Proud owners, top animals and striking

breed products PART 1

PROVINCIAL SHOW of

WEST FLANDERS IN BRUGES-BELGIUM

By: Dirk de Jong Always mark your calendar for the last weekend in October, for the Provincial Show in Bruges. This year it was organised for the Tenth time and the consistency of the organizers and sponsor support for this event says something about the atmosphere one can expect at this show!

Left: Bruges Game, cockerel, 94 points. Owner: Hannes Schoonvaere

The presentation of this years show was extremely well thought out: the fishbone modelled layout and middle lane made for a playfully tight easy access to the exhibits (in contrast to the somewhat boring "one long path" presentation of earlier shows) along with spin-off side-lanes for variety ensured a varied and exciting viewer experience. The ample sitting space near the extensive buffet provided rest and opportunity to discuss and ponder the day’s activities and exhibits. In my view the support of the organizers was the great strength of this show...whole families performing their given tasks from early morning to late in the evening to ensure all ran as clockwork...truly inspiring that despite the enormous public attendance, all ran as a finely oiled machine and each support member worked as two. The club can be proud of this achievement! Right: Ronquieres Turkey, old male, 93 points. Owner: Simon Van Den Berghe

Left: Merchtem Duck, white drake, 94 points. Owner: Hannes Schoonvaere Below right: Red turtle dove, 96 points. Owner: Patrick Ducheyne

PHEASANTS As befitting the theme of this exhibition, the Pheasant, not only were the spacious aviaries provided by Aviornis of West Flanders presented with numerous exquisite examples of the pheasant species, but there was also the Bruges finest lacework patterned in diverse livestock and pheasants to be admired! The chocolate museum presented a chocolate pheasant, an impressive artwork that made quite an impression! The Belgian Hunting Association explaned their view of the pheasant as gamefowl and as we were in Belgium, the ‘gourmand country’, there were also numerous pheasant recipes. At the opening of the show a motley procession entered the hall; 50-60 men, women and children) wearing their hat creations (the result of competition held within the

club) showing off the splendid pheasant feathers and mingling with the attending public so all could view each creation in detail. In addition to that competition, there was also a colouring and handcrafting com-petition (with the pheasant as the theme of course) for the younger grade school age attendees. In addition, there were lots of organized activities for the attending public ... a baking contest (“Brugse bolletjes") between 5 students of the baker’s school on Sunday morning and a pie tasting contest with different examples of the regions specialties. Various activities such as these made the day especially varied and enjoyable. Left: Asian Quail, male, 94 points. Owner: Bert Mommerency

The Animals One wonders about ‘the animals’ ...well, except for the rabbits and cavies, there were the feathered fowl: 1411 to be exact and they were present perhaps not in exorbitant quantity but the many varieties of colour and breeds left none wanting with a good representation of ornamental fowl in many pheasant varieties; Ronquieres turkeys, doves and a great variety of quails. Right: Simon Van Den Berghe with his Forest duck.

Left: Saxon Wing Pigeon, black white barred, male, 95 points. Owner: Firmin Werbrouck Below right: Hannes Schoonvaere with his Leuven Pouter, male, 95 points. In Waterfowl: Muscovy ducks, Runner Ducks, Orpington ducks, Saxony ducks, Rouen ducks, Cayuga, Call ducks and several Belgian duck breeds like Merchtem Duck and Forest Duck. Pomerian and Toulouse geese,

and also some ornamental geese. It is always nice to see the Cropper breeds exhibited in those typical, round Belgian pigeon cages. There are five varieties in several colours of the Ghent Cropper, a heritage breed (in existence as a breed since the 1400s) in addition to the Leuven Pouter (also called ‘Leuvens sinjoor’). In total I counted around 37 different breeds, many of which are rarely seen in abroad, like the typical Belgian breeds Ronselaar, Smijter, Ghent Owl, Smerle of Flanders, Belgian Ringbeater, Belgian High-flyer and Belgian Tumb-ler. There were numerous Frillbacks, Carneau and several Trumpeter pigeon breeds. The number of fowl was a bit disappointing (117) and I believe this is also not representational for Belgium. Once again there were many breeds (both standard and bantam

varieties) that are specifically Belgian breeds; the Bruges Game in particular. Even the many juvenile examples of the breeds were already very impressive, including the Liège Game and Tirlemont Game, the first and last also in bantam variety. Left: Brabançonne, quail coloured, pullet, 96 points. Owner: Geert Michels Below right: Brakel silver, pullet, 96 points. Owner: Dellaert Bart

