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| Steve studies the breeding boxes |
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| Jeff looking for the nest bird to study |
The next visit in our agenda was the Geoff Tuplin Aviary. We met Jeff when he brought along Danial Lutolf with him to the Chris Snell Aviary. We all sat around a table and had Fish and Chips together. I looked over at Daniel and thought, wow...thats Lutolf.
Geoff has a small aviary but it is well organized. In 2 rooms he has long flights almost running the length of the building. The 1st aviary is in the one room and the 2nd is side by side in the 2nd room. The flights are approximately 4 feet high and possibly 12 feet long and 4 feet wide. Then he has a small 4 foot flight for his young birds. There are approximately 20 breeding cages that I remember in the one room and may be additional breeding boxes in the 1st room which I don't recall.
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| Vince points out specific features in our discuss |
My 1st thought as I viewed the birds was that I didn't think they stood up to Chris Snell's birds however once I viewed the birds in the breeding boxes it was plain to see that his best birds were up breeding, and they were super birds. I started to pay attention to the type of pairing. You could see that they were balanced with complimenting traits. For example length, width of head, and size. We had been discussing the question of how to breed birds. It was noted that many breeders are breeding these big buff birds to young hens as early as 6 months old if they were mature and as early as 9 months. A question was raised about how to breed. Do you breed a well bred hen, (meaning that it came from outstanding parents to a super cock) or do you breed with your best to your best complimenting and improving features of each bird? Geoff also showed us one of his Mannas birds, that he is introducing into his stud. The feather is more compact meaning it has more feather per square inch.
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| Joe Mannas Spangle |
Steve Holland from the "Holland Stud" was along with us and was intently studying each pairing that Geoff had up breeding. Steve has been breeding birds since a small boy and has intense knowledge on these birds and how to carry over the traits.
Geoff began to pull birds from the breeding boxes and put them into show cages for us to see a perspective on each of his good birds. I was very impressed with the size and width in the head of his birds. It was at this point that I realized that Geoff said his birds in the flights were mainly young birds. As I viewed the birds and began to study them more closely you could plainly see the quality and it was outstanding. Geoff was very forthright and open and very hospitable. Our visit was rather short as Steve Holland was taking us to our hotel a couple of hours drive away.
The countryside is so lush and green. I couldn't help but be impressed with how much history England carries. It was such an opportunity to be here.
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| Flowers in Cleathorpes, England |
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| Cinnamon Violet cock |
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| The Humber bridge |
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| This is an example of the magnificent gardens in Cleethorpes |
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| A classic double decker bus |
My 1st thought as I viewed the birds was that I didn't think they stood up to Chris Snell's birds however once I viewed the birds in the breeding boxes it was plain to see that his best birds were up breeding, and they were super birds. I started to pay attention to the type of pairing. You could see that they were balanced with complimenting traits. For example length, width of head, and size. We had been discussing the question of how to breed birds. It was noted that many breeders are breeding these big buff birds to young hens as early as 6 months old if they were mature and as early as 9 months. A question was raised about how to breed. Do you breed a well bred hen, (meaning that it came from outstanding parents to a super cock) or do you breed with your best to your best complimenting and improving features of each bird? Geoff also showed us one of his Mannas birds, that he is introducing into his stud. The feather is more compact meaning it has more feather per square inch.
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