Del, -You asked: " So what makes Cree so valuable is that it is a genetic freak? (Rarity) And that it can't breed true?"
Re-read Don's letter. This isn't breeding A with B with C to get ABC (cree). It's breeding A with B to get AA, BB and AB. Then when you bread AB with C, you will STILL get AA, BB, CC, AB, AC, BC, and the OCCASIONAL ABC. I'm no geneticist but that's a little of what I think I remember (and memory at my age is unreliable) from 1956 zoology class. You also stated, "Seems to me that if we can clone sheep, goats, and pigs, we should be able to get a rooster to breed true Cree." You're right. We COULD. But do you have a spare 20 million or 3 billion or whatever dollars to do the genetic cloning? 'Tain't cheep (typo intentional). Would you like to spend $500,000 per neck instead of $500? In the meantime, I'll look at Don's pictures and just absolutely envy him his source. Allan Don's epistle on Chickenbreeding 101 (don't let the rooster see this): >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 Allan Fish Greenwood, IN [EMAIL PROTECTED]
