Forgive me for the poor review that follows an article published at a critical timeline in the history of Barred Plymouth Rocks. the change of the American Standard over the years to what you have today is a series of somewhat calamitous endeavours to keep everyone happy with no winners whatsoever.
That this view comes from a country that still maintains the original Standard to this day, where shows are able to card both original Darks and Lights, that all birds participating can go to the top. it is also interesting that these bloodlines are the result of importations to Australia from the best breeders of the day Latham, Holterman,E.B. Thompson,Parks, etc.With limited stock from England to pollute these pure bloodlines, and importations banned to this Country soon after, for Quarantine reasons, Australians were in a position to keep going the outstanding work done by most had before them.It would almost seem possible that such a change in America did not see some breeders keep the faith with their family bloodlines and come to live and breed in Australia. (perhaps a far stretch ).
I find the courage of the article just after the death of E.B.Thompson somewhat ill timed in its strength. A movement had begun and words from other breeds were gaining strength, that conquer and divide is mentioned in the article is interesting in the tone of the divisive content of such article.
That my background involves being at the top of this breed in this country for over 30 years, holds me well in opinions given . I can say that along with a limited number of breeders in this country I have viewed more Rocks in more areas of this Country than anyone alive. I have seen the very best at the largest shows to the very worst at the smallest shows. I have witnesses bloodlines stay strong , fail, come back, and maintain an even keel.I have also seen the Rocks in America.
That in Australia Dark females and Light males were ignored in the showroom for near on 60 years, gave strength to a limited number of breeders and bloodlines for many years, most Judges in Australia were trained in the old days to judge to the British Standard, a Standard allowing the use of blacks in the breeding pen , beetle green sheen and the total absence of any blue tinge to appear. there being no mother Club to help with literature and development of knowledge until the 1980's, most newbies were fed to the wolves.A very few bloodlines survived in very few families. more on this another day.
Ok. have you read the article, I would be pleased if you read it first before any influence of opinion by me, might slight your own thinking.(I always tell the newbies to listen to everyone,read everything, digest all and throw out most, this will create their ideals for their identity, it will be the all of them or nothing.but it will be them )
That the opening statement wants to preserve the ''oneness'', is interesting. the whole being of Barred Rocks is their nature to split into two. that the original pair throw a multitude of variations, both within the males and females, and that they themselves contrast in shade the males being lighter than their sisters is the pure beauty of the breed.that the smart breeders fostered this variation, and actually stabilised it to start to realize an even hatch and a promising mating actually gave something close to their wishes, is more oneness than any other possibility. His wishes that the club wishes to preserve the true type COLOUR, MARKINGS, weights and classifications, goes against later content asking for a medium colour to be created.( a more uniform and full understanding of the present Standard.)(single mating plan ).
To outline again his promise to preserve, the one variety of Barred Rocks. (this grand old breed does not need, and I trust will never suffer from any division.)Hello, what happens in the breeding pen of barred rocks, they DIVIDE . if you dont get that you will need to breed something else a bit easier, (sorry to say that even whites and blacks are'nt easy in their own ways to breed well)
Now comes the Divded we fall comment followed by quite a bit of political say.
(The practice of showing a great many non-standard, differently coloured, Barred Rocks in our shows, has been the most damaging thing we could possibly do.)Hello again!When the birds that were home breeding all the winners can finally be brought to the show, then everyone can see how it has been done by the best for the last 30 years. To have stock now at the show to sell as a breeding pair, surely clears any confusion, before hand bird A wins the ckls. bird B wins the hens, and they are sold as a winning pair that will go home and breed shandies.useless to the buyer, useless to the birds and useless to the success of the breed. how many thousand birds were paired up wrong because nobody saw the correct tone to match. I would say millions.the seller was happy because he will win next year with a more correct pen waiting at home, and be able to sell again next year , having had the winners again. With the advent of classes for the pullet and ckl breeders, of cause there was going to be initially a variance of shades. is this not for the judges to clean up and bring forth, the correct birds in balance to the top, for all to acess.remember also that the judge might not find his ideal bird, and may have to go down a few rungs to find the bird on the day.remember to take in a little info over a long time, dont think Today I have found my IDEAL.
