Breed vs color for local fair exhibition

[Zenmonkey]

At my fair, they were in the 'other fowl', so they went up against game birds, peafowl and guineas

Hmmm, yes, which do you find more attractive, 8 entries of 12 week old coturnix or that one 8 year old peacock that some crazy person manages to drag onto the fair grounds? Seems a perfectly fair competition!

 

[Susan Skylark]

Sorry, I have a graduate degree in the biological sciences so I’m running with the ornithological definition of species here and to my limited knowledge the only species of turkey are those descended from the North American wild turkey (the ancient mayas domesticated them, not sure if the species has a huge range or it is a different species entirely), whatever breeds, colors, species or subdivisions any particular organization wants to classify them as is up to them but way beyond my knowledge! As for the 8 year old pea fowl, I was reading up on showmanship and it literally said, ‘birds disqualified in their breed categories should be shown as hobby or pet’ which is where ‘other fowl’ like my quail are resigned to, I jokingly thought to enter my daughters one eyed slight wry neck quail, apparently I can, ugh! Our state fair has a quail division in open class but not 4H, as for the local folks being okay with it we’ve been in touch, actually had the state out to do NPIP certification as the local lady was a bit jumpy about game birds and she was very happy she didn’t have to do the testing, so fair entry won’t be an issue, just hope I can bring more than 2 after all this. With the chick shortage I also wonder how many birds we’ll even have.

 

[Yardmom]

Every fair makes its own rules about entries. Some stick to their 1 (or 2) entry per division while other open the other category up for as many others as you want. A call to the superintendent (or what ever your fair calls them) of the poultry department will hopefully get you the answer that the judge will have on judging day.

 

[Amer]

Sorry, I have a graduate degree in the biological sciences so I’m running with the ornithological definition of species here and to my limited knowledge the only species of turkey are those descended from the North American wild turkey (the ancient mayas domesticated them, not sure if the species has a huge range or it is a different species entirely), whatever breeds, colors, species or subdivisions any particular organization wants to classify them as is up to them but way beyond my knowledge! As for the 8 year old pea fowl, I was reading up on showmanship and it literally said, ‘birds disqualified in their breed categories should be shown as hobby or pet’ which is where ‘other fowl’ like my quail are resigned to, I jokingly thought to enter my daughters one eyed slight wry neck quail, apparently I can, ugh! Our state fair has a quail division in open class but not 4H, as for the local folks being okay with it we’ve been in touch, actually had the state out to do NPIP certification as the local lady was a bit jumpy about game birds and she was very happy she didn’t have to do the testing, so fair entry won’t be an issue, just hope I can bring more than 2 after all this. With the chick shortage I also wonder how many birds we’ll even have.

There are actually two species of turkey. Wild turkeys and Occelated Turkeys.
Whether or not there are breeds of turkey is dependent on the country. The American Poultry Association only recognizes one breed, the heritage turkey, with multiple varieties. In Europe there are multiple recognized breeds, some with multiple varieties.The definition of breed is more semantics than strictly scientific.
I expect that in the other category you'd probably only be able to bring a male and a female since fairs typically only want you to bring an old male, old female, young male, and young female.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Hmmm, yes, which do you find more attractive, 8 entries of 12 week old coturnix or that one 8 year old peacock that some crazy person manages to drag onto the fair grounds? Seems a perfectly fair competition!

Well they're judged on more than just how 'pretty' a bird looks.

 

[Zenmonkey]

Well they're judged on more than just how 'pretty' a bird looks.

Ideally, yes.

 

[henaynei]

What Standard of Perfection is used for Coturnix?

 

[Amer]

What Standard of Perfection is used for Coturnix?

https://coturnixbreeders.com/standard-of-perfection
I have seen it
I wonder if they would let you view and print off without being a member. Maybe not but I'll tag @Pipsnchicks just in case

 

[Zenmonkey]

I don't know that there is one that everyone would agree on.

https://coturnixbreeders.com/standard-of-perfection

These folks claim to have a working draft, but I'm not sure how much weight their organization carries. I also don't think they'll show you their draft without becoming a member, which seems a little unusual to me, but I already confessed to not showing, so maybe I'm just not familiar with modern practices.

I also don't know if they require a few for membership, nor how that works.

Why did you want a standard of perfection, if I may ask? If it is for a show, I'd ask who ever is promoting the show what standard they intend to use.

If it is for developing your own breeding program, I think most quail breeders either go for weight, or for egg production, or for whatever feather traits they like. All white, dark, red, feather sexable, etc etc. In other words there's probably a reason why there isn't already a well known SOP.

Best wishes!

 

[007Sean]

I don't know that there is one that everyone would agree on.

https://coturnixbreeders.com/standard-of-perfection

These folks claim to have a working draft, but I'm not sure how much weight their organization carries. I also don't think they'll show you their draft without becoming a member, which seems a little unusual to me, but I already confessed to not showing, so maybe I'm just not familiar with modern practices.

I also don't know if they require a few for membership, nor how that works.

Why did you want a standard of perfection, if I may ask? If it is for a show, I'd ask who ever is promoting the show what standard they intend to use.

If it is for developing your own breeding program, I think most quail breeders either go for weight, or for egg production, or for whatever feather traits they like. All white, dark, red, feather sexable, etc etc. In other words there's probably a reason why there isn't already a well known SOP.

Best wishes!

I agree, why would you want a SOP for quail....sounds like someone wants the recognition for developing and instrumenting an SOP for quail.