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2021/05/21

"You've got to give them an unstressed environment, because they're highly inbred lines. The "Arkansas Blues" are blue, black and splash. The cages run on and on like this, full of chickens boasting brilliant feathers that might, one day, entice a strike and spark a fish story. "It was just serendipity, damn good luck that I stumbled across a community that had a small, little bastion of mink production and some guys who were knowledgeable and knew what it meant to work seven days a week," notes Whiting. The "chipmunk" colored chicks appear to be a blue egg laying strain of very good quality Brown Leghorns. Over the years, he has responded to fly-tiers whims by creating bespoke chickens with unusual feathers. All our birds are Non-GMO raised and vaccinated for Mareks Disease. When asked for heronlike strands for creating saltwater salmon and shrimp flies, Whiting spent a decade crossing Chinese silkie chickens with his own birds to produce the furry feathers. (Correction, Please!). Inside this barn, his lifes work8,800 roostersis on fine display. At a glance, they resemble a snakeskin more than anything youll find on a farmyard chicken. Lower feed costs, beautiful colored eggs, consistent layers, great foragers. ", "I do get offers to sell, but most of them want me to stay and run it," he says. Thirty years of claw rakes and beak tears have scarred his arms. It may not display this or other websites correctly. People always ask how many birds we have here, he tells me.

So most people are pretty optimistic about the fly-fishing world. Silkies have a mutation where thats lacking. In other words, their feathers look and feel like fur. ", Challenges: Filling orders. Please read how our orders are processed here. Some have puffy cheeks, some dont. He raised backyard chickens as a kid growing up outside of Denver and worked part-time at a gamebird farm during high school, which he graduated a year early. In his career, he figures, hes personally inspected 2.8 million chickens. McMurray McMurray are now selling chicks from Whiting. The top 2 or 3 percent of his flock is flagged, and Whiting returns to further scrutinize them.

Inside the breeder barn, every pen has a cardboard sign and code indicating the genetic lineAX3, F19, CR17. The longest stretch of feathers on the Hoffman is maybe 6 inches. We dont advertise, he says. People say, Why do you waste resources on something thats as ephemeral and frivolous as fly-fishing? he says.

All from a guy who doesnt even fish. It was the early 1990s, and fly-tiers from around the world were asking Whiting, a poultry geneticist, for a very specific feather. Instead of live-plucking them, which would be painful (and illegal), Whiting Farms euthanizes the birds using carbon dioxide. The fowl are sometimes worth 80 times as much as typical meat chickens; their head pelts (capes, in chicken-industry lingo) sell for between $20 and $150 a pop. Please direct all licensing questions to [emailprotected], Please note, comments must be approved before they are published. They generally have yellow legs, and a pea comb, but a single comb shows up occasionally due to the Leghorn genetics. Still, hes aware of the ethical questions his work elicits. After starting his business, Whiting purchased Hoffmans entire genetic stock, and later acquired lines from Darbee and Miner. "That gap is becoming larger. One of Sugar Feather Farms line have black, yellow and white color combinations with flecks of gold/orange. The birds are treated well and live comfortably, he says. However, the UofA Blue egg layers, the Arkansas Blues, are not the same breed that Whiting now sells.

If people want feathers, they know where to find us., In a sterile, concrete-floored room that thrums with the sounds of machines, Whiting peers into an incubator the size of an industrial walk-in freezer. Well check out the Whiting True Blue. Sugar Feather offers sexed female birds for our customers. Tom greatly expanded the number available while also improving the quality of the feathers, which is a hard thing to do..

Crafters use them in everything from jewelry to dream catchers; hair stylists weave feather extensions into their clients tresses; artists employ them to create replicas of feathered animals for museums; and fashion houses use them to embellish their haute couture. http://www.whitingfarms.com/about_01.html, https://m.www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/whiting_true_blue.html. We highly recommend using the Oil of Oregano in their water daily as a supplement to aid with digestion and overall health. Jul 18, 2022, By Gregory Daurer | It resembles a mayfly, which is one of the fishing flies people tie. Nearly every tackle shop in the U.S. stocks Whiting pelts; theyre shipped to 40 countries; and three out of four commercial fly-tying operations uses Whiting feathers.

We should all appreciate both men for what they have brought to the chicken world. After wrapping up his dissertation, Whiting decided to get into the chicken business.

Searching for a better breed of turkey. However you are welcome to look at all the breeds and interactions, it is a site to see. Detroit Free Press investigates Michigan wholesalers. Those that pass that testa fraction of the top 1 percentare moved to the breeder shed, where theyre caged with a harem of 10 to 14 hens. Hes wearing a T-shirt, khaki shorts, and black socks scrunched down into worn Asics.

