My Royal Welsh Winter Fair 2013

In 2012 I visited the Winterfair at the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society show ground in Builth Wells as an excited and intrigued fist time visitor, keen to investigate the poultry, pigs and sheep sections.
I returned this year as a poultry exhibitor but just as excited.
My day started with a rather smelly one and a half hour drive from north Cardiff to Builth Wells with three Silverlace Wyandotte Bantams safely stowed away in the boot of the car.  I mention smelly, as the hens seem to have decided to hold off exercising their bowels all night, only to release them when placed in the transport cage in the rear of the car.  I spent the first 20 minutes driving with the windows open with the temperature at 4 degrees on a pitch back early morning.

Smell to one side, I made it to the show ground at 8.45am.  Latest pen time was 9am, so I had to work fast, giving the feet and legs a final clean, the comb and wattles a little oil and Vaseline.  Fortunately for me judging did not start until 9.30am.

There were 9 birds in my class including chocolate and barred wyandottes.  The white wyandotte were separated into their own group which is fortunate as I have found they tend to be preferred over other colours.
With the hens safely in their pens I left the hall and set off to explore the food hall.  First stop was the welsh Venison centre for a bacon roll, then over to the food hall for a coffee.
There was plenty of welsh food and produce on sale in the food hall and at the farmers market, but it didn't take long before I was drawn to the pig and sheep buildings.

Time did fly and by 11:30am majority of judging was finished in the poultry building.  A first and third place out of three entries was not a bad result.
Speaking to other entrants I managed to get a little feed back as I unfortunately missed the judges.  The legs seem to have been a significant factor, not mine but the hens yellow legs.

I have put this down to a combination of things.  Firstly, the leg colour of the parents (obvious I know).  Secondly the fact that they have not quite started laying eggs yet and a reasonably amount of maze and corn is being fed.
I will watch closely to see if the leg colour changes significantly when they do start laying, most likely in the new year around March time.

As you can see the reindeer were visiting again this year.  


Finally I could not finish this entry without including a photo of the First Place Welsh Harlequin duck.

Thanks for reading.