Sept. 16, 2024
John Tinsley on Minorcas Part 2
In this episode of the Poultry Keepers Podcast, host Rip Stalvey discusses various techniques and practices for keeping and breeding Minorca chickens with his guest John Tinsley.
The conversation covers hatching schedules, chick identification methods, and the process of selecting and grooming birds for shows. John shares his experiences in breeding different varieties of Minorcas, including efforts to revive the Rose Comb White Minorca and his new project with Buff Minorcas.
Listeners are provided with practical advice and insights on how to successfully manage and enjoy Minorca chickens.
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Hi! Welcome to the Poultry Keepers Podcast.
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I'm Rip Stalvey, it's our mission to help you have a happy, healthy, and productive flock.
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At our farm, we usually try to hatch about two large hatches a year.
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I'm not a person that likes to hatch every week and do all that kind of stuff.
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We usually, we'll save up eggs and do one big hatch and then a few weeks later, we'll save up another bunch of eggs and do another big hatch then.
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Jill, my partner, is a little bit different.
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She will hatch every week and do it a little bit differently.
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But that's just the way we've done it.
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And it's done really well.
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Most years we usually hatch out, A hundred to a hundred and fifty Minorcas, and cull down from there as they grow out.
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Gotcha.
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What do you, how do you, let me rephrase that, how do you identify your chicks?
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Do you toe punch?
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Do you wing band?
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What, is there anything you do?
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I've done toe punch before and also, I'll use, especially on white chicks I'll use a sharpie.
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Just use a sharpie right there on the back of their head because it will stay there for a long time.
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And use different colors for different groups.
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And then we also use just little zip ties.
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They make little tiny zip ties that you can put on baby chicks and we'll use those as well.
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Of course, you do have to monitor them because they'll grow fast enough where you have to change them out.
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Yes.
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But we'll use a little bit of that.
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I haven't, the one thing that I've wanted to do but I haven't gotten to that point yet is wing band.
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I'm intrigued by that process of doing it that way.
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But I, and I know several breeders that do that.
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I haven't gotten to that point yet, but it is something that I definitely am looking into in the future.
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I used to do that, and man, I swear by that was the best move I ever made was going to win.
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I, and it's I think it.
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In practice, that seems like the best thing to do.
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And it just seems like the easiest thing to do.
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It's probably much easier to do with large fowl than it is with bantams.
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Just because you have to wait, a little bit for the bantams to be big enough for you to put the wing bands on them.
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But Minorcas are very large chicks because you can do something like that with them.
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I will put in a plug here, if you're going to do that.
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Don't use the little jiffy style, use the other one.
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Because the jiffy style will come loose and it will fall out.
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The other ones do not.
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That's good.
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That's always a good tip to have.
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But yeah, that's definitely something in the future that I plan on implementing is doing it that way.
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Just because it seems like it will be a whole lot easier than any of the other things that I've done.
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Sometimes you just do what you can because that's what you have available at the time and what's necessary.
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Exactly.
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Been there?
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Yes, sir.
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Yes, sir.
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When or at what age do you start the selection process of your young birds that you're going to keep?
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You start looking at Minorcas, you probably can start noticing things about them by about four months.
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You probably, you can start seeing that if, somebody's culling maybe not right Or you see something that you don't necessarily like, but you don't wanna be too harsh at that point either.
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It's something that's gonna be very obvious if you call, and then after six months you can definitely start seeing, maybe how the combs on males are starting to look or some other traits that, that you like or you don't like.
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You can see, start manifesting at six months and then, by nine months to 12 months you've got the idea, you know whether or not that's going to be a keeper or not.
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And like with a lot of showbirds, you have to be, you have to be patient with Minorcas to let them fill out.
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Because you don't want to, you don't want to cull something.
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That you think doesn't look good today, but then a month down the road, you're shocked by it and I'm sure I'm, we're no different than anybody else you have a cull pin of stuff that you pull stuff out of, out of your regular pin, put stuff in a cull pin you're holding on to it until you can, Butcher them or do whatever else and then you walk by it one day two three weeks later, and you go Where did that bird come from?
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Oh, I've been there done that one too.
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Yeah, it's And so we all have to be very mindful of being patient of Letting the birds fill out and letting them become what they're going to be You know, we all want to cull as hard as possible because it saves us feed and everything else.
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But we do definitely have to be patient in letting them fill out and show us what the bird can eventually become.
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Wonderful.
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Let's talk about grooming and fitting Minorcas for a show.
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Anything special you have to do there?
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It goes back to, the conditioning we talked about.
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If you do a great job of sequestering a Minorca and keeping them in a pen by themselves for, several months they're going to be in pretty good shape that way, that way.
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Obviously, if you're showing white birds, you have the obvious problems that come along with white birds of no matter, of.
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How many times you wash them, they're still going to get themselves dirty.
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The black Minorcas are obviously a whole lot easier.
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You can, just like anything else, you can bathe them and prep them.
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One thing, you, we all use that, Vet Rex, for, to make their combs look better and look more fuller.
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And that's something you definitely want to do with Minorcas, is you want to make sure those combs really look hydrated.
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You don't want them to look ashy or dried out or, That's another thing, too, on why you try to keep them, in a conditioning pen by themselves, because, being that their wattles and cull are so large, and interacting with other chickens, they can definitely nick them and you can have issues there, and they're not something you want to have in the showroom.
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But, feather wise, They have very large feathers, very wide feathers, and you do need to, be very careful when you're bathing them, obviously, because you don't want to break any of those, and you want to make sure you do the best care you can in trying to preserve that look, because you don't, that's the last thing you want to do is You know, have a gorgeous Minorca male, you're getting ready to show, and you've had him, in a conditioning pen for three months, and he looks great, and then you somehow mess it up by bathing him.
