Clay Davenport
Cerebral Nomad
As I've stated before, I'm not one who is on the cutting edge of cornsnake culture, so I thought I would bring up this topic to some of you who are.
Concerning the use of the Okeetee label, what is acceptable to you? I see, especially lately, literally dozens of ads for "okeetee" corns. In my opinion this term has been bastardized to a most unfortunate degree and to a point where it ceases to hold any value.
I believe the term to designate a locality of corn, not just a look or specific phenotype. I realize one of the points likely to be raised would be what would define the boundary limits of the Okeetee region. The purpose of this thread though would not be to deifne what constitutes the locality itself, but what would be the acceptable use of the label in general.
We can say Okeetee refers to the hunt club, Jasper county, or whatever, but I see lately most every normal cornsnake for sale labeled Okeetee. To me this is just wrong. The vast majority of cornsnakes in collections have no form of reliable collection data whatsoever. When you're working with 20th generation snakes and working to create new morphs, it's just not a priority with cornsnake breeders. Just because a line of corns with exceptional traits has been selectively bred from parents originating from who knows where, I don't think they deserve the label Okeetee. Even if a specimen from the middle of the hunt club was bred to a Florida native, I wouldn't call the offspring Okeetee, because they no longer are.
Even though I have never been strongly into corns, I have always appreciated the true locality okeetees. Perhaps it's just the symbolic value of them, I don't know. But to me they are what is unique among all the many dozens of morphs, and the beauty of a top quality specimen, in my opinion surpasses all of the "man made" mutations by far.
I am fortunate enough to be adding 2 pairs of F2 corns to my collection that are verifiably traceable directly to the hunt club through both sets of parents and grandparents. It is my intention to maintain the purity of the line. Perhaps selectively breeding to accent the traits, but limiting any breeding to only specimens known to originate from the same area. I suppose this has caused this issue to resurface with me lately.
I am of the thinking that the term is used so loosely for no other reason than to increase the potential sales of the offspring.
How many verifiable 100% okeetee lines do you know of in captivity? Lines which have never been bred with any corns not originating from the area of Jasper County. Very few from what I can tell, but yet there are thousands of "okeetee" corns for sale annually.
So among you more serious corn breeders like Rich and Darin etc, what is your opinion of the broad use of the okeetee label?
Concerning the use of the Okeetee label, what is acceptable to you? I see, especially lately, literally dozens of ads for "okeetee" corns. In my opinion this term has been bastardized to a most unfortunate degree and to a point where it ceases to hold any value.
I believe the term to designate a locality of corn, not just a look or specific phenotype. I realize one of the points likely to be raised would be what would define the boundary limits of the Okeetee region. The purpose of this thread though would not be to deifne what constitutes the locality itself, but what would be the acceptable use of the label in general.
We can say Okeetee refers to the hunt club, Jasper county, or whatever, but I see lately most every normal cornsnake for sale labeled Okeetee. To me this is just wrong. The vast majority of cornsnakes in collections have no form of reliable collection data whatsoever. When you're working with 20th generation snakes and working to create new morphs, it's just not a priority with cornsnake breeders. Just because a line of corns with exceptional traits has been selectively bred from parents originating from who knows where, I don't think they deserve the label Okeetee. Even if a specimen from the middle of the hunt club was bred to a Florida native, I wouldn't call the offspring Okeetee, because they no longer are.
Even though I have never been strongly into corns, I have always appreciated the true locality okeetees. Perhaps it's just the symbolic value of them, I don't know. But to me they are what is unique among all the many dozens of morphs, and the beauty of a top quality specimen, in my opinion surpasses all of the "man made" mutations by far.
I am fortunate enough to be adding 2 pairs of F2 corns to my collection that are verifiably traceable directly to the hunt club through both sets of parents and grandparents. It is my intention to maintain the purity of the line. Perhaps selectively breeding to accent the traits, but limiting any breeding to only specimens known to originate from the same area. I suppose this has caused this issue to resurface with me lately.
I am of the thinking that the term is used so loosely for no other reason than to increase the potential sales of the offspring.
How many verifiable 100% okeetee lines do you know of in captivity? Lines which have never been bred with any corns not originating from the area of Jasper County. Very few from what I can tell, but yet there are thousands of "okeetee" corns for sale annually.
So among you more serious corn breeders like Rich and Darin etc, what is your opinion of the broad use of the okeetee label?
He isn't who I got my initial stock from, but he keeps better locality data than anyone I know on the collection spots. I'm not naive enough to assume that because the sellers live in Ridgeland, that I got locality animals. I've gotten to know the men themselves.
First, how many people would really turn tons of morphs and hets loose? I believe you, Rich; just how many could grow to adults and pass on their genes? Snakes lay all those eggs just to have two hatchlings survive to breeding age to maintain population. And the animals there are evolved to that climate, food, etc.