New Varieties

Blue Tort's recent acceptance as a showable variety has me remembering when Brokens were in the process. I watched as the COD holder nailed it in the 1st 2 presentations. I was lucky to have a good friend who had some in his barn. He sent me some starter stock after that 2nd successful presentation. It wasn't all that great for type, but I had the broken gene and I bred it aggressively. I had broken entries ready to go when they passed the final presentation the next year and became officially showable the following Feb. I was one of the 1st to put them on the table in the south. I was also one of the 1st in this region to earn AOV group legs on the Brokens over Himis.

I have always bred for pattern. You have to if you're serious about Brokens. I cull anything with less than my personal standard for pattern. Of course, my standard is within the official standard, but I go beyond that. I learned that 10% (or less) Brokens are just going to give more of the same. I want more pattern consistently.

What is my standard? This is for spot patterns.

1. They must have full bold head markings. Both ears fully colored (white spots on the ears is a fault). Full butterfly. I don't keep half butterflies (fault) and definitely not if it's missing completely (DQ). Bold spots around the eyes. I won't keep any that have all the required head marks if the marks are too light, like a tiny spot on each side of the nose and eye spots reduced to eye liner. If the body color is as light, I consider them 8% and not good enough. I learned early on I will get more of the same and often less from 8%ers, and culling has pretty much removed that issue. Now they either have breedable markings or they don't. Period.

2. They must have enough color on the body. On the back, usually a stripe or series of spots. The bolder this spinal stripe is, the better. Spots on each side. I prefer more than 1 spot on each side, but I'll consider keeping less if the type is worthy, or if the side and spinal spots are bold. Especially if it came from better marked parents.

3. They must be recognized color. That's required in the SOP. I've only seen 1 judge DQ a Broken for unrecognized color, and I've seen quite a few get placed. It can be hard to tell on a 10% Broken if you don't understand how color is changed on a Broken.

Spot patterns are very unpredictable. They don't produce consistent pattern. Blanket patterns are much easier that way. I have a pretty good line of blankets that I can count on for showable pattern, but the blankets have their issues, too. The pattern can be feathered and messy, and some judges call it scattered white. It's not, but that's what the judges see, and since it's the judge's call, can't do much about that. Except to try and breed for cleaner pattern. Another issue blankets can have is too much color - over 50%. I don't worry about these too much, and will keep them for breeding. I usually get less color on their offspring.

Because I focused so hard on pattern, type fell by the wayside. Now that I have the pattern somewhat stablized, I'm trying to catch up on type. I know the rule...type before color...but with some varieties you have to work on both at the same time. Bringing in new type can actually set you back in color.

So after a few starts and fails trying to bring in type via varieties I didn't normally raise, I was set back. I don't have or want otters, but that's where the type is. The broken otters I brought in to help didn't help much. My brief attempt at broken agouti didn't work out either. The stock I bought (chestnuts) was carrying undesirable color genes. I got junk color in litters, and not enough improvement in type to make it worth the trouble. OK, it was half my fault. My brokens also carry a lot of stuff and it meshed badly with the agouti gene. Up until then, my brokens were all selfs with the shaded gene here and there. Not good with agouti.

So back to the drawing board. I wasn't getting any dilutes any more. I had moved out older broken blues and then I had none. Most of the brokens carried it but it didn't show up in litters. I was pretty tired of nothing but black. I rarely keep or show solid blacks. They're a side affect of my broken program. Blacks have to be really good to compete these days, and since my broken type is still a work in progress, I knew I didn't want the solid blacks from those litters. I wanted other colors in both broken and solid.

Last year, I brought in a couple Torts. This worked out pretty well. One of the things many of my Brokens and Himis carry is non-extension, so I immediately had Torts popping up all over. However, I haven't kept a broken tort. Got a couple but they either died or were unacceptable for type and/or pattern. I did keep several broken blacks positive for non-extension (a parent was tort).

Now I have a broken blue doe and with her have proven a broken buck to carry dilute. This buck also carries non-extension. That means Blue Torts in the near future, and I'm very glad they are now recognized. As I mentioned in the last entry, I'm not all fired up for Blue Torts. I don't care if I'm not one of the 1st to show them so I haven't gone out of my way to get any. To tell the truth, I'm not really all that crazy about Tort, black or blue. But they make pretty Brokens and that's my goal.

