From all accounts the French 100-year Show to commemorate the founding of the Pigeon Club of France (PCF) went very well indeed. Judges came from Holland, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Britain and, of course, France.
Some of the many breeds on show included 253 Montaubans, 427 Mondains, 714 Carneaux, 540 Colour breeds, 143 Swiss and 821 Tumblers. Sadly I do not have the total number of birds entered or the number of Kings or Modenas penned.
Those who visited the Köln Show last December will be pleased to know the pigeon auction for Children Cancer Sufferers raised 6000 euros. It was pleasing that a Colour pigeon won Best in Show, a Nuremburg Lark, with standard lark markings, which took home a £55 gold bar.
Over the last few weeks there have been a number of large pigeon and poultry sales in Germany, some of these attract entries of up to 20,000 with potential buyers coming by coach from a number of different countries. At the recent Nuremburg sale, eight Danish fanciers made the long journey - information is that the quality of stock on offer is very good. In a recent German 'Geflugel' magazine there were 79 advertisements for pigeons for sale from breeders - a great choice!
For fanciers interested in pigeon history, I am told a visit to the Nuremburg Pigeon Museum is well worth while. It is open on 22/23 May, 19/20 June, 17/18 July and 21/22 August. One of the old paintings on show is from 1750 and depicts a white-bodied bird with a coloured tail and coloured head including a small bib, very much like the Silesian Mohrenkopt (Moorhead). I have never seen this breed in the UK but they are quite popular on the Continent where they are found in black, blue, red and yellow.
It appears Finland has no real fancy pigeon world, but has imported birds from Germany including 46 Coburg Larks which, like the Nuremburg Lark, has only three colour patterns, larked, silver with bars and silver barless. Unlike the Nuremburg which is a Colour breed, the Coburg Lark is a Form breed.
Lately there have been various comments on the old NPA 'Book of Standards'. This was compiled over the period 1979 to 1981, so only a true comparison can be made with standards from the country of origin at that time. This book was reprinted and updated without the knowledge of the NPA in 1984. A new book of some 250 standards was sent to the printers about 1990, all updated, the NPA hold these updated (as at that time) standards. Unfortunately the publisher held on to the manuscript for a few years without ever printing. Some 130 standards were updated some four years ago. With the introduction of a new rule on the publishing and translations of foreign standards, there were always going to be delays in these being made available to the Fancy. This was my reason for my withdrawal from this project. If this stupid directive is strictly adhered to, it is very doubtful if we will see a publication this year either!
Mick Bassett has been busy with more standard updates, as Mick has found out, it is not always straightforward. For example, we get blau-gehammert (standard blue chequer), but we also get weißeschuppt which translates to 'white spangled'. Unfortunately the breed standard does NOT require a white spangled marked bird, but a white chequer marking. Evenly-spaced triangles, only on the wing covert, with clear white bars, is what the breed requires, NOT spangling a the UK understands it.
I was very surprised to read David Darbyshire's remarks that, 'if a standard states 7 - 12 white flights and a bird has 13 white flights, it should be disqualified.'So far, I cannot find any Continental Colour breed standard where being misflighted is a disqualification fault. Flight errors are listed under faults together with other points of the standard that must be a certain way. If one disqualified birds for one fault, how many birds would be left to judge? Sometimes very few - if any! We must, as a country, get round to judging to the standard for all breeds. Serious consideration should be given to 'pointing' birds, then if a bird has a serious fault the points awarded would reflect this. Recently I judged a bird, a Colour breed, good body shape with a full chest as required, good even colour, but flighted 11 x 10. The standard required 8 - 10 white flights so more or less a fault. If pointing, the bird would have had 92 points, it may have scraped 93 under some judges. I considered it a serious enough fault to only give 92 points and no certificate, but good for stock.
We now come to the question of pinholes in exhibition birds. If the pigeon is infested it should be removed from the pen, not judged. Now we come to a few pinholes, a wonderful help to the judge not knowing the standard in detail, of course a fault, but no more. In flying breeds with hard feather it is a more serious fault than say, a soft feathered Colour breed. We must not forget the various cures for feather problems are not as potent as they used to be, and I am not certain some of the products now used are licensed for pigeon use. You can only imagine what would happen if a fancier was caught handling such a product - Health and Safety would have a field day!
DENNIS F ISON
More from Dennis in the April issueof Feathered World