Just got home about 20 minutes ago. PHEW, long trip! I have a ton of pictures to crop, but it's already almost coop closing time, so that'll have to come later.
DD, unfortunately, I wasn't able to stay until the winners were determined because I needed to get home before coop closing time (barely made it! ), but I did get some pictures of their tabletop turkey show and the Marans club egg show! Will post those in a bit!
I am so sorry, DD! I was so worn out, I fell asleep right after cropping everything!
Like last time, I took way too many pictures and they won't all fit in one post. I aimed for more unusual birds than what I usually take pictures of... but there are still lots of OEGBs, lots of Moderns, and lots of call ducks. I can't help myself, okay? So, I'll put those and the events and such in the second post, just as a means of splitting things up. Here's the rest of them for the time being! Loooots of pictures, so they're thumbnail sized to prevent loading issues for those of us out in the boonies with poor connections. I'll make note of how they were judged if I remember, but a lot of them hadn't been judged yet by the time we went through there, and a few aisles were blocked for judging so I didn't get the chance to take pictures of some of them.
Ameraucana bantams! First was a gorgeous, heavily-laced Blue female, then a Silver female who didn't want anything to do with me, and finally a Wheaten female who was curious, but a bit reserved.
Large fowl Ameraucana. This one was labelled as 'Mottled', but doesn't look like the project mottleds I've seen before... Not sure if that's changed since then. If I had to guess, she looks like an Exchequer-type pattern to me (dominant white over mottled). Still, absolutely stunning!
Appenzeller Spitzhauben. This was a gold-spangled female. I love the hairdo.
True Araucana, a female in black. She kind of 'blew out' at the show and was in no mood for pictures.
Aseel. This is a Wheaten male. He looked a rather lot like a dinosaur.
Silver Double-Laced Barnevelder bantam. Oh, sakes, I love this color!! Too bad she wouldn't turn so that was the best I could do of her, picture-wise.
Dark Brahma female, clearly over this whole showing thing and just having a nap at this point.
Breda! I'd never seen them in person before! WOW!! These were both Cuckoo, the first female and the second male.
Cochin bantams! First was a Silver Blue (or maybe Blue Birchen; they're the same color, I just don't remember what they called her ), then a frizzled Mottled hen, and a Splash hen who was just gorgeous!!
Large fowl Blue Laced Red Cornish. She also looked like a dinosaur!
Ko Shamo bantam, another breed I'd never seen in person! They were pretty cute, despite being very dinosaur-like as well. This was a Wheaten hen.
Legbars. First one was labeled as Golden Crele, which is my personal preference for Legbar color. The other two were creams, but inconsistent in color. I like the darker crest, but the first cream female (who was standing awkwardly ) was very pretty, too.
Single Comb Dark Leghorn bantam hen. Wow. That's all I've got.
Blue Magpie duck. Big girl! I believe she was reserve in variety, but I thought she was the prettiest.
Wheaten Marans rooster. He was very relaxed during the show and having a bath.
Naked Neck bantams! EEK, I can't help myself on them, either! First is Black and second is Blue.
New Hampshire bantam. I don't think these had been judged just yet, but she sure was gorgeous!
Phoenix. Both are silver, but the first one was off-color. I still thought she was quite pretty, a lot like my Dark Gray Dorking hens. Second one was best of variety if I remember correctly and had such wicked eyes!!
Barred Plymouth Rock bantams. First was a hen, and I feel like she placed well but I don't remember for sure. Second was two boys trying to fight through the bars.
Polish. I'm not a huge Polish fan, but some of them were pretty. First two are frizzled, obviously. First is a Tolbunt, then a White. The smooths are another Tolbunt and a White Crowned Black. He was the only male I got good pictures of in the Polish, and WOW did he have quite the hairdo!!
Rosecomb bantams. I always forget how many colors they come in! In order, these are a Black Breasted Red female (who was very curious ), a Blue Brassy Back female, a Blue Golden Duckwing male, a Blue Red male, and finally, a Buff Columbian female. The Buff Columbians that were there seemed super pale for buffs, that's not just the lighting.
Sebrights! A Golden male and a Silver female. Wow!!
Silkied Black Serama hen. I love those silkied feathers!!
This Silkie hen looked Wheaten to me, but was labeled with a super long and complicated name: Porcelain Blue Cream.
Swedish Flower Hen! I couldn't believe my eyes with these birds!! This hen was definitely the prettiest there!
The white and red hen in the background was also a Swedish Flower Hen.
A couple turkeys. The first was Buff and I honestly don't remember if it was male or female. I'm not good with turkeys. But that pattern was super pretty! I wish he/she would have held still so I could have captured it better! Second was a Sweetgrass tom in full glory. He gobbled a couple times while I was taking pictures, too.
