Alan Bliven
28 posts
Dec 01, 2004
4:24 PM
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Does anyone here know a lot about his birds and be willing to share with me what they know?
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Alan
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MCCORMICKLOFTS
334 posts
Dec 01, 2004
10:28 PM
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I have um and love um. What would you like to know? You can always call Danny as he is a super great guy and will answer any questions you have. All his birds stem down from birds he got from Richard Jaconette during the '80s.
Brian.
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Birdman
26 posts
Dec 02, 2004
5:42 PM
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Hey Brian,
I saw a few of those Danny Horner birds at the Pageant Of Pigeon last month and was amazed at how small they were. Do you get any medium or big birds from his family? I didn't get to handle them but they were nice, typie little birds, the kind of roller I really like. Have you tried to fly a whole kit of Horner birds?
Russ
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MCCORMICKLOFTS
337 posts
Dec 02, 2004
9:29 PM
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Hey Russ. Yah Danny sent a bunch out for the auction which went over quite well. Overall I would say his birds are medium sized, though many of the hens and some of the cocks can run on the smaller size. One of the hens I pinched from the auction was smallish. Dennis Early asked to handler her and smiled as he said "damn, she just melts in your hand!" The line of his that runs real close up to the Black Rain bred birds of his tend to be on the smaller side. Those that have more Rusty behind them tend to be a little larger from my viewpoint of the ones I have. My best producing pair of Horners is a very large tort cock on a medium but long tort hen. The cock was so large I didn't breed out of him for a while but on this hen with a smaller frame the offspring have been great. But overall I would say they tend to be small to medium in build as flyers, but like most rollers tend to fill out if they hit the stock pen.
I haven't flown a kit of just Horner birds, but in some kits they may make up half of the birds. My A-team that qualified for the Finals consisted of mostly Horners or Horner crosses. In fact eight of them were off that one tort hen I mentioned above. I finally got Danny to let go of the full brothers and sisters to that pair and he also sent me a bunch of squeaks off some new angle he has discovered to fly out and see what I think about them. If they are as good as he says they should work out great.
Brian.
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Alan Bliven
32 posts
Dec 03, 2004
3:01 AM
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What are the characteristics of his birds in the air?
Thanks,
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Alan
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J_Star
97 posts
Dec 03, 2004
12:00 PM
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Alan,
All my birds are from Horner. They are great as a kit birds and fly very tight together. Great frequent spinners and are mostly 20-30 footers with fast spin and some deeper. Character is great and personality of the birds are also great. They get a long together well. They are smaller than other breed and some of them with a longer cast. those birds I think have smaller head sizes aslo. Some of them have clean legged and some are groused. majority of his birds are Badges and grizzle. Some of his birds have odd sides and some with odd eyes. Majority of his birds have orange color eyes. His family is from Jaconette/Plano and Smith. He has been working with this family since 1979. He told me that het got his original birds from Texas off of a friend. You can call him and ask him how he breeds and other stuff that relate to his birds. He is honest with lots of integrity. Thanks.
Jay
Last Edited by J_Star on Jan 27, 2005 9:14 AM
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MCCORMICKLOFTS
338 posts
Dec 03, 2004
12:14 PM
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Alan, they run the gamut in regards to how they are in the air. I get them coming in early, very early in some cases but most are in the 5-7 month range. The early ones come in hot and some need a little baby sitting for a while. These usually turn out to be the best ones when they reach one year of age. Unlike Jay, mine are mostly pearl eyed. They have big hearts which is very important. I can't remember having one that wasn't a devoted kitter, though I am probably just not rememvbering one at the moment. I am super anal about kitting so I tend to pay attention to if they are or not. These birds overall are pretty damn good kitters. Performance is average to slightly above average with an occasional bonafide smoker, usually a smallish hen. The ones I have possess a restricted level of confidence and character. By restricted I mean that they possess the package without bold abstracts from the medium that tend to get your attention. I like the fact that few of them really get my attention by the way they are acting when they land or when in the kit box. Overall the roll is good and you will get a large percentage of performance as compared to what you might get with some other families. In some families you have to weed through the roll downs and pyscho rollers to get the good ones and the other extreme would be the families you have to surgically find the rollers that are good enough for a comp team out of a bunch of hard charging stiffs. If those examples were on opposite ends of the "this is what you get" chart, I would say on average, Horner's fall dividedly in the middle, but leaning in favor of the heat at the rolling down end, which to me is good. Rather have them rolling than just flying around in circles and wishing. LOL. Give Danny a call. He's a down right good old boy that knows his birds well. You can get a kit of squeakers from him pretty reasonable, about 15 bucks a bird or so. Fly them out yourself and decide if you like them.
Brian.
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K.Naylor
74 posts
Dec 03, 2004
1:41 PM
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Guys, I have a friend of mine (Mike Wolden) that has built his family from birds he got from Danny. He does real well with them. he just about always qualifies for the finals of both the W/C and the NBRC Fly. Kevin
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Alan Bliven
34 posts
Dec 03, 2004
4:00 PM
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Thanks,
I'll give him a call.
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Alan
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Rick Mee
16 posts
Dec 03, 2004
8:44 PM
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Danny got some of his better Jaconnettes from Rex Haas of TX, many moons ago. I lived a little over an hour from him from 91-95, and have been to his place over a dozen times. I once took a cock of his and crossed it on a RJ banded hen, one of the last batches Jaconettee sent out. I raised 2 birds, 1 was awesome for speed and style, but rolled down, the other I flew in the 94 WC finals, where the judges Bezance/Kitson later told me it was the best individual they saw in the USA. I don't have any more of Danny's birds, but I wouldn't hesitate in working with them.
