The June long weekend saw the National Poultry Show being held in Canberra. A once in every four year event, over 5 thousand birds were on exhibition over three days. What a great opportunity it was to meet with breeders, to see quality birds and to go shopping! Lots of free food samples and lots of great things to buy and I did come home with my fair share of new supplies (drinkers, chick feeders, leg rings etc etc).I had arranged for a pair of Bantam Salmon Faverolles from a breeder in Victoria and took delivery of these on the first day. They will hopefully help a lot in my breeding program by improving on a few areas in particular for me. I also arranged to buy a lovely silve quail Belgian d'Uccle pullet who was entered in the show. I love this colour and am so pleased to get some! I have a thing for white animals with 'colour highlights' it seems. There was also an auction held on the final day which was a great opportunity to buy birds, though some of the prices being paid were quite amazing. Some individual birds sold for around $700! I had my eye on a sweet little mille fleur d'Uccle pullet, but her final price of $200 was too rich for me. I did however, come away with a lovely black d'Uccle hen and a silver quail d'Uccle pair so I was happy.
So now I seem to have chooks coming out my ears! I have just sold the last of my 'non-keepers' from last seasons breeding, but still I seem to be needing more pens to house all the breeding pairs and trios. At the moment we have housed them temporarily in dogs runs and pens. All very comfortable, but they need pens of their own (I want my dog runs back!) so we are madly in construction mode at the moment. Things have been made easier too by the gift of some old rabbit cages from a friend. A good clean up and a coat of paint and it has taken on a new life as training/quarantine/broody hen/night cages. By breeding season we should be well set up and ready for the influx of new chicks!
The June long weekend saw the National Poultry Show being held in Canberra. A once in every four year event, over 5 thousand birds were on exhibition over three days. What a great opportunity it was to meet with breeders, to see quality birds and to go shopping! Lots of free food samples and lots of great things to buy and I did come home with my fair share of new supplies (drinkers, chick feeders, leg rings etc etc).I had arranged for a pair of Bantam Salmon Faverolles from a breeder in Victoria and took delivery of these on the first day. They will hopefully help a lot in my breeding program by improving on a few areas in particular for me. I also arranged to buy a lovely silve quail Belgian d'Uccle pullet who was entered in the show. I love this colour and am so pleased to get some! I have a thing for white animals with 'colour highlights' it seems. There was also an auction held on the final day which was a great opportunity to buy birds, though some of the prices being paid were quite amazing. Some individual birds sold for around $700! I had my eye on a sweet little mille fleur d'Uccle pullet, but her final price of $200 was too rich for me. I did however, come away with a lovely black d'Uccle hen and a silver quail d'Uccle pair so I was happy.
So now I seem to have chooks coming out my ears! I have just sold the last of my 'non-keepers' from last seasons breeding, but still I seem to be needing more pens to house all the breeding pairs and trios. At the moment we have housed them temporarily in dogs runs and pens. All very comfortable, but they need pens of their own (I want my dog runs back!) so we are madly in construction mode at the moment. Things have been made easier too by the gift of some old rabbit cages from a friend. A good clean up and a coat of paint and it has taken on a new life as training/quarantine/broody hen/night cages. By breeding season we should be well set up and ready for the influx of new chicks!
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