AUSTRALIAN POULTRY FORUM™

Hi everyone,

I'm off to the 3rd Annual Rare Breeds show & auction today!!!! Yay!!!

It's at Maitland showground - show starts at 10am, auction at 3pm. I did ring to see what they were expecting to have for sale but they couldn't tell me as people are entering birds on the day.

Just going to look of course although I'll probably take some boxes so that I can help other people who may have forgotten to take some.

I'll try to get some pictures & prices to show - although that will mean I'll really have to work the thumbnail thing out. I haven't got it yet.

Deb

Well, it's been and gone. I picked up a pair of white-crested black Polish for $31.

I should have had a closer inspection before bidding as they have the worst case of scaly leg I have ever seen. I brought them inside the house to dip them in Maldison 50 before putting them in a pen as none of my birds so far have had this problem.

I'm really glad I did as after I dipped the rooster I decided to check around his vent for lice. Glad I did..... Seething is a word that comes to mind. Never have I seen a case of lice like this! I washed both birds & put them in my laundry while I took the cage outside and burnt the hay that was in the bottom of it.

The birds are spending the night in a steel bird cage with only newspaper on the floor so there is nowhere that any stray lice can escape to.

I'm assuming that given their parasite load they probably aren't vaccinated against anything either.

The only other official auction I have been to would only accept birds for auction that had been entered in the show. I think that would be a good idea for all club/association auctions because at least then the buyer is assured of some degree of quality. This would also make sure that there were no visible parasite infestations, surely. I wasn't aware that this wasn't the case until after I'd bought these birds. Pays to check, I think.

Lots of birds went for $5-$10 each - the highest price paid was (I think!) around $68 for a very young pair of lavender pekins. Another pair of Polish went for $62 (I gave up at $61) - they were a cuckoo white-crested male and a black white-crested female and didn't have scaly leg. I don't recall seeing them in the "Birds for Auction" pens earlier so was surprised when they came up for sale - after I'd bought the other pair.

I took some photos so I'll try to put them up just to give you some idea of what was there. I'm not a rare breeds expert (or any other sort of expert for that matter ) so there were some there that I didn't have a clue about.

Deb

do you know how often they are held?

Hi Peter - as an annual show & sale it's only on once a year!

There are the other auctions coming up at Maitland that I just posted details of in the "Next Auction" post - the all breeds one in August should be good as they will be good quality birds, but it is 3 months away.....

I think the farmers' markets must have been on yesterday at the Showground also - looked like they were just packing up as I arrived at lunchtime. There are usually poultry there and they are on the 3rd Saturday of each month, starting very early.


Deb

Sorry, didnt see that

Thanks for the info

No worries Peter.

Well done Deb , If you give them a nice warm Bath with a dash of Wool wash in it , they'll brighten up , I use Lucas Paw-Paw ointment on the legs of my birds , just to keep them nice , but If you use an internal/external Parisite control it will do the lice the scale and any worms all at once ,once again , Well Done , PS . were their any Decent Brahma Roosters Their?

Thanks Ian. I have paw-paw ointment here too, so could use that instead of vaseline I guess. I have wormed them today. Is it too much to give them a couple of drops of ivermectin on the back of the neck in a couple of days' time just to make sure?

A guy actually tried to give me a brahma rooster that he didn't sell. I'm not usually one to knock back a free chook, but I didn't really need yet another breed here. There were quite a few there, but I don't know a good one from a bad one. I did pick up the colours from someone's post on here so I know there were some light brahmas and dark ones, and some red (???) coloured ones.

They looked healthy and well-proportioned, but I have to ask - are brahmas all bantams? I thought they were big chooks, but these weren't all that much bigger than pekin roosters.

Deb

brahmas come In standard and bantam size. I think the standard size is very big (like a sussex)