Aveca,
please tell me you're not seriously giving up! All that knowledge and effort already expended! Are you sure it's not just a serious case of 'Frustrated Breeder Syndrome"? It strikes worst in cold winter and/or hot summer, when nothing's really happening with our chooks and it all seems like too much effort. We develop the 'glass half-empty' mentality and look at our birds hypercritically. We must look for the faults if we're to try to breed 'em out, but we musn't lose sight of what we have achieved. Sometimes we feel a bit like Sisyphus from ancient mythology - he was the poor bugger condemned to forever push a bloody great round stone up a hill and, as he got near the top, gravity would defeat him every time! Well, our gravity is genetics and, just as we have found ways to 'defy' gravity over the years through engineering, albeit with respect for its power, we can also 'engineer' genes within its laws. It's arguable that these days our knowledge of genetics is exploding!
"Blessed are the peacemakers", Aveca. More of 'em needed in the poultry world which seems to have always suffered from a lack of them! We are still waging that Cook/Partington battle, whether as Orp.-lovers, or as aussie-lovers who can't ignore the issues as they carry over. You're concerned that adding 'Partington-type Orp. will result in birds that are too big and fluffy for Australorp Standard. Have you seen some of our prize-winning birds of recent years? Our Australorp Club lobbied to up the weight Standard here because "bigger birds have been winning major prizes for years". You can see 'em from pic over there, but not weigh 'em! Some Blue Orp "showstock" I saw recently would require your AI skills to 'mate', Aveca! They looked like monster Pekins.
As a Game breeder said, "It's a lot easier to breed squirrel tails in than to breed them out". Not suggesting that your birds have squirrel tails, but that tails are hard to get 'right'. Our Utility lines don't have that tight curved tail you see on my avatar and maybe that gene just aint there in your Utilities either. There's lots of evidence that our exhibition strains and maybe even the birds specifically bred to a form an 'Australorp' that 'warranted' acceptance as a breed, had a bit of Partington added. We need to keep reminding ourselves that these breeds were created, and in my grandmother's lifetime! What we have created can be recreated. The following post should help 'remind' you.
It's the start of breeding season here, eggs in the inc., breeding is full of possibilities, exciting! But, throughout winter, and even now at times, I find myself looking hypercritically at my chooks. I look at Derrick, and all I see is that short back that lacks a 'stocksaddle'....and why won't he stand properly...he makes it look worse than it is!... in some poses he doesn't look so bad. I have to consciously widen my perspective and 'listen' to Derrick 'saying', "Yeah, but look at my lovely head and nice tail..... and I'm not one of those oversized bullyboys ruling the showcages these days.....and look at those lovely, long, flatbacked girls you got me. I'll breed some 'saddles' for you with those babies!" Maybe he's just spruikin', but right now the glass is half full! May yours be also, Aveca.
Cheers Geoff from Aus