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You have to be very precautious in that sense, of making sure you take care of those very long, very big feathers.
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Got it.
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What advice would you have for somebody considering getting started with Minorcas?
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Say I came to you and said, OK, John, I want to get started in Minorca.
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What do I need to do?
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I guess the first question I'm going to ask is how big are your pens?
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And how many pens do you have?
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What's, you're going to have, you're going to have some room for them.
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For them to really thrive.
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You're going to have, enough space for them to grow out and for them to do what they want to do.
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That, that's probably going to be the biggest question.
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The next question always is what, where do you want to go forward with Minorcas?
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Are you looking to show, or are you looking to raise them predominantly for eggs?
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What's your, if you're looking for show, looking to show the birds, then, They can always, share some practices, that have been proven to, to be the best for showing Minorcas down the road.
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Would definitely tell, People about Minorcas because so many people get so scared of Mediterranean breeds and their flightiness and that's a, a misnomer about it.
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And all I can say is give Minorcas a chance.
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You'll be surprised.
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And when you have a good quality Minorca that is large and impressive you're just going to love having them around.
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Because they're straight up eye candy.
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You just, you love seeing them walk around and just be chickens, and just be good chickens, because they're such great producers of eggs and, and they're just, they're a really great enjoyment to watch, at least in me, I, of course I'm very biased in terms of, I'm not espousing all the great things about Minorca chickens.
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I am definitely a biased person to talk about them.
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Because they have become my favorite breed for sure.
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But I would tell anyone to give them a chance.
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Try something different.
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They're not going to be like a Brahma or a Cochin.
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They're not going to be something that just comes up and rubs against your leg like a cat and follows you around, things like that.
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They have their definite own personality.
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There's so much they have to offer in terms of the great things about their, about the breed.
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They really are an enjoyment to have.
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Very good.
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Before we go here, is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners?
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I've written a couple of articles for the APA yearbook.
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My, my partner and I have both written a couple of articles about recreating the Rose Comb White Minorca.
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And I'll talk a little bit about that if you don't mind.
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Go ahead.
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I started back in Minorcas about 2009 and I partnered up with Jill about 2012 and we were raising single comb and rose comb blacks and we had some friends that we had met online that had talked, about white Minorcas, about trying to find some white Minorcas.
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There were only a couple breeders of whites at that time, around 2012.
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One of them was David Moore in, in Missouri, and another one was Beau McLean out in Montana, and one of our friends that we had Come into acquaintance with was a guy named Mike Omeg, who lives out in the Pacific Northwest, and he was really interested in I know Mike, he's a good friend.
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Yes, he's a great guy.
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Mike wanted to start process of recreating Rose Comb White Minorcas.
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He had managed to obtain some very good Single Comb White Minorcas from Beau McLean, and he had gotten some Rose Comb Black Minorcas from Wally and Brad Buttram.
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And he had started the first year of that project, and that was around 2013, and Mike had, Decided that perhaps it may have been too much for him, or he wanted to focus on, he raises New Hampshire's and LaFleche now, and so he wanted to focus on something else, and he knew Jill and I's passion for Minorcas and really liked the breed, and so he Talked to me one day and said, Hey, how would y'all like to take over the Rose Comb White Minorca project?
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He had about 20 young birds and he had some adults and we obtained all of that stock from him.
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of some single comb white minorcas and the rose comb blacks that he had originally used as breeders and all of the best birds that he had raised from that crossing the first year.
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And at that time, it was when we started with the rose comb whites and it was that, it was then that we split up the flock a little bit between myself and between Jill.
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And she kept some to work on and I kept some to work on and we all started from there And it's been a slow process, for sure, there's, like any other project, there's one step forward and three steps back but we've made steady progress over the years, we've I guess it was January of 2018, we finally decided to show some of the rose comb whites, and we had a really good group of young birds that had come out that year, and we showed at Blue Bonnet At the large blue bonnet show at College Station that year and Jonathan Patterson, APA judge was there and he was judging the Mediterranean that day and he was really impressed with them and the Rose Comb White actually made it to Reserve Mediterranean that day, which was, we were, of course, overjoyed by and he was really impressed with them and from that point on, I struck up a friendship with Jonathan, and he had shown a lot of interest in perhaps obtaining some of those birds, and our next show, big show that we went to was the APA National we went to in Shawnee, Oklahoma in November of 2018, and Jonathan was going to be there judging as well, so we connected with him, and at that time, we got him Two trios of rose comb white minorcas that he could start working with.
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And so we've branched out now.
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There's three of us all working on it.
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And he's, the great part is I do my thing at our farm.
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And Jill does her thing at her place.
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And now Jonathan's doing his own thing.
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And the ultimate goal is to make Rose Comb White Minorcas better and get them to the point where they can compete with the Single Comb Black Minorcas and the Single Comb White Leghorns and the Single Comb White Brown Leghorns, that you see in great numbers and great quality, it shows.
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And so now there's three of us that are working on the breed.
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And all kinds of moving in different directions and using different tools to improve the breed.
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And ultimately, our, I think our goal right now is, we're trying to shoot for that 2023, 150th anniversary show, in Columbus.
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We're all shooting that, hopefully we can have them to a level, in, in the next three years that we can, Make a great showing and let everybody see, how impressive and how great Minorcas can look in any color, I think that would be fantastic.
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That, that's our ultimate goal right now.
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And we've also, because we're a glutton for punishment when it comes to Minorcas, we've also added Buff Minorcas this past spring.