The comparison to REDS is a bit much, now some of the best red breeders will have used birds with smut in them, they hopefully have not been brought along, but are of value at home, they may have used a rosecomb to breed S. C. , bit hard genetically but it will come thru eventually. he may definetley have used a S.C. to breed some rose combs. all exceptable practices and also variations to the birds entered in the show, but again birds of value to the Family are at home in the yard by the numbers.and no-ones the wiser to these assets not at the show.the variation in colour of reds is immense as is in buffs, whites, blues, etc. you could go on forever in variation. but the judge will come back to the correct tone hopefully. we have not even
mentioned Partridge, Brown as in Leghorns etc. where the male is nothing like the female, So these half flocks are also at home because of the need to specialise.we will stay on track for now.
To confuse and befuddle spectators to me will be a temporary setback, for these poor spectators have never seen at the shows the other half of the breeding pen for 30-40 years, the big winners must of just lapped this up. to not have to (show ) anyone how they perfect there strain to such heights, surely is far more befuddling to any Newbie, there being a huge turnover of such for such a long time kept the select few way out in front..no one ever denied that these birds existed, some breeders only specialised in either Darks, or Lights, and only ever showed half their birds.
To state that he has many good Barred Rock friends that are not in agreement with him, and that he talks to his Red friends just as much, He must of been a great guy or a good talker.at this time the Reds were having great egg laying results, they were boosting the breed hard and perhaps a more even playing field was present to get quicker to the top. Rocks are such a hard breed to keep going, usually most people will muck them up after 3-4 generations, and need to either start again, or get foundation blood back into the flock.To also go on to say that there is only one typr of Red, is again missleading, the Shows would have double the numbers, thanks to wonderful Rosecombs, alongside the S.C. Turn of the Century and there were more Rosecombs entered at Shows than the .SC.
the Tri State Fair comments about 3 different classes is the first correct statement made.however the next statement goes totally pear shaped again. the crazy quilt comment has no basis. the mention of Darks and Lights, to clarify classes , mixed in with all manner of variations, surely has got to benefit , and go the judge that walks past half the entries not even entertaining that they have been correctly entered let alone been correctly bred.thats the POINT to it.
Now remember at the beginning when urging true Colour Type etc. we have reached a comment (THIRD). A slightly changed Standard Colour be created where a male to suit and his sister (even though not the same tone ) but remarkbly the right coloured female be hatched out of the one mating. I suggest right here and now that this fellow should go breed Cuckoo coloured fowls. No disrespect to Cuckoo breeders. the nerve of this fellow to want to destroy all the work of all the breeders before this day.to make a statement that makes slight on everyone that ever bred Rocks to the Standard laid down for them , and those before, them . to make out that this simple method would be a solution. who is going to declare the correct new shade, who is going KNOW the new shade. people that correct a Standard to suit them are not worthy to even try again. to suit flavour of the DAY, MONTH YEAR . is destroying everything that came before. Lets right a new History while where at it. something a bit more Rosy.I'm a bit cranky with the shear laziness of the statement. the statement defines how much work has gone in to developing Dark strains and Light strains. that they breed true and that breeders are getting the Show fowls that they are after, in essence that they have succeeded, then goes on to say lets change the tone, marry the two colours back a bit and create a single pen. lets go back to 1870 odd and start all over again.
