DonO I would love to see a pic BobH ----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Ordes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, November 29, 2002 1:30 AM 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 >
