Re: Breeders Re: Vale Carol Lush

Sue Leopold wrote:
Jill <news@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Dawn J-L wrote:
This issue touches me in particular because I have seen a number of
wonderful breeders pass away or have life challenges that interfered
with the continuation of their breeding programs. In some cases,
their lines have faded away not because of a lack of quality or
ability, but only because of the faddishness that so often drives the
horse world.
<snippage of seriously wise and profound words just for brevity>

Chooks may not be as "heart" as horses but your conversations resonate so
much with me.

I dunno that I agree with that. I think chooks have just as much value
to the heart as horses. MHO.

We have lost the old utility poultry breeders, I was lucky enough to talk
and learn from some of the last.

I can be kind of a nut about so-called heritage breeds. <grin> That is
why I value so much what folks like Dawn and the Doc are doing with
their Arabs.

The modern sporthorse is by nature a mongrel. Breeders are pushing the genetic envelope for more and more performance. At
some point, breeders are going to have to revisit the wellspring.
MHO.

Sadly we are not in a location - cost and climate wise - to continue the
work we started, it breaks my heart.

i can hear that. I'm sorry Jill. <hugs>

Now fashion and popularity means that crud is bred to crud to replicate
animals, and with birds its lots of replications very easily which means
that the last remnants of the good bloodlines have been swallowed up and so
diluted that its getting more and more unlikely that they can be reclaimed
with each month and season.

Surely there must exist a small number of heritage breeders with chooks?

I "GET" it

You sure do.

Sue
svleopold@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Actually there are quite a few in the USA breeding heritage breeds of poultry. The extinction rate of some breeds is telling though in as much as we have lost well over two thirds of the breeds in the past half a century or so. Genetic diversity is what is responsible for the hardiness of the various breeds and all chooks trace back to wild stock/jungle fowl either the red or the grey/green. From those wild birds came all of the others through selective breeding, and most of the breeds could be recreated, though it is much better to preserve them as some of them were centuries in the making. I have American Buff geese of Holderread lines that are considered critically endangered as well as a variety of different color mutations of peafowl. While I don't go in much for replications of various breeds of fowl, sometimes it is necessary to outcross with birds of similar origins to improve fertility and open up the lines. This was true of the Denizli longcrowers that my friend breeds, they had a really low fertility rate so she crossed them with Fayoumi which are of a similar stance and type , and the fertility went from 25 % to 90% hatch rate over two generations. Sometimes you have to outcross to eliminate some fatal recessives..Then cross back to get the correct type and coloration. She also breeds Phoenix, both Standard and Ohiki and minohiki..The tails on her standard birds are non moulting and can reach 8 feet if she sets them up on stands..Hardly utility birds there, but really beautiful. If you are interested in purchasing heritage birds through the mail google Sandhill Preservation center and request a catalog from them. The offer heritage poultry and open pollinated heritage seeds..
.

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