Chicken Showing Questions.....

[Nuggetirl]

I come from a dog show and horse show world, where pedigree is everything. You can't show your dog in the AKC without papers, etc.
Now, with chickens, that seems like it's not the case(?).
Can I just take my silkie and if she's a good type, then she'll do well and vice versa?

 

[sourland]

If your Silky's type, size, and feathering are to the SOP, and her condition is excellent she will do fine. It is far different from the animal worlds where a registry is the controlling factor.

 

[Nuggetirl]

so, theoretically (even though this couldn't actually genetically happen)
I could breed a silkie to a cochin, and as long as it looked like the standard for a silkie, I could still show it?
It doesn't really matter I'm just trying to make sure I understand.

 

[sourland]

Yes, and you can rest assured that upon occasion chickens of impure blood are shown and placed. Actually this can happen in the dog world if people 'cheat'. At one time I judged a lot of hound (beagle and some basset) field trials. There was an individual who had the most typey show bassets, yet his field dogs had no where near the bone, size or type of his show dogs. I know for a fact that he had a beagle field champion in his kennels. His field dogs were among the best out there, but I am positive that they were not purebreds. This was all before the AKC instituted DNA testing - on a limited basis.

 

[Nuggetirl]

very interesting. Thanks for the answer. I've stopped showing dogs (never got into breed shows, I'm an obedience and rally gal) because my dog passed away and I just don't have time to train up the newbies. I just got into backyard chickens, and thought it might be fun to get back into some sort of showing, but I'm so clueless on fowl!

 

[sourland]

We've always obedience trained all of our house dogs for a variety of reasons including their protection. Two golden retrievers ago (life is measured by dogs for me) Livvie was apparently a natural, and our trainer encouraged us to compete with her. On a rainy day we attended a trial and entered her in a pre novice class. We thought that she did well, but as the awards were given out her name wasn't mentioned - until first place. (I can't believe that I just got emotional as I remembered that moment - senile old man here). My wife was hooked. We dual registered her AKC and UKC. Titled her at the novice and open levels in a season. Had her trained for Utility - she learned articles on second try, and then everything fell apart. She started panicking on exercises - once tried to bring back ALL of the articles at the same time. It was no longer fun for her so we stopped. If I hadn't been involved in field trialing for so long ( finished my first dog in '59) I could really have become involved in obedience or rally competition. I showed birds for a while, but had about as much fun with that as I did at dog shows.

 

[Matt1616]

You guys are correct about there being no registry for poultry. But...people that are in the show world are just as familiar with existing show lines of poultry as the people are in the dog or horse world.


Matt

 

[Yellow House Farm]

You guys are correct about there being no registry for poultry. But...people that are in the show world are just as familiar with existing show lines of poultry as the people are in the dog or horse world.


Matt

Precisely

Poultry is bred by shape not blood.

To discuss the Dorking breed, Ancona breed, Orpington breeds, etc...one could really say the Dorking shape, Ancona shape, Orpington shape. Variety is established by color (primarily). Thus one breeds this shape in this color.

In shapes that have been neglected over time, skilled breeders often cross in something else to help rebound the shape. This wouldn't be done, however, with something that exists in could shape within the breed, because crosses like this always have negative side effects against which one must select for multiple seasons and inexperienced breeders who make crosses often don't have that know-how to do so and simply destroy what they have. Most new varieties are developed via out-crossing to mix the color variable into the mix.