Synopsis:
The book, over 30 years in the making and based on worldwide research about the history and evolution of Oriental poultry races with a detailed description, their origin, distribution and current day breeding status worldwide, is a long needed work while nothing like it has been published for over fifty years. This book provides in detail educational information about the ancestors of domestic chickens, whereby it traces the origin of many ancient poultry breeds, how and where they were developed many generations ago for the purpose of sportsmanship before cockfighting was banned in most countries. But that has not stopped enthusiasts and fanciers to save many of these species from extinction and rather promoting them through a worldwide interest in exhibitions competitions, whereby in Germany alone are national poultry exhibitions with over 40,000 and even to 60,000 entries every year excite the public in tough competitions as covered in this work. Moreover, the reader will learn everything essential about purposeful breeding and preserving these breeds for future generations to come. The over 250 pictures of some 35 breeds shown in this book have been collected from various sources worldwide, many are of birds bred and photographed by the author giving the reader information not available elsewhere, which includes a today's analysis of the sport of cockfighting as well as extensive information on genetics of the rarest species.
About the Author:
Horst W. Schmudde, born 1934, raised and educated in Germany has been an avid poultry fancier since early childhood. Already during his college years he acquired and concentrated on the conservation of various Oriental gamefowl breeds while showing and winning accolades at the most prestigious poultry exhibitions in Germany. Following his graduation from college receiving a dual major in engineering he obtained his poultry judge license in 1959, making him one of the youngest judges in the German pure-bred poultry fanciers organizations, becoming ultimately one of the much sought after judges in Europe for over forty years even after moving to the U.S. in 1964. Elected secretary of the German gamefowl club for those years, in the U.S. he then founded the Oriental Fowl Fanciers Association. Over these four decades he wrote numerous articles for specialty magazines on both sides of the Atlantic and he collaborated in the translation of "Poultry as a Hobby" published in the U.S. Due to his profession in engineering working for some renowned conglomerates requiring him to travel to many countries, he was able on his trips to follow his personal interest in those rare and often national cultural poultry races, enabling him to import hatching eggs or live birds and raising them at his home in New Jersey, thereby sharing offspring with many fanciers here and exporting same to Europe and South America to help promoting them on three continents.
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