10th January 2015.
since the new year things have been very quite and i have mainly been going over pairings for the coming breeding season,the hens are going into flight cages tomorrow and i will be doing the same with the cock birds over the next couple of days.the last show of the season its the east anglia f f c c tomorrow and i would like to wish all that have entered for this show the very best of luck,its one show that i miss doing but hopefully things will be different next year.
11th january
this is just an update to yesterday,this morning all the hens have been put in flight cages together,i feel my birds are a lot more forward than most even though they are not getting any extra light,the hens were in single cages and have been bouncing up and down the front of there cage some have been tugging at the feathers on there backs, so i am hoping that putting them into flight cages they will drop back some.as for the cocks this morning i tried to put them all together in flight cages,well world war broke out and some of the cocks were trying to tread others as well as going all out to hurt each other,so all i could do was separate them all off again.
1st February
there is nothing much to report since my last entry the hens are still in there flight cages and the cocks are still singled off,i have noticed that in the morning as it starts to get light and the cock birds start to wake up and start singing i have heard 1 of the hens making that noise when they crouch to be trod,i hope that is all that happening i don"t want to find eggs in the bottom of the cage, i no a few people that have started to find eggs in there cages reason being due to work they turn the lights on early mornings so as they can feed and water there birds before they go to work.
8th February
i really am a bit disillusioned as to the way the fife fancy seems to operate,the federation is in my view not doing enough to promote the fife fancy,they talk of change for the better but when it comes down to it that"s what it is talk,like the fife federation website loads of people where moaning that it was not an ongoing thing not being updated and needed someone to take over the running of the site in which i have done,i have been in close contact with 1 of the fife federation officials on how the site was progressing and what was needed, but it has been nothing but promises,the main person who has been in charge of the fife fancy federation has not once been in touch with me as promised, i doubt that he has even looked at it to see how it had progressed,there has been a lot of praise from many people on how it has been nice to be able to check on the progress of upcoming shows and there results and some shows have bothered to send in there results,but i have mainly had to rely on another website for the results of shows,a lot of the shows knew of the fife federation website but could not be bothered to promote there show through the fife federation website or even send in there results.it is now a couple of months off of the breeding season for most of us and i have purchased the cage and aviary every week to see the results and pictures of last years shows,what a joke it has been,i don"t think i have seen more than a couple of results for the federation shows,that is the only reason i buy the cage and aviary but this year i wont bother its just a waste of time and money,i can now understand why so many people are so unhappy with the keeping and showing of fife canaries,the fifes have proved to be more popular now than borders as a hobby but are way behind in every other sense.
15th February
since writing about the fife federation last week i had some response from other fife keepers on how they feel the same as to how the federation is running,rumors are that it is going to get worse reason being chris smith stepping down and jim watkins not carrying on because of his health,so what is to become of the federation only time will tell.the birds are at the moment still in there flight cages but i think next week i will have to start separating them off into single cages i have started to see signs of hens pulling others feathers out and carrying of feathers around the cages,still getting no extra heat or light so hopefully they will hold back,they where all cleaned out this morning,and where given there weekly dose of vitamins, new cuttlefish where needed and grit topped up.will not see them for another week as they have there heads down when i get home from work.
6th March
the weekend just gone was a very busy one have been ill for weeks and found out i had borderline pneumonia,thankfully i have been on a course of antibiotics and hopefully they will help me.the birds where all separated off last weekend a lot of the hens want to go down but i am still trying to hold them back until at least the beginning of next month,there nails where all cut back for when they do go down on eggs,i have gone through all the hens and decided to cut another 5 from the breeding program,so 2 yellows and 3 buff hens all are clears are now gonna go so i have now placed an advert on bird trader so as to let them go, i would of loved to have kept them all because it is now that i have found it hard because i see some potential in them all,i have only 8 cock birds here which are 4 buffs and 3 yellow we also have a yellow feathered fawn cock but this bird will only be going with a couple of blues,but have decided that one of the buff cocks will be going which is a very lightly variegated buff cock,that will give me 3 of each,so the weekend coming i will be concentrating on getting nest pans ready for the start of breeding i will have wooden boxes as well as the normal nest pans for those hens that will only breed on the floor of the cage.
8th March
after placing the advert on bird trader 2 days ago all 5 hens where sold to a real nice fellow in southend essex,a reality check tells me that i should cut back even more,time for a rethink.
