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pigeon
The Champion pigeons
By: Ken Easley 07/25/00
The true champion is hard to produce but never hard to
recognize. We may think we have one coming along but time usually paints a
different picture. Most of us are able to produce pretty darn good rollers
along the way. Some of these are very nice but disappointment usually comes,
due to them doing something to let us down. At times I am sure we have all
thought maybe this is as good as they get. Maybe our expectations are just
too high. If one keeps trying to improve his stud slowly and carefully the
results will follow. The addition of a key bird here and there may be
required.
At some point we will become more impressed but still not completely
satisfied. Then it happens, we will raise a bird that is outstanding. He
will be head and shoulders above the rest. With patience and proper use of
the champion several outstanding birds from this line will be the foundation
for an outstanding family of rollers.
These birds will not roll down to the ground or ever hit anything. Some of
them will be able to roll different depths, which we very much like to see.
These types seem to enjoy rolling. We won’t have trouble with them getting
lost in overflies because they rarely go out of site and have excellent
homing instincts. For those who may be at an impasse. They can get as good
as we make them through proper matings.
It will be noticed that some birds will be very balanced and typy but lack
the mental aspect required for outstanding performance. Another problem
encountered when searching for the champion is the occasional bird that is
fairly balanced and rolls to a decent degree and has shown itself to be
stable but lacks the perfect body for high speed. To make things even more
complicated, there are birds that are typy, balanced, stable and have
outstanding speed but must be starved down to keep them in viewing distance
or they won’t reproduce themselves.
This is the reason that so very few true champions are raised. The true
champion is outstanding in every regard.
All performance aspects of the roller are a balancing act between the body
type and mental type. To produce good rollers we need the correct mental
type as well as the correct body type. These types may not be identical in
every bird. The mental strength or propensity to roll must be in correct
proportions to the physical strength of the bird.
The most important and difficult to establish factor is producing the
correct mental type and locking it into the gene pool. What is meant by the
proper gene pool? This would be owning a hen and a cock that are of a
similar stable fast rolling type and come from common family built from such
types for many generations. Offspring are a direct result of the genes of
the ancestors, so it stands to reason that you will produce a higher
percentage of good rollers if there are many good rollers in the background.
Second, what is the correct mental type. This would be birds that are strong
and enjoy rolling with confidence and control. The birds that are able to
control when and where they roll. This includes the ability to roll with
outstanding quality.
Many will try to tell us that they have picked a good roller from the perch
when in reality they have no idea what the bird is capable of. The best and
more sound approach is to prove them out in the air before stocking them.
Another required element is proper training. Proper training is accomplished
when these birds have been flown on a regular basis until maturity, which
does not take place before the first adult molt. The adult molt is the molt
that takes place the second season of flying.
The reason proper training is important is the fact that genetic makeup can
be modified or sharpened through the development or experiences of the
individual bird. It is a minuet amount, but everything counts. Some will
have us believe that what is in the genetic makeup is there at birth and all
is learned behavior. Not so, remember the Galapagos turtles? One set of
turtles on one island had short necks because the shrubs they ate were
short. On another island the turtles had much longer necks and could reach
higher due to the shrubs being higher on that island. How did this happen?
The turtles with the longest necks always survived the best and passed these
genes on. Eventually the neck length was visibly different.
Rollers are no different. They evolve how we allow them to. If you want good
rollers, how should you make them? I think it is obvious to most.
I believe that there are many different types of rolling genetic makeup that
can surface.
I would say that there are a
minimum of ten different types of genetic makeup that will produce a roll.
These would include single types and combinations of several. It is similar
to the color aspect of genetic related activity.
One genetic type may produce the donut roll whereas a different type
produces the deep fast ball roll. I may be wrong, but I believe that the
ball roller and the donut are almost the same except the body type being
better on the donut roller. There is the short roll, the tumble and the
twizzler. There are slow deep rollers and fast deep roll downs. These
different types of roll are like the different types of colors except the
only way to see the type of roll is by viewing them in flight. One may build
a decent picture of the genetic makeup of a bird in the breeding pen by
switching mates and flying out the young. Good records are required for this
type of research and it should be considered second choice behind using
proven rollers from the old bird kit.
First of all we have a bird that will flip over. This is caused by an
impulse or sudden fit something like an eye twitch. When there are two of
these impulses back to back it will create a double flip. When multiple
impulses to flip over happen, we get rolling. There are birds that roll
faster than the rest, and this is caused by the impulse to flip over coming
in faster intervals.
