Top Winners All Ireland All Border Show Part 2 Lovely Borders

Lovely lines!

Best In Show - Best Champion Flighted Beautiful Green Buff Hen exhibited by David  Sommerville.
After the prizes were awarded I approached him to congratulate him on his Best and 10th Best Border awards. He immediately gave me his 10th Best Border Lead Crystal Award to take home with me as a remembrance of the show! Unbelievable as I had never spoke directly to him before!

2nd Best Border - Lovely Lightly Variegated Yellow Cock exhibited by John Furley

3rd Best Border - Best Champion Unflighted Lovely Clear Yellow Hen exhibited by Colm Southern

Unusually Cold Weather - Birdie Its Cold Outside

Columbus Fancy getting ready to be the first in his cage to hog the soft white bread.

Normally, the temperature here is a high of 57 F (14 C) and a low of 35 F (2 C). I have two skylights and windows on the South and West and a concrete floor in the aviary that is separate from the house but shares its east side wall with the back wall of the double car garage and an addition six feet with the kitchen wall.  So normally it gets chilly but not really cold in the unheated aviary till January. I have a heat pump/air conditioner that I can turn on to warm it up but I prefer to hold off warming it up and use raising temperatures as another breeding signal when conditioning for breeding season.

Oops, an Arctic blast of cold air is prematurely covering our area and a good portion of the US. Our high today is predicted to be about the normal low and the low 22 F (-6 C). And to top it off snow is predicted and then by Monday the upper temperature is predicted at 29 F (-2 C) and the low 9 F (-13 C)! If it were January, I would use a little heat at night but its only November, so I would rather not.

The problem for the birds is that they need more calories to keep warm and if they do not get them, they will lose weight and weaker ones might get sick. So I have just finished giving all cages supplemental soft white bread, and around noon I will offer uncooked porridge oatmeal, and then around 4 pm some dry nestling food. While I am gloomy about the cold weather, they are happy as can be!

Soft white bread is also a great food to offer in the show cages to tame them prior to a show (place it high for upright position birds or low for German Rollers who sing best when they are parallel to the perch) and fed also to avoid weight loss, a common complication of showing them. I even pop it in their show cage for the ride home!

All Ireland All Border Show In Memory of Tom Furley Part 1

When the idea came to me this fall that this was the year to attend a Border show in Ireland, I was very sure that the time was right and when contacted to judge shows, I confidently gave my regrets as I was for the very first time going to Ireland to a Border show. After calling Paul Dee, he mailed me Border show schedule and recommended the Irish Border Fancy Canary Club All Ireland All Border Show. Then I posted a request on the blog for a show before and after All Ireland All Border Show and selected the Swords show the weekend before. because of its large entry of Irish Fancy which I wanted to learn more about judging as they are beginning to be entered regularly at US shows. I called Robert Bennett and he immediately suggested that we stay with them as long as we wanted while in Ireland! I arrived in Ireland on Friday  and the next morning, John Furley kindly picked me up to go to the Sword show. On the way he told me the All Ireland All Border the following weekend was in memory of his father Tom Furley! I could hardly believe my ears, Tom Furley was an e-mail friend for many years from at least twenty years ago! How honored I was to come to his memorial show!

When judging began, the stewards place a class on each of the three judging table according to a schedule in which each class was rotated among the three judges. Class 1 Clear or ticked yellow cock was assigned to J. McKay, Class 2 Clear or ticked yellow hen was assigned to I. Southgate and Class 3 clear or ticked buff cock was assigned to M. Symonds.

Once the class entries are on the judging table, the judge walked around and began sorting them.

As the class judging progressed the judge compares the birds to determine the placement of the top seven in each class.

At the same time, McKay pictured is sorting his class. And across the gym, Symonds is working his class.

At times, the judges would confer about the class placement. Here Southgate and McKay confer.

Finally all the class winners are reviewed by the three judges to determine all the show winners.

Share A Photo - Colm Southern Borders

Two of Colm Southern's hens that are just now finishing to show. Wow how lovely!

Colm Won 3rd Best Border and Best Champion Unflighted with this clear yellow hen at the All Ireland All Border Show

Colm judging Borders at the Antwerp Show in Belgium.

Update 11/22/14:

Now that the top Border in this post has finished molting, 

she won Best Border at Wexford BFCC!

Robert Bennett's Border Shed Part 2

Robert critiques his birds and stressed the need to let the birds settle a bit before passing judgment on them.

Notice how he ties string on the top bar and lets it hang down. Each day he brushes it lightly with honey to encourage the birds to stand correctly.

He fills the drinker initially with seed to encourage the birds to stick their head through the hole.

Share A Photo - Dr. Jim Sillers Irish Fancy Winner Greater Chicago Show

Congratulation Dr. Jim on your Irish Fancy Best Of Bred Award at the November 1st 2014 Greater Chicago Bird Club Show. Judge Debbie Eaton.

Looking forward to seeing your Irish Fancy and discussing the bred at the National Cage Bird Show in Dayton Ohio a week from Friday!

Robert Bennett's Border Shed Part 1

Robert has some great Borders! Very Lovely!

Robert grows teasel for his canaries. To feed he just cuts the pod open to make it easy for them to eat.