kentucky specks?

[chknbrdr]

Its not surprising that no one from the University of Kentucky (especially Dr. Pescatore) knows anything of Kentucky Specks.
The girl who runs the poultry federation in KY has only been there a few years and she might recognized a chicken if you held up a picture of a big fat white broiler and gave her 3 guesses as to what it is.


The Iowa Dept of Ag has probably never heard of the Iowa Blue chicken either. They are not a recognized breed either. I wouldn't put much stock in what anyone from the government says about rare breed poultry. There are several breeds around that have never had enough support to make it into the Standards.

Just because you haven't heard of it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Matt

 

[sugarbush]

Quote:
Sand hill preservation recognizes Iowa Blue and so does wikipedia....no such luck for the speck.

I am comletely open to the speck existing, but when you can ask every authority in the state that should know about something and they don't. And for two weeks you run ads all around the state that this bird is supposed to have originated in and nobody responds...... I think it is highly likely that they don't exist.....History has a way of keeping its self.... In this case the fact that there is no history is highly suspect.

I contacted Dave Anderson, president of APA and forwarded the photos from this thread to him....he also has has never heard of the Kentucky Speck and said that the birds pictured are Ancona's and/or mixes there of. (from what he can tell from a pictures)

I guess like the EE.....if APA doesn't recognize it, it is just a mutt....

 

[ThiefPouter06]

I was at a farm in central KY sunday and saw a small banty roo that could have been one. It had the same stamp as the specks. Should specks have reddish color in the feathers close to a mille fluer or are they mostly black with white mottle? He had white legs as well. They were also selling tiny black bantams they were calling BB's. Any ideas?

 

[Old Rando]

There are 400-500 breeds of chickens in this world. The APA only recognizes a small portion of these. The APA is the final authority only on the breeds they recognize and the shows they sanction. I don't personally agree that a breed exists only when it gains some form of poultry association recognition. This goes for the APA the ABA or other associations in other countries and continents. I am fairly sure there are other small number localized breeds in the world that no one has taken the time or cares to write a history of their development or the length of time they have been around.

 

[L&Schickens]

matt y. :

I was at a farm in central KY sunday and saw a small banty roo that could have been one. It had the same stamp as the specks. Should specks have reddish color in the feathers close to a mille fluer or are they mostly black with white mottle? He had white legs as well. They were also selling tiny black bantams they were calling BB's. Any ideas?

Yes, they are a 3 colored bird and small. They also have white legs, so they may have been KS you saw. Cool!!

 

[sugarbush]

matt y. :

I was at a farm in central KY sunday and saw a small banty roo that could have been one. It had the same stamp as the specks. Should specks have reddish color in the feathers close to a mille fluer or are they mostly black with white mottle? He had white legs as well. They were also selling tiny black bantams they were calling BB's. Any ideas?

Nobody knows....that is the problem.
I can say this is what they look like and post a picture of any chicken I want and nobody can prove me wrong because there is no historical documentation to state what they are supposed to look like.

I can go to the lucasville swap with any barn chicken I want and put a sign on its cage that it is a rare ky river chicken and I could sell it to somebody for top dollar......no history so it must be some super special rare breed...If the right person bought it than within a few months time I could have quite an internet following for my super rare chicken

Google kentucky speck chicken...the only thing that comes up is this forum and shadylane hatchery. Matt has already said he does not know the history of these birds....all he knows it what he was told when he got them.....​

 

[sugarbush]

Quote:
I couldn't agree more....without the APA we would not even have the Araucana/Ameraucana/EE debate

 

[Poultriary]

Hi all, I'm ColumbiaCritter's husband and we traded Shellie for her Kentucky Specks. So, I'm picking up the torch, so to speak, for them at BYC.

I am currently in correspondence with Monty Bowen, a breeder in Kansas that included Kentucky Specks on his advertisement in the 2007 ABA Yearbook (got it second-hand, but joined the ABA about a week ago). He had bred them in Kansas for upwards of 50 years.

I am working with him to establish their history as best I can. What he has told me so far is that he has bred them in Kansas for a long time, that he obtained them from Roy (he's searching for his surname and address) who had bred them in Ohio for a long time before Monty got them. They were passed to Roy from his Grandfather's farm in Kentucky. In my last email with Monty, he suggested contacting Craig Russell from the SPPA.

Based on their stable appearance from generation to generation, which you would not get from F1 or F2 mongrels (to mix technical and lay terms), and my correspondence with Shellie, Monty and others; assertions they are some sort of "Kentucky River Chicken" farce are bit over the top. Perhaps Sugarbush is merely frustrated from his research coming up short, but a couple of the comments possibly cross the line from a reasonable skepticism into ridicule.

Anyhow, Monty agrees that they may have game fowl origins, but I’m not that sure of it. Ours are not hard-feathered and Clay showed pretty average spurs before he died (and I have personal knowlege of what a game bantam spur looks like and what it can do to one's ear). They go broodie, so I personally lean towards their origin being as an incubating breed.

And even if they were of recent origin, their unique color pattern makes them worth keeping sans any history at all.

 

[Peradventure]

Any new information on the Kentucky Specks? I am interested in a current list of sources/breeders.

 

[Medicine Man]

Quote:
I couldn't agree more....without the APA we would not even have the Araucana/Ameraucana/EE debate

I agree completely. I think it's important to keep in mind that the APA is nothing but an enthusiats' club, not "the law" on what is or is not a chicken breed. Similarly, if one was to take the AKC's word for it, then there is no such thing as a Jack Russell Terrier or many other breeds of dog.

When we consider the complicated demographics and geography of chicken folk, it's no surprise that there are a number of breeds/races that "don't exist".