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Show 6A lakeside 1 Review, Wednesday, Sept. 23, 1981 Rare Exotic Birds, Prize Mules Are Hobby Entering the narrow By MAGGI HOLMES Review Staff - When your hobKAYSVILLE by gets to be work, I say, get rid of the hobby, said Noell Hyde of 524 N. Main in Kaysville. Hyde has scaled down his hobby but he hasnt gotten rid of it. Hyde g raises exotic birds and mules. "I dont have one bird, where I used to have hundreds, he said. He said his hobbies have gotten to be more work because his three children have grown up and moved away, leaving him to work alone, and he doesnt get around as much a; he used to. Besides, he says, Im getting kind of tired of it. With several hundred birds in wire cages that stretch into his plot, Hyde still keeps pretty busy. He does not allow many visitors into the cluttered yard anymore because he has been having a problem with birdnappers taking the expensive fowl. So he just shows two or three hundred school children around the place each year, he said. prize-winnin- 30-ac- re one-wa- y driveway is like entering a space warp. The busy noise of Kaysvilles dusty main street drops quickly out of earshot. Massive trees and shrubbery cut the small home off from the rest of the world. The sounds of traffic and business are traded for soft bird calls. The birds, pea fowl, silver pheasant, Lady Am Hearst, Bandi, and others flutter softly as Hyde approaches; none but the very youngest are afraid. And there are very young. Day-ol- d Guineas scrambled after a hen in the fresh undergrowth surrounding the cages. They won't wander too far, he said, and they stay tame even if left uncaged. Hydes favorite birds are the Empions or the jungle fowl, he said. Because they are the hardest to raise. Hydes last pair of Empions died recently. He has mounted them and keeps them in his house. Jungle fowl are from Pakistan and are an endangered species, he said. The feathers of these birds are used to tie fishing flies. Of course' other bird feathers are used, too, he said. The jungle fowl Hyde now has he could sell for $100 to $150, he said, but hes not selling. He keeps them just as a hobby. Sometimes he sells them as breeders, he said. He does enter them in contests. Some of his Lady Am Hearst have taken best of show at a state pheasant show recently. He said he has hundreds of trophies won by both the birds and his mules over the years. One of the birds that has created interest at the Davis County Fair in August were the chickants. These five chicks were parented by a Bandi hen, which is a chicken, and a Ringneck Rooster, which is a pheasant. These truly unique hybrids cannot reproduce, Hyde said. Hyde is an experienced bird man but he said he cannot even tell the sex of the animals. All five look the same, he said. Hyde said he did not have much to do with the strange situation. He had placed the Bandi hen on pheasant eggs to hatch them. The Bandi And Work quit setting one day and managed to escape into the pheasant cage. Hyde said he just left her there. She bred and had the bunch of young chicks. The pea fowl that Hyde keeps in his backyard are of several types and some of them are pretty colorful. They are mostly mutations of the Indian blue pea fowl line. They are White, Blue, Indian Blue and Black Shoulder. Other strange fowl that Hyde keeps are turkens, which are chickens that look like they have turkey heads; Cornish hens, which make good eating, and wild Canadian geese that are not very wild. Just behind the bird cages are the corrals which hold Hydes prize winning mules, horses and ; & donkeys. Hey, Babe, come on here, come on down here, here Babe, come on, come on, called Hyde in an almost musical pattern. Several mares with their young mule colts trotted across a grassy field to respond to his call. They pressed their soft noses against him as he guided them to show their best profiles. Mules are hybrids of donkeys and horses and cannot reproduce. Hyde said that these animals were more important to him than his birds. He has entered these mules in Ponies of America contests and has won several prizes. i j t i ,i i i i Some of the horses and donkeys he uses for breeding are registered in a world-wid- e organization for breeding animals. One of the horses Hyde is most proud of is the grandson of Majeste ic Prince. Majestic Prince is a winner of the triple crown at the Kentucky Derby. This animal is also registered with the Ponies of America Association, which means among other things, that it cant be over 5 feet 4 inches high. Hydes pride in his horses is only surpassed by his pride in his chil- dren. Hydes wife died when the children were still very young. He has reared them alone. two-tim- NOALL HYDE calms a captured Bandi Cornish hen that he took from the pens behind himThe bird is for its cooking flavor. -- well-kno- . He said that his plot of land with its animal population has been worth more than $3 million to him because it was a good place to raise children and it helped to teach them how to work. Besides his unusual bird and equine population, Hyde cares for rabbits and bees. He sells his rabbits, as advertised on a battered sign near the street, either live or dressed. He collects the honey and wax from the bees to sell also. Across a narrow pathway, just north of the beehives, is a fenced corral of five-fo- ot weeds. Wide pathways through the bristly undergrowth have been worn by the horses that run there. ' Tucked in the shadowy greenery untouched by hoofprints, almost invisible, dozens of pieces of old machinery lie unused. Most of the pieces are from the days before the horseless carriage. Rusting iron and rotting wood color the Hyde farm with nostalgia. A planter, a springtooth, plows, as well as car- riages, are resting there. - Hyde plans to keep the farm just the way it is. Perhaps a little more scaled down, he said. None of his children is interested in continuing the place after Hy- des death but Hyde looks forward to the pleasure his visiting grandchildren get from the place and hopes that one of them will be interested enough to continue when he no longer can. t - NOALL HYDE stands behind his mare and her halfbreed colt. The colt is called a leopard Photos by mule . Dan Miller A MARE STANDS in defense of its young colt. The mare is a horse but the colt is a mule. A mule is the result of the crossbreeding of a horse and a donkey. THESE EXOTIC white peacocks are mutations of the Indian blue peacock. i. ! t . .it' litiiiili.L Jv ? t'- - |