Feb. 26, 2024

Reading, Understanding, And Applying A Written Standard-Part 4

Reading, Understanding, And Applying A Written Standard-Part 4

The script is a comprehensive discussion from the Poultry Keepers podcast, covering various aspects of poultry evaluation including body conformation, feather quality, color, and breeding. The hosts stress the importance of referring to the written standards and seeking mentorship for specific knowledge, and conclude by seeking feedback for future podcast topics.

You can email us at - poultrykeeperspodcast@gmail.com
Join our Facebook Groups:

Poultry Keepers Podcast -
https://www.facebook.com/groups/907679597724837
Poultry Keepers 360 - - https://www.facebook.com/groups/354973752688125
Poultry Breeders Nutrition - https://www.facebook.com/groups/4908798409211973

Check out the Poultry Kepers Podcast YouTube Channel -
https://www.youtube.com/@PoultryKeepersPodcast/featured

WEBVTT

00:00:00.100 --> 00:00:05.780
Hi, I'm Mandelyn Royal and I would like to welcome you to another episode of the Poultry Keepers podcast.

00:00:06.120 --> 00:00:15.810
Joining me are John Gunterman and Rip Stalvey, the rest of our podcast team and we're looking forward to visiting with you and talking poultry from feathers to function.

00:00:26.407 --> 00:00:34.226
Another thing I think a lot of people don't do, and they should be doing, is weigh your birds.

00:00:35.027 --> 00:00:40.987
I see a lot of birds in shows that are too big and some that are too small.

00:00:41.786 --> 00:00:44.277
And I've also seen birds that I thought looked great.

00:00:44.277 --> 00:00:46.347
And I picked them up and like, where is this thing?

00:00:46.347 --> 00:00:47.996
It's all fluff and feather.

00:00:48.627 --> 00:01:00.627
I've seen as much as three to four pounds discrepancies from bird to bird within the same breed, same age, same environment with huge discrepancies.

00:01:01.426 --> 00:01:04.367
The standard specifies weights for cockerels.

00:01:05.167 --> 00:01:09.447
Weights for pullets, weights for cockbirds, and weights for hens.

00:01:10.246 --> 00:01:13.677
Now, you're allowed 20 percent over or under, okay?

00:01:14.197 --> 00:01:18.456
But anything outside of that disqualifies that bird from competition.

00:01:19.257 --> 00:01:19.686
Yeah.

00:01:20.087 --> 00:01:22.387
I thought it was one pound up or down, but it's 20%?.

00:01:22.387 --> 00:01:24.137
If you do the math, it's pretty close.

00:01:24.936 --> 00:01:26.686
We talked about wings and tails.

00:01:26.917 --> 00:01:33.986
We also need to address feather quality, and Mandy, you Almost got there when you were talking about the shape of the feathers in the wings.

00:01:34.787 --> 00:01:43.936
Now, isn't it like, for example, with a wing feather, you want as much feather material on both sides of the shaft of the feather, right?

00:01:43.936 --> 00:01:45.546
You shouldn't see no,

00:01:46.346 --> 00:01:50.897
the leading edge of the primaries will be naturally narrower.

00:01:51.572 --> 00:01:55.441
Then the following edge, or the back edge, the edge closest to the body.

00:01:55.611 --> 00:01:57.182
Oh, okay.

00:01:57.981 --> 00:02:02.781
Now, secondaries are much more even, but on the primaries you get this variation.

00:02:03.581 --> 00:02:09.032
But, the standard will prescribe feather quality to an extent.

00:02:09.681 --> 00:02:29.687
It's, they'll say it should be broad, some will say narrow, and some of it depends on the breed, like your harder feathered birds that carry those feathers closer to the body tend to have a slightly narrower feather structure than birds like Asiatics, Orpingtons and some of those.

00:02:29.847 --> 00:02:30.896
Oh, that makes sense.

00:02:30.926 --> 00:02:36.016
And then you add in that fluff factor and how fluffy they are or are not and the length of the feathers.

00:02:36.657 --> 00:02:38.247
Stop picking on my birds, Mandy.

00:02:39.007 --> 00:02:39.586
I didn't.

00:02:39.637 --> 00:02:40.296
I didn't even say your name.

00:02:40.516 --> 00:02:40.997
I know.

00:02:41.592 --> 00:02:51.981
I know I'm just sensitive about my fluff factor, but that is specified in the standard and it actually has pictures of how far up the shaft the fluff should extend.

00:02:52.782 --> 00:02:55.472
And your breed is going to be specific though.

00:02:56.271 --> 00:03:03.231
The more fluff you have on a feather, the more loosely feathered it makes them look, just because it provides that.

00:03:03.736 --> 00:03:08.347
Extra little bit of loft to physically lift and separate those feathers a little bit.

00:03:08.516 --> 00:03:11.717
Yeah, and it prevents them from being able to tighten it down.

00:03:12.266 --> 00:03:12.637
Yeah.

