Ohio National....Who's all going?

[ultasol]

actually, the title just states it's a trio of white leghorns. I misread it. It says int he description, ". They are full bloodline to the male (pictured) that won the Ohio Nationals this year. These birds are ready to ship out immediately upon auction completion. This is an incredible opportunity to get an awesome start in show poultry. "

I just was excited to see exhibition breeders donating to a good cause. I am considering putting up some lav silkie eggs, if the girls will cooperate. Right now, three of the four split females are broody (they are under a lav male).

It's always nice to see gestures of generosity for kids.

 

[Neil Grassbaugh]

The judges at The OHIO NATIONAL are among the most experienced knowledgeabe and highly regarded in the country. It seems unlikey that anyone on that crew would mishandle a bird on exhibit. Especially when they know that the bird is worth perhaps hundreds of dollars and in all likelyhood the owner is watching the judging. One of those exhibitors would have been a former prime time TV professional wrestler and another a DVM. The birds cooped in that area were the AOSB class and included some of the strongest and most likely hurt birds at the show. With their strength wings are easily broken.
If I were inexperienced at handling Maylays, Assels, Shamos and Sipans I would reserve my comments until I had a better knowledge and greater experience on the subject.

 

[friedeggs]

I watched a judge grab the birds by the wings, pull him out roughly, flip him over to look at him and shove him back in the cage. I watched this go on for 1/2 and isle and was totally disgusted and horrified

Should have seen what the judge did to the silkies. grabbed them, pulled them roughly through the opening took them by the neck shook the head fiercely like the heads were maraccas and pushed them back into the cage and slammed them down one bird he slammed down so hard that the plastic cup went flying out of the cage. Oh and he was smoking while judging too. I heard he was mad that he had to judge them.​

 

[madimorg]

Quote:
I actually lucked out and got three birds off of the show floor that are doing great and are gorgeous. Off of the show floor I purchased a molted chochin, a silver penciled wyandotte and a splash wyandotte. I also purchased a blue cochin and a dark brahma from the sale cages area (the dark brahma ended up having an issue which you can read about on a post I placed yesterday).

 

[6littlechickies]

We had a BLAST and plan to attend a LOT more shows in general! met some wonderful people, learned a LOT and picked up some amazing birds too!

Of course, ended up coming home with more than planned but that always seems to be the case with us!

We are about 2.5 hours away and had planned to arrive around noon on Friday, we had some peafowl mishaps while getting ready to leave so we didn't leave the house until 12:30! I was not happy as I was hoping to get there earlier and I didn't want to miss out on any sales. We had prearranged to pick up a blue Ameraucana cockerel from christinem but I was hoping to find some more Amer girls to go with him. I crossed my fingers as we drove down and hoped I wouldn't be too late.

We got there, got our bantam orloff's in their show cages and went back to the sale area. Found our blue roo right away--he is GORGEOUS!

Looked around and saw a lot of nice birds and tons of adorable call ducks! we came home with 6 of them (not planned)! LOL they are just too cute for words and we could not resist! I blame Charley Hodum

he started it all by giving my kids a white male (with angel wing) Friday night.

Side note, at the time, we had NO idea who Charley was so I don't think we could truly appreciate how cool this really was until we looked him up! um, WOW is all i can say!

The kids were in total love with this duck (as were DH and I). After we got the white call duck we figured it was probably time to head out for the night (almost 9:30 at this point), DH said he was going to take one final look through the sale pens while I got all the kiddos loaded into the van. No sooner did I get everyone buckled in and he calls my cell telling me I have to come in now and check out some birds. I'm not really thrilled as i just got everyone settled but I go and WOW, am I sooo glad I did! DH had stumbled upon Ann Foley as she was unloading all her birds.

She had brought Black Amer pullets which was EXACTLY that we were looking for! YAY!

She had some already pre-sold but said we could buy the rest! double yay! we agreed to buy 4 of her girls to go with our new blue boy. She said we could either take them that night or on Saturday, we said we would catch her first thing in the morning. So, Friday night, SCORE! a blue Amer roo and 4 new black amer pulets! OH and we also saw, for the first time EVER, another pair of bantam russian orloff's!

this was quite exciting for us and DH discussed throughout the evening if we should buy them to add to our breeding stock. Eventually, we decided that adding another pair would really benefit our program so DH said he would talk to the seller first thing on Saturday to see if we could snag them.
Saturday morning I was up at 5:30 as we wanted to get there around 7:30. We figured we would go over, check on our birds and then go get the kids some breakfast and come back for a while. Our kids are young (ages 7,5 an 3) so we had to do short bursts there, luckily the hotel was within sight of the show so it was super easy to come and go. Anyway, when we arrived on Saturday, first thing DH went to check on those orloff's. He was able to get the pair which will make a great addition to our flock!

