3rd grade 4h easter egger

[Chris09]

Quote:
Cackle Hatchery is very good at what they do.
I ordered 4 to 5 hundred bird off them over the past 3 years and was never disappointed.
Of the 3 hatcheries I posted Cackle is far better than the other two...


About Cackle Hatchery -

Informational that Cackle put out -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqbkbpb3DKQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjzajtxpObU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxxzmUdMEyg

Chris

 

[averytds]

Depending on the fair, there are actual classes for showing sexlinks and other crosses. We have meat, egg and dual purpose classes which are to consist of a pen of 3 nearly identical birds. Same sex, age, overall appearance. Crosses can also be used for Showmanship. The only bad thing for Showmanship that I could see though is at a minimum they usually want even the youngest to know the basics, breed, class, variety and sex/age. That can be really hard with an EE.


But you could take 3 of them that look like each other and enter them say for egg production perfectly legit all the way through to state here. With local 4-H fairs so very much depends on how things are in your area.


I would look into how many she can enter and have as many birds as her limit. Ours can enter up to 3 entries per division (Poultry). A pen of 3 would count as 1 entry. At the very least have some back-up birds. Happens all the time....bird is molting.....predator got it the night before.....etc.



Have you checked with your club's poultry leader? I know some places the poultry leaders help with providing birds.

 

[buffalogal]

Definitely check with the 4H leader and/or the county extension agent. Some counties have authentic APA judges do their fair, others just pull someone in who has had chickens 'forever".

From what I've experienced in over 10 years of 4H with my daughters, both county fairs I'm familiar with here in Oklahoma would allow an "EE"to be shown in an "All Other Breeds" class. And before the Araucana/Ameraucana owners have a conniption, let me say I know an "EE" isn't a "breed", but we are talking 4H, where the focus is supposed to be on *raising* the animal, not necessarily being able to buy show quality and enter in "official" competition. I've heard stories where a judge went through disqualifying kid's birds that weren't up to standard, but they were all just second hand, no real details, and I suspect a bit of an urban legend.

The reality is that people understand it's not a "serious" show, that is, no APA points, no big prize money, and the kid taking home the superintendent's trophy is as likely to be the one who volunteered to help feed and water other exhibitor's birds as the one who brought the Champion. One Judge I spoke to years ago said if the bird had no "breed type", he just went by condition when he judged the Junior section of the fair.

If you haven't had chickens long, or aren't sure if you'll have them long, then there is nothing wrong with letting her raise a few pretty EEs for a 4H project. Of course, I think it would be great if she would select something like the Dominique or Buckeye, or another relatively rare breed, but children will enjoy a project more when it's something *they* choose themselves. The EEs will make her happy because they are what *she* wants, and she'll get a kick out of the colored eggs too, even the buff and pinkish brown ones.

I second the Cackle Hatchery of Lebanon, Missouri recommendation, and Ideal down in Texas would be my strong second choice for the EE variety.

 

[tgrlily]

Quote:
Just a little thought...

By the time you've payed for the number of EE chicks you need to order from a hatchery, you could've paid for several good quality Ameraucana chicks. My son will be using his own Dorkings for 4-H this year. He also shows in open class. The hen he wants to use for showmanship is not an accepted color by the APA. Judges can be pretty strict around here, so he'll be using a Red Dorking instead.

 

[averytds]

LOL We've got one judge that I've questioned at times if he's ever even owned any chickens. He picks ones he likes for GCH and RV every year. Bring something that strikes his fancy that day and you're golden. We've gotten RV from him the last 2 years running with poorly conditioned hatchery birds even beating properly conditioned SQ entries. Our GCH winner at that one last year had mites at the time and hadn't even been bathed. He was neat looking though. At least for last year I know he read the "How to Judge Poultry at the Local Fair" pamphlet our state puts out and memorized the "things to watch out for" because he made a comment about most all the birds having DQs. On each of the cage cards he had a note about what was wrong with each bird. He listed one thing from the list he memorized even though they didn't apply. It was more of a

followed by a

after talking to him. We still go every year though because it's just FUN!


