Now may be a good time to list some observations a wise person made about the Araucana Club of America. 1. We are a small club, primarily because Araucanas are so challenging to breed. 2. The percentage of members who exhibit birds are considerably smaller than other breed clubs, because of the difficulties in obtaining a show-worthy bird. It requires breeding and culling a fairly large number of birds in order to get the nicely tufted bird with good form and you still need to consider color. Right now I can only count about 5 or 6 people who show birds at all. Even the most active breeders only attend 3 or 4 shows, mostly local, during the course of a year. 3. Obtaining good quality birds is expensive. This discourages new breeders, and all but the most enthusiastic breeders, to continue beyond an initial phase. 4. In order to attract new breeders, there needs to be a vibrant local community of breeders that can mentor and encourage newcomers and provide good breeding stock. Larger and more popular breed clubs have that, whereas thats not the case with Araucanas. Most shows only have one person showing Araucanas. 5. Showing requires a lot of cost and effort, especially if you show beyond the local area. Most breeders arent that committed. When it comes to spending time and money to travel for shows, not many will do that. 6. Some say that the ACA is geared to those hobby breeders who dont show. Well, when only about 5%-7% of the club members actively show their birds, it would be irresponsible to ignore the rest. People raise Araucanas for many reasons, and the club should embrace a big tent approach. As it is, the club promotes showing as much as it can, spends money on rosettes for Special Meets and National Meets and pays for a big ad in Poultry Press for the National Meet. The newsletter has a Show Report each issue ( however this depends on people to report their show results so that it can be put into the Newsletter) and devotes a lot of space to the National Meets. Articles address various aspects of developing quality birds. 7. Where do people think that new show people come from? Do they just pop into existence fully committed to exhibiting? No, they come from folks who join the club just because they are attracted to Araucanas, and who then later get more serious and decide to start showing because of encouragement and help along the way. With all that in mind The Araucana SOP Breeders group is for those who are interested in breeding their flock toward the Standard of Perfection as set forth by the American Poultry Association and the American Bantam Association. It is our belief that anyone truly serious about breeding towards the SOP for the Araucana would find it necessary to join either the APA, ABA, or ACA if not all three. araucana.net/ amerpoultryassn/ bantamclub/aba/
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 02:31:10 +0000
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