INTERNATIONAL COCHINDAY IN ZEDDAM (NL)

After many months of preparation and some bad news for the organisation in the last two weeks, the day was there. On Saturday the 12th of September the doors of the village home opened its doors, waiting for the guests to come.
The number of entries was higher than last year. A bit disappointing, only  25 Cochins. This number was compensated by 220 bantams. IN the sale area there were also over 100 birds, a promising number.

Special were the contacts with the newly founded clubs from Italy and France. From Italy came six breeders, among them the president of the club, Simone Cepollina. They brought a lovely prize that was put on the best collection of four male birds. Simone himself entered some black and cuckoo bantams in show. There was also a delegation of four persons from France. They mainly came to buy breeding stock. From England John Soper and his wife Sylvia were there. They have not missed a single Cochinday. Also there were a lot of breeders from Germany, Belgium and Holland.
From the German club for Cochins, Brahmas and Brahma bantams Volker Kazenmayer, the vicepresident and Frank Klatt, the coach of the Cochin breeders were there all from the south of Germany. Horst and Bärbel Bastian of the German bantam club could not come because of illness. They would have picked out the best bantam. This job was now taken care of by John Soper (GB) and Dietmar Hohenhorst (D), which I think they did very well.  Dietmar Hohenhorst, a good friend and breeder of bantams, came from Germany to judge part of the bantams. He did the partridge variaties and the mottled.

 

Because two judges had told us one week beforehand they could not come, we had to find some other judges in very short time. Because on a day like this also people who are not officially judges can judge, we could solve this problem. We asked Mathijs Ykema, a young talented breeder to judge. He did the buff and black bantams. Still 23 white bantams were left. Those birds I judged myself. Normally as organiser of the day I would rather not have done so, but there was no other solution.

Hendrik Timmer judged the Cochins. Twelve black birds to start with. Best pullet and best Cochin of the day was a bird from J.Alms (D). Also a young Dutch breeder, Karin Grutters, had a very good pullet in this class. Other exhibitors were W.Lensing from Germany and Bart Leyssen from Belgium. Bart had the best pullet of six in blue. A nice large bird. W.Lensing the best cockerel in that colour. Only one buff pullet which should have beenn larger  from B. Leyssen.  J.Lieder(D) showed four nice cuckoo birds. B.Leyssen showed a pair of young birds in buffcuckoo, a new colour in Cochins.

Sixteen bantams in partridge of good quality. In silverpartridge 24 birds. A cockerel was best male and best bantam of the day. A bird from U.Opitz (D). Two birds from myself in bluepartridge. Not ready yet, but we are working on them. Among the mottled a perfect hen from G.Bosch (NL). A nice cockerel from K.Sneyers (B). Best black was a young male of F.Hannes (B). In pullets best bird from G.Bosch.
Many years we had not seen them and here they were; thirteen blue birds of three Belgian breeders. Best in both sexes N.Antoni (B). A white hen from Italy with superb type. Eleven cockerels and eleven pullets with excellent types. Best birds Schute/Theelen (D) and Hannes (B). Twenty-two birds in Buff. Best male R.Bosch.(NL) best females R.Bosch and D.Hohenhorst (D). Eighteen birds in Porcelain. Best birds in both sexes M.I.Croon (NL). Eight very good birds in lavender (self blue) from Sneyers, Belgium. Seven birds in silverwheaten. Really top birds from A.v.d.Bogaard (B). Two birds of very good quality in birchen from Gregotzuk (D). Four birds in Cuckoo from our Italian friend Simone in very good quality. In buffcuckoo five birds with the winner K.Wijnen (NL). A class of nine whiteblackcolumbian in very good quality. Winner Gregorzuk and Hohenhorst , both from Germany. Four birds in whitebluecolumbian. A difficult colour, but these birds were very good. Also five good birds in buffblackcolumbian. In buffbluecolumbian M.Ykema (NL) was the winner.
Eight birds in a colour that is called bobtail. The name is not official and the colour is not recognised, but everybody knows them and especially outside Holland they are very popular. They are called so because they show the white and light grey of the dog with the same name. See picture. Very nice typed birds. A group of 16 frizzles. One in black and the others all in white. Good material. Best male Schulte/Theelen, best female H-Ulrich Luthardt.
Again eleven birds in not recognised colours. Buffmottled, dunyellowbirchen, blackyellowbirchen and a splash cock.

I think it was a perfect day. I was busy and there were contacts between breeders of different countries. Many birds found new owners. All visitors came to say goodbye, thanked Gerrit and me for the beautiful day. That is stimulating and motivating us to organise the sixth Cochindag on the 11th of September 2010

 

Ardjan Warnshuis