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[kathyinmo]

Quote:
This is SOOOO true, Amy! My son (38) in Iowa went to a county fair this year. He had never paid attention to the poultry exhibits before. He was appalled at what he saw. When he got home he had to phone me to tell me how good my flock looks!

 

[Germaine_11.20]

I have to wonder if the reason there are not more birds at the show is that people are realizing that they are taking high risk with disease by bringing their good birds there--so they don't

I entered 20 birds in our State Fair this week. Talk about a fiasco! If it could go wrong it did. They printed different dates on when to bring the birds, so I hauled 20 birds there only to be told to take them back home.

I got to bring them home only to have to do it all again the next morning. Then I bring them there and when I haul them all inside to be tested, I am told that they "decided not to take blood from the birds" they were only going to give them a look over to see if they were healthy" As there were no birds from out of state entered...!

And hmmmmm they can tell that a bird is sick just by looking, wow! NOT! I should have turned around and brought them home. I didn't.

Fast Forward to: Entries were to be in from 7-11 a.m. And judging held on Thursday. They judged those birds 1 minute after the entry deadline. The same day they were brought in--stressed--they were judged. OMG.

So I got to put them in their cages that were mismarked. Not all but some. My Mottled Java had to go into the Lamona class because they forgot to add the Java class in the first place. Geez the Java are one of the initial Heritage Breeds here in the US and they forgot them.

The list goes on and on of what happened but a few other highlights... They disqualified my BC Marans for "stubs" which meant feathered feet. Hello..... are they not supposed to have feathered feet. I guess not according to California standards. They even DQ'd my Golden Cuckoo hen for stubs and she doesn't have any! But they didn't DQ the GC Roo (?)

The funniest oops to me was a trio of bantams someone brought in. 2 hens and 1 roo. They disqualified all three for "saddle feathers" on the roo. Now what the heck does that mean. What Roo doesn't have saddle feathers? And he did have them. Huh?

They did manage to DQ the EE's. One point for them.

My Del Roo was the only roo there. Sadly he was in bad shape but I put him in there anyway because I wanted to show examples of different bird options rather than the boring and all too common birds out here. Red Sex Link, RIR's, Leghorn. Boring.

He was "Brassy" from too much sun and corn treats and his comb was terrible from the two trips here. Someone pecked it bad. But because he was the only Del, I got a blue ribbon. That is just wrong.

They called my Buckeye a "black copper" several of my splashes "white" the Coronation Sussex was called a Speckled Sussex

SO..... No wonder people don't ever do it again.

 

[Serrin]

Good Grief Germaine! I don't think I'd be back the following year if that's the quality of the judging staff available to review your birds. They're NOT worthy to even look at your babies!

Where do they find some of these people? Three Stooges Academy of Twitterpated Twits and Fidiots???

What a complete and utter waste of your time! I'm sorry you had to go to all of that effort and not even be able to have your birds looked at by qualified judges. And if they're making such elementary mistakes as which breeds should and shouldn't have muff feet, then they have NO business judging!

Beth: I'm hoping you're right. I still need to read the links that Kathy posted for me. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if it turned out to be simply a very bad sprain. She usually sleeps on the very highest roost in the coop and has to descend that every morning. Sometimes I think she hits the floor a little harder than she intends to. It may even explain how the sprain got started in the first place. She may have hit the 12 inch shavings barrier that I have near the door of the coop. It's a simple plywood affair, nailed together and braced in the corners to keep the shavings inside the coop and not outside all over their day yard. I could just see her making a bad calculation in her trajectory and coming down hard on the top edge of that! Yup! That would certainly explain the injury. Other than the limping and laying a lot and the swelling, no, there is no other evidence of an injury or illness.

Guess I had better go read those links, huh?

Nine eggs again today. Not too bad from 13 girls, not all of which I'm sure are laying yet. Brewenna and Abigail still like to contribute an egg each about every third day or so. Those are the days that I somehow manage to come up with an even dozen.

I so love having a big [by my standards at least] flock!!! It's just so gosh darn fun to pick up a full carton of eggs at the end of the day!

 

[kathyinmo]

GEZ, Germaine ..... I bet you are exhausted! That is just craziness! They did not even test any of them? OMG, I would be worried, for sure. I worry when someone just comes around here that has chickens themselves! OK, I am a worry wart ..... but still, I can not believe they did not test those birds!

 

[Germaine_11.20]

I am still in utter shock that they didn't test and I can't believe I was stupid enough to not pack them all up and walk away. Too late now...

Serrin, does your hen have any other symptoms? Is she sitting back on her hocks alot?

 

[joletabey]

Cetawin said:
and then I said "Do you see any feathers on either bird's legs?" She said "No but that does not mean anything"

That one put me on the floor. I am struggling with the thought that any fair, which is supposed to be ABOUT agriculture, could have sunk to such depths. Between the disorganization and stupidity and just plain poor care ya'll have posted about, I am thinking I am VERY lucky to be here- the chicken show in Morganton is run by a chicken club and you could eat off the floor. The ag center at WNC shows and houses the poultry in a building with two open ends for ventilation, and the shavings on the floor are kept fresh; the birds I saw last year were fantastic and in fantastic shape.
Germaine, I also disagree with awarding a blue ribbon just because you are the only entry. Leads to false advertising, false opinions and lots of other troubles. I have seen it in the horse world, too. Again, part and party of America's obsession with being #1 without doing anything to deserve it.
Yeah, our Delawares look prime compared to those poor things in NY.
Amy- If Evie is sitting on her hocks a lot, and even walking on them, I am betting some kind of sprain. It sounds just like Lizzie- be patient. Cyn told me it takes forever to heal back or leg injuries, and it was close to two months before Lizzie was better.

