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Bailin Bloodline of Flying Flights...
thoughts and quotes from Richie Bailin
Interviewed by: Bolingbrook Bob
May 31 2001
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"You will always raise your share of culls.... but the good ones will shine like
diamonds."
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West Babylon N.Y.
I have been breeding the N.Y. Flying Flight for about 16 years now. As most breeders today do not fly their stock, I fly everything including my winners. I consider my birds true Flying
Flight's.
At present I have about 160-170 birds and am hoping to finish another great breeding season. I mainly breed Black and Dun teagers, but in the last 3-4 years I have introduced Yellows and Yellow teagers into the stock.
Most of my birds are plainheads but my best friend and club member Joe Campione has some of the best cap birds in the club. Joe has been breeding competitively for about 5 years now and has progressed to the point where he is now the guy to beat in the shows.
I can't say enough about Ralph White. He is a dedicated fancier who took over the president duties quite a few years ago from me, as I could not dedicate the kind of time needed to make the club a success. Ralph works endless hours to make sure that the club is always going forward, on top of the time he puts in caring for his birds. Thank god his partner Al shows up everyday to help Ralph with all the chores . Ralph has done an excellent job promoting our fantastic flying wonders. It is really great to see some other fanciers outside the N.Y. area that have this breed.
I also know Len Treviranus from Chicago, I got him started in Flying
Flight's about 6-7 years ago. We all sent him birds to get him started. I know at one time he had about 90-100 birds going. Since then I know he has changed stocks a couple of times, but in the last 2 years I know he has purchased birds from Ralph White.
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You can see how refined these birds are. You must remember to breed the best of all qualities into the birds. Also I don't breed out of bearded birds because once that trait is put into them it takes years to get it out.
Some of the old timers say Beards make better teagers. That is an old wives tale. I also don't mate the 2 best mottled birds together. The beaks, eyes, heads and caps (for the cap birds) are the most important.
I have made it point to stress the markings for the flights. Unfortunately many of the judges are not that interested in picking birds with the right mottling. The bird has to have everything else besides the markings, but when has it all you can't beat it.
I bred a dun teager hen this year that in my estimation is the closest to standard that I have seen shown in our club ever. She has deep dark color, great mottling, and the longest, thinnest beak you could want in a flight.
My friend Joe has these in caps, I usually specialize in the plainheads.
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If you are not interested in breeding toward the standard then it really doesn't matter but if you're looking to better the quality of your stock and increase the value of your birds and of course like what you see then cull the garbage or let the hawks eat them and keep the good ones. In 2 breeding seasons you will see the difference between a good Flying Flight and a great Flying Flight.
My uncle is Alex Rawson whose claim to fame is the Domestic Show Flight. When I was 15 years old back in 1969 I was a junior member of the
Nassau Suffolk Club, that year was my 1st year in breeding show flights and my Red Teager hen was 2nd Best of Show. This bird beat all others except 1 Black Flight. This show was full of some of the best Flight men alive including
Gene Pardini, Ben Rosenbloom, Chick Landi, Sal
Gigante. This was no fluke , he taught me that the BEST CULLER is the BEST BREEDER. He is right every time. I also do not buy new birds. I only breed from family and inbreeding or line breeding is a must.
You will always raise your share of culls but the good ones will shine like diamonds.
Richie Bailin
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Richie, how do you get young birds up and
performing?
Keep the birds hungry, not dead starved and fly them each day. If they don't
want to fly attach a large black Hefty bag to a 10 or 12 ft. bamboo pole,
this should do the trick . If this doesn't work then cull out the ones that
constantly land first. Within 2-3 weeks you should be getting 1/2 hr. to 45
minutes air time. I usually start mine with the old birds, this seems to get
them going pretty quick. If you feed them up, they will definitely land and just
bum all day long. Get Flights into a routine and make them do what you want them
to, (you be the boss). Then when the HAWK comes they will out fly the sucker.
How do you feel about diet supplements?
