Re: OT precious chooks was Re: Breeders

Dawn J-L wrote:
Here in the states, there is a movement toward sustainable agriculture
and local foods. Surely, if such trends are also present in the UK,
there must be a developing market for the products of the heirloom
utility breeds.

Oh there is plenty of market - trouble is its the height of fashion and all the telly celebs are on the bandwagon.
There is not ONE IOTA of knowledge floating around in the mass media, no-one wants to listen to those who really know about what is HERE and NOW. Its all expecting birds to do what birds used to do 50 years ago through some rose tinted spectables, with no reference to the fact that in the last decades we simply have had so little selection going into the breeding as demand was so low.

So people are scrambling to own half a dozen hens for their garden of the required "heritage" breeds as they are extolled to do in their part of "SAVING" the breed.
Which does the exact opposite --- it is driving up demand for unknowledgeable breeders (and unscrupulous ones) to simply replicate everything they can lay their hands on.
And every bird that goes into a pet domestic hen flock is lost genetics.
None are being recorded or selected so there MIGHT be really GOOD birds in these gardens, but their genes are lost.
Owning 4 hens in your garden does not save a breed - it destroys it.

The few of us who had started reclaiming and learning the intricacies of the lines we had here, in the late 1990's and early part of this century, had just begun to get some serious results, but we were all small breeders and were ten years too late. So many of hte best lines and breeders had been lost, and we have been overtaken by the fashionistas and the dealers, and the chicken "supermarkets"

Our Rare Breeds Survival Trust is doing a couple of big genetics projects but then removes the word Utility from their criteria and does nothing to educate "joe bloggs" in the skills required, mostly becuase they haven't listened to those who had the skills. In fact in the past few decades they have alienated most of those who could have most helped.

Sadly - down south where most people are, they want to BUY someone else's hard work, only the days of thousand bird flocks where the hard work was done for them are long gone.
Now its going down to the equivalent of the chicken supermarket, to buy one of each of the breeds they have heard of, or the pretty hybrids which are now being created by the commercial boys because pure breeds are too expensive to prduce but they want a piece of this action. Its one stop shopping - plastic bubble for a house which is awful for birds, pick and mix chooks, keep them confined in pens so they do not spoil the rest of the garden, worse than battery for the birds, and then pat oneself on the back for doing the bit as described in the magazine and on the telly.
:(((

Rhode Island Reds are NOT prolific layers, despite what the books say. They only are if the selection in the last 5 -10 generations has been aimed at improving their productivity. Some exhibition strains are as low as 50 eggs a year intentionally, a very few are recorded and selected for 230 plus, most are disappointing 150 - 190 layers if you are lucky.
Like dogs --- few good working lines, more good showing lines but most pedigree pooches are pet quality - no more, no less.
To get excellence of any kind requires work and plenty of learning, maybe the next generation will have seen the error of our ways in the last 20 years and we can return to the Victorian Age of excellence in all breeding programmes.
(hmm - that probably sums most of it up - - you rarely hear of a chicken breeder having a breeding programme !!!! )


There has got to be a way to utilize the internet to educate folks and
salvage rare lineages. If you can't manage to do as much breeding as
you would like, perhaps you can make a significant contribution via
establishing an organization or a network of like minded folks. Your
on-line presence is already undoubtedly making some impact. :-)

Time time Time time (and too little of it)
:)

I have concentrated this last 18 months on setting up a Local Businesss / Community Network to help us here on the ground in our local area as we were / are far behind most of the rest of the country in developing routes to support each other, create markets for local food and skills to access the local population and help us achieve a little sustainablity in a very precarious local economy.

I will be expanding the chickipedia and stuff and maybe some will rub off on enough breeders elsewhere who can make a difference in the long run.
There will be some tough talking but I know that the MONEY is in getting whatever the customer wants, wherever they have been informed, at that moment in time, out there in front of him, and hell mend the future.
There are a few who still do it right, but they have been so scunnered by the attitude of breeders who have taken their stocks as foundation birds and then realised how hard it is to do the job right and just followed the pack in churning out chicks. The lines then decline rapidly in quality, dumbing down to a mediocrity but sold as being productive utilities to the unwitting.

anyway - this is FAR too OT </soap box>
<g>
--
regards
Jill Bowis

Domestic Poultry and Waterfowl Solutions
Herbaceous; Herb and Alpine Nursery
Seasonal Farm Food
http://www.kintaline.co.uk

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Choosing a new breed - help please
    ... Surely the dedicated breeders such as ... The qualities of the birds are never assessed and the best genes are lost to ... our rare breeds organisations are worthless for poultry and waterfowl. ...
    (sci.agriculture.poultry)
  • Re: Choosing a new breed - help please
    ... weakening of many "endangered" breeds. ... do shouldn't affect the quality of _your_ birds, ... Maybe buying breeding stock you ... It is the breeders who are commercially exploiting the fashion and the ...
    (sci.agriculture.poultry)
  • Re: Brooding hens that wont let me near the eggs
    ... cope with LOWER winter temperatures than you do. ... breeds can now difficult in Oz. ... You have suggested that the blood lines are there -- you have birds you are ... might just have to come to Oz and do a tour of the poultry breeders ...
    (sci.agriculture.poultry)
  • Re: Choosing a new breed - help please
    ... weakening of many "endangered" breeds. ... I don't understand how that could be, since what the "other" breeders ... do shouldn't affect the quality of _your_ birds, ... it would seem someone breeding ...
    (sci.agriculture.poultry)
  • Re: Rant about national breed clubs
    ... >>> In doing some window shopping via national breed clubs I'm finding ... There's no such thing as Member Breeders. ... As for traveling to meet breeders and their dogs, well, as Robin noted, ... That's particularly true of breeds that treat "pack" and ...
    (rec.pets.dogs.breeds)
Loading