Are the judges going to laugh at me? Australorp PICS

[chickenbottom]

im going to enter one of my hatchery birds in i think she is beautiful but i know she isnt anywhere near a winner but its for fun. i think hes a really pretty rooster

 

[BluegrassSeramas]

Whatever! The Rev was a hottie --------in his time, Im sure! Not as chatty though.

I'll admit the Cali judge was a cutie too.

I just love a man that loves chickens.

 

[BluegrassSeramas]

Im entering my Snowy calls, I dont care if they win, I just want to learn more about them. I figured 2.50 was worth it for info!

 

[catwalk]

If I was off work this weekend, I'd come and be your stable girl! Not that I'm claiming to be stable......

 

[Mrs. Turbo]

Quote:
I think I'm going to have SO MUCH FUN! I think cause its my first time participating is why I'm nervous. I've been to other shows and I LOVE to listen to people talk about their birds and see all the different breeds. I went to the state fair with my BFF about a month ago, and we chatted up the judge...who was really cute....and asked him all about the breeds he was judging. It was very interesting and we had a great time.

I know what judge you are talking about. He was just at the Connersville show.....he is crazy!!! lol

 

[aveca]

Go and have a great time! Cant wait to see how you make out.

He is a very good bird. He looks a little sleepy and His tail looks a little wild LOL , over all a very good bird. how old is he? I show lorps and am looking for some outcross for next year. The australorps has a very round rather large dark eyeball. Keep in mind the perfect bird hasnt been hatched and australorps are hard to find in America and there is a long wait list in australia. I went through high water looking for decent birds after we lost an entire flock to a little red dog. It has been all trials for sure. Ive passed up lots of birds advertised as show but I could find too much wrong, wrong color sole of foot too small eye, ect...ect...
I thing you will do well with him.A little toward squirll tailed maybe, might just be the moment in pics. but he has some real good points too. with the right hens you will have some good stock, nothing tough to fix Im sure. He has a supurb comb and wattles.

Here is Dundee our rooster, in this pic around 5 mos. He has his share of faults as they do.. A tad long and narrower than you might like, but has well formed feet decent straight comb thou you would like 5 points he has 6 , that is acceptable, but I want to work at it and get it down to 5 in next gen. and onward.. Dundee has very Nice eye ect...We could pick these roosters apart, Im more critical of my own. I could go on and on about it. Dundee was attacked by a hawk 3 weeks ago and it landed straight between his sholders and proceedded to tear feathers from back of his neck, and tore his comb, the vet had to come out and use surgical sissors to cut the tear off the back of his comb , the hens were picking at it and making it bleed, but it has healed after the vet care. I was afraid If I tried it, I might take too much or do worse damage. I dont have any pics after the attack. I went out to see what the ruckus in the yard was about and there he was pinned down and the closer I got the hawk spread his wings over dundee and hissed at me like back off my prize. Dundee was way too heavy for him to fly off with. He took off but sat up in the tree for days waiting for me to let them again out but I didnt. My husband thinks it was a young eagle. He was pretty big.

This is Pants the aussi Hen. She was BOB and the APA judge said he really liked her, she has a nice straight comb 5 points nice head nice width in the body , good eye shorter back. , thou he
wanted to see a little more conditioning and maturity.this was right after she came home from show at 5 and 1/2 mos. . She will be shown again this year after a short breeding season in spring. Wish I had more options for roos, but the good ones are hard to find. You can see shes having one of those baby molts but has nice deep metalic green showing in feathers. Pants has started laying some real nice eggs, nice size and shell , guess it shows form to function. We have a larger hen that doesnt lay as nice an egg as this bird.Pants and Dundee are out of 2 different strains not really related.

Wish there were more options out there for breeding stock.

Pants and the hens, banjo and matilda out brousing around the area. On juicy bug patrol.

 

[aveca]

There is still a waiting list in Australia, fraid we just dont have anything here that can compare to their birds. At least I have seen nothing here, there are some really great birds scattered around asia.The Australorps in america as well as Delewares and some other heritage breeds fell out of fashion for a long time for the very productive RIRs and some other cross breds. so the stock dwindled, thou a few dedicated breeders are trying to revive these wonderful heritage breeds.

It is impossible to import birds and too bad , I would pay any price they asked for birds like thiers.

Hard to get in Australia they ask for patience and really good pullets are like gold to them.

http://www.australorps.com/15.html

 

[aveca]

Well thank God for vets who are also good freinds, I have severe RA and my hands are getting pretty crippled up , Thought , Gee I wont be able to trim up beaks and toenails this year for fear I will do too much with my fumble fingers,Maybe I should just skip it, ., . but She said not to worry, when she comes out for pullorum tests and vaccines ect...she will also help me trim all birds going to show.And my freind Pat will be going along to help me pen up the sebrights as they can be slippery little bars of soap when being penned once in a while.

I was talking to some people who came up from PA to one of our shows with 200 hundred birds, they took BOS with some bantams they bought from a breeder and were working on, Great birds!They had just finished with the big show in harrisburg and did real well there, got RBOS.with the same batams. they had some australorps there too, , they said they also kind of ran into a brick wall trying to find really good australorps anywhere . They pulled in with quite a rig all airconditioned, brand new with thier farm logo on it.. . He said he and his wife and kids have quite a smooth system for set up and show and they travel all over the tri state area, and even in thier travels they picked up an aussie here or there but never saw the great ones. I gave him my number and told him price was not a question if he spots some good ones . He said he had some really great bantams of different breeds if I was interested. But I told him we only realistically have room for 1 or 2 breeds and we reaslly want to work on this old breed. I told him also will pay top price for eggs for incubation.

 

[catwalk]

Good luck, Kelly! I'll be thinking about you today!

 

[catwalk]

Quote:
Did they bring a tractor/ trailer? Why do you bring that many birds to one show? They couldn't have been from 60 different breeds, could they? I only own ten or so each of three breeds, and I know how they rank with each other. There's some I wouldn't show just because I know they'd be beaten by my other birds. Are they just playing the numbers by bringing that many?