BLACK OLD ENGLISH GAME BANTAMS

INTERVIEWS WITH SOME CONSISTENT WINNERS
IN BLACK OLD ENGLISH GAME BANTAMS

When I got back into this fancy five years ago it was with the idea of helping local 4-H kids get a start in showing fine poultry. I ordered good breeders, built coops, and hatched out and gave away about 200 birds the first year. The results with the kids weren't all that great. I see now that I was trying to feed an interest that really wasn't there and I don't think more than a handful of those 200 birds made it to a show and most ended up dead. I see now that if the kids pay a good price for their birds ( they can work in the yard or on the farm if they don't have the cash) they have a tendency to give them much better care. What did happen was a great burst of enthusiasm on my part for the breeding and showing of poultry and a love for the Old English Game Bantams that I'm sure will endure for life. When I quit showing 15 years ago I was into all the big stuff: brahmas, rocks, reds, polish etc. The small size, health, beauty and vigor of these Old English are more to my taste now and the tough competition and the camaraderie they generates is great!
These days if you're looking for tough competition at a poultry show look to Old English bantams and among the ranks of Old English surely it gets no tougher than in the black variety. Make no mistake about it: just because the black is a self or solid color don't think it's a lark to win this class on a consistent basis. As I acquired my black O.E. breeding stock over the past five years I made it a point of trying to learn from a few men who have been very consistent winners under many different judges in different parts of America. In this article I will try to pass on, with their permission, the pointers given to me by some of these top exhibitors. For this article I will try to paraphrase talks with Bob Hill, Ralph Sheriff, Sr., Bill Wulff and maybe a comment or two from others.
Bill Wulff has developed one of the great male lines of black O.E. of all time he has now entrusted the blacks to Jerry Balser to concentrate his efforts to the perfection of the red pyle Old English). The reason Bill gave for concentrating on a male line, rather than a female line is because he feels the male bird holds top show condition throughout the season as opposed to the female which peaks out for only a few weeks then loses it's prime condition rapidly. Bill bred blacks for 18 years beginning with a single pair of birds purchased from Ralph Sheriff in 1976. The next year, 1977, Bill made the same single pair mating again as well as purchasing 5 more cockerels from the Sheriffs to mate to the pullets from the previous year. Since 1976 Bill has at times bought birds from other breeders but after thinking things over he never crossed them into his line but rather through selective breeding established his own line, different in type from what he started with to suit his own particular tastes. Bill emphasizes that to make it in the long run you need to breed birds that suit you as the owner because we all interpret the Standard a little different and so do our judges. What Bill feels is important is what he calls balance in the bird. you don't want a big ol' tail out of proportion to the rest of the bird neither do you want an underdeveloped tail. The tail in both sexes must stand at 45 degree angle from the horizontal. Other very important things to watch for are proper disposition for show and breeding ( no flighty birds; no wall flowers) and the quality of the feathering in the second year. He recommends mating only from cock birds if possible; use only those who have come back in with good quality in the sickles and main tail. Bill feels that for breeding we might avoid always using the tiny females, and instead use some larger females as it may help with production and strength.
Bob Hill is from Ohio and with his son Andy has put down a great show record over the last few years in black O. E. Bob got his first trio of blacks in 1978 and I appreciate the good trio he sent me three years ago. Bob's first trio was from Ralph Sheriff and I might as well point out right now that as I run up a big phone bill doing these interviews there are two names that are unavoidable and those names are Sheriff and Yoder. These two names and their birds seem to have made a tremendous impact for the betterment of blacks.
As I talked to Bob Hill in Feb of 1995 he was struggling to shovel away snow drifts two feet over the top of the coops. I asked him how he got started in the development of his birds. From the original Sheriff trio only three chicks were produced from the first years' effort and only about a dozen in the second year. In ~79 he acquired 2 males from Bill Wulff and crossed this bloodline in with the original Sheriff. Hatches remained grim but within 4 years fertility and hatchability showed great improvement. In the fourth year 4 Yoder bloodline females were also crossed in. Bob felt the Yoder line he used was more of a female line. Bob's intentions and he succeeded by the way, was to produce winning males and females from the same breeding pens. The idea of continuing to try to produce winners in both sexes was modified in 1990 and more emphasis was put on developing winning males. To produce top male birds Bob feels it might help to use female breeders that are not too small and not too short in the back, that is, as he put it, females a little "rangy". "Only breed from the best and don't give up!" Bob stresses the "don't give up" part as he has found out that you can breed some of the very best looking individuals together but it still might not *click". "Just don't give up!"
Dave Sherrill Jr. is one of the greats in the B.B. red variety and we will print an interview with him at a later time on that subject. He talked about the heritage of our blacks and once again the name Yoder was the one I heard along with the Sheriffs.
Ralph Sheriff, Sr. is the living legend in the black O.E. variety. Now, you other good breeders don't get jealous or mad at me for saying this: I'm just reporting the undeniable results of these phone interviews and letters What other conclusion can be reached when calls from Dixie to the North trace winning blood back to this man?
Ralph credits Charles James for helping him get started several decades ago with a fine male bird. The first females were from Mr. Mealer in Georgia. Ralphs' goal was to produce "the best type show bird". The Sherrifs are known as male line birds but their more recently developed female line now stands among the best also.
I was interested in asking Mr. Sheriff how a line could be bred for 40 years and still be so healthy and strong as these birds obviously are. He explained that the secret is breeding by families: that is there are 10 minor families within the one main family of blacks on the Sheriff farm. It is not advisable, Ralph advises, to breed full brother and sister together. If a small problem crops up in one sub- family it is a matter of crossing into another sub-family. The birds now shown by the Sheriff family are felt to be three times better in quality than those of 20 years ago, much progress is evident especially in areas of feather width and quality.
I appreciate the the generosity of America's top breeders to share information with us. If I can help any club members get started with good black O.E.'s you can e-mail me.

By Doug Pierson, bluerib@saber.net

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