Maybe he was nervous with an audience. .Speaking of intimate displays, yesterday after I took the rollers to the office for a stretch, I was carrying them back to the cage in a small critter carrier, and he started trying to mate her! I sat the carrier down to give him a few minutes. I admit I was watching too.
She wasn’t being very cooperative though, I don’t think he was successful.
Ya want another story ? Okay, if you insist.
The Clapper : A friend received 40 Birmingham rollers from a competitive flyer who was moving to Va. These were not comp birds but his personal enjoyment birds. They were not very frequent with the roll , but were fast and deep. Friend gave 20 birds to me, and I allowed them to pick their own mates as I knew nothing about how they performed. I raised and flew perhaps 60 young birds from these original birds. In this group there was a black/white flight hen that I initially thought had PMV as she had a neurological twitch. She became quite ill but with treatment survived. Treatment was probably just supportive of secondary infection as I have come to believe that she had West Nile virus. It hit heavy around here that season and many wild birds died. She was left with a chronic head twitch, and I considered culling her. Probably because of laziness I did not do so.
When I started flying these young birds - 2 kits of approximately 30 in each, they eventually started performing with varying degrees of quality. Most of the birds flew too fast and performed infrequently. This hen early on started rolling very short two or three roll performances that left her behind the kit. As she hurried to catch up she would clap her wings and became known as The Clapper. At the end of each training flight she would come in exhausted because she had worked so hard, I never considered breeding from her as her performance although the most frequent of all this group was 'not up to standard'.
Gradually through selective mating the performance of my kits improved, but still I did not have anywhere near the frequency that I wanted. In season 3 I finally had some stand out young birds and The Clapper somehow had survived hawk attacks so was still flying with the young birds. Well, you already know the story of Mr Bluebar. When I stocked him I started trying to figure who to mate him to? Light bulb moment. What would happen if I could combine some of The Clapper's frequency with Mr Bluebar's speed and depth? A mating was made, and the rest is history. They consistently produced young birds that became the foundation of my flock.
Every now and then you get lucky.
Fantastic!Ya want another story ? Okay, if you insist.
The Clapper : A friend received 40 Birmingham rollers from a competitive flyer who was moving to Va. These were not comp birds but his personal enjoyment birds. They were not very frequent with the roll , but were fast and deep. Friend gave 20 birds to me, and I allowed them to pick their own mates as I knew nothing about how they performed. I raised and flew perhaps 60 young birds from these original birds. In this group there was a black/white flight hen that I initially thought had PMV as she had a neurological twitch. She became quite ill but with treatment survived. Treatment was probably just supportive of secondary infection as I have come to believe that she had West Nile virus. It hit heavy around here that season and many wild birds died. She was left with a chronic head twitch, and I considered culling her. Probably because of laziness I did not do so.
When I started flying these young birds - 2 kits of approximately 30 in each, they eventually started performing with varying degrees of quality. Most of the birds flew too fast and performed infrequently. This hen early on started rolling very short two or three roll performances that left her behind the kit. As she hurried to catch up she would clap her wings and became known as The Clapper. At the end of each training flight she would come in exhausted because she had worked so hard, I never considered breeding from her as her performance although the most frequent of all this group was 'not up to standard'.
Gradually through selective mating the performance of my kits improved, but still I did not have anywhere near the frequency that I wanted. In season 3 I finally had some stand out young birds and The Clapper somehow had survived hawk attacks so was still flying with the young birds. Well, you already know the story of Mr Bluebar. When I stocked him I started trying to figure who to mate him to? Light bulb moment. What would happen if I could combine some of The Clapper's frequency with Mr Bluebar's speed and depth? A mating was made, and the rest is history. They consistently produced young birds that became the foundation of my flock.
Every now and then you get lucky.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/scavenger-hunt.1277411/page-19#post-20568277
Assistance needed in the scavenger hunt thread
Ya want another story ? Okay, if you insist.
The Clapper : A friend received 40 Birmingham rollers from a competitive flyer who was moving to Va. These were not comp birds but his personal enjoyment birds. They were not very frequent with the roll , but were fast and deep. Friend gave 20 birds to me, and I allowed them to pick their own mates as I knew nothing about how they performed. I raised and flew perhaps 60 young birds from these original birds. In this group there was a black/white flight hen that I initially thought had PMV as she had a neurological twitch. She became quite ill but with treatment survived. Treatment was probably just supportive of secondary infection as I have come to believe that she had West Nile virus. It hit heavy around here that season and many wild birds died. She was left with a chronic head twitch, and I considered culling her. Probably because of laziness I did not do so.
When I started flying these young birds - 2 kits of approximately 30 in each, they eventually started performing with varying degrees of quality. Most of the birds flew too fast and performed infrequently. This hen early on started rolling very short two or three roll performances that left her behind the kit. As she hurried to catch up she would clap her wings and became known as The Clapper. At the end of each training flight she would come in exhausted because she had worked so hard, I never considered breeding from her as her performance although the most frequent of all this group was 'not up to standard'.
Gradually through selective mating the performance of my kits improved, but still I did not have anywhere near the frequency that I wanted. In season 3 I finally had some stand out young birds and The Clapper somehow had survived hawk attacks so was still flying with the young birds. Well, you already know the story of Mr Bluebar. When I stocked him I started trying to figure who to mate him to? Light bulb moment. What would happen if I could combine some of The Clapper's frequency with Mr Bluebar's speed and depth? A mating was made, and the rest is history. They consistently produced young birds that became the foundation of my flock.
Every now and then you get lucky.
Precious story. I love your stories.
I have had a special love for pigeons ever since.
Clapper's story was a perfect follow on to Mr Bluebar.