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We were able to obtain some Buff Minorcas from David Moore and we've been starting the process of trying to improve Buff Minorcas a little bit now and so hopefully in the next two or three years we can see some real improvement with them, using, that's the great thing about, we raise all varieties of Minorcas and so we have those as It's a tool to use to help any of the other varieties that may need some improvement.
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We all know that single comb black minorcas are by far the best in quality and best in type and they are the picture of what a great minorca should look like.
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We have some really great single comb black minorcas we got from Rodney Hefts in Minnesota a few years back and they've been an absolute asset to our breeding program for all of the varieties because they were such high quality birds they really made a great impression on all of what we're doing.
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They've been they've helped improve the single comb whites.
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They've helped improve the rose comb whites and our rose comb blacks.
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So they've really been an asset to help us along the way.
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And now we're trying to use all of those tools to try to help, the buff Minorcas now.
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So maybe, the ultimate goal is that we can see Minorcas in the show hall in a lot more colors and just the numbers.
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They, lots of times when you go to a show, Mediterranean class birds are sometimes some of the smallest.
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And it's like we really want to be an advocate.
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We really want to show everybody how great these birds can look.
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And they're great qualities in terms of having them around.
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Awesome.
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I certainly wish you luck with that because, and it just thrills me to no end that you're working with Buffman Orcas.
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Yeah, Buffman Orcas are extremely rare.
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There's, two serious breeders.
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David Moore has been working on them for quite some time in Arkansas.
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And I think he he partnered with the University of Arkansas when they were working with Buffman Orcas as well before that project went by the wayside.
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But Tom Roelock, the judge, APA judge.
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Over on the East Coast, he's also been working on Buff Minorcas for an extremely long time.
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I think in excess of 10 years, and he's made great strides, and he's got some extremely great looking Buff Minorcas, and they're getting there.
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And any of us that know Tom and know his mastery of the breeding he is a master of the buff and I have no doubt that he will get the Buff Minorcas looking.
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Looking impressive, and what we're trying to do is we're just trying to add to that gene pool, of anybody that can, that we can work with to try to get those buff Minorca numbers up a little bit and get the quality up and have them looking like a Minorca and have them looking, like a nice buff color.
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You can buy buff minorcas lots of times from a hatchery, and I've seen them.
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They are, they pale in comparison.
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They're half the size of what a minorca should look like, and they're usually very washed out and very light in color.
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Oh, yeah.
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And so I think we would all love to see a great buff color, big minorca like that.
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I think that's something we would all love to see.
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You were talking about, Tom and his mastery of the buff culler.
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I like to needle and aggravate him every now and then when we're together, and I refer to him as a modern day Marcus Davidson.
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Yeah, that is.
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And I guess, I know enough about chickens to know who Marcus Davidson was.
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That's that's very true though.
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And you look at the history of Buffman Orcas, and that's really the sad part about, Oh yeah.
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Buffman Orcas have, in great quality, have disappeared.
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When you look at the history of Buffman Orcas, and look at Marcus Davidson, you look at you The guy that was out west, was it Lewis, that raised Buffalo Norcas in great numbers and great quality and quantity, at the beginning of the 1900s and how popular they were and now they've just almost disappeared.
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That's really sad and, that's one of those things, it's I don't want to, Place any grand importance on ourselves or whatever, but I do you know and I talked to other breeders about this, too If we don't raise these birds, who's going to?
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Exactly, you know We're when we think about how much how many breeds that we've seen Practically disappear in the last 20 to 30 years with that generation of poultry men that have passed a lot passed away along that time Like there's so many breeds in so many, you know across the board, you know that you just don't see these very much at all and, and very decent quality and, it takes a certain amount of time and money investment to, to make sure that you can do it correctly and to improve them.
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For those of us that love to do it, we feel like it's worth it.
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Absolutely, I agree with you.
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John, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us, and I particularly enjoyed this last portion you talked about.
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Oh, for sure.
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The white Marorcas and the bus, because that kind of made my day.
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That was the icing on the cake for me.
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Yeah I'm glad I could make your day on that, yeah, me too.
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And I will say, And I don't know if, Dave Anderson, he's part of the APA as well.
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And I'll out him right here and he may be upset with me, but he's working on single comb buff Minorca bantams.
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And I've seen some pictures of him and he's making some great strides with that.
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It's nice to know that there are people, that are out there working on it.
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And I know there's a couple of other fanciers that are working on Minorca bantams as well, that have made some great strides.
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I know there's a woman in Ohio that's been working on single comb black.
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Bantams, and they've gotten them to a fairly high level, that I've seen.
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So there's, Minorca breeders are not necessarily the most flashy, and they're not going to crow about everything near as much as some of the other breeders are, but there's people out there that are working with them, and they just may not be advertising it near as much.
00:18:51.996 --> 00:18:54.665
But, the more the merrier, is what I say.
00:18:54.665 --> 00:18:59.421
They're such a great breed, and such an enjoyment to have, go ahead.
00:18:59.691 --> 00:19:02.641
I I will always advocate for anyone trying them out.
00:19:03.441 --> 00:19:03.901
Awesome.
00:19:04.191 --> 00:19:06.000
John, thank you so much.
00:19:06.030 --> 00:19:10.040
I can't tell you how much we appreciate it, and I'm sure the listeners thoroughly enjoyed this.
00:19:10.540 --> 00:19:15.340
I want to have you on some other time, and we'll just talk whatever we want to talk about, but it'll be about chickens.
00:19:15.340 --> 00:19:16.201
I guarantee that.
00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:20.580
No, that, as you can tell I have no hesitation to talk about chickens.
