Poultry 4H meeting ideas / leader & parent discussion thread

[Cloverleaf Farm]

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[averytds]

Some of the clubs have members sign up for poultry sometimes, but we don't have any actual poultry clubs or groups. I would say including my family there are maybe 6 others across maybe 7 clubs that might show this year. There's one poultry club in the next county with nice facilities and actual learning/competition. We went to a poultry clinic there last year. They invited us to show at their fair, but it's just too far and too long for us. Week long, 2 hrs round trip everyday.


We're trying to bring in one family who I know would do poultry. They haven't committed yet. *sigh* There's one kid already in the club I know we could get no problem, but the mother is of the "OMG! I don't eat eggs from a chicken's butt, only from the store!" type. There's another new kid who I guess is interested and DH told his mother (co-worker) I was the one to talk to. Her DH's always there. Apparently my DH has talked a bit about our birds because the first thing he said to me after introductions was "We don't want any of those $20 chickens!"

My response "So you want some of the $50 or $75 ones?"



I think we could easily get more kids, it's the parents that we're having problems with. Livestock's just not their thing.

Why join 4-H if you won't let your kid participate in anything? You don't even have to own any animals. How do I convince the parents?


+1 on the new thread.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

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I guess I'm lucky that we live in a pretty rural area, and our county is pretty into 4H and FFA. However it does get frustrating when several of our members HAVE chickens, and don't "do" poultry 4H, they do rabbits or guinea pigs instead...I don't get why they don't do both...I think alot of folks out here still see chickens as merely a food source. I tried to do alot of convincing last night about how much MORE they can be...don't know if any of it got through though....

 

[averytds]

We're actually rural here, but somewhere along the way part of the populace decided they wanted to appear to be more "cosmopolitan." It's

dontcha know? Now they've never lived in any sprawling metropolis, so they watch a lot of TV and pretend the 10,000 or so who live here abouts are actually a few million and made up their own little ideas about how things are in the "Big City".

Coming in after being raised in a real "Big City", it's truly bizarre to see how they've interpreted things at times. I imagine it's the same as going to a foreign country where they watch American TV and base all their info about us on them.


There's still a handful of normal people around and there's a good turnout of livestock at the fair, but they don't bother with the poultry. Probably because there's no money in it since they don't go into the premium auction.


We've had an influx of new members over the last year. All city folk. If they want to do animal projects with actual animals they will either have to lease animals (not likely) or do rabbits or poultry. I guess we're going to have a huge spike in arts and crafts and photography exhibits because so far I don't see anything else.

What I don't get is why drive the next town over and join a group with a heavy agricultural influence if you disdain such things. A babysitter would be cheaper once you add in the gas. (Yep we've got drop-offs.) Or even Boy or Girl Scouts. They're in town at least. Did some Hollywood somebody or other say 4-H is "in"?

IDK, sometimes I swear we moved to the twilight zone.


The new superintendent is on the fair board. He gets miffed when his kids don't win GR CH and Showmanship. He's changing the format for Showmanship this year "to make it more fair" and I suggested we have at least one all clubs group meeting to go over the new format so any kids who do show will know what's to be expected. I hope we can at least make that happen. I plan to do something myself at least a week or two before the first fair so any kids that want it can have their birds PT tested gently and before their show prep. I despise testing at coop-in.

 

[dmiravalle]

Well as for getting more parents interested,

We have project kids take turn giving presentations at the general meetings. That way we have sort of a captive audience and the kids get presentation credits.

We upped our poultry group this last year after my son did a presentation on 1.) How commercial eggs are processed. (Most people don't care about the horrible conditions, until you start telling them what diseases can be transmitted) 2.) His end was about dealing with predator problems (huge concern in our area) and 3.) How much time it actually takes to care of a chicken or two.

We had 4 new kids in the poultry group this year. Also, we point out for homeschoolers and charter school kids, they get science credit for their classes as well. (this always perks the parents ears)

Also, we always enter an extra rabbit and chicken just for kids who can't have these animals, but they then get a chance at showmanship at fair.

Plus we basically BRIBE them! Then they nag their parents! We offer several things. We do a drawing with every kid that entered an animal exhibit and seperate one for still life exhibits for a $20 cash prize. We do the drawing after fair at a community meeting.

THEN we also offer the Cloverbucks program. This is a program that we basically made money, $1 each. The kids can earn these for various things, the ultimate pay off is of course fair. Then at the community meetings, we have the Clover Bucks Store. We have different items (4-H and non 4-H) that the kids can purchase with their money. They can save up or spend it right then. We have everything from cheap bubbles, candy, to 4-H sweatshirts, baseball hats, snugglys. This program has taken off, and since the kids know that it is funded by fundraisers, we have had a LOT more help with fundraisers.

As for your fair circuit, there is ALWAYS politics. We had a problems in the past with a certain animal group. A BUNCH of parents got together, went to the fair super and said, if this person is not removed from this position, we will not show. It did work for us, not sure about your area. The fairs make a lot of money off our kids, we have to use that to our advantage, but it has to be a GROUP effort or it will not work.

