No opinions on my boy?Well, not the best photos of him. The show cage was a bit cramped for a big boy like this. But here is my (molty) cockerel that just went Ch. American at the CA State Fair.
He took BB over about six RIR, but he went on to take Ch. American.
Wow, that's quite an endorsement. The only qualm I have at the moment, is that while they are beautiful, they are not early feathering like the original... Zanna told me they were weeks behind her other chickens. She loves them, they get good meat on them, but I'm unsure how to balance my practical need for a quick maturing meat bird with my urge to help renew a Heritage bird. Someone pointed me to Cpartist http://eightacresfarm.weebly.com/delawares.html ...and while they started with hatchery, it's pretty amazing how they've bred up in size and she appears to be conciencious<sp> regarding SOP? Pros / cons on each?
Is this a situation like discussed elsewhere where "angels fear to tread" is appropriate? I mean, I'm trying to work a couple of difficult things here. <hey, where did this logical, *sane* voice come from! quick, somebody quash it!> Also, I would not (at this moment) be obtaining direct from Kathy, I'd be ordering eggs from Zanna who obtained F4's from Kathy this year. She is going to be culling pretty heavily, it sounds like. That's a good question, actually. If Zanna culls well, and she's sending next gen eggs, how many does one order to guess that after heavy culling, would still have at least 2 cockerels and 4 pullets to work with? 2 dozen? 4 dozen? all at once, or once a month a new batch until X dozen reached? This is a serious level of complexity here... Oi! Vey!