He then goes on to ask if someone could explain to him , even though he has bred since 1908 and surely has some idea of the variation of shade , why this would not work.He now implores everyone to trust a Judge in possession of a Standard to appraise the new colour of there flock.A Judge that has no Idea what will come out of this new colour, no chance whatsoever, Now the judges that we ask nowadays have practical knowledge of the Standard that has a history and Strenghth behind it, also he has proved he knows such standard by the birds that he picks , and the birds that he benches within such breeds himself. most new Judges that succeed have a strong background of breeding behind them with large doses of success, they can then translate that knowledge to the following masses.
the mention of birds going close to standard within Dark breeders and Light breeders, can be down to timelines, these breeders have got themselves to a point where there bloodlines have split again. Does this fellow realise that they Double-mating again within, the Darks and Lights to attain close to Standard within there Yards.He thinks these birds have come out of the same pens. He does not see the culls as Dark males that have surely produced these almost exhibition Females. The expert breeders have now reached a stage where there Yards are split again. both to keep the blood at there place and to attain a higher level, within the flock. (also a means of selling to the public a perfectly good breed Trio of the proper looking Darks or Lights, that will not attain any immediate success for the purchaser.) O if only He knew.the new Standard is again called for, and the lack of energy displayed by him as against his fellow breeders again becomes apparent.
that the new Standard would mean more birds been shown again and more happy campers about , just leaves me numb.I think this is the time to tell our friend he needs to go to England and show against there standard.there is a bit of magic stated that these new birds will all approach this new Standard colour and the world will be all good.wait a second, now he mentions that the Red breeders do have Colour feeders at home and we may be allowed to have some too.here we go again. the people with passion energy and room ( or strenghth of resolve to specialize in the one breed or colour will again come to the top , and this poor fellow will not be a happy camper again.
he wishes every one well that the championship pen they just won with, will produce (thru the laws of nature ), both winning Males Females. they will , but boy start raising a lot of birds, to achieve this, Oh, I have just told you why the breeders before had specialized there flocks. to combat such LAWS of nature, the variation of colour, so that they did not have to breed such numbers to find their winners, our friend was trying to have less waste in our yards at home, but his new Standard and Single mating methods, have just made us feed 80% more fowls than we used to. also, we now have 80% more fowls to cull with no Show market to sell them at, gee before we only had 10% culls, and they could be spotted very early on, we did not have to feed them for long. this new standard, we dont know what colour they are going to grow into, what colour as a hen they will throw. sure in 20- 30 years we may have a better history and idea, but wev'e got a Depression upon our door step, and I'd rather someoe else find out foe me. think breeding Reds sounds easier for a while...
hold on a minute, before we changed this Standard we had a history, of how certain flocks grew, we had breeding pens breeding true. we had expert opinions.we had limited numbers of culls, if we learned about our breed.WE HAD A STANDARD CREATED FOR A BREED THAT CAME FORTH WITH QUALITIES THAT WERE ENHANCED IN SO MANY WAYS BY SO MANY GOOD PEOPLE.THE PERMANENT WELFARE OF OUR FAVOURITE FOWL HAS JUST BEEN DESTROYED.
now we read about commercial development of Barred Rocks, at this time perhaps the PARKS' STRAIN was at the forefront for such commercial. purposes. here was a Family that had gone on a tangent long ago to Trapnest there flock and attain huge results at egg -laying competions, that they went down this path a developed their strain this way is another shot in the arm for the breed, that they could claim a ribbon here and there was a bonus for them and there customers, that they provided the profits from there flock from the ability of there flocks egg capacity, is fine, but this was achieved, at a certain point in time from Standard bred Rocks, that had been bred to get closer to standard, not just in colour but 70% of the other qualities needed to win a Blue ribbon.this 70% been represented in the birds now written off null in void, by the approach of this article.
to state that he would be happy to work away from the old order of things. a very disrespectful thing to say. this article was presented in good spirit for thoughtful consideration. I have granted the writer his wish, 92 years later..
P.S
a good tip. you breed yourself a winner , you are most pleased. you set forth to breed winners from such a bird, this seldom eventuates, the bird you want to breed is the one that bred you the winner.
I hope you enjoy this article and my response, there is a lot more to this moment in time and history about double mating long before , right back to the turn of the century, I am a very busy person with work and family, this blog is easy to compile the way I am doing at present. time permitting more of these articles will appear. I am very well read in these matters as you can imagine, but also have full understanding of the breeds from a breeding point of view . thanks to the repeat viewers I am getting, and I even have a follower now, thanks to you sir, and the fellow from Malaysia.
