The Roller Judge Corner

Table Of Contents:

• Becoming A Roller Judge
• How I Judge A Team Of Birds
• Matching Birds Up In A Team
• Scoring And Its Effect

Now to become a judge you have to set and score birds with three judges to their satisfaction and obtain a letter that you have set with the judge and have scored birds with him to his satisfaction. That you know the roller song and can transcribe the song you heard to numbers on the score sheet.

All three letters are sent to the secretary of the Central States Association where upon receiving them he forwards them on to the judges panel who read the letters and discuss the abilities of the candidate then forward the letters along with their recommendation back to the secretary who then forwards the lot to the president of the association for the final action. He then either approves the candidates appointment or turns it down.

To learn the judging of Rollers a person should select a coach who will coach them in the learning and scoring of the song. This is the hard part for most of the coaches have died. You may not like what the coach tells you but in the long haul he will prove out to be correct. These coaches are task masters and journeymen of the fancy. So learn from them well for you may some day become a coach. You do not learn judging overnight.

Then I will score the team in my head and make notations on my scratch sheet of tours I didn't hear. Once I have the tone of each bird I start to put the scores in my head down on paper. Now if one of the birds sings something I haven't scored mentally, although I wasn't looking at him, I can tell which bird sang by his tone. I will finish scoring the birds on paper and once that is done wait until the birds sing something better or different to make me change the score for the better.

It is hard for a judge to score a medium tone bird the same as the deep tone birds but you must. The clarity of the medium toned bird is usually better than the clarity of the deep toned birds. All judges have a sound in their head that they compare the birds in front of him with. What you consider to be the perfect tours. Sometime you have to relent to a very good bird setting in front of you who performs well and looks you in the eye and tells you I am good now you score me. You will run into just such birds and they are few and far between but when he starts to sing you know it and he will work you over trying to get a better score. He will take the same tour and present it a different way to try and get you to raise his score. Yes there are birds like this and I call them Prima birds and any breeder who lets one get out of his hands misses the boat.

Now you are going to say I don't know the tours. That is a lame excuse. For many years the Novice breeders won the shows. Up until the last ten years the Novice breeders had won more grand champion trophies than the master breeders so you don't have to know the tours to win the big one.

I am going to only use one tour and I think everyone knows it or can learn it very quick. The tour is the flute. Now this tour sounds like a dove cooing or the wife says when the birds get to really pushing it sounds like a crow calling. I like to think of it as a dove cooing. Now once you recognize this tour you can put a team together.

This tour will tell you the depth and the tone of the bird. Now listen to your birds, start moving your birds around on the shelves until you have all the birds arranged as to their sound. After you have the birds arranged as to the sound of the flute, start to listen to them singing and try to separate the deep toned birds and put them together.

Now you have the deep birds together and the medium toned birds together start trying to pick 4 out that sound a like. Always remember it is easy to find three birds that sound alike. The trick is to find the fourth bird.

Choose four birds and take them into another room and stack them as you would a show team. Don't expect them to start to sing right away for they aren't if they do you may have lucked out and have your show team. The first day just set them out and then every once in a while just stand outside the room where they can't see you and listen. You don't have to see them nor them you for if they see you they may quit singing.

Do they all sound alike? If you hear one bird that sounds a little high try to pick him out and go get another bird. Then go through the same procedure. Once you have four birds that sound alike and to your ear have a real nice mellow sound you have your show team.

Let the judge tell you what tours you have. Now if you have one bird that sounds a lot better than the other three take him out and try to find another bird that matches the sounds of the other three. Take the bird that sounds much better than the other three and put him on a shelf and listen to him for now you understand why you will hear a breeder say at a show my best bird is sitting at home on the shelf for I didn't have three birds to go with him.

So when you go to a show it can be judged by several systems. It is great to win and everyone wants to win but what are we doing to the fancy. Lets look at what is happening. Also remember the 3-6-9 system for that is the foundation of it all. Some score 18 in Hollow roll or Bass. Now break that score down to 3-6-9. Divide by 3. So we say a bird who scored 6 points is a poor bird if he scored up to 12 points he is a fair bird now if he scored up to 17 points he is a good bird if he scored 18 points he is an excellent bird.

For a breeder today to receive an 8 or 9 would run that breeder out of the fancy so the judges set a low standard lets say 12 points. Now that means a 12 is a poor bird and a 14 or 15 is a fair bird that leaves 16 and 17 for good birds. Not much point spread from poor to good is there. So to keep harmony in the fancy the judge really scores more fair birds than he does good birds and the scores make breeders think they all have great birds when in reality they have poor birds yet the judge can't say that for he wants to keep harmony in the club and fancy.

When a judge doesn't score faults he is cheating the breeders for the breeder is depending on him to pick his breeding birds. Yet the judge knows if he scores faults he can kill a club so he writes notes on the score sheet and puts down dots where there should be numbers. Everyone like big numbers on their score sheet so they breed for as many tours as they can get.

What did the Germans tell us every tour added detracts from another tour. So the breeder has to make up his mind does he want to win if so he breeds for tours. Now a breeder who shows and is consistently in the top 10 percent of his group in the country but doesn't always win the big trophy but those small ones. The tour specials the Hollow roll , Bass, Hollow Bell and Flute trophies, here is the breeder. Not the show winner but the top of his hobby, here are the birds. So when you see a show winner ask yourself how many times does he win, what did he win where are the top birds. Yes the top birds the ones that are consistent. By golly here they are the team with just 4 or 5 tours they are consistently up there. If you breed for tours forsaking the mother tour it is hard to be consistent.