Wyandotte National 2009 - Albury

Appologies to those who love the silver/gold lace, white, black, blue etc but I mostly snapped my favorites since I was sure the BYP contingent would more than adequately cover the rest.

We had an excellent time at the show, enjoying the birds and putting faces to names. It was good to see colours you don't often see as well as some nice birds among the more prevalent colours as well. I was very happy to see Std Partridge there (no, not mine - not with a 2 month old baby anyway LOL) as well as the buff laces. I was very tempted by their being in the auction but in the end we decided to save our pennies and enjoy Albury and catching up with BB, Judy and gang in the evening.

I also got my hot little hands on a copy of the new Wyandotte colour guide and think it's an excellent publication the club should be well proud of, as well as a bunch of other Wyandotte merchandise!

The trophy table - the framed illustrations were especially nice!

Std Partridge PB Roo

Std Partridge hen, 1st in class, Ch Partridge, Ch Penciled

Std Partridge hen, 2nd in class, Res Ch. Partridge, Res Ch. Penciled

Bantam CB Partridge Roo

Std Patridge hen

Std Partridge hen

Buff laced pullet. Res Ch Buff Laced, M & K Vizer

Ch Buff Laced, Buff Lace Rooster, M&K Vizer

3rd place Buff lace cockrel, one of the auction birds

Blue laced gold cockrel - R Woods

Blue laced gold pullet

One of the interesting rare colours


Blue laced REDrooster - gosh he was a striking fellow - the photo does not do the richness of his colours justice! I'm sure his breeder was exceedingly pleased with him!


Blue columbian buff - std size birds (the black of normal columbian markings is diluted to blue)

Blue columbian buff pair - bantam

1st place Red rooster - R. Williams

Liquorice Allsort chick Pt II

For those who remember, one of my little broody girls managed to sneak one of her own eggs into a clutch she was sitting and hatched out a cute little black puffball dubbed the liquorice allsort chick. Her babydaddy was one of my Wyandotte roos and I was curious to see how it'd turn out from such an oddball mix of colours and hoped it was a pullet and would make as good a broody as mum. Well, here is the results, in front of her mum:

I know... I know... for such a cute little chick out of pretty parents, poor Liquorice is not the most pretty chook around! Poor dear has smutty black feathering, whiteish skin and ears and pale eyes and a horn coloured beak and a mishmash looking comb. Her face is a weird looking combination of Wyandotte/Silkie/Pekin that looks perpetually a bit cross and hawkish. She is sweet though and hopefully she makes a very good broody like mum.

Duck-Duck the goose

Meet Duck-Duck. No, I did not name him...

He's an aproximately 9 month old Embden gander who was turned in to a shelter after being hand-raised as a pet. Lucky for him one of the people who works at the shelter has a soft spot for fowls and asked me if I might be interested as she knew I had an Embden girl without a partner.
Duck-Duck does have a bit of a bad habit though - being handraised and imprinted on humans he has no idea he is a goose and being a strapping lad now coming into maturity, Duck-Duck is a bit confused about who he ought to be mating. So far he has been very well behaved here although we're watching him carefully for training as necessary as you can imagine it's not a terribly good thing to have such a large bird with that sort of habit. Hopefully though he will bond nicely with my Embden girl and this will go a long way to solving the problem of misplaced hormones.

Settling in has proved interesting as to the best of my ability to discern, he has never seen another bird since the day he hatched and he has no idea he is one or how to relate to them. In many ways, the poor fellow is really quite divorced from his own culture, although he is showing some curiousity now after a week and a bit in that he will watch them from a meter or two away. He is enjoying the space though and especially the rainy weather of our autumn!

One of this years girls

Magnolia

Aylesbury ducklings - on the left is "Lucky"

For those who remember, a few months ago BYP member Flogs found Matilda (above 9 Jan) for us and so we got our first muscovy. They make great broodies and mums, so the plan is to have a few muzzie girls who will hatch aylesbury eggs and be good mums to the bubs. Matilda was a bit young for that this season but makes a great auntie to the ducklings even so and is about the cheekiest bird around. Well the other day I'd been told about another girl who was very sweet and in need of a home and so Magnolia (aka Maggie) came here yesterday...

Some muzzies can apparently be quite showy when first introduced but she is much like Matilda a calm and easy going girl who takes it all pretty much in stride.

Like Matilda, also ruled by her tummy. (Hunting for scattered wheat, Matilda left and Maggie right.)

The two look a good bit different, albeit both are white and DH confuses the two terribly so far. Among the differences are Maggie's big crest!

Pretty comical eh?

And because I've been a bit slack and not posted these previously... one of Laurent with one of my Wyandotte roosters

A better picture of Lucky (foreground) pleasingly coming along on 11 Jan 09

Younger duckies taking a late afternoon siesta

Last but not least - the picture of pathetic... poor girl is MOULTING... rather seriously!

Aylesbury ducklings

The lovely "Lucky" duckling... hatched at the start of Nov 08, pictured 5 Jan 09 among the same age group and several younger ducklings.

Goofing around together hunting for bugs.

And of course the very cheeky Matilda wondering WHY I am in a pen without HER and taking pictures of DUCKLINGS when she is around! "Wheep wheep wheeepp whok!"