Cooking oil, a fireplace, and purple shampoo for those in one cage and clean freaks in the other.
Part of the final preparations for Wakefield’s Tyler Creswell’s birds which are vying for the top seed at this weekend’s Nelson Poultry and Pigeon Association Show.
In his eighth appearance, with at least four best junior ribbons already to his name, the Garin College student is entering three Black Orpington chooks with a green tint to their feathers. He is also making his homing pigeon debut with six birds he has bred himself.
“I think it's a lot more entertaining than everything else,” Tyler says of the event.
“I started entering chickens in the A&P Show and thought it was kind of fun, and since I have quite tame birds, because most of them are hand raised, kids can go over and play with them without having to worry about getting attacked by them.”
“Pigeons are a lot better at keeping themselves clean than the chickens, so they don't have to be cleaned before shows. It's just catching them and putting them in the transport cage.”
While pigeons are lower maintenance, Tyler’s scrupulous routine for his Black Orpingtons includes high-protein feed and a wash with purple shampoo before drying them next to the homestead’s indoor fireplace, at a safe distance so they do not roast.
Conditioning their beaks, combs and wattles with rice bran or olive oil “brings out the red”.
“I’m hoping for at least one more ribbon,” he says.
Tyler will also be a judges’ assistant and his 12-year-old brother Jaxon has also entered a pigeon and two Orpington Frizzles.
Nelson Poultry and Pigeon Association Annual Show
Where: Hope Recreation Hall
When: Saturday, 30 May, 11am–5pm, and Sunday, 31 May, 9am–1pm
Cash-only entry: adults $2, under 16s $1, family pass $5
