New Member with 4H chickens

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hjclod04

Chirping
6 Years
Jun 5, 2018
9
9
71
Southern Illinois
Hello from Southern Illinois! We are new chicken owners as of a couple months ago. My two children joined 4H this year and both wanted chickens as one of their projects. We started with 6 Buff Orpington chicks and added 3 more Buff Orpingtons, 3 Rhode Island Reds and a mystery Batam (possible a black-tailed Japanese) about three weeks later. We are hoping to learn more on this site/forum and be able to have some of our “newbie” questions answered.
 
Hi! Welcome to Backyard Chickens! :wee:welcome
When I entered my first shows for my hens, I was expecting having to learn "how" to show them. It turned out that all I had to do was sit them up on the table, and let the judge look at them. A couple of the main things that the judges are looking for, is making sure that they are laying eggs, taken care of, and the pair is close in size. One mistake that I made last year, was buying chickens before the 4-H, not from my flock. They stopped laying do to the sudden changes, and I got docked points for not producing eggs. My judge told me, not to mess with the chickens too much, but to let them be with the rest of the flock... take them away about 1-3 days before the show to clean them, but leave them be otherwise. I hope this helps a little bit, as I am new at the while showing experience as well.
 
Heres another post I found that might be helpful...
Well as far as the actual showing and preparing part goes there's a lot I can tell you. To begin you wan tot pick the birds that will be closest to the SOP. Then keep them away from the rooster about 1.5-2 months ahead of time. Pluck any broken feathers now so they will have time to grow back in. Then about two to three days before give the bird(s) a bath. DO NOT WASH THE BIRD RIGHT BEFORE THE SHOW! They need time to get the oil back in their feathers. To begin get three buckets of water ready. Fill one with regular old dish soap/shampoo. The next with white vinegar. For the last tub just use regular water. If the bird has a lot of white feathers you can add an additional tub with bluing dye in it. ONLY ADD A VERY SMALL AMOUNT. Too much and you will have a blue bird instead of a white bird. Now take the bird and wash station to station. First soap, then white vinegar ( cuts the soap ), and lastly regular water. I would add the bluing dye after the vinegar rinse. Then once the bird is dry go through the birds feathers and if they have casings around the feathers get it off. Scratching at it/ rubbing it should get it off. Now that your bird is dry you can take and trim up any stray feathers around the comb to give the head a cleaner appearance. If the beak or comb is over grown trim it with a combo of nail clippers and an emery board. Fast forward to the day of the show. Get witch hazel, baby wipes, hand sanitizer, and cotton balls. Put some witch hazel on the birds comb, wattles, legs, and ear lobes. If they have and poo on then you can put some hand sanitizer on the baby wipe and rub it off. Hand sanitizer dries quickly so It's good to use in emergency's. Make sure if there are a FEW discolored feathers not in the tail or wing feathers that you go ahead and pluck them. I think that is just about everything. If you have any questions I probably can answer them. Good luck showing
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Hi and welcome to BYC.

On this link you'll find lots of information on almost every aspect of keeping birds - from coop building ideas, to incubating eggs - https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/

There’s a link on the page above to the Learning Centre - it’s a great resource. If you have a specific topic in mind, just type it in the search box - there's a wealth of information on past and present threads.

Each week, various topics are discussed, which can also be a great resource - https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/topic-of-the-week-thread-archive


You can use this link to contact members in your area - Find Your State Thread

Best wishes

Pork Pie
 
hjclod04 said:
Hello from Southern Illinois! We are new chicken owners as of a couple months ago. My two children joined 4H this year and both wanted chickens as one of their projects. We started with 6 Buff Orpington chicks and added 3 more Buff Orpingtons, 3 Rhode Island Reds and a mystery Batam (possible a black-tailed Japanese) about three weeks later. We are hoping to learn more on this site/forum and be able to have some of our “newbie” questions answered.
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welcome farmer connie 1.jpg
Pork Pie Ken said:
Hi and welcome to BYC.

On this link you'll find lots of information on almost every aspect of keeping birds - from coop building ideas, to incubating eggs - https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/

There’s a link on the page above to the Learning Centre - it’s a great resource. If you have a specific topic in mind, just type it in the search box - there's a wealth of information on past and present threads.

Each week, various topics are discussed, which can also be a great resource - https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/topic-of-the-week-thread-archive


You can use this link to contact members in your area - Find Your State Thread

Best wishes

Pork Pie
Click to expand...
:goodpost::highfive:
 

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