Swords - Awesome Mules, Hybrids and Native Birds

Best Hybrid Exhibited by M. Slowey

Best Mule Exhibited by G. Scott

Best Native Exhibited by O. Welsh

While viewing the judging of these birds, I learned about a forum on the internet called native birds mules and hybrids.

Swords - More Fantastic Type Winners

Best Stafford exhibited by John Graydon
 

Best Gloster exhibited by E. Laughran

Best Opposite Head Gloster exhibited by F & L Kelly

Best Yorkshire exhibited by M. Brennan

Best Norwich exhibited by A. Dempsey

2nd Best Norwich exhibited by A. Dempsey

Best Lizard exhibited by J. Rolston

Best Lizard Unflighted exhibited by J. Rolston

Best A.O.V. Northern Dutch Frill exhibited by P Larkin

Lovely Border Winners At Swords Show

Best Border Clear Champion Yellow exhibited by John Furley. He also won Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Best Border.

 

Second Best Border Best Varg. Champion Yellow exhibited by C Guildea

Best Cinnamon exhibited by John Furley. The Borders were really lovely and the competition was really stiff!  This beautiful Cinnamon did not make the top seven Borders.

Classes are divided for Champion Breeders and Novice Breeders. Novice Winner was J & L Walsh with Best Var. Novice which was Sixth Best Border. Class for Junior (16 or less years old) is also provided but no entry.  Birds are judged on a table with no extra light shinning on them.  All birds are displayed by class on tiered show benches so that every bird is clearly visible. 

 

Novice Winner

Swords & District Cage Bird Society 29th Annual Show Dublin Colorbred

Nearly 1800 beautiful birds were exhibited at the Swords Show!! Judging began at 9 am with 12 judges, two of which were needed for the Irish Fancy. It is all computerized and a print out of winners was available for visitors at 3 pm, Show hall was large with good lighting and natural light. Judging was done on shoulder high tables not like our show benches. Even large classes were placed all around the table top. No vita lights. Colorbred are judged by comparison and not pointed.

Here are some of the colorbred winners:

 Best Lipochrome and Best Champion Lipochrome exhibited by N Keyes

Best Non-Intensive exhibited by N. Keyes

Ticked and Variegated compete for awards.

Best Melanin in Show and Best Novice Melanin exhibited by N. Hillard

The red coloring is excellent!! I ask John Graydon and was told that they use carophyll red in the water and food. In the water, 1/2 tsp per liter and one small dipper to three cups soft food. They also recommended Children multivitamins, two drops/pint.

The cat's away. ....

Hello peeps!  :)

So, the "cat's" away, or at least that is what mom called it when I was young. "The cat is away so the mice will play!"  My 6 kids have heard it so often from me that I am quite sure my future grandkids will know it well.  :)

Yes,  the cat is away, and I am spending my days filing mom's shoes with her beloved birdies.  I have to admit I enjoy them very much, I always have.   If I didn't have 3 cats in my home I would definately have at least two canaries! I do have 13 chickens,    (shhhhhh!) We are only allowed 12 but when I purchased 3 chicks last spring my oldest Hen,  Buffy, was looking like her last day was coming.  I can't have 11, lol, must have the limit, right?  ;)

So the little party this morning is with my sister, Kellie, who made delicious Cranberry Pistachio Muffins!  They were a perfect treat on this crisp Fall morning.

 

The light is now on, back to the birdroom!  :) Sandy

Puting On A Runway Attitude

Just a few days ago, I counted 26 Monarch butterflies in my garden and today they have all gone on to Mexico.  This is a sure sign and the calendar agrees, show season is finally here! So I took a few shot of any other ones I could find and contemplated what final steps I have taken the last few days to make my birds dress like a model and have that "walking down the runway" attitude.

Earlier, I shared that the seed diet has been increasingly changed to canary seed.  This is very important especially if a bird or breed has a tendency toward hanging droppings. When that happens the diet has too much oil and fatty seeds such as especially flax (linseed) but also depending on the breed such as glosters and borders even thistle (niger), rape and maw too.

So having done that, I now find an extra attitude bloom by feeding some sprouted seed along with the canary seed. My sprouted mix is ABBA soak seed which has several usual seeds such as safflower, millet, wheat, buckwheat, canary, thistle, and rape but also contains mung beans and lettuce seed. The sprouted seed mix does not cause the hanging dropping problem even though it contains some oily seeds. And it has given them a "look at me show stopping attitude"!

Getting Ready For My Two Week Trip To Ireland

My mind should be filled with thoughts about what to pack but instead I am thinking about what I can do to assure the birds will be well taken care of while I enjoy the beautiful Birds and scenic Ireland!

I have left my birds a few times over the years for a week each when I took two trips to Germany for the Meisterschaft German Roller shows and a couple of times for two weeks each when I did visiting professorships in Granada at St. George University.

The thing I found that worked best for me is a two person system with different responsibilities given to each but both responsible for checking on feed and water and health issues such as looking for hanging droppings and removing any found.

Person number one, Sarah,  has been helping in the aviary three or four times a week for about 1 1/2 years. Each time she comes she feeds and waters and cleans cages and sweeps the aviary (it is my responsible on her off days). Each time she comes she is quizzed on how the birds look and if there are any problems she is shown and responsible with me for treatment. I have made a point to discuss treatment options and shared the results etc. She has never had birds and no experience with canaries before I hired her. She does a very good job but occasionally a water is misplaced so it is inconvenient for the birds or a cage missed with feed but with seventy cages which on a couple of days a week she does fast in less than one hour, she could make a costly mistake.  Unusual but I always check.

Person number two, Sandy, is my oldest daughter. She has taken care of the birds in the past and she did raise canaries for about a year but gave them up for chickens. She will come daily and do my usual job. Her son and my grandson seems to have gotten into chickens. When John was four he had been to my house when the adults were visiting about the importance of learning a foreign language, as I drove him home he said "Granny, I can speak a foreign language"! So I inquired  "what language do you speak"? He said "I speak chicken" and proceeded to imitate their sound! I nearly had to stop the car, cause I was laughing so hard.

John (age 8, plays banjo) says, "I am a chicken who plucks, not clucks!" 

 Instead of my usual two spray millet swings, I have added multiple sprays!

 

Some cages have multiple millet sprays pulled through the side wire. 

Click on each photo: notice especially the fantastic tight feathered bottom German roller.