Yes peachdawg78 Anthony Picceo he used to have Partridge Rocks he is in Pensacola he is raising Barred Rocks now sold his PR to a guy in Miss. and they have been swapped since then or in the works of moving on now.
Jeff
It was a size reference Bob was leading in to Anthony sold his because of the size issue I heard later on that they weren't too terribly bad in the size dept. I think it was one of those White rock versus all the rest size issues once more, unfortunately.
Isn't this the problem again and again. When one considers how few people there actually are raising standard-bred poultry and then, among those, how few make a strong commitment to specialization and the long-term, one really starts to understand why large fowl stocks are not what they used to be.
The Standard is an imperative to good breeding. To know one's breed is to know one's standard. To know one's standard is to know one's breed, because that is what a breed is--its standard. To know one's line is a different thing, and that only comes with time, good record keeping, a strong memory, and a long-term commitment. Intuition comes into play when looking at one's current stock in relationship to the standard and, recognizing where it fails the standard, one intuits how one might best arrive at destination. Intuition, or hypothesizing, is very important, insofar as there may be many steps, or rather seasons, between one's current stock and standard excellence, and one uses standard-guided intuition to calculate the next step, which will then be born forward by more standard-guided intuition, until one arrives at goal.
If one is managing to breed standard-bred fowl over a long period of time, i.e. not simply buying someone else's birds and breeding them for a few seasons, but if one is breeding standard-bred fowl and maintaining and strengthening those fowl, as recognized by the peer-review process we call shows, than it is because of standard-based exposure that is informing one's intuition vicariously through the intentional
imagination of standard-quality stock that guides one's selections.
If neither of these is the case, then one will eventually select away from proper shape, at which point one has left one's breed behind. Most beginners see color first and think that, if a bird is such and such a color, it is such and such a breed, but this is not so. Breed is defined by shape, so it meets that shape or it doesn't, and that shape is defined in the standard. One can raise really happy chickens that scratch and run around the yard and lay well and come for treats and are of a certain, if not specifically exact, color pattern, but that in and of itself is a hatchery bird. However, that bird is just a chicken. If, however, it possesses proper shape and, hopefully, weight, it is representative of the breed per the standard. If it has all of these things as well as a breed appropriate feather quality, its starting to look like a properly standard-bred bird.
Know the standard, use intuition to help approximate that standard, bring birds to APA/ABA sanctioned events where there is strong competition in one's class and the necessary peer-review in order to hone one's personally held image of perfection. These steps will lead to masterful breeding that others will recognize instantly as such. There will be no need to plead one's case or make an argument. The birds will speak for themselves.
