Vanalpaca, you got it right!
Harry Shaw was a very nice guy and from the pictures I remember seeing his flock, they were consisent and they look alike. I was impressed with it but unfortunately I didn't jump the gun alot sooner because I was not interested in Welsummers at that time, only in Marans. He had Cuckoo Marans and I think Black ones too.
When I bought the second generation from the original Calicowoods stock thru Estes Hatchery, you bet I was disappointed but if you need to focus on Barber birds themselves, there ARE two breeders that have the original Barber birds, when Mr Barber gave the flock TO one of them, telling her that she would look after them, raise them up right, cull out HARD on the dark black pencilings that one BYCers flock had in the Grisham birds (IMO, either it is the camera or they are actually too dark of a Welsummer). Then that breeder gave half the flock to her good friend, in case something does happen to her flock, she would have a back up. They have been working on it for about 30 years since Mr Barber passed away. They have NOT ever introduced the new blood ever into their flock. I personally dont think Lowell Barber sold the birds directly to Harry Shaw, but probably indirectly thru another person which I know the two breeders mentioned above, did not sell their stock to them, even Ideal Hatchery or any of them, matter of factly. So who did Harry Shaw GET his Welsummers from? We can assumed that he may have gotten them from a friend of Lowell Barber or someone sold him Barber flock to him. Many times I wished Harry was still alive today but he died what he had loved doing, caring for his chickens.
When we all say to "cull" we don't mean to kill, but to sell or put a rejected Welsummer in a non breeding standard flock (like making some Olive Eggers, or egg laying flock only). We dont want to have any blond chicks. If a breeder has too many of those blond chicks popping out, he needs to go and find that source that is causing those blond chicks to come out. If it was me producing blond chicks, I would cull out the whole flock and start again.
I got a written documentation that Lowell Barber DID NOT sell his flock to Channing Grisham so we have NO idea where Grisham got his stock from. Probably from Bjorn Netland if anything.
As for Fugate, we do not know for sure if he ever had Welsummers but he was a very good friend of Lowell Barber. Mr Fugate was more into Marans than anything else. If anyone mentioned Fugate for Welsummers, play caution until we know for sure.
Hope this information helps! I will keep updating as much as I can and when I do get responses. Sometimes stories from different breeders don't always add up but it is nice to find out the who's who in our Welsummer history.
