Fancy that! Popular poultry show makes its return

If you have a passion for poultry — you will be pleased to know that the Bermuda Poultry Society has brought its popular January show back after a 13-year hiatus.

From beautiful bantams and lovely lanshans, to a brand new breed for the island — the Bermuda Poultry Fanciers show will feature top quality poultry and other livestock that is the envy of many other fancier societies around the world. What’s more, the society is celebrating more than 100 years in Bermuda and so the show promises to be one to remember. 

President of the society Ronnie Lopes is excited to see a return of the annual show and hopes that members will show their dedication and enter. 

He told the Bermuda Sun: “We used to have shows every year in January but not since 2000 due to a decline in membership and other factors. Over the past four years, members have been running the poultry division of the Agricultural Exhibition. But in the past five years, people who were associated with the organization were pestering me saying we had to get the club back together. I saw the interest come back and in May we decided to get the club up and running again.”

The show takes place in the Jack King Building in the Botanical Gardens on January 31 ands February 1 from 9pm to 5pm and Feb 2 from 9pm to 3pm. 

Lopes first became interested in poultry 26-year ago and in 1976 his teacher at Mount Saint Agnes — Joseph Hall — gave him two trios of white leghorn bantams. He began winning trophies and his passion for poultry was born.

At the show, there will be breeds from all over the world including a breed that has never been shown in Bermuda — the Scotts Grey. Dr Robert Vallis was recently featured in the UK’s Practical Poultry magazine with one of the birds. There will be around 300 chickens as well as rabbits, turkeys, ducks and smaller breeds such as canaries and quails. Lopes said: “Once you get a pure bred — then you get judged on condition — you don’t want broken feathers or beaks or overgrown toenails or overweight birds... The judge has to take every bird out of the cage he wants to see if it is aggressive or not. Most people who come to the show from overseas can’t believe the quality we have here in Bermuda — we don’t have the large numbers but we do have the quality. We get judges from the US, this year they will be judged by Bart Pals and we hope to get Andy Marshall (Practical Poultry contributor) next year.” 

There will also be a display especially for the children showing how chickens are bred. The eggs will be in an incubator, next to the chicks in the brooders, next to the grown adults in coops.

For Friday’s show, the Society invited all the pre-schools and primary school who have entered a poultry colouring contest currently running in the Bermuda Sun. The pictures will decorate the walls around the show. Entry deadline is January 24 at 5pm — download the entry form here..