I started this thread to help folks who have never been to a large poultry show and bought birds. If you have a suggestion on buying at poultry shows, please post your suggestions. Please stay on topic: Buying poultry at shows.
With the huge Crossroads show in October, many folks are buying birds to have them delivered at Crossroads or other shows. Here are a few questions to consider:
1) Where are you going to house the expected bird during the show?
2) Under your show coops?
3) In the motel room?
4) In the car?
Suggestion: enter your new bird in the show at Crossroads (or whatever show you are meeting at). The may not win, but you will have a coop to house them in during the show. The sale area is a bit different at Crossroads. No coops are available. Must bring your own and the cost is $50 for a 10x10 space. The entry fee on a single entry is $3. Not a bad fee for a storage cage.
Many old timers will pay for a few extra holes just in case they buy a bird. Crossroads could use the extra money. Now most judges and show officials do not like empty holes, but with some shows being so big, it helps to have a safe place to house those birds till the show is over.
At the 2010 APA National in Shawnee we placed Best of Variety and Best of Breed on a Buff Leghorn Bantam hen and a Butterscotch Call male duck. We acquired both at the show and slipped them in Jacob's empty Buckeye Bantam holes. We had left two hens in poor show condition at home. The coops were ours, as we had paid for the entry fee. Why the judge judged them out of place we don't know. Hew as just moving along, grabbed them and judged them. Since they were the only of their kind in that isle, they won! Now I know there were many more Leghorn Bantams and Butterscotch Calls. It was sort of funny.
So go ahead and find that bird you want on BYC-BSA, featherauction, Poultry Press etc, but plan ahead and make arrangements as to where the new bird will stay while at the show. At Crossroads it being October, the back of the truck or in the car may work. But if the show is elsewhere, consider the temperatures. You do not want to come out to the car and have fried chicken waiting on you. You also do not want to slide your new $100 cockerel under your show coops and forget to water it for three days.
Other suggestions, as I think of them I will update post #1:
Know your seller, or at least check the seller out.
Ask if they are NPIP or if the bird will have a 90 day USDA type certificate.
With the huge Crossroads show in October, many folks are buying birds to have them delivered at Crossroads or other shows. Here are a few questions to consider:
1) Where are you going to house the expected bird during the show?
2) Under your show coops?
3) In the motel room?
4) In the car?
Suggestion: enter your new bird in the show at Crossroads (or whatever show you are meeting at). The may not win, but you will have a coop to house them in during the show. The sale area is a bit different at Crossroads. No coops are available. Must bring your own and the cost is $50 for a 10x10 space. The entry fee on a single entry is $3. Not a bad fee for a storage cage.
Many old timers will pay for a few extra holes just in case they buy a bird. Crossroads could use the extra money. Now most judges and show officials do not like empty holes, but with some shows being so big, it helps to have a safe place to house those birds till the show is over.
At the 2010 APA National in Shawnee we placed Best of Variety and Best of Breed on a Buff Leghorn Bantam hen and a Butterscotch Call male duck. We acquired both at the show and slipped them in Jacob's empty Buckeye Bantam holes. We had left two hens in poor show condition at home. The coops were ours, as we had paid for the entry fee. Why the judge judged them out of place we don't know. Hew as just moving along, grabbed them and judged them. Since they were the only of their kind in that isle, they won! Now I know there were many more Leghorn Bantams and Butterscotch Calls. It was sort of funny.
So go ahead and find that bird you want on BYC-BSA, featherauction, Poultry Press etc, but plan ahead and make arrangements as to where the new bird will stay while at the show. At Crossroads it being October, the back of the truck or in the car may work. But if the show is elsewhere, consider the temperatures. You do not want to come out to the car and have fried chicken waiting on you. You also do not want to slide your new $100 cockerel under your show coops and forget to water it for three days.
Other suggestions, as I think of them I will update post #1:
Know your seller, or at least check the seller out.
Ask if they are NPIP or if the bird will have a 90 day USDA type certificate.
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