Minnesota!

[MinnesotaNice]

I wish I could help! I know close to zero about 4H. I do, however, think if you reach out to them they'll tell you what their expectations are. As for quality show stock, I'd network around. Your club may have suggestions. There's a lot of folks on the MN threads that have great stock as well. Decide what breed you'd like to show and ask around. That's my inexperienced 4H suggestion =)

 

[Cluckies]

Messica, welcome! Where are you located? and What kind of chickens are you looking to get? @holm25 or @Minniechickmama may be able to help, or @destiny_56085 . Like I said, it depends where you are located though. Holm is in 4H and shows chickens, and Minnie's kids are in 4H as well. and she is also a judge and enters birds herself. I believe Destiny also shows her birds. They all have beautiful birds!

I know absolutely nothing about that, I only have a back yard flock of 5.

 

[MNChickMom]

Welcome Marissa. My kids also are in 4h chicken project. Get quality chickens from reputable breeder, the earlier the better. Our judge in Benton County recommended January and February hatches for the breed to show part. (Egglayer division or breeding trio etc.) As for showmanship, mostly a docile bird that your child knows about. Our judge asked questions specific to the breed they were using in showmanship. Aways encourage your child to do showmanship as the greater the number of participants in showmanship = the greater number of state fair qualifiers the state will give to your county.

 

[destiny_56085]

I will second what MNChickMom said. First you need to enroll your kids in 4-H and pick a club that fits your style. Some are more oriented towards certain projects and some are more local to certain townships. Yes there is a lot of volunteer work, but it will help your kids in the long run when it comes to filling out scholarship and college entrance stuff. There is going to be records to fill out along with the projects to make sure your kid is learning something and takes responsibility. Its NOT going to be the parents raising the birds, doing all the work, and then the kids showing. There are project bowls (like knowledge bowl in school) for different projects. In mid-May there will be the project deadlines and you have to pick out your birds by then. If you want to be at all competitive, I HIGHLY suggest buying from a breeder and not hatchery junk. You want them out of the shell in early January if at all possible. If you wait til May to get chicks, they will barely be sexable, much less mature enough to show by the fairs that are only 2 months away. For showmanship, you use 1 bird and judge will ask many questions. You are also judged on how they handle the bird and conditioning. For a market pen, you want 3 meat birds that are in prime condition to butcher at fairtime...so timing is key on those. You don't want them too light or too heavy. For a layer pen, you want a trio of your best egg layers.... leghorns, new hampshires, etc. For a breed pen, you want your absolute best trio of birds that fits the standard of perfection. Pullets have to be evenly matched in size, color, conformation, etc. and your cockerel has to be the best possible. You can show any breed and variety as long as it is in the APA standard of perfection. So keep in mind...all those project varieties like blue laced red wyandottes, paint silkies, whatever are not approved. Breeds like the cream legbars and ayem cemani's also aren't in there. Thus will get disqualified for 4-H. I also suggest picking breeds that will be mature enough come fairtime. For example, my silkies mature out at about 10-12 months and I can first tell sex on them at about 4-5 months. They would never be ready for fair with the given January 1st hatching deadline... Some with our big standard cochins (take up to 18 months). Some of your other breeds will mature out in 3-4 months, some don't.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Destiny is off on the numbers for pens, for market and egg layers you only need a pair per pen, the breeders are a trio. Maybe confused with rabbits which are a pen of 3. But the rest of her info is spot on. I think part of the reason for the after January 1st hatch is to keep a level playing field. The birds hatched within the year they show will never be fully mature for 4-H shows, but the earlier they are hatched the better so they can have ample maturity and feathering by show time.
I do need to correct Cluckies, I do show and breed but I am NOT a judge. I aspire to be one, so have studied up a lot on poultry, but not there yet.
What I recommend to folks just starting out or coming late to the game for starting their chickens, try layers. They will be in the laying stage earlier than the breeding groups and have a little less to worry about in the beginning. Get a feel and understanding of what to look for in a good production bird and get your feet wet. This will give you time to research what you may want to get into for breeding birds in the meantime. Where breeding types should be hatched in January, February at the latest, you can get chicks now (early March) for the layers and still get decent develpment for show. I wouldn't wait though. For the White Egg class, I wouldn't bother with anything besides Pearl White Leghorns. They are the ones that compete and win every time. For the Brown Egg class, go with the Production hybrids like Red Production, Red Sex Links, Black Sex Links, ISA Browns, etc. I would suggest for every pair you want to have, get 10 and pick the two that look the best that match. You can always find people to buy up your extras. I would consider raising the Cornish Rocks for the meat class too if you are interested in growing your own. They only take 8 weeks to grow from hatch to ready to butcher. They are mess though and you want to keep them clean throughout their time with you so they show better.
Like Destiny said, each club is different, find one that matches your expectations or what you want to focus on. Network with other people interested in poultry, ask the county office who they know who are their poultry people and who the poultry supervisor is.
There is a lot to learn when you start out, but it can be so much fun and so rewarding when you show they and when you get meat and eggs from them too.
I do not have anything to offer this year. I haven't even turned on my incubators because I have had a lot of family stuff going on and am taking a break with my birds this year, sort of.
Good luck. If you can't find a breeder, Tractor Supply and Runnings and some elevators should be selling the egg laying birds I mentioned and you could get started there.

 

[destiny_56085]

it's been 22 years since I've shown in 4-H. My mom was the secretary at the county extension office so of course she had me involved in most projects. I showed mainly horses back then and my siblings were hardcore into the pigeons and poultry. My brother who is now 29 was on the poultry bowl team that won the national competition. I just got to help with the birds back then and first got into showing poultry after a horse related accident in 2001. Of course I got thrown into the open class stuff right away. First of all I picked the breeds that my brother hated the most and I swore I'd come back to beat him in the show ring. It also helped that I had known most of those old timers beforehand. My dad owned a small feed store in town and our family also used to do the feed and supply booth and all the major shows and swaps. While my parents sold stuff, I was that kid pestering everyone with questions.

 

[destiny_56085]

I've been looking around in our own County to join 4-H again. My daughter turns 6 soon and can officially be a cloverbud then. Hardest part for me is finding a club that meets on days I'm off from work. Many of the parents running the clubs now were in it with me way back when....

 

[Messica]

Thanks for all the replies guys! We found our club already and got registered. I'm not interested in meat birds and we keep only a small backyard flock so anything requiring 10+ birds to start isn't going to work for our family. We only buy from breeders, not hatcheries so no worries there. I think my daughter is going to shoot for showmanship because we have a stunning and incredibly docile speckled Sussex who she raised last year that would work wonderfully for that. She has several breeds she's interested in (Favorelle's, and Houdan's) but finding one the right age at this point for this year sounds like it could be challenging. My son is interested in heritage breed ducks and we've literally just located a wonderful Australian Spotted breeder that we plan to get together with soon. Her kids have used past stock in 4H and did well. My son and I are looking forward to the trip and talking to her about all of that. What it'll all lead to I'm not sure yet, but in any event I never complete work of *any* kind for my kids. They'll be all on their own as usual.

They've each chosen two other unrelated projects they'd like to work on and I think that'll be plenty for their first year.

Cluckies - we are in Parkers Prairie, about a half hour north of Alexandria. We'll be traveling to Wisconsin for the Aussie's and don't mind going the distance to find who will best work within our flock while also meeting extracurricular needs

 

[scandiafowl]

Hey everyone - that darn avian flu is in the news again. Any reports in Minnesota? Of course this is happening during migration....

 

[scandiafowl]

And just to gloat for one moment... am posting from Nuevo Vallarta..