00:03:12.687 --> 00:03:14.727
And that's how you can achieve type through feathers.

00:03:15.526 --> 00:03:22.437
I want a really nice hard outer shell to ward off wind and any potential snow in my case, or rain.

00:03:23.037 --> 00:03:39.356
I'll actually look at feathers from the breast area or the very top of the back up between the hackles and the saddle feathers and get an idea for feather width, feather shape and feather quality.

00:03:39.866 --> 00:03:49.997
If you'll take the back of your hand and start at the bird's hackle and just slide it down on top of the feathers from the neck to the tail.

00:03:50.796 --> 00:03:58.356
You can really feel the feather quality, if it feels very slick and smooth, like silk cloth, that's good feather quality.

00:03:59.086 --> 00:04:01.727
If it feels rough, not so much.

00:04:02.526 --> 00:04:07.486
And you can also pluck a feather out and hold it up to the light.

00:04:08.336 --> 00:04:12.296
If you can see through it, you don't have a very substantial feather.

00:04:13.097 --> 00:04:13.907
That makes sense.

00:04:14.706 --> 00:04:17.117
And that all goes back to genetics and nutrition.

00:04:17.607 --> 00:04:18.456
Yes, exactly.

00:04:19.107 --> 00:04:20.317
Should it be thick?

00:04:20.336 --> 00:04:22.377
And if it's not, why not?

00:04:23.177 --> 00:04:27.947
And I noticed new this year in some of my pullets, they're developing a cushion.

00:04:28.747 --> 00:04:35.117
And when you see a cushion on a female, that's where it's real fluffy and bouncing up off the back in front of the tail.

00:04:35.637 --> 00:04:40.357
And the saddle area and it, there's varying degrees.

00:04:40.387 --> 00:04:45.127
Cause normally my birds are pretty well tightly feathered and it's all smooth.

00:04:45.146 --> 00:04:48.237
There's no jumped up fluff or what do you call it?

00:04:48.346 --> 00:04:48.807
Volume.

00:04:48.807 --> 00:04:57.526
They don't have any volume, but some of these that I'm seeing this year are getting a pretty well defined cushion, which is weird.

00:04:57.526 --> 00:04:58.947
I don't even know where that's coming from.

00:04:58.947 --> 00:05:03.927
So I tell you what you do, pull out a feather.

00:05:04.391 --> 00:05:14.021
From that cushion area on a bird that has it, and you pull out a feather from the same location on a bird that doesn't have it.

00:05:14.822 --> 00:05:16.862
Look at the amount of fluff between the two.

00:05:17.661 --> 00:05:19.581
Ah, is where that extra volume's coming from.

00:05:19.586 --> 00:05:22.372
So somehow I added more fluff than what they had before.

00:05:23.172 --> 00:05:28.641
And how much of that can be a response to local environment and just epigenetic development.

00:05:29.442 --> 00:05:32.641
I wonder if for the time of year they were hatched.

00:05:32.641 --> 00:05:33.482
I don't think so.

00:05:34.281 --> 00:05:39.422
I'm seeing cushions on Rhode Island Reds that I never saw before.

00:05:40.221 --> 00:05:43.622
It's just not paying attention to the fine details.

00:05:44.041 --> 00:05:45.692
When you're evaluating your birds.

00:05:46.492 --> 00:05:51.012
You've got a lot more ratio of fluff to web of the feather.

00:05:51.401 --> 00:05:56.632
In some instances, you have a longer feather, which will give you a looser look.

00:05:57.432 --> 00:06:06.422
I'll go back through my adults again for the 1, 000th time and see if I find somebody with a long saddle feather on a female that may be producing cushion.

00:06:07.271 --> 00:06:18.942
So if you've got three or four birds lined up next to each other and they're all of equal conformation and you're looking at those finer points, feather quality is for sure one of them.

00:06:19.742 --> 00:06:21.851
It's on the list just not the top of the list.

00:06:22.302 --> 00:06:38.211
Feather quality is also directly related to the sheen of a bird, the shininess of the feathers, and when you start losing your feather quality the feather surface begins to take on a slightly duller look and not as shiny.

00:06:39.012 --> 00:06:50.651
When you described that feel earlier, Rip, that's something that you're not going to be able to change for a show by putting a show sheen or shine or whatever they call it on your bird.

00:06:50.661 --> 00:06:55.101
You'll, even if the feather is shiny you'll still be able to feel that.

00:06:55.487 --> 00:07:00.016
Little roughness of the feather versus the silky quality underneath.

00:07:00.416 --> 00:07:03.307
And you'll probably be able to feel that it was sprayed with this juice.

00:07:03.307 --> 00:07:05.666
Anyways, you have to go wipe your hands.

00:07:06.406 --> 00:07:10.807
I have literally seen people put so much of that stuff on the birds.

00:07:11.096 --> 00:07:11.997
It's hard to hold them.

00:07:12.346 --> 00:07:17.987
I've nearly dropped birds before because they were so slick from having that show sheen sprayed on them.