00:19:20.621 --> 00:19:33.115
My wife, I have no hesitation to My wife, she puts up with me and my parents have put up with me for 50 years now of talking about chickens and thinking about chickens and whatever else it I fully admit that it is an obsession.
00:19:33.826 --> 00:19:39.662
I I've, truth be told, been around chickens all my life and I, I don't see that changing in the near future.
00:19:40.461 --> 00:19:44.321
Truth be told, I have a very tolerant wife myself, and Yes.
00:19:44.372 --> 00:19:49.392
I told her I was going to be doing this recording with you, and she said, I'm going shopping, I'll see you after a while.
00:19:50.001 --> 00:19:50.382
Yeah.
00:19:51.092 --> 00:19:51.412
Yeah.
00:19:52.211 --> 00:19:52.551
Yeah.
00:19:53.352 --> 00:19:55.811
I understand that, my wife's very supportive of it.
00:19:55.821 --> 00:20:02.402
She understands the vision of what we're trying to do and trying to to accomplish with it.
00:20:02.412 --> 00:20:06.352
And like I said, this is, this has all been a group project.
00:20:06.392 --> 00:20:10.721
This is myself and Jill and, and her son A.
00:20:10.721 --> 00:20:10.991
J.
00:20:10.991 --> 00:20:13.311
who lives with her that helps take care of the birds.
00:20:13.592 --> 00:20:17.192
My parents that, I house all of the birds, at our farm.
00:20:17.711 --> 00:20:20.182
It's my parents farm, but we're all part of it together.
00:20:20.182 --> 00:20:23.811
And they are caretakers for me, in times when I can't be there.
00:20:24.362 --> 00:20:34.321
And so it's all very much a group project of trying to take care of these and trying to hold on to what we have and trying to promote as best we can for the future.
00:20:34.832 --> 00:20:36.471
Thank you for joining us this week.
00:20:36.811 --> 00:20:45.961
And before you go, make sure you subscribe to our podcast so you can receive new episodes right when they're released, and they're released every Tuesday.
00:20:46.501 --> 00:20:53.811
And if you're enjoying this podcast, we'd like to ask you to drop us an email at poultrykeeperspodcast at gmail.
00:20:53.832 --> 00:20:56.102
Com and share your thoughts about the show.
00:20:57.311 --> 00:21:01.102
Thank you again for joining us for this episode of the Poultry Keepers Podcast.
00:21:01.321 --> 00:21:02.932
We'll see you next week.
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.729
00:00:03.100 --> 00:00:08.449
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At our farm, we usually try to hatch about two large hatches a year.
00:00:23.751 --> 00:00:27.030
I'm not a person that likes to hatch every week and do all that kind of stuff.
00:00:27.030 --> 00:00:35.680
We usually, we'll save up eggs and do one big hatch and then a few weeks later, we'll save up another bunch of eggs and do another big hatch then.
00:00:36.210 --> 00:00:37.930
Jill, my partner, is a little bit different.
00:00:37.930 --> 00:00:40.710
She will hatch every week and do it a little bit differently.
00:00:41.210 --> 00:00:42.691
But that's just the way we've done it.
00:00:42.701 --> 00:00:43.820
And it's done really well.
00:00:44.231 --> 00:00:50.810
Most years we usually hatch out, A hundred to a hundred and fifty Minorcas, and cull down from there as they grow out.
00:00:51.610 --> 00:00:52.021
Gotcha.
00:00:52.820 --> 00:00:56.901
What do you, how do you, let me rephrase that, how do you identify your chicks?
00:00:56.901 --> 00:00:57.810
Do you toe punch?
00:00:58.100 --> 00:00:59.100
Do you wing band?
00:00:59.100 --> 00:01:00.280
What, is there anything you do?
00:01:01.081 --> 00:01:07.120
I've done toe punch before and also, I'll use, especially on white chicks I'll use a sharpie.
00:01:07.921 --> 00:01:12.430
Just use a sharpie right there on the back of their head because it will stay there for a long time.
00:01:13.230 --> 00:01:15.411
And use different colors for different groups.
00:01:15.430 --> 00:01:17.721
And then we also use just little zip ties.
00:01:17.730 --> 00:01:22.281
They make little tiny zip ties that you can put on baby chicks and we'll use those as well.
00:01:22.861 --> 00:01:26.490
Of course, you do have to monitor them because they'll grow fast enough where you have to change them out.
00:01:26.671 --> 00:01:26.700
Yes.
00:01:26.700 --> 00:01:28.370
But we'll use a little bit of that.
00:01:28.801 --> 00:01:34.021
I haven't, the one thing that I've wanted to do but I haven't gotten to that point yet is wing band.
00:01:34.021 --> 00:01:37.790
I'm intrigued by that process of doing it that way.
00:01:38.281 --> 00:01:40.781
But I, and I know several breeders that do that.
00:01:40.876 --> 00:01:45.016
I haven't gotten to that point yet, but it is something that I definitely am looking into in the future.
00:01:45.816 --> 00:01:50.495
I used to do that, and man, I swear by that was the best move I ever made was going to win.
00:01:50.546 --> 00:01:51.516
I, and it's I think it.
00:01:52.016 --> 00:01:54.385
In practice, that seems like the best thing to do.
00:01:54.825 --> 00:01:56.445
And it just seems like the easiest thing to do.
00:01:56.775 --> 00:01:59.876
It's probably much easier to do with large fowl than it is with bantams.
00:01:59.956 --> 00:02:04.926
Just because you have to wait, a little bit for the bantams to be big enough for you to put the wing bands on them.
00:02:05.725 --> 00:02:10.866
But Minorcas are very large chicks because you can do something like that with them.
00:02:11.665 --> 00:02:14.306
I will put in a plug here, if you're going to do that.