Last in this post is a Welsummer hen. I think she was over the whole showing thing, too.
A couple funnies while these upload. So, during the show, apparently a wild pigeon got into the show hall and was flying around every now and then. Well, every time it moved, all of the roosters and most of the hens would do that screechy alarm growl thing that they do. So every time that bird moved, there was like a wave of growls moving out from where the pigeon was to the edges of the show hall. It's hard to describe, but it was both amazing and hilarious.
Also, there were these two Mottled Cochin boys in side-by-side cages who were the funniest darn things in the show, and I realized after we left that I forgot to take pictures of them! They were doing that treat chirp for everything. 'Bick-bick-bick!' They did it to each other, they did it to passers by, they did it to the birds on either sides, they were just chirping away at everything! Then their owner stopped by to check on their water, and they were 'bick-bick-bicking' at her hands as she checked, and got even more excited with their chirping as she filled their water. She was talking to them the whole time. Ah, it was too cute!! I wish I'd gotten her name--I'm in love with her birds!
Anyway, the rest of the pictures! Here are the Call ducks! There's a bunch, so I'll split them up to label for varieties. First is a Blue Bibbed female. I think she took best or reserve of variety, but I don't remember for sure. She was super pretty. After her is a Blue Fawn hen, then a Chocolate, err, hen I think? Can't see its tail from that angle and I don't remember for sure.
More Calls! The first two are of the same Pied Gray drake. He was stunning!!
Next two pictures are of Blue Bibbed males, but they both seemed off-colored to me... Still, it was a very pretty color effect in my opinion!
And the last of the Calls, here is a Silver female (she was either reserve or best of variety; I took pictures of both, but one of them didn't sit still), then two Snowies, first female, then male. Snowy is one of my favorite varieties.
Modern Game bantams. I wanted to take some of these home SO badly!!! First are Birchens and Brown Reds; the Birchens are the silver-necked ones and the Brown Reds are the gold-necked ones. They're all female except the couple males in that pen with multiples.
More Moderns; these are Lemon Blue and one Silver Blue at the end. They're killing me with their awkward cuteness!!
These were all girls, too.
OEGBs. First is a Blue Golden Duckwing male, then a Blue Red female and male.
More OEGBs; two Brown Reds (one really wanted a close look at my phone ) and a Lemon Blue.
Last two OEGBs; the first hen was called a Silver Ginger, or maybe a Ginger Silver? That's the silver version of Ginger Red. The second is a Wheaten hen who was having none of my picture taking, thank you very much!
These are pictures from the Marans Chicken Club USA table; the first was an example carton of Marans eggs, and the second was a Marans egg show! Look at those gorgeous eggs!!
This is the best shot I got of the tabletop turkey show. The judge seemed to be feeling the birds for condition and feather quality, but I actually have no clue of what was going on. They live-streamed it, so I can get a link of the video off of Facebook if anyone wants to see more. I unfortunately missed the tabletop Serama show, so no pictures of that.
Oh, one last picture... Someone let their White Naked Neck bantam rooster get a little too under-conditioned for the show...
And that's what I got at the Ohio Nationals! I'm hoping I can get there before judging starts next year so that I can view more of the birds before the aisles are blocked!
Editing in, here. I thought I would add what each bird was in case the video doesn't work or anyone can't read the cards. In order of appearance in the video:
Black and White Magpie pullet - Best Light Duck (and reserve duck)
White Indian Runner cock - Reserve Light Duck
Buff Duck hen - Reserve Medium Duck
Rouen pullet - Reserve Heavy Duck
Gold Phoenix large fowl (LF) cock - Reserve All Other Standard Breeds (AOSB)
Single Comb White Leghorn LF pullet - Reserve Mediterranean
White Crested Black Polish LF pullet - Reserve Continental
Dark Cornish LF hen - Reserve English
Light Brahma LF pullet - Reserve Asiatic
Black Jersey Giant LF hen - Reserve American
Black East Indie pullet - Reserve Bantam Duck
White Plymouth Rock bantam cockerel - Reserve Single Comb Clean Legged (SCCL) bantam (and reserve bantam)
@Fatimetta I'm so sorry, I just realized I never replied to this!
My rooster pens are 4x8 foot, 4-foot tall boxes basically, with a frame at the center that I can attach wire to to divide them into two 4x4 pens. The walls are all wire, but covered in spots for weather protection, and I cover them up more for the wintertime. I have 3 birds each (the 'big boy' group of Murphy the Marans, and Darwin and Dante the Dorkings, and then the 'little guy' group of Roscoe, Russell, and Rufus the silkied Cochins) in the 4x8 pens and 1 bird each (Jasper the Mottled Cochin and Ben the Silkie) in the 4x4 pens.
