I keep all my breeders in individual coops and have six different separate families of roller pigeons which I breed and fly. These include the following:
A family of North American High Flying Rollers that trace back to the late Lester J. Manz of Riverside, New Jersey, via the late Chandler B. Grover of Elk Grove, California. Mr. Manz's birds traced back to some of the first rollers that were ever imported to North America via the loft of Arthur C. Karp of Cleveland, Ohio who was breeding them in the 1880's, as well as some Whittingham Rollers brought to New Jersey by an English Roller fancier named Hargrove in the 1920's. This family is mostly Recessive Red and Recessive Yellow Spangles and have been kept as pure as possible since Mr. Manz crossed the Karp birds with the Hargrove-Bygraves Whittingams back in the 1930's. They are bred to fly high and for very long periods, as well as to roll very deep. I have had this family since 1990.
I also keep a family of old Blackburn-Colley Whittinghams which were a popular bloodline in the 1920's and 1930's. These Blackburn-Colley Rollers are said to be closely related to the old Casperson Rollers which were popular during the same period. These are exclusively Blue Baldheads, Blue Splashes, Bellnecks, etc. and some white selfs. They are mostly bull eyed. Quite a number of them come shell crested, like the kit bird you see in the photo to the left. These all descend from one single old pair that an old timer had left 30 or so years ago and have been kept completely pure, which was difficult since for the first few years I had them, all of my stock birds were full siblings! The original pair was a Blue Bellneck cock (a grand roller in the air) and a Blue Check Badge hen, also a great roller, who happened to be a daughter of the Bellneck cock. I had remember reading somewhere about crests in the Blackburns back in the 20's, but it actually took about three years for the first one to turn up despite all the full sibling matings. It is also notable that the Caspersons, to which they are distantly related, have also been known to occasionally produce crests. These Blackburns are deep rollers and high fliers, but do not fly for as long a period as the Les Manz birds. As far as I know, they are probably the only Blackburn Rollers still left in existence today.
Next, I have a family of old American Rollers that trace back to an old timer named Fred Scouzafava in Portland in the 1950's. Previously, Scouzafava lived in New York and had bought out the roller stud of Jack LaRue, a prominent breeder in the 1920's and 1930's. Back in the 1980's, these birds were very common in the Pacific North West and came in all colors and were pearl eyed with clean beaks and eye ceres. You don't see them much anymore, though some breeders are still raising "American Rollers" with fat heads and necks for show purposes that much like their so-called "Pensom Show Roller" counterparts, seem to have little in common with what their original developers actually intended. These that I have are mostly Ash Red Badges, Balds, Beards, Saddles and Offsides. A few Blues - not many. Most of them have a ribbon-tail. At one time, these birds came in all colors. They kit better than the Blackburn and Manz birds and are sometimes pretty deep rollers, but are sometimes too frequent for their own good. The photo on right shows a pair of squeakers headed to the kit loft.
Even though these three old strains are now much out of vogue among most Roller fanciers, I keep them because they need to be preserved.
Next time, I will talk a little about the other three bloodlines I have here in my lofts.
I also collect pigeon books and highly recommend the following book on pigeons which you can obtain from Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Fancy-Pigeons-First-Pigeon-Classics/dp/1533556008/
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