00:07:18.786 --> 00:07:20.656
And then it's on your hands the rest of the day.

00:07:21.127 --> 00:07:21.497
Yeah.

00:07:21.776 --> 00:07:22.297
Hand wipes.

00:07:22.836 --> 00:07:25.956
I've had to go stop what I was doing and go wash my hands.

00:07:25.956 --> 00:07:32.466
And when they're spraying it, particularly on concrete floors, it gets on the floor and it makes the floor slick.

00:07:33.266 --> 00:07:34.646
It's like being on ice.

00:07:35.447 --> 00:07:43.507
You can put a great shine on a bird with nothing more complicated than a silk cloth, just rubbing the feathers with it.

00:07:44.197 --> 00:07:47.757
Or a garden hose on a nice warm sunny day.

00:07:48.557 --> 00:07:50.396
Yeah, it doesn't hurt your birds to get wet.

00:07:51.112 --> 00:07:57.432
I think the birds that have access to the environment and get rained on regularly look better naturally.

00:07:57.502 --> 00:08:04.252
They also learn to preen take care of themselves, I believe, versus a just a coop kept

00:08:04.281 --> 00:08:04.641
bird.

00:08:05.262 --> 00:08:06.901
I know one Sumatra breeder.

00:08:07.701 --> 00:08:11.302
That he would regularly go out there and spray his males down with a water hose.

00:08:12.101 --> 00:08:16.771
And he had some of the best sheen and best quality on those birds I've ever seen.

00:08:17.572 --> 00:08:21.182
I've been definitely guilty of, I would call it rinsing my birds.

00:08:21.182 --> 00:08:23.831
I don't wash them cause any natural oils that are there.

00:08:23.831 --> 00:08:24.331
I don't want to.

00:08:24.747 --> 00:08:27.387
Take away by using anything that's detergent based.

00:08:27.437 --> 00:08:29.442
Just a light misting is all it takes.

00:08:29.562 --> 00:08:38.652
Yeah, garden hose, spray'em down and on hot days, my Chantecleres definitely appreciate a nice little misting with a garden hose or just a sprinkler going back and forth.

00:08:39.162 --> 00:08:39.851
Oh my gosh.

00:08:39.907 --> 00:08:40.116
There.

00:08:40.917 --> 00:08:47.626
If you want some entertainment on a hot day, put a sprinkler out and put it on oscillation back and forth, and watch your chickens chase the water.

00:08:47.687 --> 00:08:48.706
It's really quite fun.

00:08:48.706 --> 00:08:50.947
I've done it for ducks, but I've never done it for chickens.

00:08:51.187 --> 00:08:52.246
Oh yeah, they love it.

00:08:53.047 --> 00:08:57.797
Mine will actually walk under it and hold their wings out as it sweeps back and forth.

00:08:57.797 --> 00:08:59.956
It's like the undercarriage wash on a car wash.

00:09:00.456 --> 00:09:02.996
And then after it goes by, they shake like a dog.

00:09:03.397 --> 00:09:11.317
I think it's funny and cute, if you're not out there observing your birds and just getting joy and, having fun with them that don't bother keeping them.

00:09:12.116 --> 00:09:16.047
And that's part of chickening is just watching your birds and knowing them.

00:09:16.126 --> 00:09:21.636
I can just based on the way they walk or run, I can tell which one of my birds is which one of my permanent birds.

00:09:21.636 --> 00:09:27.187
If I've got a big grow out of, 60 or 80 birds on the ground, that's not happening, but the big ones.

00:09:27.187 --> 00:09:32.177
It doesn't take me very long to find my individuals and be able to find them again, without any sort of.

00:09:32.677 --> 00:09:39.126
ID or label, like I have this one pullet right now, and she, I will spot her out of a flock of 100.

00:09:39.886 --> 00:09:42.626
The way she moves and the way she interacts, you're like, there she is.

00:09:43.197 --> 00:09:46.736
She's a door greeter, she comes running up to the front of the pen and stands there.

00:09:47.072 --> 00:09:48.831
And I could just reach down and pick her up.

00:09:48.831 --> 00:09:50.672
And I don't raise them to be that way.

00:09:50.672 --> 00:09:51.761
We're a dual purpose flock.

00:09:51.761 --> 00:09:53.881
I'm not trying to have them be that way.

00:09:54.591 --> 00:09:56.951
But she has decided, you know what?

00:09:56.971 --> 00:09:59.802
I'm special and you're going to treat me like I am special.

00:09:59.822 --> 00:10:01.812
So I'll give her a little handful of a snack.

00:10:02.611 --> 00:10:04.251
So now she does it reliably.

00:10:04.251 --> 00:10:07.511
It's those birds that are the first ones out and want to go explore.

00:10:07.846 --> 00:10:11.846
They're the natural leader of the cohort where everybody will be like, okay, no, you go, he'll go.