The boys have their food and water, of course, and something to perch on (though I still need to get around to improving the perches for the single boys as they're currently just chunks of 4x4 board sitting on the ground vs the raised perches I built from scrap wood for the others... ). I also put fence up so that the larger groups can come outside for a bit more space, and I can throw temporary fence up to let the single boys out as well. They have sand floors for ease of cleaning and so they have something to dust bathe in, and in the fall I throw leaves in there on top of it for them to snuggle down in. It's an existence. I worry about whether it's right to keep them this way sometimes, but they're together with only wire separations, and they share a fence with the girls and get to flirt with them whenever they come around, so at least they aren't totally isolated, right?
I hope that answered your question! I like the idea of rescuing boys, too, since there are so many unwanted roosters that have a lot of potential. I unfortunately just don't have the room, personally, with the breeding roosters I have kept back in the rooster pens right now. But best of luck to you if you end up doing so! There are a few articles and threads about keeping rooster flocks around BYC for more reading on that, too.
Well, holy SNOW! I guess winter is here for us a bit early! It seems like we usually get a snow in November, but not usually an accumulation like this! It's still coming down, too!
Of course, the girls are having none of it, as is the usual.
The pullets are handling it pretty well, though! They don't want to walk in it, but other than that, there doesn't seem to be much panic among them. Here's Mona, frozen in time as the snow came down on her.
She and the OEGBs were hiding out under the boat while the rest of the flock were up at the coop. Lookit my poor teeny-tinies hiding under there!
After some encouragement, I managed to get them back to the coop, though I did take pity on my poor, precious little OEGB girls and carried them back. Rigel was too proud to be carried, so he walked, leaving a trail of teeny-tiny footprints behind.
Meanwhile, Fifi stayed up on the deck, but she wasn't necessarily shying away from the snow, as evidenced by the dusting on her back.
Oh, that beard!
Ganymede doesn't care in the least. She glowered at me from the deck...
...Then glowered at me from outside. Grouch!
Once she was done with her excursion and had returned to the coop, I went ahead and closed the deck up to stop the snow from blowing in as badly. No one seemed too upset by that. So, on the plus side I don't have to worry about lockup tonight.
Well, holy SNOW! I guess winter is here for us a bit early! It seems like we usually get a snow in November, but not usually an accumulation like this! It's still coming down, too!
The pullets are handling it pretty well, though! They don't want to walk in it, but other than that, there doesn't seem to be much panic among them. Here's Mona, frozen in time as the snow came down on her.
After some encouragement, I managed to get them back to the coop, though I did take pity on my poor, precious little OEGB girls and carried them back. Rigel was too proud to be carried, so he walked, leaving a trail of teeny-tiny footprints behind.
Once she was done with her excursion and had returned to the coop, I went ahead and closed the deck up to stop the snow from blowing in as badly. No one seemed too upset by that. So, on the plus side I don't have to worry about lockup tonight.
Haha, I'll bet! We got about 3 inches total, maybe 4, it's hard to tell. This morning, we're looking like a winter wonderland.
The OEGBs and molters are doing surprisingly well, though I am a bit worried about Bry since she's so naked, and she looks like she's shivering a bit... The OEGBs just seem a bit grumpy, though. I had to move the two pullets off the feed bin to get everyone fed for the day and they were grumbling the whole way.
), but I did get some pictures of their tabletop turkey show and the Marans club egg show! Will post those in a bit! 
I aimed for more unusual birds than what I usually take pictures of... but there are still lots of OEGBs, lots of Moderns, and lots of call ducks. 
I can't help myself, okay? 
So, I'll put those and the events and such in the second post, just as a means of splitting things up. Here's the rest of them for the time being! Loooots of pictures, so they're thumbnail sized to prevent loading issues for those of us out in the boonies with poor connections. 
First was a gorgeous, heavily-laced Blue female, then a Silver female who didn't want anything to do with me, and finally a Wheaten female who was curious, but a bit reserved. 
) was very pretty, too. 
They were doing that treat chirp for everything. 'Bick-bick-bick!' They did it to each other, they did it to passers by, they did it to the birds on either sides, they were just chirping away at everything! Then their owner stopped by to check on their water, and they were 'bick-bick-bicking' at her hands as she checked, and got even more excited with their chirping as she filled their water. She was talking to them the whole time. 
I unfortunately missed the tabletop Serama show, so no pictures of that. 
