VIDEO: Bird is the word at poultry show

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Nelson poultry, pigeon and duck breeders had something to crow about after taking out most of the big prizes at the Nelson Poultry and Pigeon Club annual show held at the Hope Hall at the weekend.

Rai Valley’s Hartley Neal had a quacking good show winning the Best Waterfowl with his Pekin duck as well as the Best Game Bantam with a light red male bird. It was the second success for Hartley in a week after winning the Best Game Bird with a Khaki Campbell at the West Coast Show last weekend.

Nelson College Student Cameron Taylor with his duckwing game bantam that was awarded reserve champion in the hard feather bantam section.
Nelson College Student Cameron Taylor with his duckwing game bantam that was awarded reserve champion in the hard feather bantam section.

“I’ve only been showing for about 15 years and this is the best result I’ve ever had,” Hartley says.

One of the show’s organisers, Pam Buschl says Hartley’s champion Pekin was one of 125 ducks entered in the show that also attracted 434 chickens, bantams and pigeons. Pam says the standard of entries in this year’s show was exceptionally high reflecting all the hard work breeders had put into their entries.

“We had really good breeding conditions back in July and August and that was apparent in the show,” Pam says. “The breeders have also put a lot of work into preparing their birds for the show.”

David Dredge of Stoke won the Best Homer Pigeon, Laura Inglis of Mapua won the Best Junior Entry with her white Pekin Duck and Pam and her husband Rodger won the Best Heavy Breed with their Australorp pullet.