First of all: I would advise you to contact your County Extension Agent or County/State 4H Educator. They will be able to answer any questions you have specifically about your state/county 4H program. They will also be able to give you the name and contact information of the Poultry Superintendant. Ask if they have a copy of the current fair catalog, 2010, that you can have to study. Ask them if they know of a particular 4H club in your area that works specifically with poultry. Ask when the recruitment period for 4H clubs starts for next year, sometimes there is a special assembly of all the clubs who then try to recruit new members.
So once you have some information to work with you may want to find a club that fits your sons needs/wants/expectations, A child DOES NOT have to be affilitated with a club to participate in the county fair. A child can exhibit as an Independant, meaning, more or less,you, the parent, are the 4H leader.
Now read the fair show handbook cover to cover a few times. It will give you the classes that birds can be shown in, any testing requirements, and any other information/rules that need to be followed by participants. Some fairs have an exhibition as well as a commercial division. Frankly hatchery birds can be shown with sucess in the commercial division, but Show Stock would be the right choice for the exhibition classes. Showmanship is usually a seperate class of its own and most often a child has the option to "opt out" of the showmanship class. I would leave it up to the child as to wether or not they want to compete, at least for their first show....Showmanship really has nothing to do with your particular bird, at the 4H level, but solely judges the child on his knowledge and ability to properly handle a bird....Again it is very important but can be a fearful experience for a younger showman that has never experienced it before.
Once you have done the reading, selected a class or classes, and determined if you are joining a club then you should start looking for your birds, again make sure of any age requirements of the birds in the classes you have chosen. Contact a breeder in your area. They may have birds available in the fall that have been shown before but are just not on their current show team, Good Type Of Bird For A Youngster To Show, the bird probably has been handled frequently and would be alot easier for a youger showman to handle because the bird has been through the process 100's of times before. I would suggest maybe an older hen, that has been shown, and then maybe a younger pair/trio...I would think all one breed would be the best for a youngster, as then they will become familiar with the particular breed and will be more comfortable answering a question that the judge may have and then not have to "try and sort" the specific breed information from all the other breed information floating around in their heads.
Remember 4H is supposed to be fun...Let your son pick his own birds, with a copy of the Standard in his hand. Don't expect to win the first year and take notes durring and after the show about winners and techiniques then file them with a copy of your show prgram so you can refer back to them before next year's show.
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...Surprising How Many People Say This....Ask to see their hardware that may shut a few of them down....
One last item....Plenty of people freely offer their advice......I always take anything I hear and very cautiously think it through....Lots of times the people giving the advice have really never won anything so then following their advice would be Rather Useless, unless you like second place....
anyway tell your son to have fun...