12th March
i have been speaking to many people over the last few weeks over the way the fife federation is going,people are so fed up with how things are going from bad to worse,people are moaning over panel judges that have not shown at federation shows for a number of years yet still get picked to judge at top shows yet the regulation states should have proof that the applicant has been a member of a Fife Fancy Specialist Club(s) for a minimum total of five years, with a minimum of three years as champion, and is a current breeder who has shown on at least three occasions each year at FFF members club patronage shows.the next thing was with chris smith and jim watkins both stepping down from the federation committee whats to become of the federation and is there going to be a federation after this years a g m,that is another thing i have heard do not no how true this is there has been only 2 mandates put forward for discussion at the a g m,with the fife canary shows getting bigger than border shows you would think that our federation would have been far greater organised than what it is,there has been a lot of people giving up with fifes over the last year and a lot of good judges stepping down from judging which only goes to prove the unrest there is in the fife world,and the unrest is not only down here in the south i have heard from people from scotland and ireland
15th March
i have heard that the 2 mandates for the federation a g m that are up for discussion is new show classifications for federation shows and the other about docking of tales like cutting and gluing.the rumors of both chris smith and jim stepping down goes on and that jim will not be stepping down but will not be stepping into chris smiths position only time will tell.the birds are all now trying to pull there own feathers out or shuffling in the corners of there cages have found the 1st egg on the floor of 1 of the cages now so time to take some action.
29th March
My 1st update for a while turned out the pneumonia was not borderline but full blown but i am now on recovery and back to work not yet 100% but getting there.while ill my other half joanne did her best with the birds,she does not like breeding season but she does more than her best,from 12 hens that 1 still have 9 are on eggs and 3 are doing nothing that was one of the reasons i kept a few hens back so glad i did, did her best trying to run cocks with hens as like me she starts very early in the morning getting home from work running the cocks with the hens and returning to work in the afternoon and doing the same as the morning on getting home in the evening,the only thing we have not done this year due to me being ill is take the eggs away, a forum that i frequently visit has this year had a debate on the quality of rings,last year the rings where to us and many others very poor with the numbers fading so much that you could not read them this was on the split metal ones and the plastic ones kept snapping ,it was the 1st year that we used avian i d and when i complained the owner of avian i d assured me this years rings would be so much better only time will tell and i will keep you all informed.
5th April
from 9 nests 3 nests have now hatched others are due but still 2 nests of clear eggs,the 2 hens that had clear eggs was run with the same cock so i will have to see if he is firing blanks or not he has since been running with yet another hen who has just finished laying so another 5 days i will no if its him.being i did not take the eggs away i got the dates of hatching all wrong i still took the hatch date by the 4th egg but this all depends on when the hen started to sit tight on them so i have learnt a big lesson,as i have said before being we have the birds on view 24 hours a day i spend a lot more time watching them than i do the telly and i am quick to notice things like the hens calling to the young to be fed so it was lucky that i heard that so egg food and cous cous and green food went in straight away,i had the eggs down to hatch today but they started hatching 2 days ago,
12th April
well i was not surprised to find that that the cock bird that i run with a 3rd hen all her eggs turned out to be clear as well,there was no excuse as he was left with the hen and was treading her a lot where as the other 2 hens i run him to them as much as possible each day,so off he went to the pet shop,i did not count for this happening you never think a cock bird would let you down this way,so i am now a cock bird down,going to be hard now as most hens are buff,i allowed for this in my breeding program for this year keeping 2 buffs and 3 yellow cocks.as for nests i have had 2 nest in which only 1 egg hatched in each all others where dead in shell lucky enough both nests hatched a day apart so i transferred one to the other nest,do not like single chicks in the nest they seem to take longer to wean off.so down to 3 nests with young now.
19th April
the 3 nests of young are coming along nicely now,they are at that age where the mothers want to go to nest again and of course one of the hens is calling for a cock non stop all day long,i never thought that 1 bird could actually get on your nerves but this one does i will be glad when her young are old enough to come away and i can run a cock bird to her and she will stop,all the hens that had clear eggs on there 1st round are now building again and being trod,the let down is that i kept 2 blues back to put with a fawn cock,one of the hens had a round of eggs and where all clear the other hen has built a nest and been trod but like previous breeding seasons you get a broody hen that will sit in the nest and not lay eggs,plus one of the hens that had a first round and all her eggs where clear has now done nothing but sleep on the perch on and off all day long do not understand whats wrong with her,i have done my best to remedy her sleeping all the time but she is feeding and drinking ok so time will tell.
