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i just typed up a long detailed message, justifying what i'm doing, but you know what? i don't NEED to justify myself to you or anyone else.
my dorkings are mine and i love having them around. yes i want to improve the breed, but that will have to wait until my breeding pens are done.
until then, i sell mutt chicks (keeping the pure) to people who want birds that will either lay eggs or can be eaten if they crow. and that in itself is paying for the materials and feed to keep these precious dorkings around...
AND: to those breeders who currently grinding their teeth.
I fully approve of this!
YES, we need breeders to keep these rare breeds and quality in them around.
But you know? Just because you're not a breeder doesn't mean you should be disqualified from having them! If you
had to be a knowledgable breeder to have a rare breed, there wouldn't be very many about! People wanting to have them, even if they aren't set up to do breeding themselves, give those breeders some commercial return; and that in turn gives the breeders some funding to continue their project!
Really, if nobody wanted Dorkings, how many breeders would stick with it for very long unless they truly loved the birds?
So... If some of us like the Dorkings, but, like me and ki4got aren't really set up for all that, are we going to be forbidden to have them? I should certainly hope not...
We don't need the best of quality breeding stock, but that doesn't mean we should buy rubbish. If people want to make an effort to keep them going and try to improve on them, that's great. And if others see these interesting and beautiful birds that we've got and decide they want some too, doesn't that help the Dorkings? Because once their interest is aroused, they might just decide that they want to seriously breed Dorkings! And if nothing else, it keeps something of a market alive for these birds.
So, all that to say, yes, breeders are great. We need breeders. We respect and appreciate breeders. But we love Dorkings too, even if we are not breeders, so please don't rail at us for liking the same breed... I understand that it can be frustrating and upsetting to you if you seriously breed and somebody else is making seemingly random matings within a breed or crosses with others. But hey -- different people exist. And while some of us, personally, may not be able to see the attraction to them -- obviously, someone likes these, or they wouldn't be selling! I'm sure the purpose of having the Dorkings was
not to create mutts, but that their owners genuinely liked the Dorkings, and want them to stick around! In the future, they may even be able to take their stock and start that breeding that you want them to do. But if you discourage them from having Dorkings, that may never happen!
Encourage good breeding, and grit your teeth when somebody does something you consider to be 'bad' -- you can snarl to yourself all you want, but please don't make them feel guilty about liking a rare breed -- of course you can point out what isn't neccessarily good, and definitely give help where you can! Really, really try not to get angry. Since you don't own the birds, it's out of your hands. Keep working on your own birds, rejoice in your triumphs, and share your enthusiasm! You could inspire others to get into it themselves!
So... um.... yeah... long post. If you don't necessarily like some of the things I've said, I'll uh.... just... go hide under a chair...
...and hope you don't yell at me too badly...
