For the past several months I have been working on the new ABA Membership Portal at https://aba49.wildapricot.org .
The goal of instituting this portal was to make it easier for the staff and members to update their memberships in a more modern fashion. We rolled it out the first of February and the reception went well.
Each membership requires a unique email address and your membership card can be printed or saved as a digital card. It has an event calendar of all known ABA sanctioned shows which is great for your show planning.
The best feature, in my mind, is over 700 articles written over the last 110 years about almost every topic of breeding bantams. There are few old and rare books on there as well and it resides in the Members section and you can only see it when you login.
I have used these articles many times over the years and the ABA used to sell them for 10 cents apiece. We converted that old Info Bank into PDF files for your use. I think it’s a great value addition to your membership. Check them out and go learn something new!
At the January Annual Meeting, the board decided to bring back the Club & Show Membership and you can also sign up for your Club and Show on the portal. Each membership for $50 includes your membership and one show sanction. There is a link button on the site to purchase additional show sanctions if needed for $25 per show. The reasoning was we were not getting good contact information from the shows with just the sanction method. Now the shows have to have valid contact information and the show sanctions are now a better deal at $25 instead of $50.
The first batch of incubated chicks are hatching this week. I had a couple hens set out about 20 chicks as I always love to let them do that. I am following the advice I mentioned last time from pigeon friend, Bill Henderson. Only make exceptional matings. I have one mating in White, Buff, Black and Partridge Chantecler Bantams with the best birds I have. The same on Birchen and Silver Blue Moderns and Beltsville Turkeys.
My new project this year is once again rekindled in my love-hate relationship with the Andalusian Blue Color pattern. Thanks to Matt McCammon, Judy Gantt and Mike Sayre, I have a plan to put the lacing back on them and get rid of the shafting. They are not laying yet but more to follow. Where did I get the idea, from the ABA Info Bank articles I just mentioned!
Have a great week!
Matt