In 1991 I used a hen who was 1/2 Jaconette, the Jaconette side went back to Haas, who obtained birds straight from RJ.
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J_Star
116 posts
Dec 14, 2004
11:34 AM
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Kevin Naylor,
You mentioned in your earlier post that you know of Mike Wolden who has build his winning family off of Horner's birds. Would it be possible that you could connect me with him since I am trying to do the same thing he is doing. You can send me his email or phone number via my email Alnimer@eriecoast.com. I beleive through correspondance with your friend and following his foot steps I could pick up on some hints and develop my Horner birds into an excellent team as his. Your help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Jay
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Alan Bliven
43 posts
Dec 17, 2004
3:33 PM
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I just received 18 young birds from Danny Horner today. They are a very small bird, at least next to the 6 white squeeker homers they look like colored doves and the homers look like chickens. But I assume they are bred small for better spinning. they are even tiny compared to my Flying Oriental Rollers.
There's an assortment of colors. Just about everything under the sun for a pure roller. Lots of badges and pieds in ash red and blue with a couple in black. There's some grizzles and a few solid blue bars and checks. Some with more white are bulled eyed and a few with groused legs and even one or two with muffs (at my request, he tries to breed the muffs out of them) but most are clean legged.
They are banded with the Horner custom bands.
The only problem was it took three days for them to get here. I assume it's because of the Christmas rush. I wouldn't recommend getting any birds shipped till after the first of the year.
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Alan
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J_Star
121 posts
Dec 17, 2004
6:09 PM
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Alan, Congrats..go back and re-read my and Brian's earlier posts and you will find evrything we told is to the tee. Wait tell you fly them. You will be happy. I consider Horner's birds are color balanced for frequent spinners. Both shipments from Danny, it took two days to get to my house. The birds usually handle it just fine. Now you have a colofull loft just like me. Enjoy them...
Jay
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Alan Bliven
44 posts
Dec 17, 2004
9:25 PM
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Yes, they are colorful. What I like is the colors are diverse.
I really appreciate the advise and recommendation!
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Alan
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Alan Bliven
45 posts
Dec 21, 2004
1:33 PM
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Would you consider Danny's birds his own family of "Horner Birds" now since he's been inbreeding this family since 1979? Or would you still call them Jaconette?
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Alan
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MCCORMICKLOFTS
353 posts
Dec 21, 2004
2:19 PM
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Horner bred um so they are Horners. If you breed them they are yours to call what you like. But Danny has no problem discribing the legacy of his birds. Probably 3/4 of the competitive families of rollers in the country are Jac of some sort.
Brian.
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J_Star
123 posts
Dec 21, 2004
7:07 PM
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They are known as Horner birds. If you trace the strain of his birds then Jaconette is the base. His Jaconettes came from Stanly Plona and Leroy Smith strain which both of them got their birds from Pansom. Read some of the old history about those old time breeders to get some undersatnding of Danny's birds. Pensom mentioned of Plona and Smith in his book.
Jay
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Mother lode lofts
331 posts
Dec 21, 2004
8:24 PM
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Jay may want to re-research that history again on Jacs. You guys have them feather merchants working dbl time LOL
Last Edited by Mother lode lofts on Dec 21, 2004 8:48 PM
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J_Star
125 posts
Dec 22, 2004
4:34 AM
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Scott, I don't know about the history of Jacs per say, but I am talking about Horner's birds history of crosses. Please elaborate further on the history and help us along. Thanks.
Jay
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Mother lode lofts
332 posts
Dec 22, 2004
7:19 AM
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Jay I'm guessing that he has all three lines crossed together as they are seperate lines. Jacs are generally loaded with frequency. I'm assuming that he crossed in the others trying to get some qaulity.
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MCCORMICKLOFTS
354 posts
Dec 22, 2004
9:36 PM
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Hey Scott. Based on conversations Danny and I have had, the mass majority of his birds are what you would call pure Jaconette. Probably more pure to the Jac pedigree than most I would imagine. Danny told me Richard had several "lines" he worked with and behind some of them, were Smith/Plona birds based on old RJ Pedigrees I have seen. The majority of the stock birds I have from Danny have RJ band series only a few generations back and certains lines Danny has carry the terms "Black Rain bred" or "Rusty bred" or even in one case "Houghton Bred". Danny had Smith and few other families before the Jacs and I couldn't say with 100 percent certainty if he ever did cross any of them to his birds, but due to the nature of them I suspect there could be some in there somewhere, but Danny has never mentioned it.
Brian.
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Mother lode lofts
333 posts
Dec 23, 2004
7:01 AM
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Brian the way I understand it he crossed (RJ) several lines and I have been told by who several times but as usual didn't pay close enough attention LOL. But I'm sure that you can find these lines behind the Jacs but through others hands,in fact Jerry lynn is back there also. In fact what ever booted birds he has popping up probably do so due to the Smiths. Actually I thought that Jays post said that the Jac line came through Smith/Plona but I misread it.
Last Edited by Mother lode lofts on Dec 23, 2004 7:07 AM
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Alan Bliven
218 posts
Aug 10, 2005
8:03 AM
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Here's the archive on the Horner birds.
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Alan
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