November 2010

Wednesday 10 November

What a weekend!, I had the pleasure in Judging in Bologna in Italy at the weekend with almost 400 Fifes on show, thoroughly enjoyable experience and great to meet a number of fanciers from the country and beyond. I picked a tidy little blue hen as best in show - photos can be seen here http://fifecanary.wordpress.com/ (very difficult to photo a Fife and the best in show bird looks a little flat backed in the photo but was well rounded in real life!)

Switching back into exhibition mode the biggest weekend in the Fife show calendar is this weekend and the North of England Fife Show. I've been putting the finishing touches to the team with a light spray today, I've entered a total of 24 birds although may not yet take them all, will see how they look on Saturday. It looks like another good entry based on some of my cage label numbers so any positions in the top 7 will be a good result.

Monday 15 November

The day after the biggest Fife show in the UK with almost 1,500 birds entered, I took 22 birds and although the clear and 10% teams performance was slightly disapointing the variegated, dark and white ground team more than made amends. In total 9 of my birds were in the first seven including 3 2nds in the Variegated Buff hen, Heavily Variegated Buff Hen and Heavily Variegated yellow cock classes, all of which had over 40 birds in each class. Perhaps as pleasing was the performance of a number of the first timers with my self green yellow cock 6th in a class of 41, my variegated buff cock 5th in a class of 34 and my variegated white cock 3 in a class of 17 all on their first time out.

I've had the baths on the birds at 6.30 this morning and all of the show team have enjoyed a dip. It's North Wales show this weekend and for the first time since the show started I won't be attending, instead i'll give the team an extra week off before showing at the Midland Fife show a week on Sunday where as things stand i have a team of 18 in mind, i may get one more specialist show in before the end of the season before putting the show cages away for another year and starting on the preparation for next years breeding season.

Wednesday 24 November

The final preparations to the show team for the weekend were made this morning, I have a team of 16 entered for the Midland Fife Fancy Canary Club Show. I understand that in excess of 1,370 birds have been entered including alomost 1,000 champion birds, thats just 100 short of the North of England, which in 3 years since the show launched is an amazing achievement by the committee.

I suspect over the next few years the entry will continue to increase and eventually surpass the North of England, to have two huge shows in the country is a fantastic achievement for the hobby when so many other varieties are struggling. It was North Wales show at the weekend and for the first time since its inception i didn't show, the show was won by Gerald Spencer who followed up his best champion and 4 colour specials at North of England with Best Champion, Best in Show and a hat-trick of colour specials at the show, at least two of the colour specials and the best in show award were won by different birds from the previous week, proving once again the depth and quality of his stud.

Tuesday 30 November

It looks like it will be my last show of the season this weekend and a first to me - I'm combining a trip to see family down in Devon with taking a team of 14 to the Cornwall and Devon Fife Fancy Canary club show. I had a mixed day at the Midland on Sunday with only 2 of the 14 benched in the cards, a variegatd white cock that won its class and a heavily variegated yellow cock that was 3 in a class of over 40. As expected there were some very big classes i have to admit to being a little disapointed that my buff hens didn't card, having done so well at the North of England - i guess those are the breaks.

I was delighted to see John Evans do so well in his third show, winning two classes from his team of 5, taking his class wins to 3 from 3 specialist shows in his first season, I'm sure he'll be one to watch in the coming years. I've made one or two alterations to the birdroom over the last couple of days in preparation for overwintering the birds, including for the very first time in my 10 years in the hobby of a oil filled radiator. Although its not on any significant temperature its taken the chill off the birdroom, I'm not sure how its benefitting the birds but its a great help for me when i'm in there at 6.30 each morning!!.

Next week all of the remaining sale birds (with the exception of one trio) will have left the shed and i'll move the teams to their flight cages and start the gradual build up to the show season with the introduction of soluable conditioners and egg food. I have resisted the temptation to bring in numerous birds instead I've purchased a pair of cinnamons from Gary Wilson to start the foundation of a cinnamon line, a clear yellow hen to add some fresh blood to the clears and i hope to pick up a dark buff cock from Gerald, so 4 birds out of 32 that i plan to retain.