Drawbacks to Showing Chickens?

[NateinFL]

I think this year I will be showing my mille fleur d'uccles at the state fair. My biggest concern (besides someone stealing my birds) is that they might catch something contagious and bring it back to my flock. My birds are part of a closed flock and are very healthy, I would hate to bring a bird back from the fair and have some weird disease pop up in my stock. That would be devastating.

I also read in some literature that it is advisable to put your bird through quarantine as if it is a new bird once it comes back from the fair, not letting it come in contact with the flock for a good amount of time.

For those who have shown, is this necessary, and have you ever had any negative experiences in showing birds?

Please advise.

Thanks!

 

[josh44]

Yes Quarentine is always a good Idea after a show

Many people do & some don't.

plain & simple

Some flocks are exposed to certain diseases, than others.

& you don't want to bring anything back

 

[chickendales]

our county fair was quarentened one year

 

[NateinFL]

Wow that must have been some disease that popped up, that would have been a shame if they had to cull them all!

I'm afraid to ask but it seems so easy for someone to just take a chicken out of a cage, I have seen locks on some so if I do show I'll make sure and get a lock put on the cage.

If I had a big enough operation going on, I would do as some of the professionals do and use some of the best set aside for showing purposes. A large operation should have enough good birds to spare for show and use others for breeders. I'm not quite there yet

 

[chickendales]

i show my breeding stock on the off season

 

[chickendales]

u live in florada so u can start hatching in the winter and spring take summer off grow out chicks and get older bird in shape

 

[NateinFL]

Right, the fair is in January, so I will have time to work with some that hatched last month. Since the d'uccles are slow to fully develop, I have some from last fall that would probably do well in January, just going to see who looks best by then.

 

[chickendales]

if the shows in january and u want bird that are at least 6months or older

 

[chickendales]

see in michigan we have hatch in january to have babies for the fall shows but i dont use my show bird as breeders during the show season

 

[NateinFL]

Yeah I know, the mille fleur roos take a LONG time to spangle out nicely, so 8 months would probably be a minimum, at least from my experiences.