00:10:12.297 --> 00:10:15.307
And then, they'll go and they'll check it out and be like, okay, it's cool.

00:10:15.326 --> 00:10:16.356
And then everybody will run over.

00:10:16.986 --> 00:10:18.017
They're the special birds.

00:10:18.657 --> 00:10:21.756
She's first or second out the door every morning.

00:10:21.767 --> 00:10:24.817
And it's either the cockerel ahead of her or behind her.

00:10:25.616 --> 00:10:26.287
You guys were.

00:10:27.086 --> 00:10:36.147
Just lead me into my next thing that I want to talk about and you're doing it naturally and you may be doing it with intent or it may just be what you learned to do.

00:10:36.876 --> 00:10:45.376
But when you're evaluating birds, to me, one of the easiest things to do is to compare one bird to another bird.

00:10:46.177 --> 00:10:47.326
Bird A and bird B.

00:10:48.126 --> 00:10:50.667
Is bird B better overall?

00:10:51.466 --> 00:10:55.447
Then the other one set him aside till you find one better than him.

00:10:56.246 --> 00:10:58.907
And you can sort through a lot of birds in a hurry like that.

00:10:59.706 --> 00:11:08.576
Sometimes it's real helpful to have somebody who doesn't even know anything about chickens come by because they're like, Ooh, what, that, that bird right there what's going on with that bird?

00:11:09.376 --> 00:11:12.897
Or if the, or if, visitors compliment you on your turkeys.

00:11:13.496 --> 00:11:20.756
A question that I get from a lot of people is if they've never really thought about doing breeding selection, they'll ask, how do you even start?

00:11:21.251 --> 00:11:23.481
Let's say I have 20 birds in front of me.

00:11:23.481 --> 00:11:24.701
How do I even begin?

00:11:24.711 --> 00:11:26.481
And I'm like, we'll start by catching one.

00:11:27.201 --> 00:11:28.471
Don't think about who it is.

00:11:28.471 --> 00:11:38.851
Just the first one you can put your hands on, bring that bird out, evaluate it, and every single bird after that is going to be better or worse in different things, different qualities.

00:11:38.861 --> 00:11:51.121
And that's where you develop your goals from is what you're finding, what you have, and what you want them to do what the standard wants them to do and going through them systematically.

00:11:51.162 --> 00:11:53.162
But you begin just by picking one.

00:11:53.172 --> 00:11:54.422
It doesn't even matter which one.

00:11:54.841 --> 00:11:56.312
You have your notebook and you score them.

00:11:57.111 --> 00:12:04.392
If you try to sort through a whole flock of birds as a group, you're going to wind up making mistakes.

00:12:05.091 --> 00:12:06.951
You got to take them one at a time.

00:12:06.951 --> 00:12:11.172
And just like Mandy says, compare the next bird to the one you just looked at.

00:12:11.422 --> 00:12:12.532
Is he better or worse?

00:12:13.331 --> 00:12:15.822
And go through them that way, much faster process.

00:12:15.902 --> 00:12:24.611
Cause then you end up with a much smaller group of who was better and you can ignore everybody else and do it again with what was better.

00:12:24.611 --> 00:12:25.802
Thanks for watching!

00:12:26.601 --> 00:12:27.942
Hi there, poultry keepers.

00:12:27.971 --> 00:12:32.091
This is Mandelyn Royal, one of the voices behind the Poultry Keepers podcast.

00:12:32.392 --> 00:12:38.272
We're on a mission to create a larger, more vibrant community of poultry enthusiasts, and we need your help.

00:12:38.802 --> 00:12:43.922
If you enjoy our poultry conversations and insights, here's a simple way to support us.

00:12:44.182 --> 00:12:49.981
Just spread the word and share the Poultry Keepers podcast with your fellow poultry lovers, friends, and family.

00:12:50.376 --> 00:12:57.057
By recommending us, you're not just helping our show grow, but you're also connecting more people with the joy of poultry keeping.

00:12:57.356 --> 00:13:02.606
So hit that share button, post it to your socials, or tell your chicken loving friends about us.

00:13:02.897 --> 00:13:05.096
Let's grow a larger community together.

00:13:05.476 --> 00:13:08.267
Thanks for being a part of the Poultry Keeper's family.

00:13:08.427 --> 00:13:09.947
Now, back to our show.

00:13:10.056 --> 00:13:11.245
Thanks for watching!

00:13:12.046 --> 00:13:12.216
Yeah.

00:13:12.275 --> 00:13:23.605
I know you and Karen Johnston, especially put a ton of work in on the poultry keepers 360 selection tool, where you can have all the different categories that you're looking for and weigh them.

00:13:24.096 --> 00:13:27.436
Against each other and have a, change your scale on the fly.

00:13:27.666 --> 00:13:30.735
You know what this year breast width is more important to me.

00:13:30.735 --> 00:13:34.535
And you change that and it changes your selection criteria for your birds.

00:13:34.535 --> 00:13:39.995
So it takes, it puts a lot of objectivity into the selection process.

