Breed Information - Bavarian Pouter
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This blue bar Bavarian Pouter was bred by Layne Gardner
and Jay Beals.
Photo: Layne Gardner
Photos
Bavarian Pouter Links
History
By: Layne Gardner
Auf Deutsch: Bayerische Kröpfer
At the huge pigeon/poultry show in Nürnberg, Germany in December, 1995 there was a good number of Bavarians on display. I was surprised to note that the foot feathering was not very well developed. Although some birds showed good length and shape of foot feathering there were a number of birds which had very small muffs, somewhat like a Lahore.
The most striking color in Bavarians is black, no doubt due to the sharp contrast of white and black feathering. Few blacks were shown in Nürnberg but I recall an excellent black hen shown in a "Voliere"--a community pen with perhaps 20 Bavarians in it. To my knowledge there are no black Bavarians in the United States. I worked on developing this variety but bad luck left the project unfinished. The project has begun anew with crosses to black Saxon Pouters.
The difficulty in breeding the Bavarian is achieving the proper markings. At this point, the U.S. birds do not breed true. That is, a mating of two nicely marked birds might yield young with too much white in the wings (bishop marked), pied marked young (marked like an English or Pigmy Pouter), as well as some properly marked young. The percentage of well marked has increased in the last several years so perhaps we are getting closer to having the markings "fixed".
Another difficulty is the presence of the pencilled gene in the breed. Pencilled can create some very attractive washed out laces as found in Czech Bagdads and Hana Pouters. However, when attempting to breed properly colored blue bars pencilled distorts the color by washing out the bars somewhat and giving a grizzled effect in the secondary flights and tail not unlike undergrizzle. A true white bar cannot be achieved by using the pencilled gene. I mention this because there are some expressions of heterozygous pencilled blue bars where the bars are nearly white. Again, the effect is reminiscent of grizzle rather than toy stencil. A breeder interested in the washy "laces" would do well to combine the effect with spread. In blue bars the color washes out in the wings to produce a white bird with a colored head. The typical markings of the wings are lost.
The highest quality is generally found in the blue bars. In the United States the breed has a small following and has been exhibited for nearly ten years. The bird pictured at the top is a recent winner in the National Pouter and Cropper Club. Bred and owned by the team of Jay Beals and Layne Gardner this hen shows nice type with long legs and very nice markings. The head marking could be a bit larger with the color coming down onto the globe.
Standard