March 2013

10 March

First matings of the season have taken place over the weekend and a number of the hens are now singled off in their breeding cages. The birds seem more forward this year, although with a cold snap forecast this week I'm keen not to rush them.

I'm yet to put any nest pans in just yet, they'll follow over the next few days to those hens that have been mated. It's nice to see the birds singled off again, although many are pulling out of shape as they're fighting fit, the still look better than when they're flying in 7 ft flight cages!

I've 28 Fife hens this year and 19 fife cocks, more than I've ever had. I've also acquired a couple of stunning pairs of exhibition Norwich from a friend I've made over in Ireland, Richard Wilson, he's done incredibly well with his Norwich in recent years, and competed with his Fifes too, and as they're a bird I've always admired I thought I'd try my hand with them this year.

I plan to run with 9 straight pairs this year, the rest I'll run as trios. I'm excited about my light birds this year, I bred some nice clears and variegated last year and will pair a variegated buff cock who won his class at the Midland and North West (where he won the champion colour special) and was third at North of England with a variegated yellow hen who won her class and best variegated at the North of England and the Midland show. I have a couple of really nice clear yellow cocks to run over some lovely clear buff hens ( one of which was second in its class at both the North of England and Midland shows) so I'm looking forward to seeing what they produce this year, the line has been a few years in the making and is really coming good now.

The dark line should again produce some quality birds, but this year it's the blues and cinnamons I'm really looking forward too. Very interested to see what the cinnamon carrying blue .cock, and father to Gerald's outstanding cinnamon hen, breeds for me and what his grandson who I also acquired last year produces. All in all looking forward to the season.

31 March

The first 4 nests of the season are set with a further 8 hens laying and half a dozen or so building up. The weather isn't really helping that much with some hard frosts overnight, still i'm hoping that with 8 or 9 days until the first nests are due that the weather will pick up a little bit. I've loaded up a couple of picture of some of my special winners from last year, a foul buff cock on the left and my variegated yellow hen on the right. The buff cock has put two hens down so far and the variegated yellow has just started to build up

I'm hoping for another good and quick season this year i hope to have young hatch in April May and June again this year, i'm running more pairs this year as i'm really busy in work at the moment so don't have a great deal of time to be running that many trios. I'm hoping the green line, with blues in it again this year, will once again produce quality for me, the dark team did very well on the bench with a number of class wins and a couple of colour specials. I'm also really looking forward to what the clears do this year, my variegateds won the champion colour special at every show i exhibited last year, they'll form the backbone of the clear and variegated line this year. I've run a couple of pairs of straight clears (the buff hens are bred the same way as the variegated above) keen to see what they produce for me.

Really pleased with the new shed - great to have some space and a dedicated place just for the birds, here's hoping the season will reflect the hard work that went in to getting everything ready!! Some more photos of the new set up with the birds in situ