Daughters 4H Chick Chain!

[tn_artist]

My daughter signed up for the local 4H Chick Chain. They could choose up to 5 chicks from the following breeds: Buff Cochin, Sicilian Buttercup, Lakenvelder, Dorking, White Orpington, and White Crested Black Polish. She chose one of everthing except the Dorking. She has to raise them, keep records, choose one to show in November and sell it at auction. I think she can choose to sell more than one, but she can only show one. I think we are going to have four extra hens come November. I LOVE bantam cochins, but don't look forward to the feed that standard cochin will consume, with a less than stellar egg production (going on my last years silver laced, egg stingy girls)
Does anyone have anything she should keep in mind about any of these breeds or about showing? We have two buttercups and had the standard cochins mentioned above, but we have never shown other than a few I put in a local fair decades ago. I didn't think she was going to do it, so we will have these added to the 35 ish babies we have now. She wont get hers until the first week of May. She will also be getting a pair of Seramas in a few weeks, provided her math grade comes up. (Otherwise I will have a sweet pair of seramas for myself) Maybe I shouldn't expect so much with my own trouble with chicken math...

 

[Clearwater Chicken]

Bantams are way easier to show in 4H, so I would go with the lightest one to show. And TRAIN YOUR CHICKEN, this is very important, if you want to do well you want a calm chicken, that can handle stress, don’t choose an aggressive chicken either. On show day wear no jewelry and nail polish. Training the chicken should consist of getting it used to being handled, pulling its wings out and showing the keel bone. Learn everything you can about your chosen chicken breed and diseases, order of bleaching, and everything chicken. You never know what could come up. To prepare the chicken for show day, clean it, make sure it is free of parasites, and make it look good. All of this is from my own experience showing chicken.

 

[tn_artist]

Bantams are way easier to show in 4H, so I would go with the lightest one to show. And TRAIN YOUR CHICKEN, this is very important, if you want to do well you want a calm chicken, that can handle stress, don’t choose an aggressive chicken either. On show day wear no jewelry and nail polish. Training the chicken should consist of getting it used to being handled, pulling its wings out and showing the keel bone. Learn everything you can about your chosen chicken breed and diseases, order of bleaching, and everything chicken. You never know what could come up. To prepare the chicken for show day, clean it, make sure it is free of parasites, and make it look good. All of this is from my own experience showing chicken.

Thank you for the info and insight. I have a lot of things to have her look up! I was hoping they would have some bantam choices. It looks like they have different breeds to choose from each year.

 

[Clearwater Chicken]

Yeah bantams are nice, it was really funny. all of the first year 4Hers had large standards and all of the older expeirienced showers had teeny tiny bantams

 

[ejtrout31]

Hi! Just came across this and if you or your daughter have questions on showing in 4h you can pm me because i am a very active showman.

 

[tn_artist]

Hi! Just came across this and if you or your daughter have questions on showing in 4h you can pm me because i am a very active showman.

Thank you! I'm sure she will have questions. She mentioned yesterday that she wishes she could go to a show before she is in one. She said it would help her to understand how it all works as we are new to all this. Unfortunately, we don't even know if the local AG fair will happen this fall.
4H officially had to cancel the usual chick chain, but are still planning on the November show. The kids are responsible for getting or raising their own hen or pullet and they won't be auctioning them.
Her other constant comment is that she wishes she could show her little Serama cockrel. (He is a pet with his sideways tail, but super sweet)
I told her that I would work on training 3 or 4 girls since you can't tell who will look the best at show time this early on, and who will train the easiest.
She's been watching videos of how to train, how to hold, etc.
I am no help. I thought they just put them in a cage and judged on looks.