My Views
Table Of Contents
Being a Judge Is Not Easy
By Linda Hogan
Being a judge is not easy but it is challenging.
I am reminded of a time at the national when a bird won with obvious faults. As
the judges gathered to discuss the placements, I confidentially turned to one of
the other judges and ask them what they thought about the bird. To my surprise,
he said "I think the bird is perfect. Its my bird...."
Only the owner truly agrees with the judge on the winner.
There are no perfect birds which makes it controversial and challenging. Good
birds are easy to pick. The more faulty ones are tough. But you must
consistently apply the standard to each bird to the best of your ability and let
the chips fall where they may.
You must be tough-skinned to judge. Some exhibitors get really excited when they
don't win. I even judged a show where, the lipochrome and melanin judges had to
have body guards because the previous year an exhibitor had pulled a knife on
the judge. I have taken assignments where the previous judge resigned because
his family was threatened. I am honest and consistent and have had neither
threats or any problems with the exhibitors. Thank goodness these examples are
the exception. I do not want to judge when exhibitors act this way.
I wish every exhibitor could win first price. But there is only one. I therefore
like to talk a lot to the exhibitors during the judging and explain why I placed
the birds in a certain way and give suggestions on what to do to improve. Shows
should be about fellowship and learning and not just winning at all costs.
Yes we judges are human, our eyes get tired, and we can be tricked. Actually as
an exhibitor, I like to play tricks on the judge just like other judges. Some of
the tricks, I have had played on me include bronze with flight feathers pluck
because they are light colored. feathers pluck on each side of the tail, tails
shorten, cinnamon ticks which are almost impossible to see, or one time when I
was judging my first show another judge found an interesting looking bird from
the sale cages and entered it as a columbus fancy, just to see how high it would
be placed. Thank goodness I didn't place it high but we did laugh about my
puzzled looks trying to figure out what to do with it.
At the Canadian National in 1996, there was a totally black canary entered as
"any other variety". I was feeling lucky that it wasn't in my
division. Either it was the first truly black canary or a terrific dye job.. The
judge gave it about 7th place. We all learned later it was a terrific dye job.
Can you appreciate the judges dilemma?
A really good bird is recognized an agreed on by most judges. I judged The
Canadian National in 1996. I pointed 150 red intensive birds. At the end of the
section, I had 6 with the same score. I really worried about the final
placement. The birds were so identical. Later I learned they were all bred by
the same exhibitor who wished I would just hurry up...
These same birds were taken to the National Cage Bird Show and a different judge
picked the same bird. Amazing, the same bird won the Canadian and US National
under different judges!!!. I also judged the Canadian National in 1995 and done
exactly the same thing!! There is one exhibitor in particular who really wants
me to come back soon....
Why do I judge?? I love to teach and share knowledge. I like to discuss and
learn from the exhibitors. It is more exciting than Christmas morning when I
look at those show birds. I am overwhelmed by there beauty...
Color Feeding
By Linda Hogan
In my experience, using canthaxanthin in the
water produced darker red birds.
It seemed that there was always a bird or two who eat too little of the coloring
agent when it was in the food. what I am actually doing this year is making up
my egg food and adding 1 tsp canthaxanthin to 2 cups egg food. My egg food
changes a little during breeding and from time to time but for right now (7/22):
Using the food processor I process the first three items and then mix them in a
very large pan or bowl with the cous cous.
- Corn bread prepared from a box jiffy which was prepare with 2 eggs, 1/3
cup milk and 1 tablespoon sugar.
- 1/2 large two layer Dillies (grocery store) shortcake. (This is a two
layer light cake with no frosting but is sweet).
- 4 cups Abba green, 8-9 hard-boiled eggs (boiled 12 minutes with shell), 1
tablespoon
Aviguard (avian-specific lactobacillus), and 1 tablespoon
Spirulina.