00:02:15.105 --> 00:02:17.645
Don't use the little jiffy style, use the other one.
00:02:18.135 --> 00:02:21.306
Because the jiffy style will come loose and it will fall out.
00:02:21.316 --> 00:02:22.415
The other ones do not.
00:02:23.020 --> 00:02:24.120
That's good.
00:02:24.121 --> 00:02:25.640
That's always a good tip to have.
00:02:26.260 --> 00:02:31.991
But yeah, that's definitely something in the future that I plan on implementing is doing it that way.
00:02:32.040 --> 00:02:35.691
Just because it seems like it will be a whole lot easier than any of the other things that I've done.
00:02:36.110 --> 00:02:41.211
Sometimes you just do what you can because that's what you have available at the time and what's necessary.
00:02:41.211 --> 00:02:41.860
Exactly.
00:02:42.355 --> 00:02:42.906
Been there?
00:02:43.675 --> 00:02:44.186
Yes, sir.
00:02:44.205 --> 00:02:44.665
Yes, sir.
00:02:45.466 --> 00:02:51.026
When or at what age do you start the selection process of your young birds that you're going to keep?
00:02:51.526 --> 00:02:57.346
You start looking at Minorcas, you probably can start noticing things about them by about four months.
00:02:57.346 --> 00:03:05.730
You probably, you can start seeing that if, somebody's culling maybe not right Or you see something that you don't necessarily like, but you don't wanna be too harsh at that point either.
00:03:05.730 --> 00:03:18.140
It's something that's gonna be very obvious if you call, and then after six months you can definitely start seeing, maybe how the combs on males are starting to look or some other traits that, that you like or you don't like.
00:03:18.170 --> 00:03:27.191
You can see, start manifesting at six months and then, by nine months to 12 months you've got the idea, you know whether or not that's going to be a keeper or not.
00:03:27.871 --> 00:03:33.991
And like with a lot of showbirds, you have to be, you have to be patient with Minorcas to let them fill out.
00:03:34.550 --> 00:03:36.770
Because you don't want to, you don't want to cull something.
00:03:37.126 --> 00:03:58.626
That you think doesn't look good today, but then a month down the road, you're shocked by it and I'm sure I'm, we're no different than anybody else you have a cull pin of stuff that you pull stuff out of, out of your regular pin, put stuff in a cull pin you're holding on to it until you can, Butcher them or do whatever else and then you walk by it one day two three weeks later, and you go Where did that bird come from?
00:03:59.425 --> 00:04:01.036
Oh, I've been there done that one too.
00:04:01.056 --> 00:04:15.350
Yeah, it's And so we all have to be very mindful of being patient of Letting the birds fill out and letting them become what they're going to be You know, we all want to cull as hard as possible because it saves us feed and everything else.
00:04:15.860 --> 00:04:21.240
But we do definitely have to be patient in letting them fill out and show us what the bird can eventually become.
00:04:22.040 --> 00:04:22.600
Wonderful.
00:04:23.401 --> 00:04:27.130
Let's talk about grooming and fitting Minorcas for a show.
00:04:27.930 --> 00:04:29.221
Anything special you have to do there?
00:04:29.721 --> 00:04:32.261
It goes back to, the conditioning we talked about.
00:04:32.261 --> 00:04:41.670
If you do a great job of sequestering a Minorca and keeping them in a pen by themselves for, several months they're going to be in pretty good shape that way, that way.
00:04:42.180 --> 00:04:49.321
Obviously, if you're showing white birds, you have the obvious problems that come along with white birds of no matter, of.
00:04:49.901 --> 00:04:53.831
How many times you wash them, they're still going to get themselves dirty.
00:04:54.360 --> 00:04:56.961
The black Minorcas are obviously a whole lot easier.
00:04:57.430 --> 00:05:00.521
You can, just like anything else, you can bathe them and prep them.
00:05:00.571 --> 00:05:06.540
One thing, you, we all use that, Vet Rex, for, to make their combs look better and look more fuller.
00:05:06.540 --> 00:05:12.151
And that's something you definitely want to do with Minorcas, is you want to make sure those combs really look hydrated.
00:05:12.161 --> 00:05:29.321
You don't want them to look ashy or dried out or, That's another thing, too, on why you try to keep them, in a conditioning pen by themselves, because, being that their wattles and cull are so large, and interacting with other chickens, they can definitely nick them and you can have issues there, and they're not something you want to have in the showroom.
00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:57.321
But, feather wise, They have very large feathers, very wide feathers, and you do need to, be very careful when you're bathing them, obviously, because you don't want to break any of those, and you want to make sure you do the best care you can in trying to preserve that look, because you don't, that's the last thing you want to do is You know, have a gorgeous Minorca male, you're getting ready to show, and you've had him, in a conditioning pen for three months, and he looks great, and then you somehow mess it up by bathing him.
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You have to be very precautious in that sense, of making sure you take care of those very long, very big feathers.
00:06:05.081 --> 00:06:05.471
Got it.
00:06:06.271 --> 00:06:11.440
What advice would you have for somebody considering getting started with Minorcas?
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Say I came to you and said, OK, John, I want to get started in Minorca.
00:06:14.911 --> 00:06:15.930
What do I need to do?
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I guess the first question I'm going to ask is how big are your pens?
00:06:19.511 --> 00:06:21.021
And how many pens do you have?
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What's, you're going to have, you're going to have some room for them.
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For them to really thrive.
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You're going to have, enough space for them to grow out and for them to do what they want to do.
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That, that's probably going to be the biggest question.
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The next question always is what, where do you want to go forward with Minorcas?
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Are you looking to show, or are you looking to raise them predominantly for eggs?
