Purebred Pigeon Sept/October 2025

43 – Purebred PIGEON Delmarva Shows Do Birds of a Feather Really Flock Together? By Thomas Jackson Judging by watching the crowd at the 2024 Delmarva Pi- geon Club Winter Show, some do - some don’t. Being a smaller show with 319 entries, there was 33 Breeds with 35 exhibitors. There were some that showed one breed and that was their priority, their drive, their focus. This is their love and their life. This is certainly not a bad thing, but a good thing. They bring so much to the Hobby. These I would call the ones that flock together. Then there was the ones that showed multiple breeds. Are these people that can’t decide what breed they Want? Maybe, but I would say that are simply people with a love for more than one breed. This show was a collaboration of these people and of the positive part of our hobby. Having a few juniors, a few women and majority of mature males, our show was a snapshot of our hobby. However, this show was a different view of our hobby, the club is doing some- thing different, striving to make our show a social time as well as a competition. The difference began with entering your birds on Friday afternoon. There was some oldie music playing as exhibitors put their birds in cages. Yes, guys I was watching as you sang along to the music and I also saw a little pep in your step. I say this not to embarrass these guy but quite the opposite. You showed there was a life in you besides birds. People with pigeons can be hap- py and show it. People need to see this showing pigeons is fun. Offering some food and drinks for people while they caged their birds was our attempt to make our show more social. After a Saturday morning of judging the different breeds we stop at noon for a family-style meal – I mean a real meal. Everyone raved about the meal and the selection of food; we owe a huge thank you to Rosie Jackson for planning and serving a great meal. After the meal and a little time of socializing we do a raffle with feed and other nice items donated by members and busi- ness. Then we picked our overall champions. I am proud to say we are one of the very few shows that can say we are growing – if you came to one of our shows I think you will see why. Besides the food and the hospitality we are consistently improving the quality of the birds shown. We invite any and all to join us for our Young Bird Show Nov 8, 2025 and or our Winter Show on December 6, 2025. Our club is confident that if you come once you will want to come back. Put it on your calendar and come check us out! Contact Tom Jackson at 443-262-1250 or ardoverfarm@ hahoo.com for show info and see the Events Calendar listings.•