I have been following this discussion with interest since I have a few young Barnvelders and I would like to make sure they are good specimens of the breed.
I thought I would hop in with my observation on the Silkies, since I have read their SOP and discussions about showing - and the winners at shows are not following the SOP's descriptions - but are instead breeding to the extreme. The SOP calls for a MEDIUM crest - not the huge bonnets we see winning at shows. Its the over exaggeration of traits that make Silkies useless for anything - and that was not the intention of the SOP. They were originally created to brood and raise chicks (pheasant). They still have that use. They can play in the rain - and scratch for food. However, this does break the foot feathers and that gets points taken off at shows. But the same goes for any heavily feather footed breeds. Ornamental does not have to mean useless, but that appears how some are interpreting the SOP. Any bird who has been so over-bred as to need help procreating or seeing where their food is to stay alive - I think that is where the problem lies. Not with the SOP - but with the people who breed them to the extreme. Perhaps those people never read the first 40 pages of the SOP either...
Another point - these birds are winning despite what the SOP says. The interpretation of the SOP and the personal preferences of the breeders that show play a huge part in what we see shown and who wins. I think this can be applied here too. Breed to your personal preference within the guidelines of the SOP. If enough people do this - the winning birds will match what you have - as long as you have everything else correct a small difference of the width of the lacing in the chest means nothing. If the hackles will show shafting with the incorrect lacing width - then the lacing width will have to be wide enough to compensate for that. I don't think Trisha's birds are actually black chested - or Happy Chooks' birds would be too. They are laced - but very thick laced and that appears to meet the American SOP, with interpretation.
I keep seeing Tailfeathers saying that Trisha wants to change the SOP to match her birds. I don't think she does. She keeps saying she doesn't. I don't know why he keeps saying she does... The only thing I have seen her ask is that it be clarified on the thickness of the lacing - and "to appear almost black from a distance" is is what I have seen both Trisha's and Tailfeathers' birds described as already by them.
Well we can't get off topic with Silkies, but I will respond. I raise black Silkies....they aren't good for anything....they are ornamental birds. Most bantams are not good for anything. Sorry! In the poultry world there is something called "judging practices". What that means is that some judges deviate from the Standard to pick birds because of personal reasons. This is not correct and you can file a protest if you feel strongly about it. Judges are human beings with human being failings.
I am not on the APA Judges licensing committee, but I am on the ABA lic committee. We just recently made it mandatory for ABA judges to continue their education of breeds with periodic testing. I don't know if this will solve the problem of human influence, but it is a step in the right direction. You are in the Gold Country, so you probably know Jim Sallee. He is on the APA judges Committee so you might want to discuss this with him. He was also a long time Silkie breeder. He lives in Lone Pine.
I am only in this thread because Trisha PM'd me after she ran across me in the CSU thread and said that there was a "mistake" in the current APA Standard for Barnies. I can't cut and paste her messages to post here because of BYC rules, but she does/did want to change the Standard. She also said that Dr Netland said the "translation" was incorrect. I didn't just show up here to shake the cage. She invited me.
Most of the conflict here IMO is novices misunderstanding posts.
Walt