The National Poultry Show is back!!

Grant Brereton says save the date for a magical day out for all poultry owners

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Have you ever been to a National Poultry Show? Chances are, if you got into poultry in the last five years that you haven't! A brief story about my old job (Editor of Fancy Fowl)... every year in December time, there would be two large 'Crufts of the Poultry World' shows to look forward to. The National, run by the Poultry Club, was always first (some years held mid-November) and the Federation of Poultry Clubs show was mostly held on the weekend just before Christmas. These two-day shows were massive - boasting in excess of 7,000 entries of poultry, waterfowl and turkeys. My job was to provide show reports that included results, photographs and winner interviews. As you can imagine, they were very busy and enjoyable weekends for me!

By 2019 I had been in the Editor role for 12 years and been attending these large events for over 20 years. I decided it was time to have a year out and put my family first, just for one year. Then the world got strange! Covid hit, bird flu returned with a vengeance and poultry showing just wasn't possible. There were glimmers of hope as some summer shows went ahead in the interim years, but the annual bans usually kicked in around November time, which meant not only a lack of shows, but if you recall our beloved birds were also subject to lockdown (or flock down, as it became known) rules that often lasted several months.

It was all a bit depressing, confidence was low and felt for a long time that there was very little hope of shows making a return. Breeders were giving up at an alarming rate, and people were pursuing other interests to fill the gap that showing their poultry used to fill. It really was difficult to be told year on year that there'd be no National or Federation shows, and equally as frustrating for their organisers.