Proud owners, top animals and striking breed products Part 1 Merelbeke (Belgium) by Dirk de Jong Provincial Champions: Turkey: Geert Roosens with Ronquières turkey Waterfowl: Gabriël Heekhout with Wood Duck Large Fowl: André Van Damme with Brakel Bantams: Marc Van Paemel with Brahma bantam Pigeons: Henk Baert with Belgian Tumbler Rabbits: Bert Janssens with a Beveren rabbit Guinea pigs: Jens Van Den Heuvel with Crested Cavy Winner Egg Contest: André Van Damme, with a collection of Araucana eggs. Right: Brahma bantam, white bluecolumbia van Marc van Paemel, awarded 97 points. Provincial Champion Bantams. MERELBEKE 2010 The Provincial Small livestock exhibition of East Flanders is an annual festival, held in the fourth weekend of October in Merelbeke. So in 2010 it was a feast of recognition and the old friendly encounter. It is simply a given that there are always the same people who take the lead, year after year. This work is often done for the hobby and to promote a breed that hardly gets a glimmer of appreciation. Without these people our hobby would have been vanished; long live the volunteer! So I was pleasantly surprised that the tireless promoter of the breed of the beautiful Brahma breed, Marc Paemel, won Provincial Champion with his Brahma bantam, awarded 97 points, which is the highest score.
Striking detail: for many consecutive years they used to promote the Brahma by presenting all colour varieties in a row of cages. The visitors however seemed only moderately interested. This year however, they tried a whole new concept, presenting the Brahmas in a beautifully decorated corner of the hall, bedded down with straw. Sunday night, so many interested visitors had asked questions on the breed, that the two promoters - Marc being one of them - were left with no voice. So this was clearly a hit! To me, Marc Paemel winning Provincial Champion is the icing on the cake and is more than justified. Photos: The Belgium Brahma Club is promoting the breed in an excellent way. Right: Marc van Paemel with his winning hen.
The eggs contest Dare I say it, to the public the eggs show in Merelbeke is the finest in the world. If you don t agree, just contact me and we will sort out together which is the Best Egg Show. The combination of chickens and their eggs is unique, so you can see that poultry and their eggs are together on the big screen. Above and left: Toshi Shiba bantams and their eggs. Below: Flanders geese and their eggs. Not only chickens and their eggs, but also ducks, geese, quails, guinea fowl and their eggs are exhibited here. It is a unique opportunity for breed specific clubs to promote the particular egg characteristics of their breeds; the Marans Club, for example, makes excellent use here. Marc Casteleyn showed a magnificent collection of red-brown Marans eggs. The full show results can be viewed on http://www.neerhof-aalst-rhode.be/
Already for a few years, the presence of the European Poultry Society EPS at the Merelbeke Show has been specifically devoted to a theme. Last year, the Swedish poultry was put in the spotlight; this year s Theme was: "Large and Small. A Jersey Giant rooster and a Serama pullet, caged side by side, clearly showed the big difference in their size. Above: Cor van Vliet and Kenneth Broekman of the European Poultry Society. Above: The large Jersey Giant and the small Serama. The Serama, the smallest breed of chickens in the world, is very much in the picture and there were several of this lovely little chickens for sale, at very normal prices. Also, visitors could make a guess upon the weight difference between a Jersey Giant and a Serama. In co-operation with Garvo, the EPS also boosts the prizes by donating several bags of poultry feed.. The theme for the coming year is already known: we will try and get together the maximum number possible of Goose Breeds!
Left: White Jersey Giant cockerel. Below: Serama pullet, mottled. Below: This shows the true small size of the Serama, here in the hands of Cor van Vliet. Copyright 2010 Aviculture-Europe. All rights reserved by VBC.