FEATURE


T


he National Exhibition is organised by 18 bird clubs who have a strong interest in exhibiting cage birds.


The exhibition of birds has been an interesting hobby for many bird enthusiasts over very many years. The ‘backbone’ of cage bird exhibiting developed in the coal mining areas of the UK with coal miners using canaries to check for carbon monoxide poisoning in the coal pits. Canaries were far more susceptible to this fatal gas than humans were and when the canary died; the miners knew


that it


was time to leave the mine before the gases overwhelmed the humans. Over the years, The National Exhibition has been held at a variety of large halls. I have personal experience of attending The National held in the late 1960’s at Alexandra Place in North London and also at The National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham. Cage and Aviary Birds ran these shows, when the giant IPC Magazines Ltd up until 2003 owned the publication. The Parrot Society organised a meeting in 2006 to discuss the possibility of arranging an exhibition alongside our successful sales events at Stafford County Showground every October. This suggestion was very well supported by the clubs who are now regular attenders at this one day event. Historically The National Exhibition like a number of other specialist shows was a


BIRD SCENE 17BIRD SCENE 31


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52