00:06:41.216 --> 00:06:52.656
What's your, if you're looking for show, looking to show the birds, then, They can always, share some practices, that have been proven to, to be the best for showing Minorcas down the road.
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Would definitely tell, People about Minorcas because so many people get so scared of Mediterranean breeds and their flightiness and that's a, a misnomer about it.
00:07:03.446 --> 00:07:05.725
And all I can say is give Minorcas a chance.
00:07:06.266 --> 00:07:07.396
You'll be surprised.
00:07:07.665 --> 00:07:16.295
And when you have a good quality Minorca that is large and impressive you're just going to love having them around.
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Because they're straight up eye candy.
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You just, you love seeing them walk around and just be chickens, and just be good chickens, because they're such great producers of eggs and, and they're just, they're a really great enjoyment to watch, at least in me, I, of course I'm very biased in terms of, I'm not espousing all the great things about Minorca chickens.
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I am definitely a biased person to talk about them.
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Because they have become my favorite breed for sure.
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But I would tell anyone to give them a chance.
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Try something different.
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They're not going to be like a Brahma or a Cochin.
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They're not going to be something that just comes up and rubs against your leg like a cat and follows you around, things like that.
00:08:01.091 --> 00:08:03.130
They have their definite own personality.
00:08:03.930 --> 00:08:10.031
There's so much they have to offer in terms of the great things about their, about the breed.
00:08:10.281 --> 00:08:12.350
They really are an enjoyment to have.
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Very good.
00:08:14.230 --> 00:08:17.550
Before we go here, is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners?
00:08:18.050 --> 00:08:20.951
I've written a couple of articles for the APA yearbook.
00:08:20.951 --> 00:08:27.230
My, my partner and I have both written a couple of articles about recreating the Rose Comb White Minorca.
00:08:27.865 --> 00:08:30.115
And I'll talk a little bit about that if you don't mind.
00:08:30.875 --> 00:08:31.415
Go ahead.
00:08:31.915 --> 00:08:49.306
I started back in Minorcas about 2009 and I partnered up with Jill about 2012 and we were raising single comb and rose comb blacks and we had some friends that we had met online that had talked, about white Minorcas, about trying to find some white Minorcas.
00:08:49.916 --> 00:08:53.645
There were only a couple breeders of whites at that time, around 2012.
00:08:54.446 --> 00:09:13.166
One of them was David Moore in, in Missouri, and another one was Beau McLean out in Montana, and one of our friends that we had Come into acquaintance with was a guy named Mike Omeg, who lives out in the Pacific Northwest, and he was really interested in I know Mike, he's a good friend.
00:09:13.735 --> 00:09:15.115
Yes, he's a great guy.
00:09:15.556 --> 00:09:21.485
Mike wanted to start process of recreating Rose Comb White Minorcas.
00:09:21.515 --> 00:09:31.515
He had managed to obtain some very good Single Comb White Minorcas from Beau McLean, and he had gotten some Rose Comb Black Minorcas from Wally and Brad Buttram.
00:09:32.186 --> 00:10:01.686
And he had started the first year of that project, and that was around 2013, and Mike had, Decided that perhaps it may have been too much for him, or he wanted to focus on, he raises New Hampshire's and LaFleche now, and so he wanted to focus on something else, and he knew Jill and I's passion for Minorcas and really liked the breed, and so he Talked to me one day and said, Hey, how would y'all like to take over the Rose Comb White Minorca project?
00:10:02.485 --> 00:10:12.196
He had about 20 young birds and he had some adults and we obtained all of that stock from him.
00:10:12.701 --> 00:10:22.160
of some single comb white minorcas and the rose comb blacks that he had originally used as breeders and all of the best birds that he had raised from that crossing the first year.
00:10:22.860 --> 00:10:33.280
And at that time, it was when we started with the rose comb whites and it was that, it was then that we split up the flock a little bit between myself and between Jill.
00:10:33.971 --> 00:11:49.855
And she kept some to work on and I kept some to work on and we all started from there And it's been a slow process, for sure, there's, like any other project, there's one step forward and three steps back but we've made steady progress over the years, we've I guess it was January of 2018, we finally decided to show some of the rose comb whites, and we had a really good group of young birds that had come out that year, and we showed at Blue Bonnet At the large blue bonnet show at College Station that year and Jonathan Patterson, APA judge was there and he was judging the Mediterranean that day and he was really impressed with them and the Rose Comb White actually made it to Reserve Mediterranean that day, which was, we were, of course, overjoyed by and he was really impressed with them and from that point on, I struck up a friendship with Jonathan, and he had shown a lot of interest in perhaps obtaining some of those birds, and our next show, big show that we went to was the APA National we went to in Shawnee, Oklahoma in November of 2018, and Jonathan was going to be there judging as well, so we connected with him, and at that time, we got him Two trios of rose comb white minorcas that he could start working with.
00:11:50.225 --> 00:11:51.655
And so we've branched out now.
00:11:51.655 --> 00:11:53.336
There's three of us all working on it.
00:11:53.336 --> 00:11:57.826
And he's, the great part is I do my thing at our farm.
00:11:57.826 --> 00:11:59.956
And Jill does her thing at her place.
00:11:59.975 --> 00:12:01.995
And now Jonathan's doing his own thing.
00:12:02.765 --> 00:12:18.696
And the ultimate goal is to make Rose Comb White Minorcas better and get them to the point where they can compete with the Single Comb Black Minorcas and the Single Comb White Leghorns and the Single Comb White Brown Leghorns, that you see in great numbers and great quality, it shows.
00:12:19.495 --> 00:12:22.336
And so now there's three of us that are working on the breed.
