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[I-Have-Happy-Hens]

PLEASE ADD YOUR NAME TO OUR LIST IF YOUR WILLING TO BE A CHICKEN SITTER, NEED A SITTER? COME ADD YOUR NAME!
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=546740

 

[Black Cochin Bantams]

I just returned from the poultry show at the Johnson County Fair. I sold the best single bantam and bantam pair at an exotic sale in April when I was cleaning house to make room for this years chicks.. Another observation for 4H kids is that patterned birds seldom beat a solid color bird.

 

[sammileah]

little buff dude got reserve champ for feathery footed bantam breed. its craiges 1st purple he was so excited. he ended up with 2 reds, 2 blues and 2 purples in the poultry.
he also got 2 blues for goats. yay
but i'm thrilled cause everything comes home today. meaning no more fair runs.



our fair you have. production pens, meat pens. then standard breed which can be 1-3 birds most kids pick 1 any breed, clean leg bantams, feather legged bantams. all the judges the kids have had if the animal is well taken care of and the 4her can easily handle it they get a blue. purples are for the judges favorites.

that being said story county barns are full and the poultry judging takes almost 4 hours. judge is a little winded but does a great job of tell the 4hers what he likes about the bird and what can be improved.

 

[destiny_56085]

I'm a district 4-H leader up here in MN and was a member since pre-school. In 4-H you can show market, layer and breeding pens. A market pen is just that.... meat birds. Layers have 2 categories.... brown egg and white egg. A breeding pen consists of a trio (1 cockerel and 2 pullets) of the same variety and breed. To qualify as a breeding pen, they have to be a standard variety recognized by the APA. It says right in the rules if you are showing crossbred birds, or even unrecognized varieties within a breed, that you will be disqualified as a breeding pen. Not enough breeders have gone through the paperwork to get mille fleur recognized as an official color in cochins yet. They could have shown them as egg layers (probably not doing very well in that category either), but they are a definite DQ as such.

 

[Lilandra]

Quote:

as it should be -- a separate category to TEACH what you need to be a breeder. All other categories are about production poultry and to have birds from production stock (inexpensive and readily available) should suffice, including birds with the wrong feather colors

btw -the original post said the bird won for poultry display, not for being best of show or best of class

 

[Troy]

To have you know that all the other birds you mentioned were ours too.Silkies,moderns,OEGB,calls.They were ALL ours and I was happy my daughter won.If you dont like the way the judge did it keep your darn opinions to yourself.The county we live in barely has enough participation to even have a fair and they are happy with whatever we bring.My daughter puts in alot of time doing this and for you to sit here and bash her for her efforts is piss poor.And mr black cochin guy we will meet in person someday and we can fix this when we do.Without our birds there they wouldnt even have a fancy class.Dont worry this will be the last time I post on here there are to many aholes on here.The poultry supervisor for our county knows nothing and im trying to learn what would be the right way to set up the poultry for our county but around here there are so many different rules to where i dont even know how to go about it.Maybe instead of bashing my daughter tell me how the rules go so I can try to talk with fair board to get it right.I called the extension office before I registered her birds and asked if they had to be APA and the answer was no.I spent many nights on the phone and got no answers.Our fair needs help bad.And I wanna try to make it better and I dont know right from wrong.Amy id be more than happy to talk with you and try to help me set it up like your fair.The fair president told me we could make changes but i need input BAD.

 

[Lilandra]

Quote:
I volunteer at the Buchanan county fair and we are working with the few families we get to run a poultry show. You can't force change, and you have to work with what you got, thus it is a show of pullets and hens in egg laying classes and a few pet fancy birds. The folks here still see chickens as cheap livestock and a beginners project. Once the kids prove themselves with the care of a cheap bird, they get to move up to hogs, sheep and cattle.

 

[IA. jake]

These are the birds my son took to the same fair.

He received blue ribbons for each pair . Eric the modern hen that my son got from you.

 

[destiny_56085]

Hey Troy,
This website is a huge help: http://www1.extension.umn.edu/youth/mn4-H/projects/animal-science/poultry/. Check it out!

I think it helps in our county that we also have the BCPPA active in hosting shows and swaps. We have tons of established breeders willing to help the 4-H kids out as long as they show interest. This does not mean putting a fully prepped bird in their hands a week before the fair though.

In the last few years we have also gotten a local 4-H group (the Watanwon County Poultry Patrol) into hosting open spring shows as a learning opportunity. They have a small show in April, just before the registration for the 4-H deadlines. Some of the top breeders in the state show up and are willing to bring good examples of stock and more importantly be there to answer any questions from the kids. Its not a really serious show, but a fun day of sitting around and sharing information.

Even at our 4-H shows in Brown county, we have an 4-H and an open class division. Usually there is about 150 4-H birds and variable number of open. The open division is run just like an APA show.... all the same divisions (AOCCL, SCCL, FL, etc....) The fairboard and individuals will donate for prize money. In the 4-H, they have cloverbud division for the young kids. That's where you see the cute pet birds that all have names.... There is divisions for junior and senior showmanship. There is it is simply based on the 4-Her's KNOWLEDGE and presentation of the bird. Then you have classes for the market, layer, and breeder birds. The judge places best birds in each of those classes in both junior and senior. When it is all said and done, they go through at the end and pick out a state fair lineup. Those might not even be the winners of their class. Ex... If the 2nd or 3rd place pen of layers if better than the 1st pen of broilers, then those will be awarded the trip. Its up to the judges discretion there on what they think will do best in a larger scale competition. The fairboard then gives premiums based on what color ribbons the kids got ($5 for a blue, $3 for a red, etc). The 4-H show itself takes about about 6 hours. The judge goes through each class thoroughly and grabs a microphone at the end of each. He then explains to the kids about why he placed them as such and educates them!

BlackCochinBantams....you would probably know the guys we have judge at our fair. Mark Peterson from Amboy and Don Roscoe from Kasota.....

In our county we also have a strong poultry knowledge bowl interest. I think it was 6-7 years ago that they went on to win the national competition in Louisville, KY. My younger brother was on the senior team and my sister was on the junior team at the time. I'd still like to see more kids get involved with the livestock judging too.
Amy

 

[chiggerbit]

Quote:
pbjmaker, are land prices near you going through the roof? They sure are here. I saw an article in the paper recently that said that a piece (can't remember the size, but maybe 50 acres) went for something like $5000 an acre. Sheesh! I know that it is in an area that has the typical clay-ish soil common to Van Buren County (SE Iowa), so not great soil.