Sadly we now live in an instant gratification age, and intensive breeding to SOP simply doesn't provide that. And, to be blunt, there's a whole lotta ignorance out there. On a few other threads I sometimes peak in on the main discussions are about painting their hen's toenails, dying their feathers hot pink, and other topics that leave me with mouth agape. One young woman who'd been holding a long discussion with me suddenly decided that I must be pure evil because 1) I actually butcher some of my birds for meat, and 2) I don't bury a dead chicken in a grave marked with at least a painted river rock if one dies unexpectedly while I'm away. Seriously....that was the basis of her judgement.
Last year I finally managed to acquire hatching eggs of my coveted breed, Silver Grey Dorkings. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I've been to start working to preserve and improve this breed and have read the SOP requirements for this bird so many times I can practically recite it verbatim. But a recent health issue gave me time to step out of my own head and actually listen to what other people are saying about the breed, and what I'm hearing is discouraging to the point where I wonder if my ambitions will be worth the effort. Committing to this kind of breeding program requires sacrifice, and as was stated above, when I die all of my efforts may simply die with me. That's beyond discouraging. These are noble breeds deserving of respect and preservation, and they're being ignored and rejected in favor of fanciful feathers and trend of the moment. It's just sad.
Last year I finally managed to acquire hatching eggs of my coveted breed, Silver Grey Dorkings. I can't even begin to tell you how excited I've been to start working to preserve and improve this breed and have read the SOP requirements for this bird so many times I can practically recite it verbatim. But a recent health issue gave me time to step out of my own head and actually listen to what other people are saying about the breed, and what I'm hearing is discouraging to the point where I wonder if my ambitions will be worth the effort. Committing to this kind of breeding program requires sacrifice, and as was stated above, when I die all of my efforts may simply die with me. That's beyond discouraging. These are noble breeds deserving of respect and preservation, and they're being ignored and rejected in favor of fanciful feathers and trend of the moment. It's just sad.
I can't even get on most of the other threads any more, and haven't for several years. I just can't. I'm sick and tired of being told how evil I am that I eat my birds. People just have no idea where their food comes from anymore. There was a poll taken recently by a dairy related company that discovered that many people thought chocolate milk came from brown cows. And people on Facebook thought they were lying. But I know they weren't, people really are that ignorant about their world. It never fails that every time we go to the TX State Fair and tour the agriculture exhibits and barns, we hear people that are shocked that milk comes out of cows. And even more shocked that it comes from cow *boobs* - of course the word teat is a dirty word just like cock. Some farm folks in a discussion group said they have similar issues with questions from visitors when they took their various livestock to their state fairs where there were more *city* people than country folk there. These people can stick a tv dinner in the microwave but they can't even boil an egg, so they sure don't know where it comes from or that you don't need a rooster to have eggs. One girl not too long ago was trying to rehome a rooster, not because it was too noisy and she wasn't allowed to have one. It was because she couldn't exceed her limit on chickens per ordinance, and she didn't want to have chicks hatching. She didn't realize that all she had to do was pick up the eggs every day and not let a hen set on them, and she would not get chicks hatching, so she could keep her rooster. All I kept thinking was - did you not research and learn about chickens in the past few months while your chickens were growing into adulthood?