The silky feathers stretch longer and longer with the passing years, as if monuments to what was once thought improbable. Whiting Farms was the developer of the Arkansas Blues aka UofA Blue Egg Layers. "I'm not a businessman, I'm a chicken breeder," he says. Prices may change, see sections above for real prices. These chickens were created by Tom Whiting of Whiting Farms in Delta, Colorado. In the magazine was a recipe for the Pattegrisen, or Pigleta shrimp pattern that had taken the Baltic region by storm. The revenue out of those breeders are 14 to 24 months out in time. Whiting knows them all by heart. ", "I've been networking lately with places like University of California, Davis, to see if there are graduate students who are entrepreneurially minded," says Whiting, 64. Tom Rosenbauer, marketing manager for Orvis and an experienced fly-tier, says that in the 1970s, most feathers came off food chickens from India. They are active chickens, with typically friendly, non-aggressive temperament. He then went on to earn a masters degree in poultry management and genetics and a Ph.D. in poultry science. The animal rights organization sent a cease-and-desist letter to one of the feather merchantswhich sourced from Whiting Farmsfor saying its products came from birds that were treated ethically. PETA criticized Whiting on its website for confining roosters in tiny stacked cages inside deafeningly loud barns before they are killed and skinned.. We hatch birds every Friday and process birds twice a week. Even so, his bare arms are hatched with scars from handling his broods. Ours love to roost as high as possible in their chicken house, all the way up in the rafters. Another is conserving rare breeds, such as the Red Shouldered Yokohama, Crevecoeur, and Sumatra, to protect the diversity necessary to maintain the species in the event of disease or climate-change-induced die-offs. Some nights, long after his staff has gone home, Whiting lingers in his office. Whiting concludes with a few words of wisdom that apply to any industry. Thomas Whiting breeds birds not for their meat, but for their feathers, in a quest to satisfy a clientele of fly-fishersand his own obsession with perfect plumage.

Ever heard of a mayfly? He speaks slowly, unperturbed by the pandemonium of bok-bok-boks and cock-a-doodle-doos in the dimly lit barn.

Their feed to egg conversion is higher than most breeds. It's too complex a product line. "I've built five barns in the last couple years, but demand has gone up faster than my expansion. We dont do trade shows. Hey, he says, my breeding records are immaculate.. Both are schools that Dr. Keith Bramwell attended. The whole breeding program is focused on the feather. Chickens and fishing might seem like an odd coupling, but for Whiting Farms, its big business. "This turned into a long-term relationship where he was on my board of directors," says Whiting. After one angler requested unusually stiff, shiny feathers, Whiting imported chicks from the ancient European Coq de Leon breed from Spain and bred them to refine the quality of their plumage. ", "The sport of fly-fishing is enjoying a boom because it's outdoors, you're socially distanced, and it's kind of healthy. ", He continues, "Because we have so much momentum and the genetics program I've worked on over the years has been refined as time goes on, we are distancing ourselves from everybody else faster than we ever have. To safeguard our birds from exposure to disease brought in by visitors, in accordance with the provisions of the National Poultry Improvement Plan, areas where birds are kept are off limits. Its my job to stoke the fire in the hot room on Sundays, he says. This chicken is not a rare or heritage breed but a breed we feel is worth investing in. If they arent, Whiting says, they fight viciously, sometimes maiming or killing one another and jeopardizing the quality of their feathers. Today, the company's facilities -- processing at a 17-acre ranch just outside Delta and a "very isolated" production operation on a 5,000-acre ranch -- are home to about 75,000 birds at any given time. If you look at a Spey Pattegrisen from below, the angle of the sea trout, you can see the similarity to a natural shrimp. It had to be long, wide, fat-barbed, and without webbing or a frayed endsomething more akin to a squirrel tail than a typical bird feather. Copyright 2000 Gale, Cengage Learning.

However, they can come in a wide spectrum of feather patterns including solid blue, black, black breasted red, and many other variants. Chickens, Whiting likes to say, are genetically plastic. Through selective breeding, a 4-pound barnyard hen, for example, can produce 8-pound great-great-grand-hens with wildly long feathers in an array of colors and textures. Its in these quiet moments that Whiting wonders: What sort of fantastic results could the next decade bring?

They are the calmest quietest chicks I have ever had$1.00 each. Whiting isnt averse to challenging work, toiling with almost preternatural patience.