00:13:40.025 --> 00:13:41.645
It takes a lot of subjectivity out of it.

00:13:42.446 --> 00:13:48.975
Once, once you come up with in your mind, what a 10 out of 10 is for fleshing, then you can input that score for each bird.

00:13:49.775 --> 00:13:54.446
And add them up and your natural winners are going to be the ones with the highest scores, so to speak.

00:13:55.245 --> 00:14:02.645
And if somebody wants to get a copy of that spreadsheet, if they're members of Poultry Keepers 360 on Facebook, it's in the file section.

00:14:02.655 --> 00:14:08.355
If you're not a member, join and go to the file section and you will find the selection tool in there.

00:14:08.355 --> 00:14:09.666
And it's simply a spreadsheet.

00:14:10.150 --> 00:14:14.390
And it's just scoring for different kind of qualities, is what it amounts to.

00:14:15.191 --> 00:14:15.831
High score wins.

00:14:16.390 --> 00:14:28.921
Yeah, but you can change the weight of each individual score overall, which is really helpful for when, if you want to focus on two or three traits this year and not, maintain the other traits you can do that, or not.

00:14:29.100 --> 00:14:36.640
You can do whatever you want, but I find I get overwhelmed easily if I don't have a very good inventory and tracking system.

00:14:36.650 --> 00:14:40.081
So all my birds get wing banded no later than day three.

00:14:40.671 --> 00:14:43.921
And their permanent record starts actually well before hatch.

00:14:43.921 --> 00:14:47.971
Their permanent record starts with the date, time, and temperature that I collected their egg.

00:14:48.770 --> 00:14:49.380
That's a lot.

00:14:50.181 --> 00:14:52.530
I just write right on the shell when I take it out of the box.

00:14:52.620 --> 00:14:55.490
At times I've got infrared thermometer.

00:14:55.500 --> 00:14:55.990
It's cold.

00:14:56.630 --> 00:14:57.640
records temperature.

00:14:58.230 --> 00:15:01.990
If it's 72 out and the egg is, still above 70, it's irrelevant.

00:15:02.791 --> 00:15:13.316
But if it's negative 30 out, if that egg is under really 40 degrees for a shell temperature by the time I collect it, I'm not gonna consider setting it.

00:15:14.115 --> 00:15:20.625
Yeah, that reduces the chances pretty far underneath those refrigerator temperatures, I guess you could call it.

00:15:21.426 --> 00:15:30.505
Guys, we've talked a lot about body shape, body form, which we should because type is far more important than color.

00:15:31.306 --> 00:15:32.145
Type is everything.

00:15:32.306 --> 00:15:34.796
Build the barn, then paint it, you say all the time, right?

00:15:34.966 --> 00:15:45.446
We do need to address color, and It's hard to do on a podcast because each parti colored breed or variety, and parti colors means more than one color

00:15:45.495 --> 00:15:46.586
P A R T I.

00:15:47.385 --> 00:15:48.745
Yeah, P A R T I.

00:15:49.546 --> 00:15:57.145
But the standard will tell you what that color should be, where it should be on the individual feathers.

00:15:57.836 --> 00:16:01.005
Some standards will even tell you Laced breeds.

00:16:01.806 --> 00:16:08.265
It's a let's take a silver laced bird, which is, it's a white feather with a black edging around it.

00:16:09.066 --> 00:16:13.995
It'll tell you whether it's supposed to be oval shaped or is it supposed to be almond shaped.

00:16:14.796 --> 00:16:16.186
They can get that specific.

00:16:16.985 --> 00:16:18.225
Patterns are tricky.

00:16:18.265 --> 00:16:22.725
I dabbled in patterns and realized, you know what, I think I want my birds to be white.

00:16:23.525 --> 00:16:31.066
My old English pheasant fowl had a silver spangled pattern, which was just So intricate and delicate and gorgeous, I thought.

00:16:31.346 --> 00:16:38.765
And I'm really glad that somebody who had better resources than I took over that project, because they are very special and rare here in the States.

00:16:39.566 --> 00:16:43.676
I did try some double silver lace barn welders, and those were fun.

00:16:43.676 --> 00:16:48.816
And that pattern, it was so pretty, but so tricky too.

00:16:49.615 --> 00:16:50.005
Yes.

00:16:50.625 --> 00:16:59.456
I only kept them for about two years and then I moved on to birchen, black silvers, and some other simpler patterns that still carried their own complexities.

00:17:00.255 --> 00:17:05.286
That's where attention to detail and having an eye is really going to pay off.

00:17:05.885 --> 00:17:08.455
And why I ended up with whitebirds.

00:17:09.256 --> 00:17:13.296
Y'all, Mandy was talking about she wanted all her birds to be white.

00:17:14.096 --> 00:17:18.185
But there's even problems in white color varieties, am I not right?

