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COUNCIL HILL — Blue and golden feathered chickens calmly crouched behind thin wire cages waiting to be fitted with a suitable partner.

Their breeder strolled past each cage inspecting every aspect of their appearance.  

His overall goal to create the perfect golden duckwing bloodline inched closer.

Jake Stonebarger spends a majority of his time breeding blue-golden and golden duckwing Old English game bantams.  

“Some old men like to fix up cars — I hope to grow old breeding birds,” Stonebarger said.

Stonebarger started breeding chickens when he was 8 years old. He was given a few birds from some experienced chicken breeders and fell in love with the creative process.

“I love putting birds together and seeing if the match will be a success.”

He judges all his male and female bantams, decided which of their traits he would like to keep and which traits need to be eliminated.

Stonebarger finds a bird species that has the specific quality he wants his birds to have and cross-breeds them to weed out the bad traits.

 “Out of 100 birds, I may get 15 I want to keep,” Stonebarger said.

Last spring 210 baby bantams were born from the 30 bantams Stonebarger had. Only 60 were deemed worthy to keep for breeding, and the others were sold to other breeders around the country or given to people Stonebarger knows.

“Because Jake’s breeding techniques are so over the top, he can now put himself in the category of an elite breeder,” said Jay Parker, 4-H extension educator in youth development. “The birds are so specialized that breeders from Indiana and Illinois call Jake.”

Stonebarger especially enjoys giving his birds to kids interested in breeding.  

“I hope to spark an interest in bird breeding,” Stonebarger said.

It can take eight to nine years to obtain the perfect bloodline because it takes numerous records and constant attention to the bird’s details. With this in mind, Stonebarger concentrates on one bad trait each year he breeds.

This year, Stonebarger is focusing on the color of the bantams’ feathers. But once he gets the exact colors he wants, he will move on to fine-tuning his birds.  

This includes less noticeable characteristics like their face and leg color or the single white spot on their earlobes.

Stonebarger is amazed at how far his hard work has taken him.  

“I was flattered when guys I read about in my poultry books call me asking how I bred those birds or ‘Do you have any of those to sell?’” Stonebarger said.

Stonebarger will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall to major in poultry science.

He hopes to keep breeding the bantams as a hobby even after he gets a job in live production, feed nutrition or genetics.

Simmons Foods has offered Stonebarger an internship so that he can try each avenue of the poultry industry to decide what is right for him.