26th April
things are moving along now the 3 nests of young are now on the sticks but not away from there mothers as yet as soon as i see them picking up they will be separated off.so from 11 hens 3 are with young a further 6 are on eggs and 2 are doing nothing.word has been coming in that both red mite and northern mite is taking its toll on some well known fife men up and down the country,and also that some are losing young again this year so this could be down to mite,have ordered my rings but not from a c hughes or avian i d and i am so looking forward to picking them up today.
3rd May
things are looking up,the 3 nests of young i weened all but one off in the week but there was a little runt that needed more time so was left with the mother till last night,this morning it is calling for the mother but its not going back,its old enough to look after itself and just being lazy by the end of the day it should just get on with fending for itself.baths have been offered to the ones weened off and all have got in readily,i believe in offering them baths as soon as they are weened off.the down side that 4 out of the young where all clear or lightly variegated and the mothers picked on these to strip them of the feathers between there back and under neath there wings,thankfully not there tail feathers,the good thing once they molt out they should be ok, a further 3 nests have hatched over the last couple of days 2 nests of four and a nest of will be five once the last egg hatches today.the first round hens are being trod now for there second round.The downer and there is always a downer the 2 blues i bred last year and was kept solely for breeding fawns just is not going to be we brought in a cock bird solely for doing this for breeding fawns,cinnamon and carriers but have nothing but had disaster with this.One of the hens has built and been trod more than enough but not a single egg has been laid,the other had a round of 4 eggs all where clear,she has since laid a second round and sat for a week and has now gone all fluffed up and i noticed the eggs where cold where she was not sitting.i have had a broody hen sitting on an empty nest with nothing in it for a week now so i have nothing to lose but have transferred them to her,i have nothing to lose if i did not catch them early enough and everything to gain if i have,i used to get so stressed out every year with all the bad seasons that we have had but this year i just take all in my stride,the one that is Joanne she had her heart set on breeding a fawn of her own and looks like it is not going to happen.
10th May
things are still moving along nicely still 9 on the sticks and all but the one hen on eggs and young.there was a nest of four and a nest of five hatch last weekend but knew one of the nest of five we had lost one of the young Joanne found it on the floor of the cage during the week on returning from work but on looking yesterday i noticed there was only 3 in each of the nests,so as a precaution i cleaned both the bottoms of the cages out just to be on the safe side, did not want there cages start to smell of rotting young,had another nest of 3 hatch during the week and on the bright side the blue who went light and did not sit on her eggs and i found them cold and not sat on for most of the day,i under sat them under a broody hen with nothing to lose 3 out of the five have hatched 1 egg was clear and the other seemed to have started to hatch but was dead in shell,but it was still a result and the broody hen is feeding them.I no a lot of breeders have had this problem with hens building nests and are trod but never lay an egg but will sit in the nest like a broody bantam it pays to use them to rear,i have had this happen over the last couple of years now with a few hens and it has worked for me.
17th May
the broody hen that i gave the eggs to that hatched the 3 chicks are doing fine,cant really tell what they are yet but being from a fawn cock and a blue hen i no its a white to white pairing but i have done this pairing before many times and with great success on the show bench,i can only guess the outcome could be the same as if you paired cinnamon to blue,with which the offspring would be 25% blue cocks carrying cinnamon-25% green cock carrying cinnamon - 25% fawn hens - 25% cinnamon hens, time will tell,from the 10 hens 7 are with young and 1 hen with eggs due any day, another hen that went to nest for a second round has a nest of clear eggs because she would not let the cock mate her and the other blue hen that has built been trod and not laid an egg and is now sitting tight on the nest like another broody bantam if i had another bird with eggs i would do the same with this hen and use her as a rearer.
24th May
the 3 young with the broody hen have now feathered up and what looks like 2 blues and the other a cinnamon so Joanne still never got her fawn she does not seem to have a lot of luck when trying to breed them,the 2 blues should be cocks if the breeding genetics are right and both should be cinnamon carriers,as for the cinnamon that will be a hen for sure.still only 9 on the sticks, it seems this year is turning out to be like past years finding it hard going,but i am just taking it in my stride and not really worried,there is a nest of 4 and 3 nests of 3 chicks that will soon be out of the nests and onto the sticks soon but the down side is there is 2 nests with 1 chick and another with 2 so sad that i could not put them together as all 3 nests hatched on different days.i have said previously about offering baths to hens that have young on the sticks that are still being fed i have had 2 nests of young that are at 20 days old and the whole lot took baths as soon as i put the bath on the cage they all beet there mothers in it was so good to see.
