Advice needed: broken wing feathers and molting weeks before show

[Amelise]

My show hens are 1 year olds, and I’ve found out that’s probably the worst age to show chickens because they still need to get their first big molt, which doesn’t happen until they’re almost two years old.
My three 14 month old ameraucanas still have their feathers from over the summer, and my 4 year old mutt hen is over here looking beautiful because she just finished her fall molt

My black ameraucana and my blue ameraucana look ok and have all their wing feathers intact, despite being a bit tattered. My splash Ameraucana*, however, looks terrible. When I entered her in, I was hoping she would have new feathers by now but she only went through a light molt in the fall and now is in the middle of another one.

I’m not entering into the show for ribbons or prizes, I mostly just enjoy showing my chickens and practicing my showmanship, and this is my last year to do so. Even though it’s low pressure, I would like to do the best I can to get my girl looking good for the upcoming show.
To get to the point, one of my ameraucanas has two broken primaries on a wing. Based on my research I don’t think I can just pull them out. The question is: should I just leave her wing feathers the way they are, or cut the broken ones down to stubs? Which would be a better way to present my failure to keep my birds feathers in good condition over the summer?

Thanks if you read this whole text, and thanks even more if you can offer some advice

* Even though splash is not an accepted variety, I was granted permission to show my splash ameraucana at the upcoming Junior poultry show.

 

[Rose the Legbar]

Leave the feathers. Even if they are tattered, cut primary feathers could mean that you are trying to fake and doesn’t look good. People sometimes pluck or color feathers that are undesirable (called faking) and they would be disqualified if found. At Junior poultry shows they usually choose based usually how well you know your birds class breed and variety, other poultry knowledge, and how well you handle the bird. Your bird may not be scored well during the judging on how well they confirm to standards and the condition of the bird.

 

[Amelise]

Leave the feathers. Even if they are tattered, cut primary feathers could mean that you are trying to fake and doesn’t look good. People sometimes pluck or color feathers that are undesirable (called faking) and they would be disqualified if found. At Junior poultry shows they usually choose based usually how well you know your birds class breed and variety, other poultry knowledge, and how well you handle the bird. Your bird may not be scored well during the judging on how well they confirm to standards and the condition of the bird.

It’s one of the larger poultry show events (during Stockshow and rodeo time) so they do exhibition separate from showmanship. Usually what they do is have the people exhibit their birds in the show coops and either do showmanship before or after the judging. Separate rewards given out for exhibition and showmanship.


Thanks though! I hadn’t yet considered trimming the feathers may be interpreted as faking. I will probably leave them alone. But you’re right, I will have a chance to do good in showmanship even if I don’t do well in exhibition.