Federation Championship
Show 16-17
desember 2000
This show is one of the
largest in England, and in addition to many pigeons and waterfowls, there were
appr. 6000 entries for the poultry section. The show is also considered the
largest in the UK when it comes to Dutch Bantams. There were 221 Dutch Bantam
entered. The fact that the judges were from Holland also made this show very
interesting for the breeders of Dutch Bantams. For me it was a thrill to see all
those fine looking birds. Of course there were many more entries here than what
we are used to in Norway.
Below you can find
pictures of some of the birds at the show (click on the pictures to enlarge).
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One
of the first thing I noticed was the well developed tails of the males as
well as the females. Here represented by a splendid Gold Partridge owned
by P. Reading.
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A
Blue Partridge. What a nice hacle! The Blue Partridge is crossed with Gold
Partridge to produce the bright colour of Blue Partridge.
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The
birds was on average a bit larger as those we see in Norway. Small birds
got lower score than the large birds. The Yellow Partridge male on the
upper left was one of the biggest I have seen and that one got a first
prize. (owned by P.B Tasker). A smaller male to the right. Note the nice
tails of the females. The female to the left won a first prize (P.B
Tasker).
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Some
of the Silver Partridge had som rusty colour on their back. This one was
not one of them. A splendid male!
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Another
feature of the English Dutch Bantams that I noticed was the perfectly
white earlobes of many of the birds. Here a black male and the breeder (P.
Lowe) with the same male.
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The
white Dutch Bantams was very fine. Here the one I thought was the finest
of them all, a male owned by A. Johnson.
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The
Crele colour was a bit darker than in Norway, especially in the breast. A
problem with those at the show, as well as with the norwegian ones, is
that the vertical striping of the feathers in the tail is not well
developed. But again, very fine width of the tail. The male got a first
prize (Simon and Mike Banks).
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There
were four entries of Cuckoo. It was interesting to see a dark male, I have
never seen that before. The judges noted that the dark male had some
undesirable red on its back. All the Cuckoo was owned by Mrs. J.C.R Jones.
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Pile
male and female. Owned by T.A Musson (the male) and R. Hartley (the
female).
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A
colour that I have never seen before was blue crele. A very fine and
interesting colour I think. This male is owned by ES.G.A Johnson.
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Buff
Colombian. Owned by Simon and Mike Banks. The male resembles the Gold
Patridge, but has yellow instead of black in the breast.
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It was interesting to note
the comments by the Dutch judges. They thought in general that the birds was of
high quality, even thouht there were some birds that had major faults. I think
Jean Robocker had a good summation on the discussion board of the American Dutch
Bantam Society (ADBS): "Most frequent errors were flat breast, narrow body and
too small birds. Next most frequent was comb too large, uneven number of spikes
or twin spikes, heal not tapering up, eye color too light, earlobes folded not
flat and smooth. Fewer comments on color or pattern, but hackle and saddle
matching on varieties not self-colored. Wings carried too high, very few with
legs too long."
The body size is a matter that interest me. Here in Norway it is a major fault
if bantams are too large. The most obective way of determening size is of course
by weight. According to the Dutch standard (witch in my opinion is the one we
should aim at) the males shall weight 500-550 gram and the females 400-450 gram.
I find it hard to believe that many of the males (also many of witch was awarded
with a first prize) at this show is not too large according to the Dutch
standard. This is a matter that I think is worth a discussion, maybe on the
discussion board of the ADBS