00:12:22.821 --> 00:12:28.221
And all kinds of moving in different directions and using different tools to improve the breed.
00:12:28.841 --> 00:12:38.990
And ultimately, our, I think our goal right now is, we're trying to shoot for that 2023, 150th anniversary show, in Columbus.
00:12:39.500 --> 00:12:54.166
We're all shooting that, hopefully we can have them to a level, in, in the next three years that we can, Make a great showing and let everybody see, how impressive and how great Minorcas can look in any color, I think that would be fantastic.
00:12:54.946 --> 00:12:56.676
That, that's our ultimate goal right now.
00:12:56.676 --> 00:13:04.216
And we've also, because we're a glutton for punishment when it comes to Minorcas, we've also added Buff Minorcas this past spring.
00:13:04.216 --> 00:13:29.701
We were able to obtain some Buff Minorcas from David Moore and we've been starting the process of trying to improve Buff Minorcas a little bit now and so hopefully in the next two or three years we can see some real improvement with them, using, that's the great thing about, we raise all varieties of Minorcas and so we have those as It's a tool to use to help any of the other varieties that may need some improvement.
00:13:29.980 --> 00:13:39.421
We all know that single comb black minorcas are by far the best in quality and best in type and they are the picture of what a great minorca should look like.
00:13:40.091 --> 00:13:56.421
We have some really great single comb black minorcas we got from Rodney Hefts in Minnesota a few years back and they've been an absolute asset to our breeding program for all of the varieties because they were such high quality birds they really made a great impression on all of what we're doing.
00:13:56.431 --> 00:13:58.681
They've been they've helped improve the single comb whites.
00:13:59.091 --> 00:14:02.020
They've helped improve the rose comb whites and our rose comb blacks.
00:14:02.020 --> 00:14:05.331
So they've really been an asset to help us along the way.
00:14:05.331 --> 00:14:09.541
And now we're trying to use all of those tools to try to help, the buff Minorcas now.
00:14:09.561 --> 00:14:16.961
So maybe, the ultimate goal is that we can see Minorcas in the show hall in a lot more colors and just the numbers.
00:14:16.961 --> 00:14:22.360
They, lots of times when you go to a show, Mediterranean class birds are sometimes some of the smallest.
00:14:23.160 --> 00:14:24.951
And it's like we really want to be an advocate.
00:14:25.000 --> 00:14:27.931
We really want to show everybody how great these birds can look.
00:14:28.350 --> 00:14:31.331
And they're great qualities in terms of having them around.
00:14:32.130 --> 00:14:32.461
Awesome.
00:14:32.471 --> 00:14:40.010
I certainly wish you luck with that because, and it just thrills me to no end that you're working with Buffman Orcas.
00:14:40.010 --> 00:14:43.471
Yeah, Buffman Orcas are extremely rare.
00:14:43.551 --> 00:14:45.791
There's, two serious breeders.
00:14:45.791 --> 00:14:49.270
David Moore has been working on them for quite some time in Arkansas.
00:14:49.740 --> 00:14:56.120
And I think he he partnered with the University of Arkansas when they were working with Buffman Orcas as well before that project went by the wayside.
00:14:56.600 --> 00:14:59.390
But Tom Roelock, the judge, APA judge.
00:14:59.961 --> 00:15:04.250
Over on the East Coast, he's also been working on Buff Minorcas for an extremely long time.
00:15:04.860 --> 00:15:12.270
I think in excess of 10 years, and he's made great strides, and he's got some extremely great looking Buff Minorcas, and they're getting there.
00:15:12.321 --> 00:15:21.910
And any of us that know Tom and know his mastery of the breeding he is a master of the buff and I have no doubt that he will get the Buff Minorcas looking.
00:15:22.410 --> 00:15:39.841
Looking impressive, and what we're trying to do is we're just trying to add to that gene pool, of anybody that can, that we can work with to try to get those buff Minorca numbers up a little bit and get the quality up and have them looking like a Minorca and have them looking, like a nice buff color.
00:15:40.336 --> 00:15:43.916
You can buy buff minorcas lots of times from a hatchery, and I've seen them.
00:15:44.456 --> 00:15:46.385
They are, they pale in comparison.
00:15:46.446 --> 00:15:51.916
They're half the size of what a minorca should look like, and they're usually very washed out and very light in color.
00:15:52.385 --> 00:15:52.686
Oh, yeah.
00:15:52.765 --> 00:15:57.475
And so I think we would all love to see a great buff color, big minorca like that.
00:15:57.515 --> 00:15:59.535
I think that's something we would all love to see.
00:16:00.336 --> 00:16:03.500
You were talking about, Tom and his mastery of the buff culler.
00:16:04.110 --> 00:16:10.980
I like to needle and aggravate him every now and then when we're together, and I refer to him as a modern day Marcus Davidson.
00:16:11.780 --> 00:16:12.671
Yeah, that is.
00:16:13.471 --> 00:16:19.041
And I guess, I know enough about chickens to know who Marcus Davidson was.
00:16:19.841 --> 00:16:21.701
That's that's very true though.
00:16:21.750 --> 00:16:27.250
And you look at the history of Buffman Orcas, and that's really the sad part about, Oh yeah.
00:16:27.270 --> 00:16:30.990
Buffman Orcas have, in great quality, have disappeared.
00:16:31.791 --> 00:16:54.005
When you look at the history of Buffman Orcas, and look at Marcus Davidson, you look at you The guy that was out west, was it Lewis, that raised Buffalo Norcas in great numbers and great quality and quantity, at the beginning of the 1900s and how popular they were and now they've just almost disappeared.