Other than that- Ultrasuede went in the coop, where the girls dissed him and roosted on the highest roost and left him alone on the bottom, but I am home all day to day, and will make it a special day with his favorite blueberry pancakes. He takes after his Daddy! His Del girls all huddled up with Luke and Luke is feeling like Hugh Hefner or something- all the fluffy tailed beauties are now his.

 

[Serrin]

Good Morning my friends!

Kathy, I finally got a moment to read both of those links you gave me. Thank you so much!

At least now I know better what to look for and more importantly, how to treat it. I wonder what the shelf life is of the antibiotic that ArizonaNessa mentions. It sounds like something I'd like to keep on hand just in case, but if the shelf life is brief, I'd probably be better off just buying it when the situation warrants doing so. Thanks again for gathering that information for me!

Beth, I'm really leaning in the direction of your diagnosis of a sprain. From what you have told me along with Cetawin, this looks more and more like it is a sprain. And it just makes more sense when I consider their living arrangements in the coop. Evie always roosts on the highest shelf in the coop. And that's every bit of 5 & 1/2 to 6 feet up. [sorry...I should probably measure that in the interests of accuracy!] It's very possible that she could have overshot her landing one morning and clunked her foot a good one on that dang shavings barrier by the door. All of her behaviors thus far are pointing to it being a sprain as well. The reluctance to put pressure on it, the squatting on her hocks, etc, etc, etc....yeah, I'm with you. I think it's simply a sprain.

Now I have to figure out how I'm going to keep her quiet and basically off of that leg until it heals. Good heavens! And you say this could take months???

This is going to take some serious thought! I'm already trying to figure out how to make the boys more comfortable for this winter in case we get even half of the snow they say we might get this year.

I wonder if I could interest FussyButt in sharing her pillow with Evie each night?

Oh! Didn't I tell y'all? I have a Pump House Princess now!!

FussyButt has been spending every night in the pump house for about the last two weeks. This all got started one evening when Brutus escaped from his yard and made a bee line for Fussy. She made a bee line to the pump house [where I keep the computer while we're still building] and the safety of my arms!

She knew just where to find her momma!

She's been sleeping in here ever since. Crazy little girl. And talk about totally spoiled! She has not only her own pillow, but a nice dish of food and water, all for her exclusive enjoyment!

If I could just convince her to share it with Evie, and then convince Evie that this would be good for her, that bit of the problem would be solved. She's not what I would call a rowdy chicken. She leads a relatively quiet life as it is, but she is free range and that means a lot of travel around here. All of their favorite areas are spread out over about 3 or 4 acres of land.

Just how confined do you think I should keep her? I could maybe set up a "play pen" for her, but what to do about her egg laying time? I'm not entirely sure of what time she lays her egg every day even. She just started a few weeks ago, and I've seen her in there anywhere from around 9:00 AM and 1:00 PM.

Details! Details! Details! *sigh* Don't worry guys! I'll take good care of her. She's my first hatched and a wonderful little girl. How could I do anything less than my best for her?

And speaking of which..............Time to go play with CHICKENS!!!

I'll yack with y'all more later!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day!

 

[joletabey]

Amy- I put Lizzie in a my big 8 foot brooder box at night on the porch. She didn't want to move much at first anyway, and was content with my visits and her snacks. As she got better, I put her in the cat carrier and put it in the shade in the run- she laid her egg either in the brooder or the cat carrier, didn't bother her in the least. It took her a long time to even want to stand up straight on both legs, so being in a smaller space shouldn't hurt, as long as she has room to turn around and stretch when she needs to.

You don't want your Pump Princess picking on her, so if you have a carrier or portable cage of some sort or other that she can sleep in, she will be OK.

 

[rancher hicks]

Now please don't misunderstand there were some nice birds there too but I only had so much memory and I had certain birds I wanted to take pictures of. Its was hard as many were scratching and not posing for me. I have no idea why. Don't they know who I am? Sheesh! I intend to go again and will try to get some pics of the nice birds.

I will say this chickens as a hobby may not be a big deal anymore. Showing any animal can be quite costly and takes time many of us do not have. Keeping a single pen or coop for show birds is not cheap. I have two Del roosters and they have to earn their keep. They can't be babied and coddled and treated like trophys. Plus as I learned at another show the prizes don't exactly compensate the showers. How much or what would it take for you to spend all the time and effort to show a great bird? Plus the breeding and culling involved? Me I'd like a new car. Well ok $100.00 ........ and a new car.

Gotta go Darcy's here yeeeeeeaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! Home from the hospital......................................

 

[rancher hicks]

Has anyone tried Vermex? It's a wormer advertised in the new BY poultry. Its say no egg withdrawl.