1 Rare Feathers September 2017
2 PATRON Chris Wisbey PRESIDENT Ellis Dick VICE PRESIDENT Deanne Ledger SECRETARY Jill Weaver TREASURER Jill Weaver PROMOTIONS OFFICER Deanne Ledger Show manager Roly Calvert
3 All about the annual show Ellis Dick our president opened the show for the club and did a great job. Our patron Chris Wisbey was working and unable to do so. Chris did quite a bit of advertising when he could while on radio. Chris also interviewed Ellis Saturday morning, the interview included some input from Peter Cundall. Peter was of the opinion that geese are far better eating than turkeys! While on the subject of turkeys one of the highlights of our show was the number of turkeys, twenty two all up. There were four different exhibitors and lots of different colours among the turkeys. Lindsay Sumpton informed me that the number of turkeys on display was the biggest single showing of turkeys anywhere in Australia. They were certainly a great attraction for the public. Mathew Paine with a couple of helpers set up all the turkey pens and took the pens back down afterwards. Most of the pens were loaned to the club for the day by the Southern Tasmanian Poultry Club. Lindsay brought in some of her own as well. Another attraction were some very rare breeds that were originally brought into Australia just a few years ago by Avgen. There were Dutch bantams, Crevecoeur, Sumatras, Derbyshire Redcaps and Vorwerks. Some other breeds not often seen at the poultry shows were Naked Necks, cream Legbars (these have a pom-pom) Guinea Fowl and quite a few Phoenix. Surprisingly the egg section was well supported with eight different exhibits of eggs. Our waterfowl section was helped along by our feature breed being all bantam ducks. All up there were forty-eight waterfowl exhibited on the day. The biggest section was the true bantam section with ninety three true bantams being benched on the day. There were twenty four Pekins, twenty six Belgians, six Dutch, thirty three Japanese, four Rosecombs and three Sebrights. We had five juniors exhibiting thirty seven exhibits including eggs. The winning junior took home a breeding trio of Dutch Bantams that were donated to the club for a junior prize. The raffle was won by John Wadsley s son who chose to take the bucket of goodies leaving the ceramic chook which was won by Matilda Hutt. Lorna and myself (Jill) put together the raffle with a few extra things being thrown in from past donations to the club that were almost out of date. The wall plate donated by Deanne Ledger for the membership draw, was won by Ainslee Simpson. Both judges were suitably impressed with the quality of the poultry exhibited. Among the excellent comments made by them was that Tasmania is known for being the home of excellent quality rare breed poultry. They also commented on how well the show was run on the day. We had two main sponsors. Seedhouse Tasmania donated ten bags of good quality feed for prizes. These were given to the major category winners. Lost Pippin Cider donated a case of cider which was handed out to some of the reserve champion winners, with two four-packs being given to the judges as part of their gift for judging. The judges also received a small pot of Tasmanian honey and a small box of chocolates from d Anvers Chocolates just outside of Latrobe. A rare breeds mug was also added as a useful thing for them to keep as a memento.
4 Other sponsors were Isaac Walker who came in with Judi and kindly donated some gift cards and two lovely screen prints. A bag of feed was donated by Essential Animal Supplies. Ainslee Simpson donated some Pestine and Perfect Poultry. The southern Tasmanian Bantam Club helped as well by working the Thursday before the show putting shavings in just over four hundred pens. The shavings were also donated by the club. Lorna Dick arrived on Friday with a hamper full of morning tea for Saturday morning. Lorna also fed the troops and provided lunch, snacks and tea for the workers on Friday. Lorna nearly had more gear than Ellis had chooks in the back of the truck! I would like to give a special thanks to my daughter Jodi (Deanne) who sat with me most of Saturday and helped me collate all the paperwork ready for presentation and also assisted during presentation. And a big thanks to all the stewards and anyone else that contributed to our very successful show. Some of you may not realise the work entailed to put a show like this one together. Because of the way it is structured it is like putting on two shows on at the same time on the same day. It can become very confusing. I now colour coordinate everything to keep both sections of the show separate. This idea works very well. Neil Penny explaining to some juniors how to judge eggs.