Much more complex than hair, they evolved from reptilian scales and grow in a multiplicity of forms, textures, and colors. Natural feathers are narrow at the tip, wider through the body, and taper again at the base. Some of them are the Whiting True Blue, Whiting Green, and the Welsummer Cross. The Local newsletter is your free, daily guide to life in Colorado. Notepads, folders, newspaper clippings, and scribbled messages lay scattered. 1 provider of feathers for fly patterns worldwide. Eriksen had designed the sea trout fly, which called for Whitings Spey Hackle, and in doing so, he revolutionized sea trout fishing.

Jul 18, 2022, By Eric Peterson | "A distant second is feed and propane and those kinds of things, so I've been investing heavily in automation and new state-of-the-art facilities. On my last morning, Whiting comes to work with a stack of empty Purina cat-food boxes. All orders are processed in orders received. Inside, thousands of eggs sit in racks that tilt back and forth, roughly mimicking how a hen would rotate the soon-to-be newborns. Why Do You Like the Hatchery/Hatcheries You Order From Most Often? You develop in your minds eye what a good pelt looks like, he says. Whiting True Blues generally, begin laying a little earlier around 5 months of age. Its amazing to consider, really.

Thats when Whiting bought the business from amateur geneticist Henry Hoffman, who was among the first to breed chickens for fly-tying hackle and attained a cultlike following among fishermen for a time. : we recommend starting baby chicks out with Sugar Feather Farm, for the first 3 weeks, then switch to our, until they hit maturation (which is when they start to lay) then switch to Sugar Feather Farm. He inspects every rooster and hen, sifting through feathers with a bright light, to decide which will be bred. A roosters crow measures about the same decibels as a dogs bark, and with thousands crowing at the same time, the atmosphere is utter chaos. Plump and alert, he holds himself like a proud churchgoer. He pulls racks of hatchlings out of the incubator and sorts them by breed, handling each one with the gentleness of a new parent. Do something different and the world will beat a path to your door. Here is a photo from Whiting Farms website of his Herbert/Miner male mounted. "There wasn't much written about it, but I've figured it out over the years," he says. All things Colorado delivered straight to your inbox. Sales for what he called Spey Hackle were slow; they never caught on for steelhead, as hed hoped. Feather traits that create better fly patterns range from the obvious to the subtle.

Hes looking at a bird right now. Back then, youd need a minimum of two hackles to tie any dry fly, and a Royal Wulff would take three or four. Apr 18, 2022, By Eric Peterson | Hes even working to develop roosters without combs and wattlesthe red flesh on their heads and below their chinsbecause the tissue is susceptible to frostbite in colder climates. American Pastured Poultry Producers Association.

But he did make it a reality. The office looks as though it has been tossed in a police raid. [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hello Ron. Want a chicken that lays like a Leghorn but produces a blue egg? These moments of solitude are some of his favorite times. Whiting brings a bantam grizzly rooster with him and holds the bird up to the sky. Using feedback from tiers, he decides which birds to breed. (The poultry yard).

. "I'm stunned it never has been done," he says. On the hoof, were probably somewhere around 100,000 birds at any one time. The industrial incubators take up a room the size of a tennis court and can hold 112,000 eggs. The first five years of the company was something close to a screaming nightmare.".

Normally, feathers marry together at the barbs like a zipper, Whiting says. By visiting our site, you agree to our privacy policy regarding cookies, tracking statistics, etc. These are the most pampered chickens I know of, he says. This remarkable growth difference, coupled with a uniformity of feather size, is Whitings biggest innovation. Its difficult. Even the rooster, who fluffs up as if on cue, seems to know hes special. For years, Whiting was fixated on finding this featherwriting letters to breeders and poring through booksyet he kept coming up blank. His very best birds arent caped and sold, but matched and mated to make more chicks for more feathers for more flies.

People who want to get into this, I tell them it takes five years to really learn hackle. Today, he can speed-spot the truly outstanding birds. translation missing: en.general.social.alt_text.share_on_instagram, An Insider's Guide to the Best Fly Fishing in Kentucky, Exploring the Lakes, Creeks, and Rivers of Southwest Virginia, How to Travel Around the Maldives on Just $100 a Day, Personality-Based Storage Systems for Your Hunting and Fishing Gear. Whiting was upset. Whitings genetic breakthroughs have earned him awards from Small Business Exporter of the Year from the U.S. Small Business Administration to a lifetime achievement award from Fly Tyer magazine to write-ups in publications like Modern Farmerbut the scientist/farmer doesnt seek the limelight. It changed the way we fish.. Pre-ordered adults and hatchlings may be picked up by appointment.

Like purebreds, they're not robust; they don't have hybrid vigor.

