Bridget Boulton riceve il premio per il Best Novice Lizard.
DI SEGUITO UN ARTICOLO pubblicato dalla rivista Cage della Gran Bretagna, inviatomi da David Allen, che parla di una allevatrice emergente di Lizard Mrs. Bridget Boulton- La traduzione dell'articolo sul prossimo numero del Lizard news n.2/2010
Angelo, below is transcript of the article printed in cage Birds this week. I have also attached pictures that were used in the article take by yours truley [me]
I am pleased to say that i was one of the first people who Bridget got stock from and one of the perant of her classic winner was bred from one of the birds she got from me.
regard david.
MY DREAM START
BRIDGET BOULTON tells Neck West about her incredible first four years in the lizard canary fancy. A little bit of history was made at the 2010 Lizard Canary association Classic show when novice took best bird in show for the frist time ever. It was only Bridget Boulton’s second time showing at the classic. “2009 was the first time I’d showed at the Classic” she explained. “ I didn’t do very well, but I learned a lot. The next year I couldn’t believe what happened when I won. I was very surprised. You always hope. But I didn‘t think I was in with a shout. I’ve only been doing it for four years” Bridget lives in the picturesque village of Osmaston, in the Peak district. Thatched cottages, a village duck pond and an old church go to making one of the nicest places you could possibly wish to live.
And Bridget makes the most of it “ I’ve got a nice big garden, with a shed that’s about 5.7m x 1.9m [19ftx6ft]. It’s got about 60 cages in it with an indoor flight and I’ve got an outdoor flight as well.” When it comes to farming stock, Bridget tell me she makes full use of the surrounding countryside. “ I believe in a lot of chickweed in the summer and grass seed heads,” she says. “ and I also pick berries for them, which probably comes from my farming, I give my Lizards quite a varied diet”. Bridget also believes her outside flight is very important to her birds. She says “ An outside flight makes a difference to your breeding because it gets them fitter. It’s something I certainly believe in. I think it’s good for them to have more room to fly around. If you keep them in breeding cages too long they get fat. “ I put my hens in the flight the other day after the show season and the just went onto the floor as if they didn’t know what to do. The thing was, they’d been in breeding cages for so long. So my birds go into the outside flight in preparation for the breeding season, so they can use their wings an become fitter.”
Bridget says that not all lizard breeders use outside flights: I’m lucky I’ve got a big garden so I can have an outside flight. I think an outside flight enables the birds to get some sunshine and get fitter. I try to make my birds as comfortable as possible. I do have some heat in my birdroom because we’re a bit exposed here in the Peak District, although generally canaries don’t need heat. Canaries are quite hardy, but because of where I live I have heat to stop the water freezing up.” Bridget’s farming background may well be the secret to her breeding skills. She says” Most of my life has been in farming and I think you just gat an eye. When you’ve got beef stock, you have to have the best. I worked on a farm for years. I’ve calved cows, everything. It’s hard work and I’ve got a bad back from working in the farm, but I enjoyed it. I love the outdoors. I don’t like being cooped up.” But she is also very keen to learn from her mistakes. “ in my second year of breeding I bred quite a few and as I couldn’t keep them all I let some of them go and then realised I’d let some of the wrong ones go. I didn’t like to say no to people. When it came to breeding I realised I was short of birds as I’d let too many go. Now I don’t like getting rid to soon. I’ve still got lots of stuff to learn.” She says she listens to any advice and tries to take points on board. “ They were telling me I’d got poor ground colour,” she tells me. “ Either I wasn’t feeding the carophyll right or I’d got poor ground colour birds. So I thought I’ve got crack this carophyll or find somebody that had some dark-based birds. “One of my friends put me on to Harry Slater, He’d got some lovely dark ground birds, especially golds, good rowing as well, and that’s what I needed. He is based in Long Eaton, which is in Derbyshire, but close to Nottinghamshire. Albert Hallam lives there too, who I brought my original stock from.” That trip to Harry Slater’s was well worth it. “I can away with three really nice deep gold cocks and I think I’ve cracked the feeding this year. I only got one of Harry’s cocks to go down this season, but it’s a really nice dark bird. My silvers have gone really nice and dark now. A nice Blacky-silver. Cpairing up is very much intuitive. “ I don’t know about genetics and stuff like that” she admits, “ I can’t get my head around it. You hear people saying all these genetic things about birds, feather quality and whatever, I go by visual signs and make sure they’re not closely related. I don’t believe in closely related breedings. If I like the look of a hen, I’ll find a nice cock to go with her. That’s the way I have always done it. Simplicity is the watchword for me.” Bridget has been warmly welcomed into the lizard fancy, which she says she greatly appreciated. “ Most people in the Lizard fancy are very helpful.” she volunteers. “ I helped out at Kimberly CBS and South Notts CBS and I also do stuff at Ashbourne CBS, because that’s where you start, your local CBS. Most of the people I know are fantastic. Some are miserable if they haven’t had any success, but I’ve got some great friends through the fancy, which I wouldn’t have had if I hadn’t had gone into Lizard. Most are a good bunch.
However she does think that more women should come to the fore in breeding and showing. She says “One of the problems is that there are women in the fancy who do lots of the keeping, but their husbands tends to take all the glory. The chaps go out to work, so somebody’s got to be there, if they can’t get back or whatever. There are load of woman that look after the birds. They just don’t come to shows. The women do help out in the kitchen side of it. And if it weren’t for some of the chaps’ wives there wouldn’t anyone to do the catering side. But it would be nice if some women stepped forward I think we’d show the chaps a thing or two.”
Bridget says she’s happy with the way her showing career is going, but she says she needs to improve. She say’s “ it’s very satisfying. The trouble is now I’m scared - can I do it again? Can I keep it up? There’s going to be great expectations placed on me. I know I need to improve certain things. I need to improve my rowings on some of the birds. That’s what you do every year, you try to improve, improve, improve. I’d love to win the classic again. This year is my last year as a novice and then I go up to champion and that’ll sort me out, won’t it? I’ve got 35 birds at the moment.
I’m pretty happy with my stock but I’ve gone to Harry again and got some gold hens, which I was short of. But I’m sticking to Harry, Albert and David Allen. I’ve not got any stock from anybody else now. The bloodline is those three and that’s what I’ll stick at.
WE ASKED Huw Evans, the former LCA chairman and current Classic show secretary, to put Bridget’s recent show success in to context for us.
He said “What make Bridget’s achievement so remarkable is that she not only beat all the champions at our top show, but with a bird from a line that she has been developing over the last four years. That’s not luck. That’s a combination of skill and sound stockman ship. She was an extremely popular winner.
Also Bridget became LCA treasurer in 2009 because she wanted the job! She’s one of those people who roll up their sleeves and helps out when there’s work to be done.
Everyone likes and respects her”
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