This is Michael Leong's 7th months old shama, Golden Hawk. It is the youngest son of Alpha and Killer from last year's breeding season and it has only just completed its molt. Michael transferred him from aviary to cage over the weekend.
Golden Hawk is highly inbred, tracing his lineage back 14 years to my foundation male sire, Godfather.
It can be seen from the video that he is in excellent condition and exemplifies what can be achieved with good genes and proper care and nutrition during the molt.
BTW, I have been asked why I named one of Falcon's sons, "King David". No, he was not named after me. He derives his name from a very famous racing pigeon named "King David", which was bred by the great American racing pigeon fancier, David Clausing.
Clausing's King David was not only a great winner in races but he was also a great sire. Below is a blurb from an auction of one of his sons. It will be noted that the selling point of the young cock is that it ".. represents a concentration of genes for Clausing's older Houben, King David."It is necessary that the birds be inbred so that there will be a "concentration of genes"as this will increase the likelihood of the desirable characteristics being passed on to the offspring.
Golden Hawk is highly inbred, tracing his lineage back 14 years to my foundation male sire, Godfather.
It can be seen from the video that he is in excellent condition and exemplifies what can be achieved with good genes and proper care and nutrition during the molt.
BTW, I have been asked why I named one of Falcon's sons, "King David". No, he was not named after me. He derives his name from a very famous racing pigeon named "King David", which was bred by the great American racing pigeon fancier, David Clausing.
Clausing's King David was not only a great winner in races but he was also a great sire. Below is a blurb from an auction of one of his sons. It will be noted that the selling point of the young cock is that it ".. represents a concentration of genes for Clausing's older Houben, King David."It is necessary that the birds be inbred so that there will be a "concentration of genes"as this will increase the likelihood of the desirable characteristics being passed on to the offspring.
Item #: 119112 Description: Cock Inbred to the Famous and Expensive Houben, 'KING DAVID'. AU2012 FVC 4549 BBC represents a concentration of genes for Clausing's older Houben, KING DAVID. This pigeon was sold for many thousands of dollars by Clausing when KING DAVID was already 10 years old. KING DAVID was the sire to Hall of Fame pigeons "Anna Marie" and "Early Retirement". He also bred David his first Million Dollar ACE Bird. In fact, KING DAVID was sire to "ACE Birds on 3 Continents." This was the original bloodline that brought worldwide attention to David Clausing. KING DAVID was the son of ZIKO and obviously the best son when David still owned him. This bloodline has been responsible for breeding us winners from 100 to 604 miles in 2000 bird competition.  The story of David Clausing and his racing pigeons can be read at: http://www.silvio-co.com/pigeons/pdf/Clausing-article-July-9th.pdf. It is an established fact that to consistently breed wonderful birds, there must be inbreeding and line-breeding carried out knowledgeably and systematically. Birds with the desired characteristics must be selected as initial stock for breeding and mated to give them the chance to prove their worth as breeders. Most of matings will only produce "ordinary" progeny. The very few matings that beget wonderful progeny will suggest that the male and/or female of the pair has promise but the birds should be repeatedly tested to establish if they are prepotent. If the progeny of a bird is also able to produce wonderful birds, it has established that it deserves to be foundation stock. This is what I have tried to achieve with my bloodline. Last year, I was fortunate to be able to add Falcon to my very small number of males that have proved that they are able to consistently produce great birds. Falcon produced 6 males last year and I still have 4 which I intend to retain so that I can test their genetic potential. Foremost in my stable of breeders is Ballet Dancer. He is now 13 years old but still producing as well as he did when he was much younger. Two great birds that he produced last year were Samson and Curve. I also have Pretty Boy and Falcon's father, Skyhawk amongst my top breeders. Pretty Boy produced Mint and others last year while Skyhawk produced a bunch of chicks but these are still too young to accurately assess their potential. Finally, I have Apache. He has produced wonderful male shamas such as Cochise, Piston and Funkie. Apache has not produced anything for the past 3 breeding seasons. For this year, I am taking pains to try to get chicks from him. He has been paired with the most productive female that I have and they have been given the largest and most suitable aviary for breeding. The female has laid 4 eggs and commenced brooding today. I have seen the pair courting and mating so I have every hope that the eggs will be fertile. If all the eggs are infertile, I suppose I will need to consider retiring Apache from breeding. Yesterday, I gave in to the temptation to temporarily transfer one of Falcon's sons to a cage to enable me to assess its potential although its tails, which are presently about 11", have not completed their growth. My helper, who cares for the birds and knows them better than I do, cautioned against putting him in a cage as he might be a bit wild and his tails could be damaged. I nevertheless lured him into a cage. | ||||
