Canadian Jacobin News

 

                Over the past decade as I have become more involved with the Jacobin world and 
the many breeders around the globe, it has been interesting to see how the tide has shifted and
the quality of the Jacobins has improved in different regions and countries.

                Thirty five years ago Canada had some of the finest Jacobins and Jacobin breeders in the world. Reds & Yellows as well as Whites & Blacks developed in Canada were among the best anywhere followed by some outstanding Cream bars in the 1970’s.

                By the mid 1970’s the tide was already changing as our Canadian breeders passed on with no new breeders to carry on. Talented American breeders were now producing Jacobins of superior quality.Yellows, Reds and Whites were still the dominant colours. It was also at this point that several breeders in the U.S. began genetic projects to ad new colours to the breed. Almonds were probably the biggest success story of this era followed closely by the Andalusians. By the 1980’s Almonds had won Championships at some major U.S. shows. The Blacks experienced a short revival during the 80’s in the U.S. also but this was fairly short lived.

                When we talk about the quality of the Jacobins this entirely depends upon which standard we are using to evaluate the birds. Until the late 1980’s the North American standard was only used to evaluate the Jacobins in North America.

                In the early 1990’s the Australians began to import Jacobins from the U.S. and Canada and adopted a standard similar to ours rather than the British standard which they had been using. Around the same time the Middle East began to import Jacobins from here also, and literally thousands of Jacobins went over.

                In the mid 1980’s Germany imported Jacobins from the U.S. and by the 1990’s had also adopted a standard very similar to ours but with more emphasis on colour, marking and eyes.

                England, Scotland and Ireland have also imported many Jacobins from the U.S. and Canada over the years however the British standard still prevails and the North American Jacobins do not place well at their shows. The British place more emphasis on feather wealth and smoothness and less emphasis on station, type and refinement. Some breeders in the British Isles do see the merit in the superior show type in our birds and are combining the two types. I have seen photos of some of these birds and they look very good. We might do well to ad some of the smoothness and thick manes the British have on our birds as I feel this is an area that many of our Jacobins are weak in.

                I have corresponded with breeders in most of the countries I have referred to. I have visited Australia and have talked to respected breeders who have seen and judged Jacobins in all of these countries and I have seen pictures and videos of Jacobins from these countries as well.

                We would be naive to think that all of the best Jacobins are still in North America. Some of the finest Jacobins ever bred in North America were exported. But most importantly each and every country mentioned has its share of extremely talented breeders who can rival anyone anywhere in the world in their ability to breed superior Jacobins. The only thing preventing them from doing so in the past was not that they didn’t have North American stock but rather that they were breeding to a different standard. Now that our differences are being resolved and we are breeding to similar standards, the best Jacobins of tomorrow could show up anywhere and more likely everywhere.

                The U.S. still dominates in Reds, Whites and Almonds with larger numbers of quality Jacobins in these colours. However outstanding individual birds in these colours can be found in many countries. Scotland for instance has some outstanding Reds and Yellows in the hands of a couple breeders consisting almost entirely of Scottish bloodlines but bred more towards the North America station and type. Some of the Reds bred in Australia in recent years have been exceptional to the point that one U.S. Master Breeder is considering bringing some back to the U.S..

                Some of the best Yellows anywhere are now bred in Germany. Dennis Soares saw them and after seeing some pictures myself I was very impressed. It is interesting to note that even though the Germans have adopted much of our standard they are far more strict when it comes to colour, eyes and markings. Therefore we shouldn’t be surprised if they end up with Jacobins as good as ours in every respect except with better colour, marking and no flawed eyes. Something to think about.

                Canada can hold its own in most colours today. We have the best Bars and Blacks and we have many individual birds in other colours which would be competitive anywhere.

                It is always good to broaden your scale of thinking. As our world gets smaller our opportunities grow. In the end we will have better Jacobins and here in Canada we are already doing our part to achieve this.

Yours in the fancy,
Clint Robertson <clint@jacobins.ca>