If you want to see some vast improvement just give them a good mixed feed
(not too heavy) with some wheat germ oil on it every other day, you will see the
difference. Also I give my birds vitamins with electrolytes and fine garlic
powder in the water everyday. I mix approx. (1) pkg. of vitamins plus an equal
amount of garlic powder (not garlic salts). I then give them a teaspoon full in
the water EVERYDAY, notice the pictures of my birds. Not one of these birds were
cleaned or polished before the photos were taken.
You have Great Teagers, what does it take to
produce the perfect Teager?
When I started breeding the Flying Flight I had a stock of short faced
Budi-caps. All 235 pcs would go up out of sight. Then one day I met Bob
Schaeffer who got me to fly some of his off throws with the Budi's.
Well the rest is history and Bob became my mentor in this field of
breeding. His Black Flight fascinated me with there brilliant color and
clean beaks. I knew right then and there, I had to partake in the
competition. Soon after that I started to breed my own Blacks and Black
Teagers. My thanks to Bob Schaeffer for his help and giving me those
mis-marks to fly. From there I started to look for the best qualities in
these birds and then inbred the ones I had. There was too much disease
going around at the time, and I didn't want to take the chance of infecting the
best I could breed. My dad taught me that if you had
better home then you didn't need to put something strange into the loft.
You want to know how to get good mottled birds? First off you have to
start with birds that have something close to being somewhat mottled. Try
to find birds that have colored secondaries and colored feathers in the wing
shield area. Best way to explain it is to look for birds with a bar or
double bars.
I never mate the 2 best mottled birds together for they will usually throw
lighter marked teagers or mag winged birds. I usually look at the birds
when putting them together and try to find a cock that will compliment a
hen. The head, eye, beak setting, and size are most important to me.
Once you have these factors everything else is secondary. If you are
breeding towards the standard you must be selective on which birds you put
together.
I have seen guys bring birds to the shows that have beautiful color, markings,
and long beak but the head is 3/4 round (leaning towards the domestic
flight) This is a major fault in the Flying Flight. Once you put a
major fault in the birds it always shows up somewhere, no matter what! Be
very particular in mating colors. NEVER BREED RED TO BLACK. Red goes
to Yellow. DUN GOES TO BLACK. Black Teager to Dun Teager or Dun
Teager to Dun Teager. Yellow Teager to Red Teager (this usually throws better
yellows). The Flight should NOT have a grizzle factor in them. If
they do, they are mis-marks. Back here in N.Y.C. the guys call them
TURTLESHELLS, SILVER TEAGERS, DUTCH SILVERS. Whatever you call them they
are mis-marks.
As I said before that breeding beards into the birds is a fault that will come
back to haunt you for years. THEY WILL NOT MAKE GOOD TEAGERS, only better
beards. The only thing that doesn't bother me in breeding is a white tail
feather. This is a fault that shows up once in a while but the majority of
birds bred come out pretty good. My best Black Teager Hen had a white tail
feather but bred me some of the best teagers I have. She was 17 years old
when she died 2 years ago and still flew stock until the day she died.
This family of teagers is in my loft today and will be right there at Showtime.
Could we have your thoughts or suggestions on
the Show Arena?
I get a kick out of some of the guys in the club because they think that they
can buy a bird off the auction block and this one will make them the next Best
of Show. This never happens because most times a guy is getting rid of the
bird because it breeds inferior birds or doesn't breed at all. The big
kick the last couple of years have been barred birds. Two years ago one of
my Blacks threw me a Blue Flight that remained clean faced through the winter
months. Needless to say the same thing happened to Joe that year and we
both had clean faced barred birds. It is now 2 years later and Joe has
bred one of the nicest family of Blue Flights money can buy. While others
have spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on maybes we fell into it and then
took it to the next level.
In anything you do for competition, If you stand
still then someone will always be there to pass you by. My record
speaks for itself, and I do not do this for the money but for the fierce
competition. When you see the last birds up in the cage at the end of the show
and you have 4 out of 6 birds in there you know you have done your homework .
I made it a point that Bob Schaeffer's birds were beautiful but I wanted to make
them better. The results speak for themselves, see our creations all over
the country. If you can find better faced, colored and marked birds I want
to meet the man who made them. I have always welcomed the challenge and
someday hope to show my Flying Flights at the National Show.
Richie Bailin
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