00:17:18.195 --> 00:17:32.125
Yeah, but it's a little easier to worry about removing like yellowing and finding all the different contributors to that and that can go all the way back to the base color that's underneath the white because the white is always covering something.

00:17:32.601 --> 00:17:40.790
And what it's covering is what you might be up against, especially if there's anything red in there that's going to come out as yellow.

00:17:41.431 --> 00:17:44.381
I'm always selecting silver downed chicks.

00:17:44.631 --> 00:17:49.590
My chicks come out gold, but they'll have a silver down, and those are the ones I

00:17:49.590 --> 00:17:49.891
want.

00:17:50.510 --> 00:17:51.750
Oh yeah, you bet.

00:17:52.550 --> 00:17:55.401
The standard doesn't refer to it as yellowing.

00:17:55.401 --> 00:17:59.101
If you're looking it up in the standard, it's going to refer to it as brassiness.

00:17:59.901 --> 00:18:00.451
That makes sense.

00:18:00.451 --> 00:18:02.500
The light color of brass.

00:18:03.300 --> 00:18:04.891
Other solid colors.

00:18:05.421 --> 00:18:06.431
Buff, for example.

00:18:07.230 --> 00:18:09.780
You would think, pretty straightforward, right?

00:18:10.141 --> 00:18:10.540
No.

00:18:11.260 --> 00:18:16.810
Because it should be the same shade of buff in each section of the bird.

00:18:17.530 --> 00:18:21.671
Hackles should match the tail should match the breast should match the wings should match the back.

00:18:22.046 --> 00:18:23.155
That's not easy to do.

00:18:23.955 --> 00:18:27.905
And then you throw into the fact that they are sensitive to sunlight.

00:18:27.955 --> 00:18:31.746
I'll just put it that way because it can bleach them out and turn them patchy looking.

00:18:32.546 --> 00:18:33.306
Yeah, that's true.

00:18:33.306 --> 00:18:37.445
And you can start seeing the visual difference between an old feather and a new feather.

00:18:38.246 --> 00:18:39.336
Same thing with blues.

00:18:39.365 --> 00:18:43.736
You can get patchiness and a not a good even surface color.

00:18:44.586 --> 00:18:45.526
The solid colors.

00:18:45.526 --> 00:18:50.016
Do you want to have an ever so slight lacing especially in some of the blue varieties?

00:18:50.016 --> 00:18:50.415
The blues yes.

00:18:50.415 --> 00:18:51.786
You want to see the lacing in

00:18:51.786 --> 00:18:52.155
there.

00:18:52.715 --> 00:18:55.905
Should be slight blue laced in a fine edging of black.

00:18:56.705 --> 00:18:58.756
Can you touch on briefly what you mean by blue?

00:18:59.556 --> 00:19:05.445
Blue is a gene that dilutes black to a slaty blue color.

00:19:06.246 --> 00:19:11.516
And if you get two copies of the blue gene, you get a splash bird.

00:19:12.316 --> 00:19:16.226
Now, even though it splashed, it's gonna have blue splashes.

00:19:16.226 --> 00:19:17.266
It's not gonna have black.

00:19:17.326 --> 00:19:20.096
If it's got black, you got something else going on there.

00:19:20.105 --> 00:19:20.855
It's not blue.

00:19:21.655 --> 00:19:26.226
Because a splash bred to a black gives you all blues.

00:19:27.026 --> 00:19:33.135
Yeah, I've played around with blue black splash and a couple different varieties and they are fun to play around with.

00:19:33.135 --> 00:19:49.365
It'll start teaching you a lot about color expression and how those genes can affect each other and for example, if you take a splash and you breed it to a splash and you do that repeatedly, you start losing that good depth of blue What do you call those little blotches?

00:19:49.365 --> 00:19:50.506
Splotches.

00:19:51.306 --> 00:19:54.635
I feel like there should be another term for the blue bits because they're random.

00:19:54.635 --> 00:20:06.046
They're not in a set pattern, but then subsequently through the generations you start losing that depth of the color there unless you put them back to a black or a blue.

00:20:06.846 --> 00:20:10.786
It's just neat watching it go from one generation to another and who you choose.

00:20:10.986 --> 00:20:17.471
If you notice your blues are getting Washed out and pale and the lacing is not that great, breed them to a black.

00:20:17.580 --> 00:20:20.570
In that next generation, you'll see a whole new color of blue come through.

00:20:21.141 --> 00:20:24.371
Okay, now you've opened up another can of worms for me to talk about.

00:20:25.171 --> 00:20:25.431
Great.

00:20:25.480 --> 00:20:26.510
We're getting off topic now.

00:20:26.510 --> 00:20:27.121
We're straying off the topic.

00:20:27.121 --> 00:20:27.411
No, we're

00:20:27.411 --> 00:20:27.780
not.

00:20:27.800 --> 00:20:28.191
No, we're not.

00:20:28.191 --> 00:20:29.010
No, we're still in.

00:20:29.060 --> 00:20:29.820
We're still in.

