WITH a ‘cluck cluck’ here and a ‘quack quack’ there, the poultry tent was brimming with a wide range of feathered breeds.

The chief steward in the poultry tent Jane Summers said although the entries were much the same as last year they were thankful of the better weather.

She said: “It is a nice little show, I’ve really enjoyed it and I think the visitors have too. The good thing about it is there is not too much pressure, it is quite a laid back show and it has been very enjoyable.”

The Connell family are new to showing but it was nice to see the younger generation getting involved as Bella, age eight, and Emily, six, from Callington, showed a variety of ducks and chickens, which they have rescued and raised themselves.

Bella mainly rescues commercial battery farmed chickens and raises them herself in a free range environment. She then collects the eggs they lay, separates them into boxes with a selection of different coloured eggs — white, blue, green, brown etc — and sells them in a specially made shed with an honesty box at the entrance to the family farm.

Bella has even set up her own Facbook page, ‘Bella’s Free Range Traditional Farm Eggs’, to promote her business and already has more than 500 followers.

Emily and Bella’s father Marcus Connell said: “When Bella first gets the battery chickens they look awful, but she cares for them, we feed them and three months later they are looking much better and laying properly.

“Bella loves going out to care for her chickens, as soon as she comes home from school she is out collecting the eggs and caring for the chickens — much better than her sitting in doors watching TV.

“She sells the eggs, works out the profit and is saving the money she makes. Some of the money then goes towards buying more chickens and the rest she puts aside as savings.”

The Post asked Bella what she was saving up her extra money for and she said: “I am saving up for a Pug!”

Marcus added: “Dad won’t buy her a Pug you see, she will have to save up for it herself — it’s just a really good way of teaching her the value of money, as well as things like responsibility and the difficult topic of death.”

They spent a lot of time as a family preparing the chickens for show day, especially the Silkie whose fluffy appearance demands some extra attention.

Marcus said: “I think it is a great way to be spending the first few weeks of the summer holidays. We spent all of last night washing, shampooing and drying them and just generally getting them ready for the show. However, disaster struck when the Silkie managed to get his head into his water bowl causing his ‘hair’ to flop and part down the middle, so we had to quickly dry it this morning but he looks alright now.”

Bella has been rearing chickens for around eight to nine months and currently has a flock of 142 chickens but also has a number of ducks too.

She began her showing career this year and is already storming ahead of the competition. She won at Launceston Show a few weeks ago and was pleased to follow that up with a win at Camelford.

Bella, and her family, received the trophy for ‘best waterfowl’ with their butterscotch coloured call duck, which Emily decided was called ‘King’ — a strong name for a champion.