Annual breed fads

[iajewel]

I think thats why I have a hard time with trends. I have a back yard with chickens in it. Now don't get me wrong my blue Orphs are to die for, as are my little partridge cochin bantums and Auracana (sp) I have some rose comb RIRs too just for fun and I keep track of all the breeding on Evans pedigree program so every hens eggs are accounted for and every chick has a pedigree.

At the end of the day however.. they are chickens.. and they run around my yard and eat bugs and chase the dog and make me laugh. I eat them, I gather eggs, and the only thing that differs them from any other back yard bird is they are mine with the colors and breeds that I enjoy to look at when feeding. If I had 5K to spend on birds, just think of the improvements I could make in the brooder house, or their barn, when like another poster said, a coyote can eat a 5000 bird. Not only that but you can import an entire flock for that amount.. The fact their reserve isn't met.. says that buyers have some common sence and the fact some odd bidder is out bidding himself says they are desperate. Very sad.

 

[Debbi]

It's just like anything else in this world. Look how many fools stood in line for 12 hours, to shuck out 600 bucks for an I Phone?? What's the point, give it a few months and the price will drop to nothing, and the new "it" thing will be obsolete. Same with chickens. But hey, the businesses are out to make money, and as long as they have a following, they'll stay in business and make a handsome profit too. Me personally, I can wait...

 

[halo]

Chocolate orpingtons, just brown chickens. I dont particularly care for them.

Lavender whatevers. Isnt lavender just self blue, which has been around forever? Seems like calling a bird lavender this or chocolate that is just romanticising colors that have been around for years in other breeds.

My main gripe is birds like lavender orpingtons. Jody has done an incredible to not only incorporate the color, but the TYPE. Her birds look like orpingtons. The vast majority of people selling lavender orpington eggs are posting pictures of lavender chickens that look nothing like orpingtons, They are just self blue chickens. Which does absolutely nothing for the breed, spreads the genes all over creation, and ruins the breed. Which to me, indicates they are just in it for the money, not for trying to even breed to standard.

 

[punky rooster]

if they are a recongnized breed, like sussex for example you could show a silver one in AOV
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[iajewel]

I think actually my biggest gripe with fads and this color game everyone loves to play is that it can, has and will in the future sacrifice the breed. When you loose the breed standard over a paint job, its not good. Fads I don't mind, its what it does to the breed involved that erks me.
I actually have fun watching trends.

 

[ultasol]

As long as there are people still interested in keeping the recognized colors to show, or that are working hard to get the birds up to standard that aren't recognized colors (like bigmedicine, from what I can tell) then the breeds won't be lost.

There are some breeds or some varieties that are in trouble, and depending on who you talk to they are/are not worth saving. For instance, most people agree that the black crested white polish, which is rarely seen outside of hatcheries anymore, is good riddance to bad rubbish (this is from conversations with APA judges). On the other hand, the good quality speckled sussex would be a loss, as they have proven to be good showbirds and good birds overall (nice examples of sussex in general).

Some fads will fade some will stay,. but if you wait long enough they won't be $5000 or $500 or whatever the cost for an unproven specimen.

 

[pdsavage]

Nothing wrong with following a fad most americans do.Why else would most people wear jeans and t-shirts and not victorian style clothing?
Because that was the fad then and not now.
You can snikker at people for following a fad,but owning chickens is a resent fad as well.....

 

[iajewel]

I agree that some are hard at best to even work on. I have rose comb RIRs and so many have just gone to the single comb that the rose comb are hard at best to find new blood. Im about to give up on my small flock just because the quality at this point is so debatable and most of the chicks end up rose comb. My blue Orphs and BLR on the other hand are very work my time and feed. This is of course a personal opinion that deals with my birds at hand.

As for the ones you mentioned its odd that hatcherys would keep and sell birds that don't seem to be popular enough to up grade the quality?

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Seems odd that most people are picking at the paint job and not the egg-color? Why is simply going for a paint job not as "fad-like" as those that only purchase birds based on egg-color?



and....begin the ripping apart of ropo!

 

[iajewel]

I think the Maran craze we mentioned in the start of this thread was about egg color. In my opinion however I think since you are limited to your basic white, tan, brown, Dark brown, shades of blue and green there isn't much room to develop something so new and unique as to create a fad that brings in allot of money for that one year. Birds in general have an unlimited amount of colors and combo nations of colors that were are only limited by our own imagination.

Im waiting for the black skin and face color crazes. All chickens have the genetic capability since they came from Jungle fowl, to produce wild colors, not just the red that we see every day, or the white we see in the white face black Spanish, but purple, greens, black and so on. If someone was really into genetics thats where I would think they would be found. That would be interesting. Unfortunately we are all still stuck on feather color.