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Congratulations to Trish's niece for her great day at the Buchanon Fair yesterday. She had Champion non commercial pair and non commercial individual. Also did very well in her first showmanship ever. I drove up to watch  her show. A good time considering how hot it was..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black Cochin Bantams 

Congratulations to Trish's niece for her great day at the Buchanon Fair yesterday. She had Champion non commercial pair and non commercial individual. Also did very well in her first showmanship ever. I drove up to watch  her show. A good time considering how hot it was..

Trish's niece is such a nice young lady!  Kudos to her success at the fair!  The Dickinson County Fair starts this weekend, did some blood testing last night and will do more at coop in tomorrow. david, our son, has 6 birds entered.  They recently bought some new pens, rabbit cages, that I hope will work.  The doors seem a bit small to me.  The poultry committee person is more of a rabbit person so we we'll see how they work out.  I also noticed again this year that the birds are too young.  The LF look more like bantams cause they are showing April hatches.  Must do better at this!

Anyone know what would cause a lot of dander on a bird?  Tested 8 birds for one family and all their birds had really flakey, dandery skin.  They were healthy in every other aspect that I could see.  One boy said he saw a bug run across one so maybe mites?  But I didn't see any when testing them. 

Craig....  When we were in Mason City, did you notice those many stacks of cooping in the barn we were using?  I could not believe the number of collapsible coops.  Too bad they lay unused in heaps. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrandmrschicken 

Trish's niece is such a nice young lady!  Kudos to her success at the fair!  The Dickinson County Fair starts this weekend, did some blood testing last night and will do more at coop in tomorrow. david, our son, has 6 birds entered.  They recently bought some new pens, rabbit cages, that I hope will work.  The doors seem a bit small to me.  The poultry committee person is more of a rabbit person so we we'll see how they work out.  I also noticed again this year that the birds are too young.  The LF look more like bantams cause they are showing April hatches.  Must do better at this!

Anyone know what would cause a lot of dander on a bird?  Tested 8 birds for one family and all their birds had really flakey, dandery skin.  They were healthy in every other aspect that I could see.  One boy said he saw a bug run across one so maybe mites?  But I didn't see any when testing them. 

Craig....  When we were in Mason City, did you notice those many stacks of cooping in the barn we were using?  I could not believe the number of collapsible coops.  Too bad they lay unused in heaps. 

Yes I noticed the coops and how they could be stored without . I am looking forward to the Sept show in Mason City. I will skip Portage to stay closer to home unless they make Portage a breed points show.

Trish's niece worked so hard at the IC show last year that I fixed her up with a Trio. At least I knew she would appreciate them. The judge told the crowd that the birds she was showing would do well in any show in the country.She showed Blacks and Columbians.

At their fair there were too many birds that are too young also. They do have classes for the older birds and in all cases I think the older birds won

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black Cochin Bantams 

At their fair there were too many birds that are too young also. They do have classes for the older birds and in all cases I think the older birds won

How old do you suggest birds be for fair?

My son showed this year for the first time.  He did better anticipated but we are both wanting try to learn so he can hopefully be more prepared next year.

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Originally Posted by mrheinz77 


When I was in 4-H the chickens that did best were hatched in January with the show in mid July.

agreed! look at the fair book from this year and make note of the classes... if they say under 6 months have your birds 5 months and 29 days old and they should do really good. Also, watch how you feed and water them. Don't let them go without good quality food and fresh water. Corn and scratch grains aren't going to fatten them up for fair - get a good bag of all purpose grower or even go with the meat or game bird feed for them until fair so they have the best chance for gain and feather quality. A lot of judges at county fairs don't know their breeds and will judge on weight, condition, and cleanliness. You want your birds as close to standard as possible but if its perfect feathered but in bad condition you won't beat a good conditioned almost perfect bird. Best wishes for fair!

My daughter's chickens were 5 months old and they both won there class. I feed  them chick starter and grower until the show.

Depends on the breed too!  Something like a leghorn can be ready to show in 4-5 months.  If you are talking something like a standard cochin or brahma, you are looking at 12-18 months.  It will all depend on the breed itself and sometimes down to a strain within a breed.  Conditioning a show bird is another fine art too. 

This is true. My kid showed bantams

At our fairs poultry show, on Monday, the judge dqed several birds cause they were not old enough. It is something we covered many times with the kids and parents but they seem to ignore it. The judge didn't rail them, just said they were too young. Telling the kids they are too small to be LF and too big to be bantams and they need to be older. A judge can see a bird of proper age from one too young a mile away. There was also 4 birds that a kid was told were Barred Rocks, (I questioned it) but he insisted they were and....... they were not, they were Dominiques. This kid and parent are non-listeners as well. Our son David did win Grand Champion with a bantam Buff Orp.  (I have to admit, the judge fell in love with her!)  Reserve was a LF Dark Brahma cockerel. It is funny to see the two next to each other. Buffy is such a gentle thing, and the Big Brahma was very docile as well. Both of them were so well handled they could have stood next to each other for an hour w/o moving.