The speed of roll, as well as the duration of these impulses determines the
depth. An analogy of this would be a rifle shot would compare to a single
flip, whereas a machine gun would be like a deep roll.
We also find there are different strengths of the impulses.
A rolldown has a long series of impulses that are so strong that he cannot
stop himself except by hitting the ground. Sometimes this will not stop
them. I have seen birds roll down to the ground then keep rolling across the
ground like a parlor tumbler. This would be the really strong impulses. The
birds with weaker impulses range anywhere from a champion to a bird that can
overcome this urge and not roll at all. We have all heard the saying that
some birds are possessed by the roll while some birds’ posses the roll. The
birds that possess the roll are the ones that are able to overpower the urge
to roll until they feel like cutting loose. They are also able to roll
different depths due to being able to control the starting and stopping
point of the impulses. They can roll at lower altitudes and adjust the depth
and or speed as needed. These are the most desirable, but the most rare to
find.
Sometimes we see the occasional bird that will roll really fast then lock
the wings and sail down for some distance until he is able to overcome the
impulses. This is a bird that has strong impulses to keep rolling but has
learned a way to save himself. With time and age they will generally
overcome this affliction. It is however a fault and the bird should not be
used in the breeding pen.
Taking this into consideration it only makes sense that when we pair our
birds; we should take these points into consideration.
It seems that the best way to have some control over the outcome is by using
the birds that perform in the air to your standards in the breeding pen and
by eliminating the ones that do not. The only way to figure this out is to
fly them out. The value of a roller is measured by what they do in the air.
What they look like should be considered only after they pass the flying
test. Anybody can raise a nice looking roller but these beauties are only
interesting to the beginner, as their worth in the air is little.
Every time you stock a bird without properly flying them out, it is just
like throwing the dice. You are gambling that the bird’s offspring will
perform like he looks. This will also be a setback in the picture you are
building of your breeders and how to properly select mates. For example how
would you mate a fast tight roller that was in the 15’ range if you wanted
to keep the speed and add depth? By mating a deeper roller to this bird. How
could one know which was a deeper roller without flying them out?
There is absolutely no way in the world that one can tell correctly whether
a bird is sound by merely looking at the bird on the ground except after
many years of flying and observing the best as well as the worst in the air
and on the ground. I would say a minimum of thirty years is required to make
decisions with any certainty based on the looks of a bird on the ground.
Even then why would you want to do this when you are able to fly them?
The only possible reason is the looks of the bird in question. All is
decided by the looks of a bird and not by it’s merit as a performer.
The intelligence of a person comes into play when mating birds but nothing
including super intelligence will replace experience.
Some will try to convince us that stocking a bird early is not due to the
looks of a bird. We will find there is no difference in this and color or
show pen breeding. Some will say; I flew them for a season and they were
excellent. That is wonderful but we have all seen birds that rolled
excellent the first season only to change wings or roll down the second
season.
Some will try to convince us that the roller can be produced by almost any
bird whether it be a cull, champion or brother to such and that “proving
them out” in the breeding pen is a good practice. This can be done, but on a
larger scale what is taking place is the correct genetic makeup hits now and
again giving the owner a false sense of reasoning.
The suspect bird produces a good one and the owner feels as if his
suspicions have been confirmed, (because that is what he wants) when the
truth is the bird carried the genetic makeup of many and happened to hit the
right one that time. If the owner would use only the best air tested birds’
year after year, generation after generation, he would begin to realize the
benefits of multiplying the genetic chances of duplicating the best.
Let us do a little analogy here. What if you had all black badges? Let us
say that you acquired a red bird. If you wanted you could turn the whole
flock red. You ask how? You breed the red to one of the blacks and get a
black that carries red. By mating this black back to the red, many reds can
be produced. After a while you will have many reds by using the reds. There
will be a time frame when either color may be raised. This is where some
guys are stuck raising rollers. They mate a red one and a black one together
and get a red. When they get a red, they believe that this is good enough.
When in reality, if they were to keep breeding the reds together and
eliminate the blacks they would eventually have a very high percentage of
reds.
We will do better percentage wise to use birds that, generation after
generation have performed properly in the air thus locking in the multiplied
chances of breeding better birds. It is difficult for me to explain. I am
sure there are others with better communication skills that could convey my
thoughts better. The genes or genetic makeup that causes a roller to roll
are carried from generations back to the present. The more stable birds in
the genetic makeup or background, the better the chances to produce the
same.
