BOKHARA TRUMPETERS
CLAUS HIRSCH JENSEN
A life long passion
THE EUROPEAN BOKHARA CHALLENGE, WIJCHEN, NL 2016
The Importance of Showing
Those who know me, also know I have very strong feelings about the importance of shows as a tool to develop and maintain fancy pigeons and standards.
If we are not willing to let our Bokharas to go into a competition and get them evaluated up against the pigeons of others by an unbiased judge, what is the point in having a standard at all? We are all world champions at home. I know I am. I love the thrilling moment at shows where it becomes obvious I may have to step-up my effort in breeding and preparation to hang on there.
Besides the fun and friendship offered at shows, it certainly helps in three major areas:
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Keep the breed on track and going towards a common goal, defined as the standard of perfection. A standard ´is not a worthless piece of paper written the same morning. It is a labor of love and effort refined over many years
Let you see how your Bokharas level up against those of other breeders
Preserve the Bokhara and let him stay in the spotlight this unique pigeon breed deserves more than any other pigeon.
WINNERS
A look at some of the many (class)winning birds I have shown over the years, always there and always ready for the challenge
3 x EBC Reserve Champion
EBC Champion 2016
EBC Champion 2010 & 2012
Best young hen EBC 2018
Best old red hen EBC 2016
Best Young Cock EBC 2011, Best black OC EBC 2013
GETTING THE BIRDS READY
I have already written about my procedure on how to deal with the birds during the moult. Now We are about 3 weeks before the show and hopefully the birds you plan to enter are close to ready. The head of the bird will always miss a bit here and there. A modern Bokhara is a heavy feathered pigeon and it takes skills but also a lot of luck to have them peak in all parts at the same time. Any Bokhara breeder of quality can tell tales about birds having fantastic shells in March/April while the same birds look rather mediocre in shell during the show season. It is not only bad excuses. I find that especially the cocks are hard to get to peak in readiness but it seems we are all on the same ground.
3 weeks before the shows the Bokharas should be full fat and vibrant in the body indicating health is as it should be.
The feathers on the feet especially will show some tear and a few weeks of wearing but should not be dirty as such, and hopefully only minimal damage.
2 weeks before a given show I will wash all possible show birds. Nothing is added to the water. They are allowed to soak in lukewarm water for about 30 minutes, the moved to warmer water. It may well be that they still have some wax around still growing boot/shell/rose feathers. This should gently be massaged off. It will not produce as nice a feather if disposed of naturally by the bird but you got not options not to. Feathers still in shafts are the sign of a lazy showman and me personally when judging gets annoyed by it. Have them ready.
As the outside (loft) temperature is most likely below 0 degrees Celcius this time of year where I live the birds are allowed to slow dry at around 10 degrees for about 12 hours before being put back in the loft. I do not use a hair drier as you can do a lot of harm to the bird with it
A second round of washing is done 3 days before bringing the birds to the show. As for correcting feather faults there is not a not you can do but a few things are obvious to correct such as spikes in and under the rose, removing a few feathers may correct or at least improve the cup of shell and I remove inverted feathers growing in the boots as this is a fault. It is a lot easier to try and breed correct birds than to try and correct a faulty Bokhara.
After all your efforts the transportation boxes to bring the birds to the show should pay respect to the jewels you are about to transport, lots of litter, single sectioning and adequate room.