. This chicken supposedly grew feathers that produced seamless, natural movements underwater and made for a fly no salmon could resist. ", The staff peaked at 45 employees in the late 1990s, but has gotten smaller as the operation increasingly automated feeding, cleaning, and other processes. The normal taper of a featherthat elegant arc of, say, Shakespeares quillcan be altered to a pencil-like thinness or to as wide as an ax blade. Please see our sexing policy before ordering a fully feathered bird! "Some of the guys in hackle production said, 'Now is the time to get out,'" Whiting remembers. in their water daily as a supplement to aid with digestion and overall health. To manipulate genetics, Whiting applies whats called selection pressure. In the same way he chooses certain birds for docility, he can select for plumage by painstakingly inspecting every bird, filling out a two-page summary on traits of the most promising birds, and sending a few feathers to a fly-tier for testing. The way he stares at the bird is striking. On a daily basis, what really motivates Whiting isnt trout habitat or protecting water quality. We are on the third generation of our American Line breeding program and integrating different colorations. '", By Eric Peterson | I know how to do it, but I'm in it because I'm a poultry geneticist and it sounded like a fun poultry genetics project. The sound of all these chickens makes it hard to talk, so we step outside. Jul 24, 2022, By Chris Meehan | It suits me, temperamentally. Who would have thought? Then, in 2004, almost overnight, the sales spiked. The roosters feathers are designed for that purpose. Also, the higher the barb density along the quill, the stiffer the barb, the tighter the collar, and the better that fly will stand on the waters surface. The follicles, so to speak, are programmed to grow only narrow feathers. He even worked at big-egg operations for a time. Privacy policy | But they are allowed to run around until theyre 12 to 14 weeks old. Theyre grizzliesa black-and-white striped pattern thats his top seller. ", Whiting learned the tricks of the trade on the job. The unit of use is the individual feather, he says. flock plans, Coop & Run - Design, Construction, & Maintenance. I can tell a Hoffman grizzly blindfolded, because I know the feel of those feathersthe density of the pigment in the black makes a softer section. ", Whiting Farms has grown rapidly since the very beginning. Harvesting tax dollars. However they also developed a Brown Leghorn that lays blue eggs. The white is a harder hackle.. ", The end result is "much more production with fewer people, but I pay more now," says Whiting. Hundreds of pelts at a time were being ordered from Scandinavia. The blue egg laying Brown Leghorns are a brown. I found one idealized breed painting, and it looked like a Coq de Leon to me, referring to a breed of Spanish chicken. He talks at great length about the vast genetic repository that happens to be entrusted to him, and that ultimately benefits outdoorsmenwhether theyre aware of him or not. The conditions are dense, but the birds have room to move and stretch out. But perseverance paid off. His two ranches are separated by 7 miles of arid Colorado desert country, with duplicate bird lines kept at both locations should a biohazard strike. Creating all those qualities in a single feather, Whiting tells me, is the result of decades of selective chicken breeding. For webmasters |. Sorry. Lousy air quality, loud disturbances, poor vaccinations, nonuniform lighting, temperature swings, rodents, rough handle, unsanitary cagesany of those factors can take away from the feathers.

Posted by Adamsbuilt Fishing on March 02, 2020. He has been described as a genetics expert that crosses various breeds to create new breeds just for fish fly tying. They have to be, he explains: If there is any period of stress in a birds life, a shrunken, faded band can appear in its feathers, effectively ruining them.

His thriving feather businessWhiting struggles to keep up with demandhas allowed him to pursue what he calls hobbies. One such side venture is breeding a line of blue-egg-laying hens, which he sells to backyard hobbyists through a mail-order catalog. Because without his feathera feather he built through 10 years of genetic manipulation, working from nothing more than legends of a bird that most likely never existedthe pattern would not have been possible. Training an heir apparent will require at least five years, he adds. You are using an out of date browser. "It's been up and up and up," says Whiting, describing "surging" demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. An excuse to talk chicken with yaw'll . As seen in the photos, those can be what we call our American Line. Its long term. Use the Grower Feed until they hit maturation (which is when they start to lay) then switch to Sugar Feather Farm Adult Feed. Open all year! ", The company supplies large fly manufacturers in Asia as well as distributors and fly-fishing shops across the U.S. "There are about 100 million dozen flies tied per month in the world to fill the fly-fishing market" notes Whiting.

There is also a domesticated mink farm nearby and most of his processed chicken goes to the mink farm. Read more, Click on magnifying glass to see entire picture, Temperament: indifferent In the middle for the flock hierarchy, Hardiness: they do well in all conditions and temperatures. This would be a great local source for those living in Colorado.

