Amers d’Anvers

[Amer]

Queeny!

 

[kurby22]

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Queeny!

She is adorable!!

 

[ValarieF]

I showed at the Wisconsin State Fair and got champion showman.
I also got best of breed with Éowyn (she was the only one in condition) and I got champion for the quiz and third for communications.
I think I will get champion exhibitor this year.
I also got Champion medium goose and reserve Mediterranean (the Ancona was my mothers though.)

Grats Im getting Anconas next week 5 hens and one rooster,and thinking about showing them!How was it? Did you show a hen or rooster?

 

[ValarieF]

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Queeny!

Shes beautiful!

 

[Amer]

Grats Im getting Anconas next week 5 hens and one rooster,and thinking about showing them!How was it? Did you show a hen or rooster?

It was a fun experience; it was a hen.

 

[kurby22]

It was a fun experience; it was a hen.

How old is she? Does the beard fill in as they get older? I know it takes awhile in Ameraucanas and d’Uccles. I got some new pics of mine!

 

[Amer]

How old is she? Does the beard fill in as they get older? I know it takes awhile in Ameraucanas and d’Uccles. I got some new pics of mine!

The Ancona is a year old I think, Queeny is 2.
Well here’s Éowyn/Praline around june 2020 so you be the judge, I suppose. I want to say it was Praline but I can’t see the leg tag

Praline two years later

But I find all the non-quail d’Anvers have weaker beards, because they don’t have the focus of enough breeders.

 

[Amer]

I think the beard might change but the type and color change more than the beard with age. The body fills out, but also the color could get better or worse, depending on what you start with (specifically on the quail and mottled varieties.)

 

[Amer]

Oh disclaimer (the correct tail angle is 60 degrees, in that pic it is 90 because it can vary obviously and birds are hard enough to photograph as it is without getting them to pose perfectly.)

 

[Amer]

So I went to New Ulm and I decided that since there were only two senior showmen in Showmanship and I already won the Wisconsin state fair and got all five showmanship wins for my judge’s coat, I would bring my blue quail d’Anvers for a challenge. You see, I have the bantam Buckeye standard memorized and a whole schpiel for it so it gets boring after a while.
I still expected to easily beat the other girl though.
Well, turns out the other showman was Minnesota State Fair champion.
First the judge had us swap birds.
She had a Chantecler. I wasn’t nervous until she started spouting facts about the d’Anvers like nobody’s business. She clearly knew the Standard.
When it came to me and the Chantecler, I judged it well too but not as well as that d’Anvers. I know cushion comb and broadness and general stuff but not a lot. But I pointed out things.
She knew a lot about her bird when we switched back, unsurprisingly.
Then came the knowledge questions. The judge threw everything in his arsenal at us when it came to chickens. We of course got them all.
Finally, it came down to the pigeon genetics questions. Not typical in poultry showmanship but Brown County is a pigeon county.
That was where my competitor finally faltered. He asked us to name the four base colors (there are actually three so I was a little confused) and then the patterns. I knew I was missing one (turned out to be barless) but I knew more than her, though she knew quite a few colors. Apparently her cousin has pigeons.
Well, it was a lot of fun. A battle for the ages. She had me really worried there. I won, but it really came down to that question.
She is a couple years younger than me, a sophomore. Maybe she’ll be as good as me or better in a couple of years. She knew the d’Anvers because she once owned them. She was grateful I hadn’t brought a Buckeye. She wondered how I knew Chanteclers. I owned one once but truth is it was because I have to study the whole Standard to judge.
Now she wants to be a poultry judge someday too.