00:16:54.495 --> 00:17:07.655
That's really sad and, that's one of those things, it's I don't want to, Place any grand importance on ourselves or whatever, but I do you know and I talked to other breeders about this, too If we don't raise these birds, who's going to?
00:17:08.455 --> 00:17:38.425
Exactly, you know We're when we think about how much how many breeds that we've seen Practically disappear in the last 20 to 30 years with that generation of poultry men that have passed a lot passed away along that time Like there's so many breeds in so many, you know across the board, you know that you just don't see these very much at all and, and very decent quality and, it takes a certain amount of time and money investment to, to make sure that you can do it correctly and to improve them.
00:17:38.976 --> 00:17:41.465
For those of us that love to do it, we feel like it's worth it.
00:17:42.266 --> 00:17:43.816
Absolutely, I agree with you.
00:17:44.316 --> 00:17:50.996
John, I really appreciate you taking the time to talk with us, and I particularly enjoyed this last portion you talked about.
00:17:51.195 --> 00:17:52.006
Oh, for sure.
00:17:52.165 --> 00:17:55.556
The white Marorcas and the bus, because that kind of made my day.
00:17:56.096 --> 00:17:58.026
That was the icing on the cake for me.
00:17:58.215 --> 00:18:02.496
Yeah I'm glad I could make your day on that, yeah, me too.
00:18:02.526 --> 00:18:07.296
And I will say, And I don't know if, Dave Anderson, he's part of the APA as well.
00:18:08.096 --> 00:18:13.635
And I'll out him right here and he may be upset with me, but he's working on single comb buff Minorca bantams.
00:18:14.435 --> 00:18:17.746
And I've seen some pictures of him and he's making some great strides with that.
00:18:17.806 --> 00:18:20.885
It's nice to know that there are people, that are out there working on it.
00:18:20.885 --> 00:18:27.195
And I know there's a couple of other fanciers that are working on Minorca bantams as well, that have made some great strides.
00:18:27.195 --> 00:18:32.286
I know there's a woman in Ohio that's been working on single comb black.
00:18:32.615 --> 00:18:36.665
Bantams, and they've gotten them to a fairly high level, that I've seen.
00:18:37.336 --> 00:18:51.816
So there's, Minorca breeders are not necessarily the most flashy, and they're not going to crow about everything near as much as some of the other breeders are, but there's people out there that are working with them, and they just may not be advertising it near as much.
00:18:51.996 --> 00:18:54.665
But, the more the merrier, is what I say.
00:18:54.665 --> 00:18:59.421
They're such a great breed, and such an enjoyment to have, go ahead.
00:18:59.691 --> 00:19:02.641
I I will always advocate for anyone trying them out.
00:19:03.441 --> 00:19:03.901
Awesome.
00:19:04.191 --> 00:19:06.000
John, thank you so much.
00:19:06.030 --> 00:19:10.040
I can't tell you how much we appreciate it, and I'm sure the listeners thoroughly enjoyed this.
00:19:10.540 --> 00:19:15.340
I want to have you on some other time, and we'll just talk whatever we want to talk about, but it'll be about chickens.
00:19:15.340 --> 00:19:16.201
I guarantee that.
00:19:16.240 --> 00:19:20.580
No, that, as you can tell I have no hesitation to talk about chickens.
00:19:20.621 --> 00:19:33.115
My wife, I have no hesitation to My wife, she puts up with me and my parents have put up with me for 50 years now of talking about chickens and thinking about chickens and whatever else it I fully admit that it is an obsession.
00:19:33.826 --> 00:19:39.662
I I've, truth be told, been around chickens all my life and I, I don't see that changing in the near future.
00:19:40.461 --> 00:19:44.321
Truth be told, I have a very tolerant wife myself, and Yes.
00:19:44.372 --> 00:19:49.392
I told her I was going to be doing this recording with you, and she said, I'm going shopping, I'll see you after a while.
00:19:50.001 --> 00:19:50.382
Yeah.
00:19:51.092 --> 00:19:51.412
Yeah.
00:19:52.211 --> 00:19:52.551
Yeah.
00:19:53.352 --> 00:19:55.811
I understand that, my wife's very supportive of it.
00:19:55.821 --> 00:20:02.402
She understands the vision of what we're trying to do and trying to to accomplish with it.
00:20:02.412 --> 00:20:06.352
And like I said, this is, this has all been a group project.
00:20:06.392 --> 00:20:10.721
This is myself and Jill and, and her son A.
00:20:10.721 --> 00:20:10.991
J.
00:20:10.991 --> 00:20:13.311
who lives with her that helps take care of the birds.
00:20:13.592 --> 00:20:17.192
My parents that, I house all of the birds, at our farm.
00:20:17.711 --> 00:20:20.182
It's my parents farm, but we're all part of it together.
00:20:20.182 --> 00:20:23.811
And they are caretakers for me, in times when I can't be there.
00:20:24.362 --> 00:20:34.321
And so it's all very much a group project of trying to take care of these and trying to hold on to what we have and trying to promote as best we can for the future.
00:20:34.832 --> 00:20:36.471
Thank you for joining us this week.
00:20:36.811 --> 00:20:45.961
And before you go, make sure you subscribe to our podcast so you can receive new episodes right when they're released, and they're released every Tuesday.
00:20:46.501 --> 00:20:53.811
And if you're enjoying this podcast, we'd like to ask you to drop us an email at poultrykeeperspodcast at gmail.
00:20:53.832 --> 00:20:56.102
Com and share your thoughts about the show.
00:20:57.311 --> 00:21:01.102
Thank you again for joining us for this episode of the Poultry Keepers Podcast.
00:21:01.321 --> 00:21:02.932
We'll see you next week.