The choosing of birds on the ground by looks alone without the proper years
of experience can be detrimental to the family. Many years of this type of
thinking has caused the genes to be mixed to a point that you never know
what will pop out. This can be corrected, but only by picking properly
selected birds that have been flown out and proven to be sound.
Would you rather have a pair of horses that won the Triple Crown to start
your family of thoroughbreds for racing, or would you prefer to start with
some really attractive Welsh ponies for racing? If you want to take home the
money, I suspect you would prefer the proven performers.
The only consideration other than
performance in the air should be type. Type is a bird’s physical makeup.
This is before a good portion of outstanding rollers has been developed.
After the best are abundant there will be no need to worry about type. The
finest rollers always have the right type. If performance is equal, always
pick the bird with the best type. If the type is off on the most stable and
decent roller you have to use, then pair this bird with one of exceptional
type in order to produce birds with both. You may only get one or two out of
20 young raised that carry the good type and the good rolling ability. This
will be the starting point to a family that eventually will produce better
percentages with proper choices.
To achieve the best results we must fly many rollers till maturity, which is
not before two years. Then carefully choose the very best in every way to
start the gene pool. Then rather than going backwards to older birds in the
family tree we must keep upgrading by using only the best from the air of
the same type, increasing our chances of producing more of what we like in a
roller.
The best characteristics to keep in mind are:
1. The ability to roll multiple depths (The ability to flip or short roll
when close to the ground and deep when at a safe altitude.)
2. The ability to roll fast and tight with good style.
3. Good homing instincts
4. Flying the correct height
5. Good kitting instincts
6. Stability ( no rolldowns)
7. Frequency of roll (one to two times a minute)
When we have established a good number of tight, fast spinning, and stable
rollers, then we should start the process of refining the body type.
Refinement of body type is difficult to understand until an idea of what the
best look and feel like. When this is set in our mind, then and only then
can we move to the refinement stage.
The body type on a roller is the determining factor on the style of roll
that is produced. The style we are after is the donut. The donut roll is a
roll in which the bird spins in a tight ball with a small hole showing from
the side. The hole should be no larger than a fifty-cent piece. The
preferred ones are tighter still. The hole is the size of a quarter. Only
the correct body type will give a clean hole with the outside of the ball
being smooth as well, giving the impression of a donut. These types are not
produced in great numbers; in fact they are few and far between. These types
should be studied closely to put in our mind's eye a picture of the correct
body type. An attempt should be made to produce this body type when pairing
breeders. All of the champions that I have seen (and they were very few)
were tightly wedge shaped, and low on the leg with wing butts showing. This
type adds to the overall control a stable bird will have. An extra
enhancement if you will. When held in the hand, the body feels compact. The
keel feels not too long in fact short with a good pitch or angled toward the
vent bones with a small space between the two. The depth is apple-ish
feeling, not real deep or shallow, but having some depth in the front. The
tail is tight and usually rigid and the bird will be aware of itself
including the tail. The tail has a hingy quality wherein if you are holding
the bird in a way to allow the tail freedom, it will pop up at a
ninety-degree angle. The tail acts as a rudder, (not brakes) and helps the
bird to have greater control of direction coming out of the roll and the
ability to ball up tight in the roll.
It will be noticed on most of the best birds that the wing butts will be
noticeable, giving the appearance of a strong athlete. The head shape is
personal preference only. I like them with a slightly flat spot on the top
with a good medium length beak. The eyes may be any color or multi-colored
with a good strong sheen. Looking as though they possess intelligence and
good health. The slight look of almost arrogance can be seen. Liken to that
of an eagle, but not to that extent. The bird should be calm with a ready to
go look as if he or she is confident and ready to make adjustments to the
situation. The low profile look. (Very slightly stealthy) Before they settle
down in a show pen it will be noticed that the best will tipi toe just for a
second. Some may laugh or make light of these statements. I have had rollers
in excess of thirty years and can assure you they all have personalities and
fine detailed observation will allow some to understand them. If one is
unable to make such observations, they should not worry. It is not necessary
to raise champions. The champion will be noticed by any and all that views
them in the air. One of the reasons that very few are to be seen is the fact
that most of the better breeders will lock them up in the breeding pen after
their second season, as they should. Should you see a breeder that claims
all birds in the stock pen are champions as described above, let caution be
the guide. Should a fellow truly have more than three or four of such birds,
then he knows the roller well.
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