1st June
another week has passed and things are still slow,i have come to a conclusion that not taking the eggs away this year i have lost so many youngsters due to young hatching out on different days has played a major part in losing young in the nest,where you get some of the eggs hatch a day later than the first eggs hatching the chicks are a lot stronger than the last to hatch and get all the food leaving the late hatchers to starve and die,have had nests of four hatch over 2 days and within the first week have gone down to having one left in the nest that is not good,what there is left of breeding this year i am going to try taking the eggs away but being we both leave for work early in the morning they sometimes have not had there egg until after we have gone which makes it hard.news from other people Scotland has been over run with red mite it seems that people up there have had a bad time and have never had problems up there with it before.
21st June
the breeding season is nearing the end and with 24 on the sticks and another possible 10 in the nest which is early days yet as the way things have gone could still lose more i could end up in the lower 30s with 1 hen left on eggs that will be the last to hatch off,every year the numbers are getting harder to breed for some reason and as this year i have not stressed out over it taking the attitude of whats to be is to be,i still feel its getting a load of hard work for what seems like nothing to show for it,the one good thing about this year is silly me and the breeding of a fawn which is what Joanne wanted to do what i took for in the nest was a cinnamon and blues has actually turned out to be a little self fawn the reason i took it for a cinnamon was that i was looking for white in a fawn which was not there so i naturally took it for cinnamon but i could not have been more wrong, i have since run the fawn cock over 2 more hens a variegated hen and the other a foul or three part dark, the 1st lot of eggs only one was full and has hatched out it has red eyes so can only be a cinnamon or fawn the other is the last of the eggs yet to hatch and three out of the 4 are full.as usual the red mite across the country has taken its toll with people having a disastrous year with there breeding losing so many young that they have stopped breeding completely over it,one person in particular Gary Macbeath has decided to call it a day with his fifes completely for the last 3 years he has battled with mite and over the last couple of years kept it under control but this year it just escalated so much he never bred a youngster,he told me that he just cant get rid of it, being behind the cages and in the walls of the wooden shed he just cant stop them from getting to the birds so has decided to call it a day,such a shame but i can understand what he has gone through i always said that if we got it like we did about 5 years ago we would pack up as well, being we keep ours indoors its a nightmare and we went through hell getting the front room mite free having to get rid of all the old cages and completely buying new ones plus we tried all the mite remedies and nothing worked even getting a steam cleaner and even blow torching the cages nothing worked,i have always said that i would not wish for anyone to get mite they are just the biggest nightmare with birds you can have.
28th June
i had a good long talk with a well known panel judge and exhibitor during the week and he has been plagued with both red mite and northern mite this year yet he has still managed breed over 200 young fifes and has still more in the nests,he told me its been nothing but hard work having to put new nest pans in every day to battle the mite,but he should end up in the high 200s when finished.the single chick which can only be a cinnamon or fawn i moved to a nest with 2 other young in it, i did not want to leave it as a single youngster in the nest,i think it will be better that way,the last nest of the season has hatched out of the 4 eggs 1 was clear the other was dead in shell and the other 2 hatched out yesterday so i will look in the next few days for red eyes as this pairing was the foul green hen to a fawn cock,am looking forward to see what comes of this pairing.Finally i have decided to give up showing after this year that is if we have anything to show only time will tell looking forward to them molting out,i am not giving up the hobby far from it but after the show season i will be cutting back to just a few hens and a couple of cock birds keeping all my treble cages and selling off all the quads,its been a major decision on both me and Joannes part we have not had a holiday together since 2009 having the birds meant i had to stay at home looking after them while Joanne would go down the caravan and i would go down on the saturday night and rushing home to feed them in the morning,its with all this in mind that we are both going for the holiday of a lifetime next year and not having to worry about the birds and breeding season and having loads of young in the nest and having family coming to feed them so that is the decision to cut back and still enjoy keeping our fifes.i will still go to some of the local shows to see friends and keep up with the show scene and also will carry on with my involvement in running the federation website in which i enjoy doing.
