Bob, how can you say you have no club members with any blues? I raise both large and bantam blues and I know at least two others, maybe three working on blue bantams.
I also have a copy of Ralph's book and so does a friend of mine. I think its a must for any serious breeder.
David sorry I over looked you on your Blue Large Fowl. Last night when I was on my wifes lap top I had a hard time seeing this screen and proof reading the message. Our key board is acting up and will have to post on the big box computer. Also it uses up bites on our phone account with the wireless contract.
I know our club presidnet Greg English has blue bantams. I have never seen one live. I am working on trying to get the other colors back up such as Silver Pencilled, Columbian and Partridge and buffs in large fowl. Whites are still the top color because they are so easy to breed than the others. Barred has made major strides in the past two to three years. The bantam colors are all doing pretty good except partridge very few of them these days. To me these old colors need work but they are hard to breed and many people are not going to work with them for many reasons. So I hope many will consider these rare colors of many breeds what ever you wish to have makes no difference to me. The next thing alot of people have to learn is how to breed for type and increase over all breed performance. As Jamie Duckworth has said many times he was taught to build the barn first and then you paint it.
I was always taught Vigor first, next breed type, egg production and then color on my Reds. Vern Sorenson always taught me as a kid to look for the brick in the Reds. Well back to building the pens. You got to build the pens first befor you can build the type. bob