So here I am. A greatly reduced herd in yet another color direction. See you at the tables when I have something to put up.

tnt

11.6.11

The fall colors peaked here in the last couple weeks. They're starting to fade now as leaves fall off. My computer desk is next to a living room window, and I have a great view of the front Bird Garden. Right now a crape myrtle and nandina are strutting their stuff. The myrtles give a lovely varigated show. The colors on one shrub range from bronze to gold with hints of red. The nandina is covered in bright red berries and dark green leaves all winter. I heard a local refer to it as Christmas decorations, and that's just what it looks like. The grasses took a beating from some heavy rains, but most are still upright. They add gold and buff to the palette. And freezing mornings have highlighted it all with heavy frost.

In Bunny News:

Not much. Himi doe had 4. Died cold. She's usually one I can count on, but she didn't build a good nest, and only put 1 kit in the box. The rest on the wire. Oh well.

The new broken blue BUD x Sugardaddy had 4 DOA on the wire. Happily, some were blue and all were nicely marked brokens. Unhappily, (besides being DOA), there were 2 hippos and 1 even odder that looked like a hippo peanut, but that wouldn't be possible so I guess it was just smaller than the others. Only 1 was normal and it was probably BU. That's not good. I'll try this again in hopes it was just a bad roll of the dice. This doe came to me at about 8 mos old and as far as I know she hadn't been bred before. I thought she was a miss, but turns out her instincts didn't kicked in. No nest building or anything.

It's good to confirm Sugardaddy carries dilute. Since he also carries for tort, there could be blue torts in my future sooner.

Sugardaddy wasn't my 1st choice for that doe. The borrowed black buck still won't breed. Grrrr. I repeated the pairing that produced 2 keepers, but she missed. I know he got her, but apparently not well enough for her to take. After many frustrating attempts, he finally got her again this week. Oh and many times, when he IS up for it, she isn't. #$&*!!!

So litters haven't happened a lot lately. I have a couple due next week.

Not many weanlings, either. I just weaned out a batch of 5. Broken buck and doe from one litter, and 3 himi-carrying blacks from the other. The broken doe is my only keeper. The blacks are all bucks, and I have another black jr buck I like more.

Kachina's litter is so cute now at going on 4 wks. Broken (80%) Black buck and solid black doe. I'll see how they develop but I'm calling them keepers for now since they look promising and carry non-extension. Oh and what a sweety she has become since becoming a mom! This little doe was a spaz! She raced around the cage when I tried to touch her, and catching her was even harder. Now she begs for attention and likes being petted. I'll rebreed her with the others this week. Maybe I'll have better luck getting a round of does bred since I'm not planning on the unstudly black for any of them this time.

In Show News:

Convention has come and gone, and the excitement has died down. Congrats to all the winners and high placers. I've enjoyed all the pix people who attended have posted. I didn't have anything new brought in. I shopped a little but didn't really know what I wanted. Didn't see anything I was willing to pre-buy based on a photo.

Blue Torts finally passed and will be officially showable in Feb. I'm so happy for Donelle Bomben as I know she put a lot of blood, sweat, tears and years into getting them passed. Now she can relax and enjoy their new status. I'll get them eventually, but I'm not in a big crank to have them. It's just good to know they aren't automatically culls when they show up in the nestbox. I've got them before but never kept any.

There's a show in Taylorsville this weekend, but I think I'm sitting this one out. I usually do T-ville since it's one of the closer shows and I just like it. I looked at what I had for entries yesterday, and decided no one was worth the trip or fees right now. My young srs are out of coat. Even my favorite jr buck is looking rough. I don't have anything to sell or deliver or pick up...another reason to go to a show. Soooo....

In Bird News:

Nothing new really. The birds seem to be handling the cold mornings OK. I feed them poultry pellets and cheap cracked corn mixed bird seed. They also get the seed bells, and I think I'll give them suet cakes when it's cold more often than warm. I can sometimes find those at Big Lots for cheap. My wild birds don't really eat the suet. A few will visit it but more often than not, the cake hangs there all winter. The chickens might as well enjoy it. I'm sure they will.

One thing I'm worried about is water. I'm using a gravity waterer. This is much better than an open bowl. The water isn't fouled as much. I had to rinse out bowls twice a day. Pain in the arse! Why do chickens have to stick their feet in EVERYTHING? So anyways, I'm not sure how the plastic waterer will stand up to freezing, or even if it will still work as it's supposed to. We'll see.

At least the days have been real nice. It's been sunny and mild after the cold starts. I'm really hoping for a mild winter this year. I say that every year because I expect (want) it here in the south.

Happy Daylight Savings Time.

tnt