Off to the Duck Show

[mominoz]

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Getting ready for my first duck show. I decided to enter 7 , 5 runners , 4 under a year, and one 2 yr. old drake.And one pair of Saxony. I have 3 carriers, after searching thrift stores in 3 towns . I finally had to rig a divider in my largest for 2 pr. of runners, to keep the boys from nibbling on each other, even if they were raised together, ti's breeding season.

I finally bought a large ,tall ventilated laundry basket for the one lone runner drake and I will tie it closed. It is big enough for him to stand and wide enough to lay in.

I also am bringing 4 mini-ducks to sell, But they aren't in attack mode yet , so they can stay together in a mid-size crate. I also bought "interesting" heavy glassware as waters at the thrift store. I figure they are too heavy to spill, and needed deep enough to dip their bills in to clear their nostrils.
I will have to bring them inside to the spare bath and try to give them baths.....then put them in their carriers on fresh shavings.7 ducks, (3 pairs), that is 4 baths! Then I have to wrap them in a towel to get them past the 3 terriers

It's the pedicure that may be tough

 

[srpaint]

Have fun!!! And good luck

 

[Oregon Blues]

Good luck.

Be there for the judging. They might want the owners of the Runners to be the ones to move them to the judging pens.

I bathe my ducks by putting them in a grassy area with a tub of clean water. They bathe themselves. All I have to do is keep them out of mud. A damp washcloth will wipe off any smudges that they leave.

It pretty much takes two people to clip nails. One to hold duck, one to work the clippers. Maybe you could manage it by wrapping them in a towel with their feet sticking out.

 

[mominoz]

Checking last minuted "Duck Bulletin" standards, trying to figure out which Saxony female to take, have it down to 3..... hard to pick out SQ, when you have only seen your own ducks and photos....

Hope the judges comments are informative.... and be nice to see other ducks

I am misting some of the ducks, putting some in clean pens with clean water.... toenails.seriously, like how do you know if a toenail is "the wrong length?" Other than a grossly rolled one? They look fine to me.....I mean....like who studies "Duck Toenails"???

I may not bring my blacks at last thought , they looked good to me, but may hold their tails up to high, they are only 8 months old, may have to take them out and "run" them a bit to see if it's just something they are doing in the small pen.... Or maybe just take them and see how much that counts off.

 

[destinduck]

Best of luck. Have fun

 

[Miss Lydia]

Best of luck. Have fun

X2!!

 

[Baylor]

Good Luck!!

 

[mominoz]

Well, we actually won "Champion Light Duck" with my female penciled runner

Surprise....

 

[un-named543]

 

[mominoz]

First, I had to figure how to transport the birds, I had been buying some kennels , but only had one tall enough for the runners, it was a huge crate, so I rigged a divider to put the penciled and black young pairs in. It worked on the way down, but on the way back they "jumped " the divider (hardware cloth), it was rainy, and I figure the males wouldn't be fighting over females while in transport, (everyone hunkered down in the shavings while riding). I had the 2 Saxony in a medium large crate. And I had one runner drake in a large laundry basket, boungeed shut.(Only thing tall enough, I could find that week)

Got a late start, but made it in time to get birds Pullorm tested and checked in. First thing was they were taking the birds out one at a time. I said"ahh, I have a problem, I have 4 ducks in one crate and I don't see how we can one out with out the others making a break for it, unless we can put them somewhere else as we test them"

So the Ag. guy figured out we could go ahead and put them in their cages after someone nicely checked my number and their cages were literally within 10 feet of the testing.

After testing and wrangling everyone into their cages,I was confusticated about the teany,tiny hook, that was a catch, that and the cages were just set on shavings with no floor...? They were in a roofed addition on a barn, but it was open for several feet on top the side walls, I had nightmares of a gang of raccoon bandits covertly attacking after dark

. I read in the direction we were supposed to "check in and close your coop tags" ???"Huh?" Never could figure out what they meant, the latch? huh?duh?.It was late and we had to drive 20 miles back to Atlanta for our "points room"...did not sleep at all.. we were by airport in an older Fairfield, and I had a bad headcold and my mold,dust mite allergy..
Next morning made it while they were judging chickens (100's of them I swear).

I had brought 4 mini-ducks (Overbergs) to sell and had people buying them pretty early, I could have sold another pair early, which I was going to bring , but ran out of space. By selling them , we actually broke even on the show

I walked around looking at all the chickens, ducks, geese and 'stuff' for sale. Finally, they were finished the ducks and geese, I talked to a couple people there who were helpful, just told them it was my first show and I didn't know anything

I was then told my Penciled runner got "Best Light Duck", and her mate Reserve, my Blacks got noted as BB(best of breed I think they said , and BV Best of variety, the male got RV, reserv variety. My gray Drake got RV, reserve variety.(Basically number 2 in the variety.
Oh, and my hubby finally figured out "close the coop tag" means you fold over the tag with your number(all your birds cages have that number), so the judges I guess don't know whose birds they are judging. Course I had orange zip ties for Id on all my birds......

My Saxony didn't fair as well, I talked to the owner of the other two and realised my idea of "Buff" was lighter and she said they wanted what I'd call a "gingery orange"...I knew the femal I ended up taking was a bit refined, as the 3 I was going to take all had a callous on their feet. (turns out mydrake did too,k but I missed it, because I was just trying to hang onto him. Needless to say, it was rather last minute, and I hadn't caged trained anyone and they were not happy

My drake was a bit traumatized I think, because they put him next to a huge white Turkey!!

and another drake ont he other side. He was puffing up to the drake trying to box thru the wire, while being terrorized byt the turkey on the other side. He did not eat the first day, I was a bit concerned...Here I pull him out of his harem of 7 ducks and one other drake, and transport him for a couple hours then put him next to a rival and a dinosaur (turkey)

. Rain had started, so we went back to room early to recover from sick and no sleep.
Next morning, went early for awards, suddenly , hubby pushed me forward, "they called your name"

, I got a plaque for "Champion Light duck", and they took a pic ,before I could adjust my headband,mussed hair....

... Surprise...thought the call duck would get it . I believe Mr. Travis B. got all the other duck awards

. Nice show, if I hadn't been sick I would have enjoyed it even more.
Geese were nice too, I should have brought my Tufted Buffs, they were in good condition, I didn't think you could take unrecognized breeds to a APA Open Show. I guess you can ,as there were colored Sebastopols and Buff Saddleback Pomerainians which won champion goose I believe.
( I did run around looking for the IWBA meeting, I thought they said on the CVPA website, but no one know what I was talking about, thought there was a meeting...wanted to go and maybe join, but drew blanks for info...)

Nice show, nice birds, nice people............