Next my middle son Jack (and DH) went back over to Charley and we got a gray male call from him and then a female white to go with the boy he gave us. Charley was SO nice to my kids--he was even nice enough to pick a girl that would help correct faults the boy he gave us has. I went over to Ann's birds to pick my four new girls. I was SO thankful I did b/c even tho by now it was only just past 8 there were two other people she ended up turning down b/c they were all already sold. Ann is soooo nice and we chatted for quite while. We spent some time at the Marans table too, was nice to finally put some faces with names of folks I chat with in the MCCUSA. In the afternoon, i went on a hunt for some plastic leg bands and DH took Jack through the sale area again as he wanted to see the ducks again. DH saw a pair of butterscotch ones he HAD to have so in a box they went! Later that night we ended up with another butterscotch/gray mix girl. It was really funny, i'm usually the one who cannot resist but this weekend, seemed every time I left DH alone, another duck would appear! Luckily we have a nice area we were able to get setup right quick for everyone and they are happy as can be now.
Sunday morning we went back to pick up our show birds and the new orloff's (we had gotten everyone else sat night) and made the trip back home. Got everyone settled in on Sunday and spent the evening relaxing and reflecting on what a fantastic time we had!

OK, so I think I babbled enough, now for some pic! I was able to get some decent pics Friday night of a few birds before we left for the evening, not as many as I would have expected were in their cages but it seemed like a lot of people must have arrived very first thing Friday b/c we left around 9:30 Friday night and a lot of empty cages were there but by the time we came back Saturday morning at 8:30 they were all about full. I would have loved to have gotten more individual shots of birds but just didn't get the time. Hindsight, i should have either taken the kiddos of had DH watch them and went around the room snapping up pics. oh well, we did get some nice pics.
I took a bunch of pics (some are of ridiculous kid stuff) so rather than upload one by one, I'm just attaching the link to my photobucket album. Enjoy! http://s886.photobucket.com/albums/ac62/jjlouden/6littlechickies/Ohio National/

 

[wegotchickens]

Walking into the OH Nationals was amazing!!
We got there early, as birds were being checked in. Some were still getting their beauty treatments. Combs were rubbed with vaseline and polished up, some birds were being blown dry, some were being smoothed and soothed and massaged.

We stood on the balcony, overlooking 44 rows of cages stacked double high. 44 rows!

It was amazing, and I was very glad to be there!!

Cetawin had trusted us with her darling daughter, and we took a moment to get a picture of me, my daughter, and Cetawin's daughter:

Some of the BYC people at the OH Nationals:

Some of the BYC-ers, plus Neil Grassbaugh (wearing the tie):

There were a lot of birds for sale, as well as poultry supplies. It was nice getting some items that aren't easy to find in our area. It was great seeing all the sale birds!! Between show birds and sale birds we're guessing there were at least 10,000 birds at the OH Nationals.

I was doing great at resisting bird purchases. There were a lot of pretty birds, but I already am at max capacity. And most of them made me think a smug 'I like my birds better' until I saw these:

A pair of white d'Uccles. The cockeral is gorgeous, and held himself like a champion. The pullet doesn't have as nice foot feathers, but she's a little doll. I love it that he is very well-mannered towards her, too.

So, the whole trip was wonderful, and I would go again in a heartbeat.
But, the hot shower after a day spent indoors with 10,000 birds was a wonderful experience as well

 

[mame1616]

Quote:
Should have seen what the judge did to the silkies. grabbed them, pulled them roughly through the opening took them by the neck shook the head fiercely like the heads were maraccas and pushed them back into the cage and slammed them down one bird he slammed down so hard that the plastic cup went flying out of the cage. Oh and he was smoking while judging too. I heard he was mad that he had to judge them.

I understand how you feel, and I was horrified to see him smoking as he judged! I mean, there's kids right there! When I first started, I wanted to call the SPCA. But, I have never heard of any birds being injured during judging, and, especially at a show like this, there are simply too many people watching. The judge does not want to get a bad reputation that will spread like wildfire through the fancy. I hardly ever watch while they judge my birds. I can't hear them, and they're not going to talk to me then. I did wish I had watched the cochins, though. Mine was in a row of four, and each of us was the only ones in those varieties, and there were no marks on any of the cards. We think they were overlooked.

6littlechickies - I saw your birds, both the show ones and the ones in the sale area - very nice! Bantam orloff's are rare, and those were lovely!

Neil, thanks for offering to take a pic of my hyper fav girl Saturday. I was going to try and find you Sunday, but we were both busy - next time, and thanks again!

 

[Ryu]

Big thanks to the Ohio crew for putting on the show. I really liked how the sales area was set up this year.

Two of my birds got photographed for the Fairest Fowl, I am sooo excited.

I got so caught up with chatting with everyone I totally forgot about the BYC table. Ooops. Second year in a row I missed everyone. There's always next year!

 

[OSUman]

whoops

 

[OSUman]

wegotchickens you just missed me in the first pic I just left after talking to Matt Lhamon and Bob Gilbert