Buff Orpington Pullet: How bad is this fault?

[bantyhen'sfriend]

I am showing several chickens at my county fair, and all are very promising, except for a Buff Orp pullet. Her feathers are very pretty, but aren't glossy like the other birds in her pen, and she has 3 or 4 tail feathers. One or two feathers are at the top wehre the first tail feathers of a normal tail would be, and two stick out where the last tail feathers would be (making a loose triangle shape between the two bottom ones at teh top one/s), leaving a nice gap. I am almost certain she is not being pecked, and I'm not finding any tail feathers from her; she finished her molt awhile ago. She is on a high protein feed and she was hatched in Feb. Fair is in a couple weeks, and I don't see any featehrs coming in. So how bad is this fault? I don't really care about winning, but she looks really ugly right now, especially compared to her well-feathered coop-mates.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Just throwing this out there, and I'm not trying to be rude, but if she's in that bad of condition, why take her at all?

 

[Mahonri]

Leave her home.

 

[aveca]

They are right, might better leave this one home, check for lice and mites too and treat, I treat all as a precaution every so often, wild birds can get close to your birds and spread these. they can cause nasty bald spots and they dont discriminate show bird or beloved backyard pet, doesnt matter to them.
The minute the birds go into the training cages (about 2 wks befor show)they get a dose of lice powder, then 4 days befor show a bath.
Here the weather has taken such strange turns that it sent everyones birds into a mini molt. The one thing you dont want written on your coop tag is ,,,,lice.

It was 80s for a couple weeks then dropped right down to high 30s, it has been like that all summer. the corn wasnt even knee high by the fourth of july cause of it. Strange. especially this cold in mid july, we had to wear jackets this last week in the morning. Even the tomatoes are slow going. the fruit trees all blossemed then froze back up again right into June.bees couldnt get out and pollinate so they are saying some spots lower fruit yeiilds this year. Its been hard on the birds to adjust

I have a pullet that is pretty nice bird , but at the last minute, I changed her out for a different bird to show. the bird I swopped her for just had that gleam and much more of the metalic green shine in her feathers. and a little better comb 5 nice little points and it just seemed a bit more stout in the comb and feather than the more refined bird. I really like the other bird a lot, easy to look at But gotta go with the standard . I hope the judge likes where Im going with it

 

[tadkerson]

So much for global warming.

Tim

 

[lildinkem]

If you already paid to have the bird in the fair. And the bird is not sick. I'd take em and just see what else the judge thinks.
Here in INDY it has been like a tropical rain forest.
My garden has gone nutz.

 

[IggiMom]

Quote:
What do you use for lice powder?

Catherine

 

[greenfamilyfarms]

If the County Fair is not being judged by an APA judge, I wouldn't worry that much. Most of the County Fairs use FFA, 4H kids, or the Ag Extension Service employees to judge.

 

[Judy]

How to deal with lice and mites:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0018.html

Many on here also use DE.

 

[lildinkem]

Our Hamilton county fair was judged by Doug Akers. I like Doug opinion on any birds I have.