1 cup wheat cous cous plus 1 cup water (microwave water 2 minutes) stir
periodically to keep the cous cous make it fluffy.
During the other time of the year I add things like 3 cup CeDe reconstituted
with 1 cup cold water and 1 cup Bisko (available from Miami Pet Supply) or
Quicko. In addition, I add 1/2 cup wheat germ oil and 1 teaspoon fish meal
during breeding.
Left-over bread is re-cycled in the food processor and added as available.
Taming Canaries
By Linda Hogan
I had a canary hatch on July 1st and
unfortunately his mother didn't want to feed egg food or hard boiled egg. I got
her to feeding by mixing a generous amount of poppy seed with CeDe and egg yolk.
She feed enough to keep him alive but he was beginning to look like one of the
starving children we see on television.
Normally, I would have fostered him to another hen but the one with the youngest
babies were already a week and a half old when he was born. I tired this but he
was so small. The new mother would feed him but then I would find him the older
chick would be laying on him. I had no choice but to supplement his original
moms feedings.
I made up a mixture of half energette (Ravasi - Miami Pet Supply) and half
powdered egg yolk (King Arthur Flour). I supplemented moms feeding three or four
times a day. At first, I let him stay in the nest while I feed him but now I
have him sitting in my hand when I feed him.
To my amazement baby bird is growing at an acceptable rate perhaps even bigger
than he would have been and his feathers are of very high quality. He sure is
cute. He is a
German
roller. I say he because his feathers are a bright yellow
where hens are usually much lighter in color. He also has a black cap right on
top of his head.
After a while, I realized I wasn't very fair to mother bird. She had lost her
tail feathers when the baby hatched and now she is clearly molting with new
feathers apparent on the wing butts. It is a miracle she hatched this baby and
that she feeds at all since she is molting!!
I also regularly train my German rollers to not fly out of the cage when they
get a chance. This is important because when I compete if a bird gets loose at
the wrong time and flies around the room, he will probably not sing as well.
Starting about three days after the young rollers have left the nest, I open the
cage door and leave it open while I am getting their food. My cage doors open
from the top down and I have tied with kitchen twine so that when open it makes
a platform to the cage. What I want the young to do is hop out on the platform
and watch me and then fly in the cage when I bring the food over. When I want
them back in the cage, I raise my right and make a forward motion. They have
trained quickly. So far only one guy fly around the room and he did it two days
in a row. Now he is a couple weeks older he too hops out on the platform.
I do not have any trouble with getting the canaries to hop out on the platform.
I talk to them with emotion. They are naturally curious about what I am doing
and anxious to be feed greens, egg food, etc.
I use to trained canaries to fly out of flight cages. I use an upward sweeping
motion to encourage them to fly out. They were to land on the top of other
flight cages and sing. When I wanted the to fly back, I used a downward sweeping
motion. When I was teaching them to fly back, I put lots of romaine lettuce in
the cage right before I gave the command. I would train 10 or 12 to do this from
the flight. These were always my sale birds. Who could resist one of these
trained birds?
If you let birds out like this be sure that it is safe for them. No cats, dogs,
enclosed area with windows covered at least at first.
To answer your question about starting with older youngster rather than three
days after hatching, I have some bronze that I hadn't trained to fly out. They
are a couple months old. I started a couple days ago with them. Out of five in
the cage two are now coming out on the platform. Be sure to have your hand over
them palm toward them as you motion them back in. Since I don't want them flying
around the room, I am fairly quick at getting to them when they fly out on the
platform.
Update on baby bird. He has left the nest now and eats sitting in my palm. He
could fly around if he wanted but I am encouraging him to sit there and eat. I
am in the process of changing him over to sitting on my finger for feeding. To
do this, right before I put him back in the cage I sit him on my finger and let
him fly back in the cage. His stomach is full and he seems to like this little
trick. As I take him out each day, I offer to let him climb on my finger. If he doesn't I pick him up but soon he will get the idea of what I want him to do.