Old and Rare Breeds

[Alaskan]

That makes me feel more excited about the Hamburgs that I am getting in the spring. I am happy that I will be working with a breed that really needs help.

I didn't really research what color Hamburg would be the best one to work with in regards to history or rarity. I picked the color I think is prettiest.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

This is the soap box I've been standing on for several years now. I think it's great if someone wants to own/raise some recent import into the United States. As long as you're paying your own feed bill no one has the right to tell you what to keep.

Yet, there are so many old, yes even Ancient, breeds of fowl that are about to disappear before our very eyes.

It cost just as much to feed a chicken from TSC as it does a real Leghorn or LaFleche; heck it probably cost more to feed those TSC chickens.

With that said, a dedicated breeder must be willing to cull to improve the existing stock. In this case, culling does not mean selling them at some swap to have them breeding sub-standard birds all over the country-side! It means eliminating them from the gene pool completely.

I'm certainly hoping more folks will join us in our quest to preserve and improve these wonderful breeds of the past.

And we need to remember that we need gene POOLS and not gene PUDDLES. We needs folks to maintain a breed and to have other folks join on and sign up. We need multiple breeders working in concert. There is nothing like vim and vigor, type and symmetry, and some good old-fashioned weight. All of this ridiculous color obsession--the redundancy of colors, the desire to make new colors, the absolutely superfluous and unneeded importation of "new" crazes, none of this advances the quality of the birds themselves; it just stretches everything thinner and thinner. It distracts would-be breeders from real projects with the potential for longevity and wastes their years in poultry with vacuous transience; far too often when they've figured it out, they've burned themselves out on nothing.

When there are either no classes, or tiny classes, or classes where there's only one breeder representing--at our largest and most prestigious show in the America--we need to wake up a bit more and realize that it's time to act. Choose one breed, two at the most, then stay faithful, hold the course, learn their genetics and bring them to the surface for air.

 

[Alaskan]

I looked up the history of the Hamburg again....according to the albc the pencilled, both silver and gold, were the first colors.

Also, eventhough other sources said that the Hamburg was developed before 1700, the albc actually states that they were around by the fourteenth century.

Very cool.

If anyone else wanted to read their article:

http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/hamburg.html

 

[miss heny]

Yellow House Farm:

I read your post and agree with it, though I do admit one day owning all black chickens would be cool our farm is wanting to work on the more harder to get breeds. right now we are ordering from hatcheries to dabble in a few of them before jumping into working on a few. Though I love Seramas ( I admit I will be getting a few to breed) the sebrights and showgirls/silkies there are so many breeds that dieing out that need help. yes I do understand breeding to standard, but I also understand that sometimes you may have the perfect lookkng bird, but if it cant handle a cold or get sick easily its better to cull it and take a more vigorous bird that may not be 'perfect' look wise but if you can make your strain stronger health wise in the long run its better.

thats my two cents, back to the shadows for me!

 

[BGMatt]

Yellow House Farm:

I read your post and agree with it, though I do admit one day owning all black chickens would be cool our farm is wanting to work on the more harder to get breeds. right now we are ordering from hatcheries to dabble in a few of them before jumping into working on a few. Though I love Seramas ( I admit I will be getting a few to breed) the sebrights and showgirls/silkies there are so many breeds that dieing out that need help. yes I do understand breeding to standard, but I also understand that sometimes you may have the perfect lookkng bird, but if it cant handle a cold or get sick easily its better to cull it and take a more vigorous bird that may not be 'perfect' look wise but if you can make your strain stronger health wise in the long run its better.

thats my two cents, back to the shadows for me!

Any serious breeder culls for heath and vigor before looks anyway. The last part of your paragraph there is one of the biggest things in my mind that separates a breeder from a propagator.

 

[miss heny]

Any serious breeder culls for heath and vigor before looks anyway.  The last part of your paragraph there is one of the biggest things in my mind that separates a breeder from a propagator.

agree. this year we had three chicks (mutts) hatch, one drowned herself, one who liked to free range with all the cats around became, well cat food and the last one still free ranges and lives, so we are thinking of keeping him for his survival insticts but the other part is that we have yet figured out how to keep him in (he is to young to really clip the buggers wing -_- ) and dont want such strong free ranging instincts pass on due to living in a neighborhood will nice gardens around... that is not a good way to have happy neighbors.

 

[Yellow House Farm]

I looked up the history of the Hamburg again....according to the albc the pencilled, both silver and gold, were the first colors.

Also, eventhough other sources said that the Hamburg was developed before 1700, the albc actually states that they were around by the fourteenth century.

Very cool.

If anyone else wanted to read their article:

http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/hamburg.html

The penciled are bust, though. One cannot breed SOP males and females from the same mating. They are, indeed, different varieties.

 

[saladin]

Yellow House Farm:

I read your post and agree with it, though I do admit one day owning all black chickens would be cool our farm is wanting to work on the more harder to get breeds. right now we are ordering from hatcheries to dabble in a few of them before jumping into working on a few. Though I love Seramas ( I admit I will be getting a few to breed) the sebrights and showgirls/silkies there are so many breeds that dieing out that need help. yes I do understand breeding to standard, but I also understand that sometimes you may have the perfect lookkng bird, but if it cant handle a cold or get sick easily its better to cull it and take a more vigorous bird that may not be 'perfect' look wise but if you can make your strain stronger health wise in the long run its better.

thats my two cents, back to the shadows for me!

A farm of Black Javas would be a beautiful sight!

Or Black Malay.....

Or Black Shamo.....

Or Black Asil......

OR BLACK CUBALAYAS!!!!!!!!!!

GO FOR IT!!!!! NEVER LOOK BACK!!!!!!

 

[miss heny]

A farm of Black Javas would be a beautiful sight!

Or Black Malay.....

Or Black Shamo.....

Or Black Asil......

OR BLACK CUBALAYAS!!!!!!!!!!

GO FOR IT!!!!! NEVER LOOK BACK!!!!!!

I am leaning towards Sumatra XD

we are ordering from sandhill their frizzled sumatras, lav orps, and millie fluers leghorns. the frizzles is because I want to try the breed out, lav cause mom wants deem, and millie fluer... well just gotta try it

 

[Totalcolour]

Quote: Mille fleurs!