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My dad is the chicken guy, but he is only really familiar with how a few breeds should look. We did spend quite a bit of time in the poultry barn. This year, they had much better looking birds than in years past. I think the last three or four years have been some of the worst. This year was so much better! Although... they did have several birds that had NO business being there. For one, when I was in 4H, you were not allowed to show anything that was missing feathers or had messed up feathers (bent, broken, etc). I saw a bird that was nearly naked on the back of it's neck. I saw a few more that were so feather picked, I felt terrible for them. WTH? I mean, my dad always helped me separate them and keep them in a pen all by themselves so they would not damage their feathers or get pecked. There were about 20 or so buff orpingtons, and I think every single one of them had comb damage- big black spots. One of them didn't look like any kind of damage-- his comb simply looked 'sick' with black speckles. I don't know what was going on with him. This includes the hens, too. The other breeds didnt' have this damage- so maybe that is common for that particular breed??? So odd, and yucky. I think the best looking breeds there were the silver laced wyandots and the little small 'old english' whatever they were- they were gorgeous! These birds were soooo teeny tiny! I had never really paid them much attention in the past. Are these the Seramas you all talk about? They looked like them, but their cards did not say 'serama'- instead it read something like 'old english' something or other. But they had the wings that pointed to the ground and very proud looking chests that stuck out- they looked like they were strutting just standing still. There were probably about 40 of them- so many! I saw only ONE WCB Polish, and she was really pretty. My dad did say she was very nice. I think there were 4 polish total- one was entirely black, they had a buff color and a solid white. No roosters. Oh- and not a single Royal Palm turkey! In fact, hardly any turkeys at all, and I remember two rows being filled with turkeys. That was disappointing.
Someone tell me the deal with the Plymouth Barred Rocks- my dad didn't know much about them to critique them. But we found it interesting that some of them were reversed in color- a black with white barrs and then a white with black barrs. Does that have to do with being a hen vs a rooster? THEN.. we even saw a brown and white- he was nearly so dark as to be almost black, but he was clearly brown instead. All of their tags read with the same breed.
Lots of fun- the kids liked the bunnies the best, and a good portion of them were for sale, too. I saw them from $11 to $140 for a rabbit! My husband use to show his Holland Lops in 4H, so he loves seeing those. I saw quite a few bunnies that needed to be brushed out, and instead they had some mats that looked like they might need to be cut out. The rest of the fair was fun- we rode the train, the ski lift and wore out our feet walking the entire place. We stayed until 7pm! (we got there at 9am)
My dad is the chicken guy, but he is only really familiar with how a few breeds should look. We did spend quite a bit of time in the poultry barn. This year, they had much better looking birds than in years past. I think the last three or four years have been some of the worst. This year was so much better! Although... they did have several birds that had NO business being there. For one, when I was in 4H, you were not allowed to show anything that was missing feathers or had messed up feathers (bent, broken, etc). I saw a bird that was nearly naked on the back of it's neck. I saw a few more that were so feather picked, I felt terrible for them. WTH? I mean, my dad always helped me separate them and keep them in a pen all by themselves so they would not damage their feathers or get pecked. There were about 20 or so buff orpingtons, and I think every single one of them had comb damage- big black spots. One of them didn't look like any kind of damage-- his comb simply looked 'sick' with black speckles. I don't know what was going on with him. This includes the hens, too. The other breeds didnt' have this damage- so maybe that is common for that particular breed??? So odd, and yucky. I think the best looking breeds there were the silver laced wyandots and the little small 'old english' whatever they were- they were gorgeous! These birds were soooo teeny tiny! I had never really paid them much attention in the past. Are these the Seramas you all talk about? They looked like them, but their cards did not say 'serama'- instead it read something like 'old english' something or other. But they had the wings that pointed to the ground and very proud looking chests that stuck out- they looked like they were strutting just standing still. There were probably about 40 of them- so many! I saw only ONE WCB Polish, and she was really pretty. My dad did say she was very nice. I think there were 4 polish total- one was entirely black, they had a buff color and a solid white. No roosters. Oh- and not a single Royal Palm turkey! In fact, hardly any turkeys at all, and I remember two rows being filled with turkeys. That was disappointing.
Someone tell me the deal with the Plymouth Barred Rocks- my dad didn't know much about them to critique them. But we found it interesting that some of them were reversed in color- a black with white barrs and then a white with black barrs. Does that have to do with being a hen vs a rooster? THEN.. we even saw a brown and white- he was nearly so dark as to be almost black, but he was clearly brown instead. All of their tags read with the same breed.
Lots of fun- the kids liked the bunnies the best, and a good portion of them were for sale, too. I saw them from $11 to $140 for a rabbit! My husband use to show his Holland Lops in 4H, so he loves seeing those. I saw quite a few bunnies that needed to be brushed out, and instead they had some mats that looked like they might need to be cut out. The rest of the fair was fun- we rode the train, the ski lift and wore out our feet walking the entire place. We stayed until 7pm! (we got there at 9am)
But by reading I've gained some quality info
I ran across this ad on BYC that was for some water nipples you can put in a 5 gal. bucket and you hang the bucket up so they can peck it and it gives em a drip of water. Has anyone tried these and are they worth their money?
