Chloe,
The chicken has been domesticated for 5000 years, give or take. There are no chickens of different subspecies, like the different kinds of elephants, for example, the African elephant with it's larger ears and the Indian Elephant with it's smaller ears. Nothing like that exists concerning the chicken. Chickens are all just chickens.
The "Breeds" of chickens are a human invention. Mankind has taken the chicken and mixed/mated/blended, and "made them" or bred them to a certain look, and then, once they bred true, year after year, and people liked this or that new breed, they sat down. First, they looked carefully at the bird that the inventor, if you will, had made. They talked about the neck, the head, the color, the size, the leg color, the back, the tail, the egg production, the eye color, the comb type and wattles and much more. They came to an agreement as to those features and proceeded to write all this down. This is called the Standard for that breed. Paintings and drawings were commissioned that depicted the ideal of the new bird. This is how all these different "breeds" were both invented and established.
Two football teams take the field. What if one team believed they could play by Canadian rules (only 3 downs) while the other team believed it play by US college rules? Entirely different games. Someone has to decide. They both cannot be used at the same time. So, in the US... the NCAA rules college football. Makes the rules, fines the cheaters, etc. Done.
In the US, the equivalent poultry authority is the American Poultry Association. There ARE NO BREEDS without their say so. Period. They and they alone. Otherwise, one person would be free to say a black bird is a Buckeye while another person could call an orange bird a Buckeye. The APA, as it did with all the accepted breeds, It took Mrs. Nettie Metcalf's application to have her birds accepted as a new breed, in 1904. A Standard was carefully written, the name BUCKEYE was finally settled on was inked in place and drawings were done. Only birds that look like the Buckeye, that are bred from true Buckeyes, that are entered into APA sanctioned shows as Buckeyes and judged by the judges as true BUCKEYES are Buckeyes. I may have a similar type, kinda sort of close to looking like a Buckeye bird, that I've concocted and bred, but I don't really get to call it that.
No policeman will come to my door and arrest me, but I'm not being accurate. No arrests will be made if I run an advertisement on the web and sell the chicks as Buckeyes. I can open a hatchery and sell thousands of my chicks as Buckeye Browns or Buckeye Reds and people may come to call them that, in common use. But there still...... is no breed called the Buckeye Red or the Buckeye Brown. Why not? Because no breed was ever established by the APA as the Buckeye Red or Buckeye Brown.
But only the APA can establish a breed? Really? Yes. If my bird is judged as failing to be up to the standard written by the APA for my "close to Buckeye" birds? Nah! They're toast. Still chickens, even great chickens. But until or unless my chickens are judged by an APA judge as Buckeyes? They're not Buckeyes.
No, we don't get to calls things whatever we want. It doesn't matter that one finds the term New Hampshire Red used on TV, in videos, on websites, in Wiki articles, or by 50 hatcheries, that will not make it a breed, can never make it a breed.
When the inventors or breeders of the New Hampshire birds, in 1935, petitioned the APA for their new birds to be accepted as a breed, the birds were accepted and named New Hampshire. That is it's official name.
We cannot play Canadian football rules, or Australian football rules and NFL football rules and NCAA football rules all at the same time. There can only be ONE authoritative governing body, or all breeds can be whatever we wish. Chaos reigns. All you've got then is just chickens. No breed is a breed in the US, until or unless the APA says it is, and what the APA says it is, and all birds from then on, claiming to be that breed, must meet a high percentage of the Standard of Perfection written for that breed, or it is disqualified, DQ'ed and that is that.
The chicken has been domesticated for 5000 years, give or take. There are no chickens of different subspecies, like the different kinds of elephants, for example, the African elephant with it's larger ears and the Indian Elephant with it's smaller ears. Nothing like that exists concerning the chicken. Chickens are all just chickens.
The "Breeds" of chickens are a human invention. Mankind has taken the chicken and mixed/mated/blended, and "made them" or bred them to a certain look, and then, once they bred true, year after year, and people liked this or that new breed, they sat down. First, they looked carefully at the bird that the inventor, if you will, had made. They talked about the neck, the head, the color, the size, the leg color, the back, the tail, the egg production, the eye color, the comb type and wattles and much more. They came to an agreement as to those features and proceeded to write all this down. This is called the Standard for that breed. Paintings and drawings were commissioned that depicted the ideal of the new bird. This is how all these different "breeds" were both invented and established.
Two football teams take the field. What if one team believed they could play by Canadian rules (only 3 downs) while the other team believed it play by US college rules? Entirely different games. Someone has to decide. They both cannot be used at the same time. So, in the US... the NCAA rules college football. Makes the rules, fines the cheaters, etc. Done.
In the US, the equivalent poultry authority is the American Poultry Association. There ARE NO BREEDS without their say so. Period. They and they alone. Otherwise, one person would be free to say a black bird is a Buckeye while another person could call an orange bird a Buckeye. The APA, as it did with all the accepted breeds, It took Mrs. Nettie Metcalf's application to have her birds accepted as a new breed, in 1904. A Standard was carefully written, the name BUCKEYE was finally settled on was inked in place and drawings were done. Only birds that look like the Buckeye, that are bred from true Buckeyes, that are entered into APA sanctioned shows as Buckeyes and judged by the judges as true BUCKEYES are Buckeyes. I may have a similar type, kinda sort of close to looking like a Buckeye bird, that I've concocted and bred, but I don't really get to call it that.
No policeman will come to my door and arrest me, but I'm not being accurate. No arrests will be made if I run an advertisement on the web and sell the chicks as Buckeyes. I can open a hatchery and sell thousands of my chicks as Buckeye Browns or Buckeye Reds and people may come to call them that, in common use. But there still...... is no breed called the Buckeye Red or the Buckeye Brown. Why not? Because no breed was ever established by the APA as the Buckeye Red or Buckeye Brown.
But only the APA can establish a breed? Really? Yes. If my bird is judged as failing to be up to the standard written by the APA for my "close to Buckeye" birds? Nah! They're toast. Still chickens, even great chickens. But until or unless my chickens are judged by an APA judge as Buckeyes? They're not Buckeyes.
No, we don't get to calls things whatever we want. It doesn't matter that one finds the term New Hampshire Red used on TV, in videos, on websites, in Wiki articles, or by 50 hatcheries, that will not make it a breed, can never make it a breed.
When the inventors or breeders of the New Hampshire birds, in 1935, petitioned the APA for their new birds to be accepted as a breed, the birds were accepted and named New Hampshire. That is it's official name.
We cannot play Canadian football rules, or Australian football rules and NFL football rules and NCAA football rules all at the same time. There can only be ONE authoritative governing body, or all breeds can be whatever we wish. Chaos reigns. All you've got then is just chickens. No breed is a breed in the US, until or unless the APA says it is, and what the APA says it is, and all birds from then on, claiming to be that breed, must meet a high percentage of the Standard of Perfection written for that breed, or it is disqualified, DQ'ed and that is that.
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