Odds are, if youve cast a fly to a fish in the last 20 years, the feathers in that fly were hatched out of Whiting Farms in Delta, Colo. Last summer, I traveled to Delta for a peek inside Whitings feather lab. On Whitings pelt, the longest extends nearly 18 inches. "He kept feeding me money, and I kept building facilities as fast as I could. Piles on the desk and filing cabinets have spilled to the floor, and packets of hackle are everywhere. Unlike meat chickens, which are generally harvested when theyre between 35 and 55 days old, feather birds typically live for about a year. I try to identify the line of bird by feel, just to keep my head keyed up. Tom Whiting noticed a pattern. Once they start laying we will start processing orders. The Spey fibers pulsate while it drifts in the water. "I always think, 'If I've got to stay here and run the damn thing, why am I giving away the gravy? They have a vested interest.

Whiting first got into the feather business because he thought it could fund another business idea: cloning poultry with desirable characteristics. indifferent In the middle for the flock hierarchy, they do well in all conditions and temperatures. Thank you for contacting Whiting Farms about chicks. Our blue egg sometimes tends to go to the green side so sometimes a blue-green. "I thought things were going to level off. "I'm not a fly-tier or a fly-fisherman.

He oversees every facet of his multimillion-dollar operationfrom incubating eggs to packaging boxesand doesnt have time to service his vehicle. "I do six breeding flocks a year. I hope I never find it, Whiting says. The 60-year-old geneticist primarily breeds these birds for their hacklethe long feathers on the neck or saddlewhich fly-fishers use to tie flies. This is no ordinary chicken. Their feathers are wonderful for crafting and fly-fishing! We find their temperament is in the middle for the flock hierarchy. Having worked for commercial egg-laying businesses and studied meat operations in school, he prides himself on providing better conditions for his birds than industry standards. Can you tell us if the chicks are two breeds or just a colorful mixture? He is lean and hunched in the shoulders, walks fast, and is prone to rambling tangents on science and business.

After nearly three decades, the abuse no longer fazes him. Sometimes I get it rightnot always, but sometimes. It is all up to the animals when they are ready to start. I hope its always out of reach., Written by Michael R. Shea for Field & Stream and legally licensed through the Matcha publisher network. Whiting still hand-inspects every grown bird for the breeder pens or processing.

Most of the birds dont pass a closer inspection, but if they do, Whiting takes out the calipers, starts noting measurements, and fills out a two-page report on body measurements like shank length, as well as the birds disposition. From the outside, it looks like a get-rich-quick scheme, but nothing could be further from the truth. Feedback | Its the genetics puzzle hes created for himself: trying to figure out how to maintain the profitable breeds he has while creating new and arguably weirder chickens, both for their feathers and increasingly for other intriguing purposes. The barbs should be of uniform length on a quill thats flexible and has a natural taper to mimic an insect, but thats also strong enough to stand up to repeated fish strikes. As Whiting puts it: All the preceding metabolic needs of the bird must be more than met in order for ample surplus nutrients to be available for feather growth. In other words: Feathers are the last thing a birds body spends energy on. ", Needs: Whiting is negotiating with the City of Delta for a water main extension to his ranch, but his ongoing need is employees, with an eye on finding a successor. Today, Whiting is the No.

But feathers are still his cash crop and intellectual preoccupation. It sounds like Whiting Farms has either crossed the two lines or are selling chicks from both lines as a mixture, calling them Whiting Blues. "I'd worked in the poultry industry and had three degrees in poultry science, so I was well-equipped educationally and had some experience to take it on," Whiting says. It still seems like a miracle to me, he says, that you can put an egg in an incubator, and 21 days later a perfectly formed baby chick breaks its way out of it., Often zipping around his farm for 12 out of 24 hours, Whiting still does much of the day-to-day bird work himself. To achieve the freakishly narrow saddle feathers that grow along the back of Whitings birds, the genetics had to be short-circuited through intensive breeding. (A question about chicken feed leads to an answer on macronutrients and the economics of commodity corn.) JavaScript is disabled. "Don't do what everybody else does.

I think Im better [at this] because Im not a fly-fisherman, Whiting says. Add content to this section using the sidebar. . From all the manpower, the infrastructure, our location, the feed, the cages, the lighting, the temperatureits all geared to the individual feather. "This recent year with COVID, demand has shot up," says Whiting. sounds like you have road trip to plan =). What to know about hatching shipped eggs?

If you are looking for a rooster, please choose the male option. You're trying to produce everything under the sun.".

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