One does not see such an outstanding representation of silver Brakel, Izegem Cuckoo and Brabançonne every day. The Basettes were represented in 6 different colour varieties, and beautiful Uccle bearded Bantams in millefleur and even more Belgian breeds: the Watermael Bearded Bantam in 7 colour varieties sure were a feast for the eye. The Old English Game bantam in speckled I found particularly impressive. Below: Blue Quail coloured Bassette pullet and cockerel. Owner: Simon Van Den Berghe

For those who have a particular interest in the French fowl varieties as I do, then the Marans bantams (photo above and left) were of particular noteworthiness; the birds were of such quality that at a glance one could see that the owner had no

worries with inbreeding now or in the near future. Not only is Belgium an impressive country in its spacious natural beauty, the continued interest in the fancy fowl as a hobby has a definite future here. Left: Uccle Bearded bantam, millefleur, hen, 95 points. Owner: Luc Lannoo

Right: Watermael bearded bantam pullet, quail coloured, 95 points. Owner: Noel De Rycke

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CLUB SHOW COCHIN BANTAMS IN GERMANY By: Ardjan Warnshuis It was good to be a day among Cochin friends at the club show of the German “ISV der Zwergcochin-züchter”. There were birds in 24 different colours, three of them also in frizzle, counting 451 Cochin bantams, 51 of which were entries by junior (youth) members. There were some very nice pullets in Buff and though the cockerels were excellent in type they were not the correct colour. The large collection in blacks was of very good quality! Left: buff-blue columbian cockerel. Owner: Dieter Aschenbach

The same can be said about the white birds. In blue there were some top birds in both sexes and the lavender should be better in both shape and feather structure. With the red, a breakthrough was made in the pullets in both shape and colour. (The cockerels still stand a bit high.) The mottled were excep-tional with the winning bird being a pullet from Mario Nebe. The Cuckoo were good quality. The Buff cuckoos were very good types, ho-wever with the cockerels we saw some differences in the barring. The pullets were very good types, but the colour and markings give problems as usual. Lavender-cuckoo: nice typed birds and very good colour. Best pullet was from Nadine Neumann. (picture above right)

Black-red: as usual in top quality. Here it was Dieter Aschenbach from Berlin who scored the highest predicate on a pullet. Blue-red: very nice pullets. Silver: good shapes, however, there were quite some colour differences in the females. Braungebändert is a colour with many problems... once again this year a very uncon-vincing presentation. Silver partridge: lo-vely birds with a top bird from Dietmar Hohenhorst.(at left)

Birchen: a small group but very good birds in both sexes. White-black columbian: a nice collection and once again the winner was Dieter Aschenbach. White-blue columbian: only three birds and the winner was a nice pullet from Aschenbach. Buff-black columbian: five excellent birds. Buff-blue columbian: Once again Aschen-bach's bird had the highest predicate, this time a cockerel. (see picture at former page) Right: a buff-blue columbian hen, also from Dieter Aschen-bach.

Wheaten seems to be a popular colour and there were 38 birds of very good quality: the highest predicate went to Andreas Stephan. The winner in silver wheaten was a pullet from Christoph Sicking; an excellent bird. Last but not least, the youngest colour, porcelain: Of the four cockerels representing this colour, only one was convincing, though the pullets were of very good quality (although they showed differen-ces in ground colour and some had some gold in the hackles).

Above left: a black mottled pullet. Owner: Mario Nebe. There were of course many German visitors, but also from Holland and Belgium many breeders had come to see this happening. Right: A red hen. Owner: Günther Schreiber Copyright ©2007 Aviculture-Europe. All rights reserved by VBC