First show disappointment, normal?

[Lunarpuppy]

Holy hell! That’s a beautiful dude.

I’m going to say something about judging and not about chickens... judging and being judged is a bummer. We are enslaved by standards and expectations all the time and it can be demoralizing.

Your rooster doesn’t know or care about his looks So at least he’s not suffering.

I send you a virtual chocolate chip cookie to cheer you up.

 

[Amer]

In shows if a judge sees a disqualification immediately they are allowed to disqualify it without taking the bird out of the cage, like in your case.

However, if he were to see no disqualifications, he would be required to take out the bird and inspect it, no matter the severity of the defect.

 

[Amer]

If I were you, I would just try again. Every year we learn something new, and improve upon our birds or showing.
I would recommend bringing new birds and looking for ones that follow the standard.
When you do that, you’ll find every year they just do better.