October 2009

Tuesday 13 October

My first show of the season is now less than two weeks away, Shropshire and Salop was held over the weekend and I was pleased to see the RobRoy partnership take the top award with a lightly variegated yellow cock. They have a strong clear and light team as well as some tidy darks and I was pleased to bring to some of their birds into my clear lines earlier this year with some promising early results.

I've earmarked 10 birds for the North West show, although i've not completed my entry form yet, I'll leave that until the last minute as some of the team still have pins in their heads. I should get 3 white ground birds out this time, with a very tidy variegate coming through - although unlikely to be ready until the North of England.

It was my first judging engagement of the season on Saturday, I judged the Fife section at Ulverston CBS up in Cumbria. There was some nice Fifes on show with close to 100 birds benched. I gave the top award to a self green buff cock, who also took best champion, he was a quality bird and just beat a variegated yellow cock, the yellow bird was very tidy, but went to pieces at the last minute, third best was a variegated buff hen. I was encouraged to see a strong entry in the novice section with a variegated cinnamon yellow hen just pipping a cinnamon variegated buff hen for the top award, a variegated blue was third - this bird went on to take best white ground canary. All in all an enjoyable day out

Tuesday 20 October

My first show, and my local specialist club is this Sunday, closing date for entries was today. It's been a challenge to pull together a team of any numbers, the birds seem to be a taking an age to finish off on their heads. As a result I have a team of 8 in, with only one bird from my dark line, the heavily variegateds won't get a run out now until North Wales Fife in early November. I have a team of 4 variegateds, 3 white ground and a self and hope to do well in some good sized champion classes.

I expect there to be in excess of 700 birds on show, and encouragingly this year there is a strong novice entry with over half a dozen first timers. The club puts on a very good show, with the prize structure and specials up there with any of the country's leading shows. It's great to see a strong novice entry, last year was down on numbers in the novice section and that is always a concern that not many newcomers are coming through the ranks. Trying to do my bit for the fancy I visited, at the request of my older sister who is a primary school teacher, a local infant school, taking with me 4 2009 bred youngsters. The children gasped with delight as I took each bird from the traveling box in their training cages - hopefully there's a couple of future birdkeepers amongst them!

Friday 23 October

All of the showcages are prepared for sundays show, and the birds look well, although one or two still have a couple of pin feathers in their heads. I'll take them on the morning of the show rather than the night before for this, their first run out of the season. With the clocks going back on sunday, i'll enjoy the extra hour before going to the show, if needed i'll steward on the day, before running the auction for club funds.

I'll be updating the show report on sunday evening and hope to include a number of photos of the winning birds.

Monday 26 October

The day after my first show of the season, and my first champion colour special of the season, my white team of three birds, all bred the same way, each won their respective classes, not massive numbers in each class but you can only beat whats out!, the variegated white cock went on to take best champion Allied to white, with the variegated white hen taking 4th best allied to white. I'd won every other colour special as a novice on at least one occassion apart from the Allied to white colour special so to win it in my third year as a champion (although the bird flu scare meant I was only able to show at 1 specialist show in my first champion year) was really pleasing.

There was a really strong entry in the main champion classes, and on it's first run out I was pleased my variegated yellow cock came 7th in a class of 23, his brother, in the same class, was unplaced - but given that the best in Show from Shropshire and Salop Fife specialist show was only placed 3rd in the class, i was quite pleased with the result. My variegated buff cock and hen were both unplaced on their first run out of the season in large classes of 23 and 26. Gerald Spencer won the variegated buff cock class with a quality bird that was up for the main award before being placed 4th best champion.

My Self green buff hen was unplaced in a class of 22, a class which was won by my good friends and former work colleague,Gordon and Chris Vaughan who enjoyed a good show and took the award for second best green with the hen. Theres a full show report and pictures on the site. North Wales is the next show for me, with entries due in on Saturday, i'll hopefully be running out a couple of clear birds and some birds from my dark lines but won't make a decision unti later this week.