C & K Welch

Condition is very important when showing if your bird has no tail, loads of pin heads and flights missing it will be best left at home as it will serve no purpose taken it to a show.

 What we are looking for is a bird through its moult, that is carrying good condition with all its flights and both tails.

 A bird can still win a class with 1 tail missing or even a couple of flights but when it comes to the majour awards it will fail when being put against birds that are feather complete.  

SHOW CAGE TRAINING 

One of the most important aspects to get in your birds is to be steady of which starts in the nest box when they are babies being handled daily to settle them, without being steady your bird will not be able to show its full potential on the show bench.

You want to see them on the perch not on the bottom of the cage or climbing on the wire.

A judge can not but look at a bird in good conditon sitting steady on the perch asking to be looked at if it has been trained well.

A lot of young birds will not settle at their first show so take them to your local CBS table show or young stock show. 

GETING YOUR SHOW BIRDS READY

Round about April time, go into the flight and pull out any broken tails as these will take two months to fully regrow and the same with broken flights of which takes 6 weeks and for small feathers such as throat spots they only take 3 weeks to re-grow.

Four to five weeks before a show cage up you chosen show team in stock cages but try to keep youngbirds separate in 2 or 3 per cage untill you know they are ok as many a show team have been lost and never seen on the show bench that show season due to young birds chewing tails and flights of other birds of which will have to be removed so be aware.

Leave your birds in the stock for a week to let them settle before commencing any training that will be required, if they have lost weight in the flight give them little extras such as millet sprays and oats to put a bit of weight on them as this also seem to help settle them down when training.

After the 1st week spray the birds until they are totally wet by way of spraying them, or by using baby shampoo to wash the feathers, but it is each to their own what they do as each person has their methods, after they have been washed just lightly spray them every other day then the last week we leave the birds alone to let their feathers settle, 3 days before the show we get cotton wool and warm water and gently wash the birds head going with the feathers. we also straighten their tails and wings by getting a cup full of hot water and dipping them into it but be careful as you do not want to burn or put their whole wing andjust their feathers. The reason we do this 2 days before the show is in case the tail or wings are not quite right. ( straight )

If the head has no pin feathers after it has dried you can get a small pipe cleaner and brush the feathers to separate them to give them more air shall we say so the feathers do not appear flat but fluffy but remember doing this with a bird with pin feathers and a broken quill split open can result in a lot of hard work removing blood stains on the head.

The day before the show is the time to remove them spots remember we need 6 spots in all, 2 just below the cheek patchs and 4 throat spots evenly spaced if possible. Before doing it on your show birds pratice on birds in the flight a few weeks before hand that will not be shown.

SHOW TIME

On the morning of the show, have the show cages ready the night before with the seed ready and labels on the cages. An extra five minutes checking to make sure the right birds are in the right cages is worth while exercise as many times. You see, a person's hard work is all done for nothing when they discover that they have put the wrong bird in the wrong cage.