5 SEEDHOUSE Proudly supporting rare breeds of poultry in Tasmania
6 RARE BREED SECTION Champion Rare Breed in show Peter Manning with a black tail white Japanese bantam cockerel Reserve Champion Rare Breed in show Mark Robertson with a mottled Japanese cockerel Champion Soft Feather Large Champion Soft Feather Bantam Champion Hard Feather Large Champion Hard Feather Bantam Champion Waterfowl Champion Guinea Fowl Champion Turkey Champion Plate of Eggs Philip Evans with a New Hampshire cock Peter Manning with a BTW Japanese cockerel E. & L. Dick with a black red Modern Game cockerel E.& L. Dick with a black red Australian Game hen Damian Whiteley with a white Mallard duckling Mr & Mrs Baldwin with a pearl hen Paine Family with a bronze jake Felicity McEnnulty with a mixed plate Most Promising new breed or variety Jill Weaver with a Barred New Hampshire cock RARE VARIETY SECTION Champion Rare Variety of Show Reserve Champion Rare Variety of Show Oatlands School with a black Silkie hen Damian Whiteley with a Muscovy duck Champion Rare Variety soft Feather Large Oatlands School with a black Silkie hen Champion Rare Variety Soft Feather Bantam Ross Wilson with a Rhode Is. red R/C KL Champion Rare Variety Hard Feather Large Philip Evans with a jubilee Indian Game pullet Champion Rare Variety Hard Feather Bantam Peter Manning with a grey OEG pullet Champion Rare Variety Waterfowl Damian Whiteley with a black & white Muscovy duck JUNIOR SECTION Champion Junior Reserve Champion Junior Oatlands High School with a black Silkie hen Lauren Brown with a Faverolles cockerel
7 RARE BREED RESERVE CHAMPIONS Reserve soft feather large E. & l. Dick with a Polish hen Reserve soft feather bantam Mark Robertson with a mottled Japanese cockerel Reserve hard feather large Rob Morgan Sumatra hen Reserve hard feather bantam Alex Robins with a black red Australian Game cockerel Reserve Waterfowl Andrew Kline with a silver Appleyard drakling Reserve Turkey Lindsay Sumpton with a blue-eyed white jenny Reserve Plate of Eggs Oatlands School with a plate of six eggs RARE VARIETY RESERVE CHAMPIONS Reserve soft feather Large Oatlands School with a Plymouth Rock hen Reserve soft feather Bantam Brady Robins with a blue Australian Langshan hen Reserve hard feather Large Tom Beaumont with a crele L/L OEG pullet Reserve hard feather Bantam Peter Manning with a grey OEG cockerel Reserve Waterfowl Andrew Kline with a blue & white Muscovy drakeling MEDALLION WINNERS (Must be at least nine in a class) Best Belgian d Uccle Lauren brown with a millifleur hen Best Belgian Bantam Overall Lauren Brown with the same millifleur hen Best Langshan Bantam Brady Robins with a blue hen Best Rhode Island Bantam Ross Wilson with a rose comb cockerel Best large Hamburgh Maurice Young with a gold pencilled hen Best black Hamburgh and Best Penciled Maurice Young Best Japanese Peter Manning Best normal Mallard Damian Whiteley with a drakling Best Mallard Overall Damian Whiteley with a white duckling Best Phoenix Jill Weaver with a blue duck wing cockerel Best Orpington John Wadsley with a large blue cockerel Best Wyandotte Bantam Mark Robertson with a silver-laced hen Best black & white Muscovy Damian Whitely with a duck Best Muscovy Overall Damian Whitely with a black & white duck Best Silkie Overall Oatlands School with a black hen Best Sussex Mark Robertson with a large coronation hen Best Pekin Overall Tracey Cordwell with a brown red hen Best True Bantam Peter Manning with a Japanese
Just a few of the twenty two turkeys exhibited. 8
Our other judge Stephen Legge judging one of the Japanese bantams. 9
10 PET EXPO The weather looked a bit threatening early Saturday morning but the rain held off until mid afternoon, thank goodness. When the rain did start it was just a slight drizzle giving everyone time to pack up without getting too wet. Warehouse Traders in Spreyton have a Pet Expo the first Saturday of Spring and the Rare Breeds and Devonport poultry clubs are invited along. The only thing Michelle asks is that we bring plenty of chooks with us. We are invited to sell whatever we want as long as there is an assortment of poultry for the public to look at and interact with. Ellis and Lorna brought along a lovely mix with a Malay Game cock bird next to some tiny Moderns; also some black Polish with white pom-poms, Plymouth Rock and Rhode Island reds. I took some Phoenix, a crate full of Japanese Bantams and a few white Wyandottes. Oh and two guinea pigs. (I run the guinea pigs in the bottom of the pheasant aviaries to keep the grass down.) I also set up a sales and information table which was almost a waste of time making just $20 from the sales table but between the clubs the word was put out there to keep more pure chooks and waterfowl. I had some left over I patted a chook stickers which the kids think are great. The kids love to look at the big chooks but prefer to pat the little ones! The Japanese bantams proved very popular with just about every child wanting to pat one. Anthony from Seedhouse Tasmania had a stall beside us with his brightly coloured parrots and lots of samples of their new horse tucker. The quiet Macaw is very well trained and mums were lining up to get a photo of their child with the macaw on their shoulder. DOSTO I was disappointed the new product that is to take the place of orego-stim did not turn up in the post in time but I showed Anthony the info I have on it and Seedhouse may be interested in it as well. It is supposed to be better than the orego-stim and is a bit cheaper as well. It is called DOSTO and their website is www.dostofarm.de apparently orego-stim is getting hard to obrtain at the moment with Anthony commenting that they too have had some problems with recent orders. Dosto is almost the same as orego-stim being made from essential oregano oils but has a few other ingredients added to it as well.
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