How do I learn to evaluate a chicken against the SOP?

[MeanCheek]

Any suggestions on less common, friendly, personable birds?

Pyncheon Bantams. Friendly, and very rare!

 

[RuffIedFeathers]

Oh God, give me a moment

Cornish bantams
Cochin bantams
Silkies
WFB Spanish bantams (too old to breed though)
D'uccles
Danvers
1 cranky Japanese bantam
Ayam Ketwa
Marans
Mixes
Spitzhauben
Naked necks
Pheonix
1 Java
1 Russian orloff
Homebrewed Sexlinks
Asian blacks
Mystic Onyx
Araucanas

Sure I'm missing some off the tip of my head

Ooo can I get your option on these? How do you like them? Personality? Egg laying?
Marans
Javas
Russian orloffs
Thanks!!

 

[Amer]

Ooo can I get your option on these? How do you like them? Personality? Egg laying?
Marans
Javas
Russian orloffs
Thanks!!

Well I can tell you Marans are one of the most common breeds available along with with Ameraucanas. I have one. She’s very boring and forgettable. She lays eggs, usually. They’re pretty.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Ooo can I get your option on these? How do you like them? Personality? Egg laying?
Marans
Javas
Russian orloffs
Thanks!!

All three are actually too young to lay yet, but the marans came from super pretty chocolate eggs.

The marans are the friendliest of the three, the male is curious and polite, and the hen slightly less friendly but still curious.

The Russian is super skittish

The Java is curious, but a bully to small chicks, almost predatory

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Here's the marans pair. They're splash coppers

 

[blklangshandude]

There's no such thing as too common when showing!

Wouldn’t you have better luck as a beginner winning with a rare breed than one with a lot of competition? Lol

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Wouldn’t you have better luck as a beginner winning with a rare breed than one with a lot of competition? Lol

It might not be as competitive, but with more competition, you can see a bit easier just how your birds should and shouldn't look

 

[Amer]

Wouldn’t you have better luck as a beginner winning with a rare breed than one with a lot of competition? Lol

It’s a lot more challenging to get good rare birds. The more competitive breeds are going to win a show or a class, a rare breed isn’t going to get more than best of breed.

 

[Pyxis]

Wouldn’t you have better luck as a beginner winning with a rare breed than one with a lot of competition? Lol

Not really. I mean, I have Kos, and they're pretty uncommon. One time I was the only one with a Ko in the show. I entered one pullet. So it was my one pullet for the whole breed, lol. So of course I took BV and BB. BUT I didn't get points for that. You don't get points for just winning BV or BB like that. Now, had she gone on to be best of Class, or Champion Bantam, or Champion or Reserve Champion of the whole show then that would get points (she was NOT going to do that, lol, pullets aren't developed enough, if she hadn't been the only bird there she likely wouldn't have gotten BB or BV or anything, I just wanted to represent the breed).

So what I'm saying is, you're competing against ALL the birds in the show, not just your own breed. Of course you have to have the best of your breed to compete against the Class, so that might harder if the breed has a lot of entries, but the bird would need to be good enough to beat out the best of all the other breeds too, anyway.

Funny story, that time that I had the only pullet in the show, the judge DQd her for having split wing. He wrote 'wing' on the card and I was panicking thinking I brought a bird WITHOUT split wing in both wings to show and couldn't believe I did that.

Pulled her out, checked her, nope, split in both wings. So I had to wait until the whole show was judged and pulled the judge over and asked why he DQd her. He starts to reach into her cage and is saying, "Oh, her wing...here let me show you."

So I said, "I know she has split wing in both wings."

He stopped and was nodding at me.

So I said, "And she's supposed to."

He's looking confused now. Looks at her cage card and then says, "Oh! She's a Ko! I thought she was a Shamo. I was wondering why she was over here all by herself."

Annndddd yeah. He judged her as the totally wrong breed of bird because he didn't even read her cage card, I guess, and her being the only one he didn't stop to think that there were a bunch of them, must not be Shamos?

So then he scratched out the DQ on her card and put BV and BB, lol. Probably got recorded as a DQ though. If she had been a really good bird and I thought she had a chance of winning the class I would have been MAD.

 

[Amer]

Not really. I mean, I have Kos, and they're pretty uncommon. One time I was the only one with a Ko in the show. I entered one pullet. So it was my one pullet for the whole breed, lol. So of course I took BV and BB. BUT I didn't get points for that. You don't get points for just winning BV or BB like that. Now, had she gone on to be best of Class, or Champion Bantam, or Champion or Reserve Champion of the whole show then that would get points (she was NOT going to do that, lol, pullets aren't developed enough, if she hadn't been the only bird there she likely wouldn't have gotten BB or BV or anything, I just wanted to represent the breed).

So what I'm saying is, you're competing against ALL the birds in the show, not just your own breed. Of course you have to have the best of your breed to compete against the Class, so that might harder if the breed has a lot of entries, but the bird would need to be good enough to beat out the best of all the other breeds too, anyway.

Funny story, that time that I had the only pullet in the show, the judge DQd her for having split wing. He wrote 'wing' on the card and I was panicking thinking I brought a bird WITHOUT split wing in both wings to show and couldn't believe I did that.

Pulled her out, checked her, nope, split in both wings. So I had to wait until the whole show was judged and pulled the judge over and asked why he DQd her. He starts to reach into her cage and is saying, "Oh, her wing...here let me show you."

So I said, "I know she has split wing in both wings."

He stopped and was nodding at me.

So I said, "And she's supposed to."

He's looking confused now. Looks at her cage card and then says, "Oh! She's a Ko! I thought she was a Shamo. I was wondering why she was over here all by herself."

Annndddd yeah. He judged her as the totally wrong breed of bird because he didn't even read her cage card, I guess, and her being the only one he didn't stop to think that there were a bunch of them, must not be Shamos?

So then he scratched out the DQ on her card and put BV and BB, lol. Probably got recorded as a DQ though. If she had been a really good bird and I thought she had a chance of winning the class I would have been MAD.

Well, you educated him I guess, but I can’t believe he didn’t see that wing and think. And Shamo bantams are super rare. I saw one for the first time two weeks ago.