4-H Help Needed!

[AR]

Contact your county agent. Sometimes if your club does not have a leader for a specific project you can participate in project meetings with a project leader from a different club.

 

[Lifesong Farm]

Quote:
Not sure how your 4-H works but ours has your club (Thorn Creek Sons Of The Soil) leaders and then they have their project leaders. So for poultry questions we go to the poultry leaders not our club leaders. Call your extension office. They will be able to help and if they are like mine, they would love to help solve your problems now instead of last minute.

To had you don't live in Indiana and want Faverolles. I am getting ready to sell all of mine. They just don't work for us.

 

[Chic-n-farmer]

When my son joined 4-H we just showed my laying hens... and did quite well! We knew next to nothing about show and chicken standards. We've learned as we go, but I hated that clueless feeling we had.

Last year I started a Poultry Club to teach new 4-H'ers what they need to know. I was so proud of how well they did! I'll be doing it again this year.

I agree that if you contact your extension that they will be able to help. You can talk to the Poultry Superintendent, or they may give you the name of an older 4-H member who can mentor your child.

Good luck and have fun! I think 4-H is wonderful. I'm learning all the time as a club leader.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

feathersite.com has probably the world's best collection of photos of different breeds and varieties. However, it can be daunting as there are so MANY breeds, and clicking through the links to see them all could take days. Henderson's breed chart is a good place to start by sorting through the traits that he prefers, and will narrow the breeds down a bit. A good hatchery catalogue will have photos and descriptions you can also use to begin sorting out the breeds that are of interest, as well as the ones that he does not care for. Once he has several breeds in mind, then check out feathersite and the breed clubs for those breeds (usually available as a link from feathersite).

Once he has a better idea of the specifics he is looking for, come back here for recommendations for breeders of those breeds, or look in the Poultry Press ads.

 

[mommyofthreewithchicks]

My kids are in 4-H and starting to show. The oldest is only in 3rd grade and can now show breeding pairs. Before, in cloverbuds she could only show one chicken. My theory is to get breeder quality (or the best I can) and improve our flock with the "better" birds. Kids are excited about the chance to win and Mom is excited about the pretty birds. And I will keep them in our flock if they are going to produce nice babies.


I had Rach look at a chicken show and at different sites as to what breed she and her brothers may like and then I compaired them to what I really am looking for in my flock (we are still young and really I am the one that is managing the flock for right now with helpers of course). I also had them look at colors they liked. Right now the Silkies are the kids (ok I am getting closer to claiming them for myself). This is the breed Rach has shown for 2 years and the boys got to show last year as well. We went to someone who had really good birds and a few different colors.

Once breed and color have been narrowed down RESEARCH, research and more research. For right now it is Mom doing that in our family but I try and include the kids whenever possible. We also hatched the eggs last year to really go through the life cycle.


check out if your fair does Poultry posters. Here in MN they automatically go up to state, as such my Kindergartener won Grand Chamion for his poster. (made his sister a bit disapointed with her only getting another ribbon)

 

[slim1986]

I agree with contacting your county agency and see if they have a poultry project. When I was in 4-H they had a broiler project and a layer project, I always did layers. Here they would order 30 pearl white leghorn pullets for everyone who signed up and we raised 'em until right at laying age, then we would take 5 of them up to the show, after the show we had to sell the 5 we took and give the $ back to the county, but we got to keep the other 25 for free!