00:20:29.901 --> 00:20:30.840
We're still talking about color.

00:20:31.361 --> 00:20:31.611
Okay.

00:20:31.621 --> 00:20:38.010
If you breed a blue to a black, do you breed it to just any black, or do you breed it?

00:20:38.776 --> 00:20:41.685
From a black that came from a blue and blue mating.

00:20:42.486 --> 00:20:47.875
I've always done it from blacks that came from the blue being in there.

00:20:47.885 --> 00:20:51.026
Like I never went to a black bird that was from.

00:20:51.736 --> 00:20:54.006
Straight black for multiple generations.

00:20:54.066 --> 00:20:55.276
And that's the way you should do it.

00:20:55.665 --> 00:20:56.715
It's the way you were doing it.

00:20:57.445 --> 00:21:00.576
Always use a black that came from a blue and blue mating.

00:21:01.375 --> 00:21:02.705
What happens if you don't?

00:21:03.105 --> 00:21:05.596
You can lose the lacing on the on the bluebirds.

00:21:06.395 --> 00:21:07.135
Really?

00:21:07.246 --> 00:21:11.006
Yeah, because those blacks are carrying that lacing gene.

00:21:11.016 --> 00:21:13.526
You may not see it because of the black feather background.

00:21:14.086 --> 00:21:14.395
Yeah.

00:21:14.415 --> 00:21:20.125
But that's, it's underlying and that's, it's these other genes on top of it that's allowing it to come through.

00:21:20.556 --> 00:21:21.175
Exactly.

00:21:21.855 --> 00:21:22.715
Oh.

00:21:23.516 --> 00:21:25.145
So it's like a diluter gene?

00:21:25.566 --> 00:21:25.865
Yes.

00:21:26.665 --> 00:21:26.865
Okay.

00:21:27.236 --> 00:21:27.645
Gotcha.

00:21:27.715 --> 00:21:28.026
Gotcha.

00:21:28.036 --> 00:21:34.135
I've been playing with quail, and we bandy these terms around a lot, and they go really fast, which is really nice.

00:21:34.135 --> 00:21:43.036
I've been playing with polygenetic inheritance requiring something on, from all four grandparents before it's going to express, fun stuff.

00:21:43.415 --> 00:21:45.526
Goes fast, and quail are delicious yeah.

00:21:46.326 --> 00:22:06.306
I've got a few points I want to hit because we're getting here towards the tail end of our show, it's going to take you some time to build your confidence in evaluating birds, and it's nothing wrong whatsoever about getting a friend of yours that raises birds who may be more experienced than you to help you do that, because that's how you're really going to learn.

00:22:07.006 --> 00:22:16.625
So just remember, it's going to take you some time, and it's going to take a lot of practice to get it down right, but you will get there.

00:22:16.625 --> 00:22:18.540
For Trust me, you will get there.

00:22:19.340 --> 00:22:31.351
And, another thing I want to remind folks, and we talked about this early on, if you will go back and read that first 39, 40 pages in the Standard of Perfection, it has all the definitions.

00:22:31.621 --> 00:22:37.550
It has, they talk about defects, disqualifications, a scale of points.

00:22:38.090 --> 00:22:44.260
They divide a bird into different sections, and you get so many points for the head, so many points for the back, and right on down.

00:22:44.260 --> 00:22:51.361
So all the things we've already been talking about, it will give you a very systematic way to evaluate your birds if you follow that.

00:22:52.161 --> 00:22:59.201
And the amount of points that they deduct for a comb is a lot different than what a breeder may, the importance of a comb.

00:22:59.381 --> 00:23:01.760
Whether it has five or six or seven points.

00:23:02.270 --> 00:23:06.740
I was just going to say that the point system really shows you which trades are more important than others.

00:23:07.280 --> 00:23:11.520
The comb is, what, a max of 5 points, but the back is 10?

00:23:12.320 --> 00:23:17.330
The combs are very insignificant in the overall scheme of the bird.

00:23:18.000 --> 00:23:26.280
But most people, and Mandy, I know you've seen it working with folks with Bresse, get so stressed out if they have 6 or 7 points on the bird.

00:23:27.080 --> 00:23:36.730
When I'm judging, I'm only supposed to deduct one half point for every point of the comb over or under the required number.

00:23:37.530 --> 00:23:42.451
If they have a seven point comb, that's only one point off the whole bird's overall score.

00:23:43.131 --> 00:23:49.101
If the rest of the bird is there, your carriage is right, your heart, girth, and depth, and everything.

00:23:49.506 --> 00:23:52.925
And you're disqualifying a bird because it has, seven points.

00:23:53.726 --> 00:23:55.905
Maybe you need to reevaluate.

00:23:56.705 --> 00:24:05.756
Another thing that's in those first few pages of the standards, there's illustrations that can be so helpful answer a lot of your questions.

00:24:06.556 --> 00:24:11.605
And the last thing I've got, and then I'm going to be quiet because this is something that really.

