I find that the Cocks produced from closely inbred parents tend to look like
hens. Basically, they are under sexed and may not be prolific breeders.
Likewise, the hens which are closely inbred may not be prolific breeders and
a lot of them become barren at an early age.
The under sexed syndrome may very well be an advantage to time intended
tipplers.
I had a letter from a Tippler man who told me that his Tipplers sometimes
flew into the clouds for a long time. Shortly afterwards, I had a second
letter to tell me that his Tipplers had returned after an exercise with
burned feet and belly feathers. Well, they didn't get these burns in the
clouds - That is for sure.
Sheffield - South Yorkshire - England. The vast majority of houses used coal
for heating and cooking. The supply of coal was delivered by a coal man -
with his horse and cart. The coal man would lift the iron grates in the
street and tip his 11 21b sacks of coal down the chutes and into the cellars
of houses.
Tipplermen, Rollermen, worldwide are in awe of such men of England and
Northern Ireland. They all do remarkably well but they have rather an unfair
advantage with the climate.
Around June, there is plenty of daylight at 4am until 10.30pm.
Many years ago men often found that they had a few more cocks than hens or
vice versa. In certain cases it was convenient to cause the formation of
homosexual pairs. This they did by placing each pair in a small box loft
about 2 1/2 feet cube outside of the main loft.
Many species of birds and animals, including humans, have a better chance of
survival if they keep close together. It is the stragglers, the bunch
quitters and the free thinkers that are at risk. Predators are quick to
notice individuals that stray from the main flock or herd and will attack
these.
In an issue of the DFU Rundblick, German Tippler Union newsletter, there was
a list of the World Records for young and old birds dating back to 1902. So,
scribbling down the names of the record setting fanciers from his home,
Sheffield, England area we asked Jack to give us a look-see into these
Tippler men's lives.
We had two very famous Tippler men in Sheffield many years ago whom either
specialised in Black Tipplers or kept quite a few of them. One was Sam
Billingham who developed these self-blacks from the old Sheffield type of
Tippler. He did very well with these but he also had some Blue Bars. In
fact, Billingham's blues and blacks were a legend in their time.
I very well remember when I was informed that I had to go over to Catcliffe,
which is a small village 5 miles from what was then a hot bed area in the
East of Sheffield, but not under the administration of the National Tippler
Union of Great Britain.
Now, you don't throw kids into the river to teach them how to swim, but if
you threw a lot of them into the river there may be a chance that a few
survivors would become excellent swimmers! However, with training not one of
the kids would drown and with advance coaching most of them would become
excellent swimmers and even potential champions.
