4-H

[Chick_in_Indiana]

A friend of mine (who has chickens) wants to use one of my chickens for her son to show. I have mixed emothions on this. Anyways. What is a good breed to show? He has never done chickens before, and my friend dont know any of the requierments. Is there a good site you can point me to for advice? Is it better to use a young chicken or older? Cock or Hen? Thanks, Krista

 

[s6bee]

I can't say that I have experience in this. But, we got chickens with the thoughts of doing 4-H showing. Then country fair came along and changed our minds. I hope it was just our county, but at county fair the chickens are required to stay the entire time, for us that is a week. The owners care for the bird, etc, but these cages are tiny, they stress out, and I saw many by the end of the week pulling out thier own feathers with stress. So we said, NO. But other 4-H exhibits could be much better and I'm sure the regular shows are nothing like county.

That's just my thoughts.
hope it helps.

 

[Kanchii]

It all depends on the chicken. If you have a calm sorta lazy chicken it will be fine in a cage for a few days. I have a couple high strung chickens I show and they calm down after a bit, we've never had problems with feather picking or anything. As long as its a semi calm bird, and pure bred, you CAN show it. It being good quality is an entirely different matter, but when you've decided what birds are a possibility you can usually find the standards for them online, and can compare your birds from that.

 

[a2ms4chickens]

My son is in 4-H and our county fair was last week. He took 6 chickens to the fair and they were in a cage for 10 days.

My son has modern game bantams, old english bantams, and D'Uccles. The kids are responsible for feeding their birds twice a day and cleaning and adding shavings to the birds cages.

My son's birds did really well, mostly because they are small birds and they had room to walk in their cages.

I also made sure to give them a vitamin/electrolyte supplement in their water the week before, to help with stress. They are also getting it this week.

As for the birds to use for showing, young and old chickens are fine as long as they are healthy and have no bugs. (All of the chickens at our fair were inspected before they could be cooped in). There were both large and small chickens, so it really depends on what breed you are comfortable with.

Have fun with whatever you decide.

 

[Tutter]

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May I ask what your vitamin/electrolyte supplement was, exactly?

 

[seedcorn]

4-H or mini 4-H? 4-H, he has to take care of chicken. if mini, go w/bantam cochins as they are small and very laid back.

 

[a2ms4chickens]

I use the Durvet powder. I emailed the manufacturer and was told to give 1/4 tsp/gal of water. It is to be given for 5 days, off for 5 days, on for 5 days (for about 3 weeks), then wait a month and start all over again.
I got it at my local feed store, it was about $8 and it makes a lot of gallons of water.

I gave it to all of my chickens for 5 days before the fair. When we got back, I started giving it for another 5 days. Yesterday was the last day, so they will get plain water today.

It is supposed to be used during times of stress, hot weather (which we definitely have here), moving to another pen, after treating for insects, debeaking (which we do not do), and a move from one home to another, etc.

Hope this helps.

 

[coffeemama]

As far as I know, all county fairs require the 4-H animals to stay there for the duration of the fair. State fairs often have shorter stays. I think it's like any show animal-you have to expose them to being in a cage and to loud noises and people. You can put a sign on your cages that say "This Bird Pecks" to try and keep people from prodding at it. I would recommend rabbits to them-most people can care for a rabbit at their home, and they are generally quite docile for showing.

 

[Tutter]

Quote:
Yes, thank you so much!