One of our 4-H locals has a licensed judge and supposedly 2 will this year. The one that's always had one would have DQed any EEs last year, at least that's what he told me. He said he cringed when he saw the Ameraucanas listed because they're always EEs and he hates when he has to DQ kids. He was so relieved to see they actually were Ameraucanas.

Under AOSB both listed as Ameraucanas and Auracanas, last years judge at state allowed them and the judge the year before DQed them, licensed judges. So even when there is no actual proper class for them, they still get through half the time.




See if you can get a copy of last years fair book and check the rules and classes. Checking with your poultry leader/poultry superintendent/extension agent/older 4-Hers should also help you get a better idea. IME so far some are really proactive on getting info out and other's just kind of figure everybody already knows these things and don't bother, so you have to take the initiative.

I don't remember where we got the info from, but DSs 1st year in poultry, we were only told about the meat/egg/DP pens and that he could only have 3 entries. Okay, great, so 3 birds in a pen is 3 entries, off to the store we go. We bought 3 "RIR" and 3 BR from the feedstore. The "RIR"s varied a lot in their size and appearance. The BRs were indistinguishable. Great, he can enter the BRs. Two weeks before fair, a dog got one of the BRs. So no entry our 1st year. DS was so upset after all those months. Then of course we get there only to find several cages full of individual birds. A couple more phone calls/emails in the Spring could have saved us a lot of hassle.

The same goes for every new fair/area you go to. Different rules, classes, ways of doing things...... The better prepared you are, the less stressed you'll be and the more fun you'll have.

 

[mah46036]

wow, thanks for all the input.

I didn't realize it was such a serious subject. She just wants to have fun and likes the birds.

life would be much more fun if parents would get out of the way and let the kids have fun. We have the same kind of stuff with baseball and softball.

 

[averytds]

Quote:

????? The fair boards set the rules and regulations. Yes, sometimes fair board members are parents, but they set the rules and regs for the entire fair. Maybe someplace, somewhere there is a parent on a fair board who has a kid entered in everything, but that's got to be pretty uncommon. Oftentimes it's community driven. Like some places only offer production classes and all the kids are given identical birds from the same batch because that's what's important and familiar to that community.


No matter what angle a particular fair decides to take, there still has to be a system used for judgment. At least there does for 4-H, else how could they award ribbons beyond just giving the same one to everyone for participation. Their goal is for the kids to learn and improve each year. Treating "Hey I threw this together last night." and it shows vs "I've spent months working on and learning about this." and it shows the same doesn't jive with the organizations values or structure. Kids can put as little or as much effort as they want into their projects, but if it's obvious they didn't make much of an effort, they shouldn't expect top awards. My eldest is free to enter a pen of broody Silkies in the egg laying class, but he would lose and it hasn't a thing to do with me.


Learning to do something properly and working towards a goal are not bad things in my book and are not automatically "no fun". The local we are supposed to be getting a licensed judge for, the kids are the ones who want and have asked for it. They aren't happy with the current judge and they all had the same complaint...that they weren't able to learn anything from him and it wasn't fun.

 

[Illia]

Honestly, I think this is where a lot of controversy sets. Parents put kids into showing and 4H to let them have fun, yet as the kids grow up, they think they're doing something serious. . . When in reality, serious showing is following by the rules of the APA, having a true breed, and going by the standard. It's not just fun and giggles once you get into real showing.

I'm fine with kids showing EE's in 4H's, however they do it, but I don't think people should complain about the fact that the real world of showing requires pure breeds. At some point that kid needs to learn. It would be embarrassing if it went to a real show and started spouting lies about its Easter Egger. No one seems to complain about it with dogs, so why chickens? If there's a finger to point, it is at the hatcheries selling you mutts and calling them purebred.

 

[mah46036]

I talked to the poultry club pres today and he's going to help teach us how to show them and we found a local place to buy some chicks so I just wanted to say thanks for all the input!

 

[averytds]

Just curious how old the one is that you already have that's "too old to show"?