Where have all the Yellows Gone?

by Clint Robertson

 

 

                As I look at the Jacobin show results from this past show season it is somewhat
disappointing to see that the number of yellow Jacobins being shown is down dramatically.
Numbers of yellows shown at the Canadian National Jacobin Show were 37 in 1996, 20 in 1997
and 13 in 1998. Numbers have been dropping by close to half  each year. These numbers are 
a reflection of the numbers of breeding birds in the colour in the lofts also. So why the decline?
There are several possibilities.

                In the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s Roy Boug and Paul McNorgan ruled the Jacobin world. The colours they dominated with were reds and yes, yellows. As a result most breeders wanting to be competitive took up reds and yellows. As you are well aware, yellow is the dilute of red yet the quality and quantity of the yellows was so good that many breeders bred yellows only or went so far as to breed their yellows seperate from their reds except for the occasional cross to maintain the deep rich yellow colour. When I started in Jacobins in 1979, Dave Loewen of Winnipeg had the top stud of Jacobins in the area. His yellows dominated the shows. The Winnipeg Fancy Pigeon Association regularly had 80 or more Jacobins shown and 50 or more would be yellows and most of the time a yellow was champion only occasionally beat out by a red. At this time Bill Sacher of Winnipeg already had a great stud of yellows developed largely of Loewen stock. Marcel Giguere of Boibriand, Que. also had a tremendous stud of reds and yellows built up from the remnants of the Boug birds which had been left in Canada after his passing.Yellows continued to dominate the shows in Canada in the years that followed with Gordon MacDonald followed by Rod MacDonald and John Sousa doing well with their yellows in Ontario and Clint Robertson and Bill Sacher continuing with them in Manitoba. Bill Sacher had Champion at the Canadian meet in the late 80’s with a yellow as did Gord and Rod MacDonald in the years that followed.Yellows won Champion at the Central Canadian Jacobin Club Annual Meet in 1986, 87 and 88. The first Canadian National in 1992 was won by a yellow from Marcel Giguere. It was around this time that the number of good quality yellows in this country began to decline. Many top breeders began to concentrate on other colours. Bill Sacher started into creams. Clint Robertson, who was into blacks, splashes and Andalusian and so on, never really thinking that the yellows would ever be in trouble. Marcel Giguere quit showing and dramatically decreased the number of birds he kept and Gordon MacDonald handed over the yellow part of his stud to his brother Rod.John Sousa left the fancy. Todd Toews of Medicine Hat, Alta. began to breed reds and yellows again after a few years away, however this just wasn’t enough to give them the boost they needed to stay on top. Without the number of fanciers to work together to exchange birds and compete the yellows began to slide. Even though the numbers of yellows shown was up for a while the quality towards the lower half of the classes was not good.

                By 1994 Bill Sacher and I could see the yellows were in trouble as did many others I am sure. We began to have lengthy discussions on what was happening and what we had to do to bring them back. We knew the most important thing was to get the quality back up to were they deserved to be. We had never given up the yellows we had just decreased the number of breeders we had to make room for other colours. Todd Toews and Rod MacDonald had some very good yellows but there just weren’t enough good ones to spread around. One of the biggest obstacles Bill and I saw is that the line of yellows we were working with had become stale. The family was not producing the variations we needed to make improvements. We were just producing a lot of average Jacobins and this seemed to be the case with all of the yellows we saw. Bill acquired Marcel’s 1992 National Champion yellow and from this bird tried to kick start his yellow program. What he ended up with was not at all what he expected. From this bird Bill bred the best cream bar Jacobins North America has ever seen but the yellows were a disappointment. Due to the bar influence somewhere in this birds background the yellows produced had blue bellies and many of them were in fact checkers. This problem has haunted Bill right up until today and has proven to be extremely difficult to eliminate. Fortunately Bill still has some of the original Loewen line to tap into. In addition Bill is using reds in his program with good success.

                Unlike Bill who had always only bred yellows, I bred my reds and yellows as one family. Even though the reds were dominant I never really worried about losing my yellows because almost all of my reds carried yellow. This turned out to be a mistake because in time my reds swallowed up my yellows. I bred a good yellow cock in 1996 who won Reserve Champion at the National yet he still was a far cry from the quality we were looking for. From him I bred two red cocks of much better quality both of which were mated to yellow hens in 1999. All of the young produced from both pair were red. I just keep telling myself that the yellows will come but they aren’t. Sooner or later the dice will roll in my favour.

                Another problem which you will find with the yellows is that they are slower than other colours to develop. Never cull them early. In 1994 I bred a yellow cock which I felt was probably the poorest one I had bred that year. I was going to kill him but I had lots of room and for some reason I spared his life. He had long loose feather with no control. In 1995 he moulted out beautifully and went on to win best yellow at the National. I have also found that the yellows and reds are often slower breeders. Young cocks in particular do not fertilize very well their first breeding season.

                In the past 8 years I have tried to acquire a top yellow cock with no luck. They are like hens teeth. In the past 3 years I have made 2 crosses into my yellows to try and improve them. I used a splash cock in 1997 and an Andalusian hen in 1999. Both have yielded very good results type wise but I am not sure how hard it will be to get the colour back the way we want it.

                All of the problems I have mentioned have played a role in bringing the yellows to their present state but none so much as the loss of or lack of breeders working with the colour as a top priority.

Clint Robertson Email: clint@jacobins.ca