Also, you should have set showmanship standards for your state, what is this guy changing and how did he get the authority??

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

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That last bit was running through my mind as well...sound fishy to me.

I really like those other ideas you have though! Fantastic!! I'm glad you've found something that works for you! I may have to run some of this by our general leader....

 

[averytds]

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I would

to do this. We went to a poultry showmanship clinic hosted in another county last year. It was wonderful!!! I had asked if we could do something similar and they were fine with it. Couldn't get our club leader to understand though, so we didn't get to offer it.

I can get the superintendent to agree to it.

We're currently awaiting our turns at presentations. I think the first is in Mar or Apr. I've just gotta figure out what to do that really needs one of DD's Silkies to be there. Who can resist a little fluffball?




The guy who taught the showmanship clinic was the showmanship judge at the Nationals. At the clinic, he did it basically like we've always done it. Very informal, no white lab coat, quizzing the kids about their birds and poultry in general depending on their age. As long as you're dressed decent, have worked with and handle your bird well, know about your bird and basic poultry care and can answer whatever the judge asks, you'll do fine. At Nationals, I never found out how DS did, but I saw kids, lab coats, judging sticks and all and got the feeling it was much more formal and some kind of routine was expected.


We have very low turnout, maybe 10 kids our first year and 4 or 5 kids last year. The judge questions the kids individually and IMO has been awarding 1st place to the kid he felt knew the most about their bird and poultry in general. My eldest is autistic and is like a walking poultry encyclopedia. He's won 1st at both locals for the last 2 years.

I think I talked him out of lab coats (sorry, but I don't need the added expense and it would probably lower our turnout more) and walking the birds (sorry, I don't feel like chasing any birds around the park and you just know it would happen). I told him about the clinic and said I was fine with the format we have now, but so long as we had such a low turnout and the judge was lumping all the kids together vs by Jr, Inter, etc. short of not letting my DS do showmanship, I wasn't sure there was anything else we could do. Then we found out about the sample 4-H poultry showmanship judging scorecard.

So my understanding is this year everything will be in checklist format straight off the form. Do this, check. Do that, check. He's right, it will level the field across the ages. I think it's only fair that all the kids be given a heads up as I know he'll be running drills with his.

Sadly for my DS, he's a bit awkward and I also don't think he'll be able to stick to the format. He knows too much about poultry and is too excited to not tell. Also though I hadn't thought it possible. The participants will actually end up learning less about poultry. No more need to try and learn more than your competitors. All you need to know is on the checklist.

 

[dmiravalle]

I have a son with aspergers, so I understand where you are coming from. In California, they are required to walk the birds (my kids have cochins and this part sucks) I tell my kids it is about learning your species subject and having fun, not what you win but what you walk away learning....

A lot of times you get old timers like me, and sometimes it is hard for us to accept change. I try to teach to look at it from the kids percpectives and what is best for them. Sometimes this is a hard arguement to pass, but I utilize our all stars and we do try to get the kids in the county together to see what they want....

Kids do understand bribes, but I position to the parents about teaching about life, the biological standpoint, learning about death in a less tramatic setting, learning to run a business, learning good communication skills, about healthy living. I know it is a hard sell, but all we can do as leaders is try our best and try not to bang our brains out in the process...

Showmanship checklists can be a good thing as long as the kids all are given the same thing. Showmanship is about learning about your bird, how to give an examine from a health standpoint, learning grooming techniques, learning your breed, and how to present yourself in a professional manner, this is across the board on all species. A lot of people forget this. I know we require 4-H whites with long sleeves but no show coats. The sticks are easy. My son made his out of an old radio antennea and put a wood handle on the end. It doesn't need to be expensive. They even forgot theirs once and used a tree branch.

 

[averytds]

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Scary at times aren't they. I tell people their brains are like computers with massive storage, it's just sometimes they don't have the program installed to open and/or utilize the data properly.

I had heard that about CA. Our fair grounds are some open sided buildings in the city park, next to the zoo. You just know at least one will get loose.

I hadn't thought about an old antenna. TY!!!!


I'm okay with switching to scorecards, but I'm insistent upon adequate and ample notification. I think that's only fair for those few kids we've managed to hang on to. If we had more participation, I don't think it would have necessarily even come up. That's the area I'm concerned with. Get them and let chicken math take care of the rest. I'm not sure my DS cares either way. He's more into the doing vs the winning. Any day he gets to talk about his birds is a good day for him. And for someone to have to actually listen.....

I'll have to check and see for sure when our next presentation is and whether it's a talk or demonstration. Then you all can help me think of something to try and tempt a few more to the dark side.

 

[dmiravalle]

Ya gotta love these kids brains, they facinate me, when they latch onto something it is just amazing what they can absorb, course on the other hand if they don't want to learn it, they will just ignore the heck out of it!!

Hmm, luring the kids to the dark side, a $100 prize for whoever raises the most chickens..... LOL!! Or better yet, a chicken video game.... I can just see the possiblities...