Purebred Pigeon May/June 2020

Old German Owls – Page 24 – Purebred PIGEON

reed of

the

ssue

- O

erman

Path to

2020 ShowTeam

By Leonard Kuzminski

’ve been breeding Old German Owls since 2014. I picked up my

first pair from Mike Wagner of Midland, Michigan. I got a red bar

cock bird and a silver check hen. I changed from breeding short

faced birds for 20 years. I had Budapest, Vienna Short Faced Ganzel

marked, Short Face Helmets and also Polish Owls.

I decided on picking up some Old German Owls since they feed

their own young and don’t have to worry about swapping the babies

out to foster parents. So after receiving the pair and breeding some

yellow check youngsters, I decided to show at Louisville Kentucky

At the NYBS, not knowing much about the breed, I watched the

judging who at that time was Rick Tucker, a notable Chinese Owl

breeder. I took 10th place out of 60 birds entered. I definitely needed

some help and some work to be done, if I was going to stay in this

breed. I had briefly talked to Bill Henderson who had just won the

show to see if he had anything available. I told him I would be inter-

ested in some birds. He said he would see what he could do in 2015.

I believe it was maybe January or February 2015, when I called Mike

Spencer see if he had any birds available. I told him I had a pair of

birds and a couple of yellow check hens that I was looking for mates.

Mike said he had six old birds he could let go: four red bar cocks,

a blue bar hen and a dark t-pattern hen. Mike had told me I had to

pay nothing for the birds, just the shipping cost. At the 2015 NYBS

I also bought the 1st Reserve Winner from Brian Elwell – an open

pattern blue check hen, and a bird from Jeff Wozniak who was Second

Reserve in 2014 NYBS, a red bar hen. Then I picked up a few birds

from Chet Edmunds, Keith Phelps, Bill Henderson and Mike Stapish. I

banded 50 from this bloodline.

During your breeding season you are going to get birds that you

like, and then some you don’t like but you have to find birds that will

improve your flock. Some people would not even keep the birds that I

kept for the simple fact that they were mismarked but that is the last

thing I worry about when breeding for type.

I look for nice cobby bodies, proper placement of rosettes.

What I saw was that only a few birds had them; a lot of birds had

low rosettes, and some had no rosette. I was looking for birds with

a nice high crest top with the crest above the head. These are the

birds I kept. This is something that a lot of Old German Owls at that

time did not have in 2016. I also wanted birds with nice full faces,

not pinched. When using this many birds in your foundation stock,

you’re going to get a lot of different things popping out. You’re going

to get birds that are long-legged, thin long necks, and pinched faced.

These types of birds I culled first.

I look for features that stand out and maybe to extreme. I’ve

kept birds simply because they had proper rosette placement and

high crest. I call these my “WOW” birds. It’s like saying, “Wow that

bird’s got a beautiful short thick neck and good rosette placement,”

or “Wow, I really like the way this bird feels in the hand with a nice

Red Cock 2019

Blue Bar Hen - Never Shown

Silver Bar Hen 2019, Best Silver Bar NYBS