00:24:11.996 --> 00:24:13.115
Lights my fire here.

00:24:13.915 --> 00:24:18.205
If you have questions about your bird, go by the written standard.

00:24:19.006 --> 00:24:27.046
Don't go by what somebody tells you, because so many information gets passed on from person to person, and it's just like telling jokes.

00:24:27.346 --> 00:24:36.026
One person can tell me a joke, and by the time I tell it to somebody else, and they tell it to somebody else, and they tell it to somebody else, not even the same joke anymore.

00:24:36.826 --> 00:24:38.256
It's a game of telephone.

00:24:38.355 --> 00:24:39.846
So just start with the book.

00:24:40.145 --> 00:24:41.736
You can ask your questions.

00:24:42.221 --> 00:24:44.050
And get a response.

00:24:44.800 --> 00:24:49.851
And you can ask five different people, hopefully at least three of them give you the same answer.

00:24:50.560 --> 00:24:56.570
But you might get five completely different answers that are subjective based instead of factual from the book based.

00:24:56.800 --> 00:24:58.980
Based on something that they heard, and on down the chain.

00:24:59.760 --> 00:25:11.080
And there's a lot of knowledge out there that is going to be almost bloodline specific, especially with how certain traits or even how colors play together when you're doing the breeding for a pattern.

00:25:11.090 --> 00:25:15.750
That kind of stuff isn't going to be in the book and you do absolutely want to mentor for that.

00:25:16.500 --> 00:25:19.770
But for the technical data, keep it by the book.

00:25:20.570 --> 00:25:30.221
And that's where some of these really good resources online, if you find them, like the Chanticleer Fanciers International has a Facebook page.

00:25:30.221 --> 00:25:33.431
It's a private page and there's only 52 members.

00:25:34.060 --> 00:25:38.941
But they're all the people who are basically lifetime members of that organization.

00:25:39.661 --> 00:25:48.316
And if I have a question about my Chanticleers, I will post videos and pictures up there and let the members help me sort it out.

00:25:49.115 --> 00:25:54.336
Yeah, having a small group like that is helpful because then it reduces some of the noise.

00:25:54.796 --> 00:26:00.026
We'll get into some pretty heated discussions over esoteric points in the standard.

00:26:00.711 --> 00:26:16.541
You have 52 people read the same paragraph or even the same sentence, and you're like to me this means this, and here's a picture, and this is why I think so, and somebody else says, to me this means this, and it, It can get good, but it eventually gets sorted out in a good club.

00:26:17.342 --> 00:26:18.402
That's how they should run.

00:26:18.811 --> 00:26:19.582
And the president.

00:26:20.332 --> 00:26:22.961
Of our organization as an active member.

00:26:22.961 --> 00:26:29.122
We get good steering and that's the important thing is qualifying where your advice comes from.

00:26:29.922 --> 00:26:31.071
And you touched on that.

00:26:31.201 --> 00:26:34.521
There's some great breeders who don't even know what a standard is.

00:26:34.541 --> 00:26:37.192
And I don't know how they do that, but they have their

00:26:37.192 --> 00:26:37.622
hands.

00:26:38.422 --> 00:26:40.071
I hope everyone's enjoyed the show.

00:26:40.071 --> 00:26:42.402
We've covered a lot of territory.

00:26:42.741 --> 00:26:45.451
Just talking about, I think we spent more time talking about.

00:26:46.251 --> 00:26:50.571
Understanding and applying the standard than we have any other topic we've covered so far.

00:26:50.571 --> 00:26:52.541
We only touched on the surface of it.

00:26:52.541 --> 00:26:56.761
And I think we could dive into it even deeper and get even more particular if we wanted to.

00:26:56.862 --> 00:27:00.761
We could do a whole year on just the standard of perfection, just the first.

00:27:01.172 --> 00:27:06.561
38, 39 pages do people even, are they going to stop by and listen to that?

00:27:07.362 --> 00:27:09.402
You guys can email us and tell us what you want

00:27:09.422 --> 00:27:09.751
too.

00:27:09.991 --> 00:27:10.961
Yeah, please do.

00:27:11.092 --> 00:27:13.122
Please let us know what you want us to talk about.

00:27:13.922 --> 00:27:16.082
All right, folks, thanks for listening.

00:27:16.872 --> 00:27:26.711
We've had a great time as always and we hope that we have been able to add a little value to your poultry keeping experience and help you improve your birds in the long run.

00:27:27.162 --> 00:27:30.521
So until next time, we will see you later.

00:27:30.701 --> 00:27:31.092
Bye bye.

00:27:31.221 --> 00:27:34.511
This brings us to the close of another Poultry Keepers podcast.

00:27:34.561 --> 00:27:40.451
Until next time, we'd appreciate it if you would drop us a note, letting us know your thoughts about our podcast.

00:27:40.741 --> 00:27:48.811
Please share our podcast with all of your friends that keep poultry, and we hope you'll join us again when we'll be talking poultry from feathers to function.