CoturnixComplex
Crowing
- Nov 16, 2018
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I can't have chickens where I am right now and I love showing anything I'm involved with - it's an amazing learning opportunity. I am trying to make it work with my arctic-guppy-chickens (a.k.a. japanese coturnix quail) and have run into the following dizzying array of issues:
1. Most all poultry shows simply don't have a class for them (and they are invariably combined with all other gamebirds or all other non-chickens). Those that do are judging kind of blind because:
2. There is absolutely no standard or governing body in the united states whatsoever for domesticated fancy quail (there is one for wild-type gamebirds like native quail, pheasant, chukar, etc) so there is no breed standard for conformation, size, color, anything. Showing: judge mind reading edition!
3. An issue with showing both birds and eggs of the standard/bantam variety of coturnix in particular vs. the jumbo is that the latter is a visually more impactful meat bird at first glance, and because there's no standard whatsoever, so some judges simply aren't aware that there are multiple "size classes" in the first place. Frustrating for those of us that keep standard sized birds because they tolerate smaller spaces exponentially better.
4. They're flightier and dumber than chickens, and do not really enjoy human contact, at all, so show training/washing/everything them is kind of a pain, especially if you don't do it from chicks before you even know who will be show quality.
5. They're susceptible to many diseases chickens carry, but it's not really standard or feasible to vaccinate them, unlike larger birds. So I've got to have a pretty intense 1-3 month quarantine area for when they come home.
But what the hell, I am determined. So if all goes well I have quail eggs headed to a show in February and live birds to the county fair in June. I've already started a conversation about some of the issues mentioned above with the show organizers, but I'll probably be bringing a few wildly disparate entries just to see what sticks the first few go-rounds. I'm not really expecting to place but I love the excuse to go to these things
Wish me luck! I'll report my experiences back here and in the quail forum for the good of quaildom everywhere.
1. Most all poultry shows simply don't have a class for them (and they are invariably combined with all other gamebirds or all other non-chickens). Those that do are judging kind of blind because:
2. There is absolutely no standard or governing body in the united states whatsoever for domesticated fancy quail (there is one for wild-type gamebirds like native quail, pheasant, chukar, etc) so there is no breed standard for conformation, size, color, anything. Showing: judge mind reading edition!
3. An issue with showing both birds and eggs of the standard/bantam variety of coturnix in particular vs. the jumbo is that the latter is a visually more impactful meat bird at first glance, and because there's no standard whatsoever, so some judges simply aren't aware that there are multiple "size classes" in the first place. Frustrating for those of us that keep standard sized birds because they tolerate smaller spaces exponentially better.
4. They're flightier and dumber than chickens, and do not really enjoy human contact, at all, so show training/washing/everything them is kind of a pain, especially if you don't do it from chicks before you even know who will be show quality.
5. They're susceptible to many diseases chickens carry, but it's not really standard or feasible to vaccinate them, unlike larger birds. So I've got to have a pretty intense 1-3 month quarantine area for when they come home.
But what the hell, I am determined. So if all goes well I have quail eggs headed to a show in February and live birds to the county fair in June. I've already started a conversation about some of the issues mentioned above with the show organizers, but I'll probably be bringing a few wildly disparate entries just to see what sticks the first few go-rounds. I'm not really expecting to place but I love the excuse to go to these things
Wish me luck! I'll report my experiences back here and in the quail forum for the good of quaildom everywhere.
yuck! I thought Maybe there was one cuz i kno u got the bunny at a show. Let me kno When you show them though im very interested! Ive learned twice a yr there are two shows near me and 2 more furthure away but still considerable.