19th July
been a while since my last update and a lot of things has been happening in the fife scene,firstly a lot of people who no Burt Smith and no that he is fighting cancer, i spoke to him just the other day and although not well he battles on both with his illness and with his fifes,he told me he has had a really bad year only getting 4 young on the sticks,he tells me he has had no mite as he has checked daily for it but has from the start had loads of clear eggs,dead in shell,young hatch but have died,he told me he put it down to the changes in the weather at the start of the breeding season but as always we can only presume,so i am sure we wont be seeing a lot of burt on the show bench this year.i myself have had it hard this year and as i said in one of this years entries that a lot of my losses were down to me not taking the eggs away,when i did take the eggs away it did improve so to me it was a lesson learnt will always take them away in the future.I then was told of the news that Bill Gammon was packing up with his birds and i saw that he was advertising them on a website,i phoned him and was told that it was true and he had decided to call it a day,that was a few weeks ago but since he has had a change of mind and has found himself a new partner and is going to keep 12 pair for next years breeding season,so pleased he has had a change of heart.another rumor Gary Wilson up in Scotland is calling it a day with his fifes as well another well known man leaving the hobby,as for Gary Macbeath true to his word all birds and cages have all gone and he has nothing but a bare shed,he says he misses his birds but has more time for family and fishing and holidays instead.as for us i will finish with 35 with the last nest of 2 being weaned soon, that was the fawn cock to a foul green hen the young turned out to be a little variegated cinnamon and the other a little blue,the cinnamon should be a hen and the blue should be a cinnamon carrier cock,a lot of the young are into molt now with feathers everywhere, show cages are now being hung on the cages.Have been hearing of the same problems with rings from both avian id and a c hughes again this year with them being not able to read the numbers again this year,its such a shame as last year i complained to avian id and was assured that he would be getting it right this year seems to have fallen on death ears,i think that the fife fancy should be looking to get there rings from abroad as this year i got ours from a breeder that got them from abroad and up to now i have had no problems with them.
15th August
Breeding season is now finished for us with the last of the young weaned off,some of the old hens just cant turn off there breeding clock they have been in flight cages for a month now and yet they still persist in trying to go down again pulling at wing and tail feathers from other hens in the cages and are still shuffling in the corners of the cages,all these hens are last year bred and for us this will be there last season with us, once they have all molted out come January next year they will all be sold off with the young hens that we bred this year.then all of the quad cages will be next to go leaving the trebles that we will keep,have it all planned out already,have bred 2 blues that should be cinnamon carrier cocks 2 cinnamon hens and a fawn hen these will be the only birds that we are going to keep after the show season in January and all the rest of the stud has gone.I have been a follower of Simon Gambins website since he started it and he has announced that he has given up with his fifes as well,and from what i understand that he has already handed his stud over to someone else,i have known simon since his first year of starting up and watched his progress grow on the show bench,i would like to wish him good luck for the future for him and his young family.Another one that has from what i have been told packed up with his fifes is Terry Hardie,he started with border canaries many years ago but moved over to fifes a few years back starting out as a novice on the show bench and with in a short period of time had great success on the show bench,but from what i have been told he has taken up his his other passion of lawn bowls very seriously and has since parted company with his birds and i would just like to wish him good luck in his new passion.Back to our birds show cages are still being put on the cages and they are getting used to having the freedom of running between the 2 cages,the young cocks are showing there colours rattling on with there song,seems to me that we have bred more hens than cocks this year but its still far to early to tell, you always get the quite ones that show later on in the year.
24th August
its been a funny old week and the weather has been so changeable with low to mid 60s all last week and then Saturday 90 degrees then it drops to the 60s again certainly is not helping the birds and there molt,i assessed them in the show cages yesterday and they are way off being finished.As a lot of you no i created and now maintain the Fife Federation Website,I am self taught when it comes to making a website so sometimes i find it difficult to add new things and have to study and find out how to do these tasks, one of these tasks was how to add a feedback and comments page that the federation committee has asked for so people can leave there feedback on how they think things are going and also to get answers to questions put to the federation committee.i hope this will be a good thing and people do not abuse it and it will be used sensibly,if it is abused i will delete it from the website but it is in place and up and running so if you want answers its there for you to use.The rings that we purchased this year we got from a breeder and panel judge i said it previously that we have had no trouble with them and up to now they are still as good as when we put them on the birds so well pleased.
