September 2011

7 September

It's been a while since my last diary entry, all of the final round of young fledged and are now into the moult. A number of the early bred birds have just a few head feathers to finish off and are taking to take a nice shape. I've had an unscheduled move in the last week so the birds are in their new home, slightly concerned that this will have an impact on the moult but as there's nothing i can do to influence that there's little point in worrying.

I've found it very very challenging this year to make the initial selection of the show team. I do this selection as i like to house these birds individually where possible, my initial selection has identifed 38 birds that i believe will be competitive in the champion classes, whilst i don't believe they're all potential show winners they should hold their own in the classes.

I'm pleased that, on first assessment at least, it looks like i'll be able to compete across the classes, of course much can still happen over the next 6 weeks or so before my first show and i must really step up the show training now if the team are to be ready.