Carl Hardesty Family of Rollers
There are 8 pigeons that are responsible for the background of my family. Let me break them out and give you a run down. At the time I started to build I had a present family of pigeon known as the Les Woods family out of Kansas. The birds we had in this area were from this family and while there were some (few) good ones there were not many. And that is not a knock against the Woods birds, more our handling and breeding at that time. I had two really nice spinning pigeons out of the Woods/Smith birds that I had raised and put into stock, the 4611 (81) “4611” cock and his daughter the 7784 (82) “Little Dime” hen.
I had heard of some really hot spinning pigeons in the Carolinas and went down to see Gilly Simmons and had a visit with the fanciers there and judge a fly. It was on that fly that I purchased the 651 (82)” Shooting Star” hen (which was out of the old Almond line & and an unbanded hen) raised and owned by Tony Roberts, she was nothing short of a champion in the air from 20 to 60 feet and the breed loft. I later purchased two cocks from Tony the black grizzle T221(83) “Mr. T” (which was the old Paul Vaughn line) & the 615 (82) cock (which was almost pure the old Almond line) “615”. I also purchased the 337 (82) hen (which was the old Almond line) “Falling Star” that was flown and raised by Frankie Reese of the Carolinas. The last two pigeons were the 1547 (79)”Mesimore Cock” of the Bill Hart line of pigeons that I borrowed from Joe Haley of our local club and the 746 (84) “746” hen a Jerry Boehman’s champion out of the Bales line.
The birds out of the Carolinas had super velocity and depth but were a little short on control and some were a little big. The 4611 & 7784 were very small pigeons and were exceptional and exceptions from the Woods line. The 1547 was a great short spinning pigeon with too much flying time but was a great asset in controlling the Carolina pigeons. Jerry Boehman’s 746 hen produced the 7437 (85) cock which while he was a great spinner in the air but not a champion mated with the H35 (87) hen produced my best breeding stock and several champions in the air. By far the best pair I have ever had and their young produced many exceptional pigeons in many lofts that fly my family. It was more or less a molding process from there on out and is an ongoing process.
So there you have it the 8 pigeons that are behind my family. Tony Roberts played a big part in the success of my family and I consider him an outstanding fancier of the true Birmingham Roller. Tony Roberts was a master breeder and flyer of the Birmingham roller until he started messing with color, it totally screwed his birds. James Turner in my mind is the king of color breeding with performance, flew great pigeons with all sorts of color. Tony tried the same path and the results were nothing like James’, before that he IMO flew the best performance roller in the south.
Many birds were brought in from the Carolinas to be flown and bred from, these are the ones that made it in my loft. Jerry Boehman and Larry Hubbard tried them and later moved on to other lines and built their own families and fly great pigeons. But without the Carolina birds in the back ground, I would not have what I have today if it were not for the exceptional quality pigeons that Tony Roberts flew at that time. I owe him a great deal of thanks as well as anyone who helped me along the way with use of good pigeons.
Carl Hardesty