6th September
the rings are proving to be well worth the money that we spent on them and they where a lot cheaper than avian id and ac hughes and have still had no problems with them.we purchased the rings from a well known fife man James Weaire and i have not heard of one bad word said about them,i believe the rings are from abroad as they start with the number 001 to 100 but i could not be happier.Another problem i have had and i no that it is not only me that suffer with this problem especially with over year birds one of them is baths some birds when you put a bath on the cage with water straight from the tap as soon as some birds get in they have a fit and start wincing like a dog,they just freeze in the water and you have to get them out,you need to remember these birds so as when you give them a bath next time give them water but add a little warm water as well to take the chill from it,this has proved a winner for me and the bird will have no problems taking a bath with the water that has had the chill taken away.another problem with over year birds is taking them out of there cages either by hand or putting a show cage on there cage and taking them from there cage they also have a fit this way,the art is to start cage training them again leaving the training cages on there cages so as they can get used to coming in and out of there cages in to the show cage after a few days take the show cage off the cage with the bird in it, take a few steps away from there cage then return the cage to there cage,keep doing this and they will get use to being out of there comfort zone and you can gradually get the birds to do what you want,i found this problem when i wanted to run cocks to multiple hens in the breeding season but once i used this procedure i had no problems with the cock bird after that.this years young are now over three quarters the way through there molt feathers are getting less and less to clear up now so the hoovers getting a rest, cages are still being put on there cages for them to get use to the show cage.lastly i have added a questions and comments page so if anyone would like to ask me about anything they are able to do so.
11th October
well the first of the seasons shows has started today and its at the national exhibition stafford,this year its a record entry for the fife show at 903,it will be nice to see how many birds are put on the bench on the day as a lot of people was hoping there birds would be finished there moult in time if they have not then the numbers will be down,but would like to wish every one who has entered for the show a very big good luck,i look forward to hearing the results..its been a month since my last entry and having only week ends to spend time with the birds its very hard,have a lot of problems cage training and sexing the birds with more than 1 in cages its hard to get the underdog to show its colours,so at week ends i try to separate birds off to give them a chance to come into song.i needled them all to see what came of that but that has proved to be something you cannot trust 100%.i will rely on separating them off and letting them prove themselves the right way,but i think i am going to end up with a lot more cocks than hens,most of the birds have finished there molt now with just a few to finish off .as its the beginning of the show season i would like to wish everyone good luck with there birds,as always the top man from Barnsley has had a record breeding season and has bred some top quality birds so i have been told,but remember it only takes one bird to beat him so good luck.
1st November.
The show season is well under way now with 8 shows already been and gone,and as i have the task of keeping the federation website updated with all the shows and there results i am hugely disappointed out of the 8 only 2 shows have sent there results in,i no i could pick up some of the results from other sources but you cant always get the whole results as some are left out and some have mistakes so i do not like to do this,it was the people out there that was complaining that they never had a federation website that was kept updated, but at this rate by the end of the show season i will be lucky to get a quarter of the results in from the federation clubs, if this be the case it will be a complete waste of my time and efforts,there is no excuse as the federation clubs have all been asked to send in there results,and at this time i think it is a complete let down to the federation website.enough of my feelings and back to the birds as limited space has made it hard to get the cocks to show themselves and as i no for sure the cocks are noted and separated off into single cages and i am leaving 2 hens to a cage even some of the hens rattle on but until i see them singing full throated i do not mark them off as cock birds cage training is still an issue with the amount of time working but every chance i get they have cages hung when possible.
8th November
As you can see from the photo above cage training is still an ongoing thing, i did start with water in the top hats and also floating some broccoli in the water to encourage them to find the water but still a lot of them would not go to the water, they just pecked the outside of the top hat drinker from the inside of the show cage so i have now gone back to seed in the top hats for now hopefully this will encourage the ones that are slow to catch on.I had a little rant about the shows and lack of results being sent to me from the federation clubs themselves and next day i received them from one of the federation committee which in my mind defeats the object of sending all the clubs letters asking them to send me there results and even photos if they wanted people to see the the winning birds on the show bench,i thought this year would be hugely better but i guess that with the fife and border forum and Facebook that they can find results and even photos of the shows then the federation website is not a necessity but a last resort to look at previous years results,only time will tell come the end of the show season.
3rd December2016
its been a while since my last entry what with work commitments and christmas its been hectic but its now back to normal and the start of work tomorrow.some good news our friend terry hardie who packed in with the keeping and showing of fifes has again started up again all new cages and accessories have been added and he has purchased some birds already and now looking forward to the breeding season,so nice to see him back in the hobby.we had a visit this weekend from gary macbeath as a lot of you no he packed in keeping fifes early in 2015 was nice to have a visit from him and he spent an hour going over my birds made him want to start up again he nearly thought about buying my set up but then thought better of it lol,even though you give in birds it never leaves you.the last of the shows the east anglia is next weekend and have entered a small team,this will be my birds 1st and only time out,after the show my complete set up will be going after that and i will no longer be showing again,will be keeping 3 hens and 2 cocks but only for pleasure.i will be carrying on with my website and also the federation website so no one need to worry there.just like to wish everyone a great 2016 with there birds.