regularly keep only one male, you will soon need to add new blood which with eliminate any "progress" of selection made.

I did not know this. Thanks, I will certainly be hatching and hanging onto more. It may mean another coop but such is life I guess.