PA Farm Show 2011 - Page 4

I got a call today from the Farm Show...I guess they are running out of cages and are trying to double coop birds.  My brown Chinese geese will be double cooped. I hope next year they put a limit on the people who bring hundreds.

There was talk of limiting it to 50 per exhibitor.

That's a good idea. Hopefully that would encourage people who bring a ton of birds leave the lesser quality birds at home as well.

I dont understand why some exhibitors bring 100's of birds to the Farm Show. Is it for the premium money? I think I have around 25 entered, and I picked my best birds even though I could have brought many more. My mother entered around 6-7 .

I don't know, Hannah...it's mindboggling to me.  My best guess is that they collect all kinds of breeds (whether the birds are good representatives of the breed or not) and enter as many breed/variety classes as they can.  This way, they can sweep classes with little or no competition, especially with the rare ones.  Since the Farm Show pays premiums for BB, RB, BV, RV, and so on despite the bird's quality, I guess it makes it worthwhile to bring so many birds.  But again, I'm just assuming.

Like you, I think I have a little less than 30 birds entered.  I probably could have even whittled that number down a little bit.

Its because they want to achieve points toward Master Exhibitor or Master Breeder status within their breed association.  For example in the American Silkie Bantam Club awards this for points:  Best Of Variety: 10 x # of Silkies shown IN THAT VARIETY; Reserve of Variety: 5 x # shown in that variety; Best of Breed: 15 x total silkies shown; Reserve of Breed:  10 x total silkies shown; Best FeatherLeg 100 pts; Featherleg Res. 50 pts; Best Bantam: 200 pts; Reserve Bantam: 100 pts.

In other words.....if you want to achieve alot of points without going to many shows, you bring alot of birds (even though they may be lesser quality on some) to pad the numbers and give yourself ALOT more points when you do win.  If you are talking points for the APA/ABA, you also need (I believe...) 100 birds in your category (FL, AOSB, Moderns, etc) to get a starred win.  Alot of shows also have minimum numbers in a breed that have to be met to even qualify for cash awards.

Yes, destiny_56085, you make a great point and thanks for bringing it up.  The PA Farm Show is kind of unique in that, despite being an APA/ABA sanctioned show, there is no minimum class size to qualify for cash awards...at least the way I understand it. But the points system is still applicable for Breeder/Exhibitor status.

The Farm show does limit the amount of birds per age/ variety per exhibitor. I can only show a total of 8 black silkies if I wanted to show that many. (2 cocks, 2 cockerels, 2 hens, and 2 pullets). I guess breeders bring many birds of the same breed to boostup their point winnings if they win big with one bird of a specific variety. Just like Amy said

I have 24 birds entered.

I got an email from Phil Clauer (show superintendent) last night that said both bird and exhibitor numbers are way up this year.  He said there are almost 2,400 entries made by over 100 exhibitors. Also, I think he said 5 exhibitors had to cut birds due to lack of space.  Phil said all cages will be filled. WOW!!