Need to let off some steam about chickens at the fair

[Lothiriel]

Some of you may know this by now.... But I'm rather picky when it comes to showing off things.
So today when I went to the fair and looked at the chickens, I came away quite disappointed and ticked off, for several reasons.
The biggest reason is that so many of the birds there were way below the standards and yet were still being shown. Now, I know these are mostly kids in 4-H and not breeders with high quality stock. But that doesn't really give them a reason to show birds that very obviously don't fit the standards, let alone mislabeled and sickly birds.

There was a pair of Salmon Faverolles. The cock was very poorly colored with no red cape and the hen was just barely recognizable as Salmon colored.
There was a Silkie cock. He had red skin and a single comb.
There were two Barred Rock hens. Their barring was horrendous and their feathers looked unkempt.
There was an enormous Cochin cock. Half of his feathers were gone.
There was a pair of Silver Duckwing OEGBs. The hen was fine, but the cock's feathers looked very poor.
There was an Easter Egger labeled as an Ameraucana, and another EE labeled as something that doesn't even exist and I can't even remember. It wasn't even a breed.

On the good side, there were about 3 trios of bantam Cochins -- one black and two white -- and they'd all won high prizes. One was Grand Champion. Also there was a very nice Russian Orloff and a trio of Blue Andalusians, and a few Wyandottes with excellent shape, along with some more OEGBs.


Anyway.
I think I've let out the steam.

 

[chickened]

I have seen the same thing at our fair. The only good thing I can see is that the judge will usually give a good criticizing of the birds and the breeder will realize how bad their birds are and get a chance to see some great birds.

The only thing worse is when there are very few birds.

Always good to let off steam.

 

[Matthew3590]

I don't know what is considered a big fair since I have only been to the same one (Wilson county fair in TN) but they were atleast 60-70 birds per row of the poultry barn and 6 rows. So many birds a lot of good ones. I wanted to see which ones were for show but couldn't find any so I assume they all were. There was atleast 10-15 different breeds. They even had weird jacob pigeons and some colorful bird that I took pictures of. Looked like a red,blue,and yellow parrot in a chickens body.

 

[cassie]

I understand your complaint. The blame here can be evenly split between the youthful exhibitors and their leaders. The 4Hers should have done some research on their own about their chickens and the leaders should have done the same so they could advise and guide them. And this isn't just true of chickens. I used to be heavily involved in the breeding and showing of dairy goats. I have seen 4Hers show goats that were so poor in quality that they could have found something better at the sale barn. I once saw some Duroc hogs that were such poor representatives of their breed that only way I found out they were Durocs was to ask the kid that owned them what breed they were. The sad thing was that this kid was proud of them and thought they were of great quality. Good breeding stock, of whatever species, isn't all that hard to find if you make the effort, and in my experience most breeders are more than willing to help youngsters get decent stock.

 

[20736]

If all you have is a hammer. then everything looks like a nail.
1. They are kids.
2. It's a small world to a kid.
3. Let them gather and compare their stock, and maybe have a funnel cake.

 

[Texokie1]

I don't know what is considered a big fair since I have only been to the same one (Wilson county fair in TN) but they were atleast 60-70 birds per row of the poultry barn and 6 rows. So many birds a lot of good ones. I wanted to see which ones were for show but couldn't find any so I assume they all were. There was atleast 10-15 different breeds. They even had weird jacob pigeons and some colorful bird that I took pictures of. Looked like a red,blue,and yellow parrot in a chickens body.

I went to the Wilson Co Fair on Friday myself. There seemed to be a lot of birds, but not that many breeds represented. It seemed like it was mostly OEGB, silkies, and barred rocks. They had just a coupla Wyandottes...and one of those had a wry tail. Oh, and I think the colorful bird you saw was an ornamental pheasant of some kind...saw him too...very pretty.

Cassie - I know what you mean about some of the show goats. I come from meat goat country (South and West Texas), and what passes for Boers up here in Tennessee would never fly down south........

 

[countrybuffs]

I understand your complaint. The blame here can be evenly split between the youthful exhibitors and their leaders. The 4Hers should have done some research on their own about their chickens and the leaders should have done the same so they could advise and guide them. And this isn't just true of chickens. I used to be heavily involved in the breeding and showing of dairy goats. I have seen 4Hers show goats that were so poor in quality that they could have found something better at the sale barn. I once saw some Duroc hogs that were such poor representatives of their breed that only way I found out they were Durocs was to ask the kid that owned them what breed they were. The sad thing was that this kid was proud of them and thought they were of great quality. Good breeding stock, of whatever species, isn't all that hard to find if you make the effort, and in my experience most breeders are more than willing to help youngsters get decent stock.

Amen to that!!

 

[dainerra]

also, our local fair 4H birds aren't always shown against the standard. Instead, it is a production project for egg laying ability. Or meat birds. very few birds are even intended to be "show quality" even the birds that are part of a breeding project.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I thought the fair was supposed to be about fun.

 

[countrybuffs]

If all you have is a hammer. then everything looks like a nail.
1. They are kids.
2. It's a small world to a kid.
3. Let them gather and compare their stock, and maybe have a funnel cake.

This is true, but I still think some 4-H leaders should be more informed. I was involved in 4-H for a long time, and there are a lot of good leaders, but there are some that I just scratch my head as to why they are doing it?