I love this stuff. Bring on the rest. Many thanks Don.O. All the best Graeme.
-----Original Message----- From: Don Ordes [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 29 November 2002 06:30 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [VFB] More on Cree During the last discussion on Cree hackle coloration, a few questions came up that I didn't get a chance to answer. I'll do that now. Remember that Cree hackles have 3 bands of color- black, tan or ginger, and cream in a grizzly-type pattern, preferrably not chevroned, with each barb having all three colors on it. It takes 2 generations to produce Cree, with 26 months from first breeding to final product. It involves a 3-way cross. The initial cross-mating is between a grizzly and a brown, either way. Out of this mating comes 'grizzly variants', which is a darker grizzly with some badger and furnace feathers mixed in. It takes about 13 months from breeding to the time a grizzly variant roosted can be selected (carefully) as the next breeder stock. These selected grizzly variant roosters are then crossed with selected basic brown hens, and sometimes cream or black, as these too have the correct genes. This results in a small yeild of Cree roosters, as true high quality Cree coloration is seen in only a small fraction of this brood- the others being variants or poorly marked Cree. Then they must be graded, with no guarantees of silver, golds, or platinums even being in the batch. So the final well-colored high grade Cree rooster is a rarity and it is this scarcity that makes them so valuable, along with the fact that it's so beautiful. The Cree roosters are also a dead-end and must all be harvested, as the Cree coloration does not breed true. So in order to have a consistent yeild of Cree pelts, the breedings are overlapping and continuous. Another thing to be considered is Cree necks versus Cree saddles. A bird yeilding a Platinum neck may yeild only a bronze saddle, and vise versa. Cree is a very small percentage of what Whiting breeds every year, but the harvest still generates between 300 to 500 Cree necks and saddles per year. With 1000's of shops and pro tiers ordering cree and on the waiting list, it's not surprising it's in short supply. Whiting has a program to get them out equally to all their customers, but Tom also donates many of them to fund-raising auctions. I auctioned off a donated, framed Signature Platinum Cree Neck and Saddle for a river project here, and it brought in $815.00. Tom is now selling and donating mounted platinum grade Cree roosters. These have fetched as high as $1200 at auction. I have my personal one on display at the local fly shop and they tell me they've been offered $1250 for it. If anyone wants to see a picture of Mr. McCreedy, let me know and I'll email a photo of him. Ever wonder how a grizzly feather grows out white, then black, then white again, continuing in bands- up to 18" long on supersaddle hackles? Stay tuned for Poultry Genetics 102. DonO
