Annual meeting
At the General
Annual Meeting on March 21 various changes took place in the Committee. Hans
Ringnalda was elected as Chairman. Willem Diepenbroek as secretary, a job he
has held before. As general committee member was elected Arkjan Fictorie,
while Fred Gahrmann was re-elected as general member. The Committee consist
now of Hans Ringnalda (Chairman), Willem Diepenbroek (secretary), Luuk Hans
(treasurer) and Fred Gahrmann and Arjan Fictorie as general members.
Furthermore a working group was formed to come up with ideas for the 30th
anniversary of the club. This working group is chaired by Mrs Scholten-Vledder.
Ideas can be submitted to her. (e-mail:
sonjascholten15@hotmail.com)
New colours added to the standard!
At the recent Noordshow, the official show of the Dutch Poultry Association from 8 -12 January, four new colours have been recognized in our breeds. Tollbunt for the large bearded Polands, buff, khaki and chocolate for the white crested bantams. A 100% score, a great success for our member breeders and the club.
Buff
Not all colours are new; the Tollbunt bearded Polands, large and the white crested buff bantams have been in a recognition process before, in 2002.
Both, Tollbunt Polands and the WC buff bantams, have been created and first recognized in former Eastern Germany. After the unification of both Germanys they are recognized in Germany. Striking colours, which were first shown in the Netherlands at a show in 2000. In the show season 2001/2002 they applied for recognition in the Dutch standard, but both colours failed the test. The WC buffs were turned down because of the legs, which were too light and they had too much black feathers in the neck, wings and tail. Genetically some black in wings and tail have to be tolerated.
Tollbunt
Tollbunt Polands were turned down mainly because they were too light and had too much lacing. Tollbunt Polands gave and give a lot of controversy among breeders and judges, for the common audience it is just a very striking colour. The colour is difficult to describe, whereby 50% should be dark brown, 25% white and 25% black. The white can mainly be found in crest, wings and tail. Germany, the country of origin, is still making some changes.
Khaki and chocolate were developed in the Netherlands on the basis of 6 eggs, which were sent from the USA and of which 4 hatched (two cocks, two hens, evenly divided for khaki and chocolate; how lucky can you be?). That was in 2003.
Chocolate
Both colours are recognized in the USA. First chocolate, as of 1989, khaki recently in 2004. It is a real challenge to get a new colour recognized in the USA, one needs 25 birds and at least 5 breeders.
There has been an interest in Europe in both colours right away. One can witness the chocolate more and more in other breeds. Especially this colour needs a thorough look, since often this colour is classified by ignorant people as a `bad black bird`.
There is less confusion on khaki colour, although this colour is difficult to describe. Both colours offer new venues to create new colours in other breeds.
Khaki
Luuk Hans
New book about Polands
Luuk Hans has written a new book about Polands. You can read his book report below:
CRESTED
Recently I
finished a book on Polands. I have dreamt a long time about writing a book on
my favourite breed, the Polands. I wanted to write a book which would describe
the long history of the breed and also on cultural aspects of this breed. The
subtitle of the book is: “The Polish breed in historical and cultural
perspective”.
I intended not to write just a common poultry book, but to take the
peculiarities of our favourite breed - and the breeders! – into account.
Whether I succeeded is up to the readers. So far I got very favourable
critics.
The
history
The origin of
the crested poultry dates back to Roman times. Sculptures were found of the
Roman time in England and the first statues - in the Vatican museum - date
back to between the 1st and 4th century A.D. More is known from the 16th
and 17th century when artists painted crested birds, clearly the
first Polands. Dutch painters like Jan Steen and Melchior d’Hondecoeter were
famous for their paintings of poultry. Interesting is a painting of
d’Hondecoeter, Fighting between Turkey and cock, which illustrates the
religious fight between the old Turkish empire and Christianity around 1800.
Polands have always been a Royal breed, in that sense that these birds were
given as a present among European Royalty. The Spanish King (in the 17th
century to noble friends), the German Emperor (to Russia in 18th
century) and others. No wonder that several countries claim the origin of the
breed! The same, for different reasons, can be said of the bantams.
Present
Nowadays the
Poland is a rare breed worldwide, with only a few breeders in every country.
This has always been the case! For centuries breeders complain about the lack
of enthusiasm for the Polish breed. Fortunately there is more co-operation in
this present time.
Varieties
The Polands
exist in various colours. We know of the present standardized colours, but
creating new colours has always happened. It is interesting to see that the
colour millefleur did already exist at the end of the19th century. All
varieties are described in the book, including pictures of all colours.
Polands have always been seen as artistic birds;
no wonder that many paintings and pictures, and even poems, were made about
this magnificent breed.
It is all
in my book! It is 144 pages and has more than 200 colour photo’s and 100 other
illustrations. The book costs € 39,00 (excluding postage costs) and can be
ordered at
luuk.hans@planet.nl
Luuk Hans