Senior vs Junior Showing

[australorp_breeder]

I was just wondering if anyone has even seen Junior show birds that looked more appealing then the Seniors? This will be my first time showing chickens on the 16th-17th as a Senior because of my age. I was curious to know if the competition tends to heat up more with the Seniors then Juniors. Like, do their birds look better because they know more on how to prepare them for show?

 

[briarpatchfarms]

I show both in Jr and open and I do better in open then in Jr. to be honest!

 

[chickenlover54]

LOL I always do better in junior, less competition

 

[ThePolishPrincess]

I'm not able to actually compete in Senior until this summer, because my show goes by age, too. After seeing both, the Seniors' birds tend to look better because the exhibitors are older and tend to pay more attention to the standard of their bird. Younger showers tend to disregard the standard because of lack of experience and parents haven't done all their research either. This is just what I've seen. I tend to like to compete with the Seniors. My show is divided into 1st place Junior, and 1st place Senior. I found that the Juniors were really no competition and I took home 1st of Jurior. The Senior 1st placer was a girl one year older than me who had a Blue Silkie rooster, who, I might add, was stunning.

 

[TK Poultry]

i agree ive seen some questionable birds at junior shows i have to show jr. for like 3 more years!! bc all the shows in my area are age shows!

 

[australorp_breeder]

Yeah, I figured most of the seniors have been showing for who knows how long. And then there are some seniors that might be new to it. I'll just have to try and see what happens.

 

[roboboy]

LOL I always do better in junior, less competition

Haha I moved to jr. from open at our local fair for the competition. That's because all of my competition were mostly a couple of my friends, my sister, and my cousins. When I joined FFA in 2007 I switched to jr.(after 7 years in open or since I was in fourth grade) because that's where the best birds were. When we switched the waterfowl class in open shrunk to about 20 birds while the jr. waterfowl shot up to about 60 birds. Now were all graduating High school and switching back to open. I like the competition, my goal is to attempt to win or at least give my competitors a run for their money.

Do not think that because it is a local fair that the birds are below par, as that is not the case. Very few hatchery birds are shown as the main 4-h in the area is run by an exhibition poultry breeder, who is also a certified judge at a fair level and our show superintendent.

The problem now is that the poultry show itself is way to large for the small building were contaied in, we've almost topped 1,000 birds the last two years in a row. Chickens are stacked up three rows high in both open and jr. and under the chickens are the ducks and the geese go all the way around the walls. We could easily have enough room if the fair board would give up the other half of the barn which during the poultry show only houses maybe ten cows which could easily be fit in our round barn. The main charitor to our fair though likes cows and as long as he is on the fair board they will not listen to our pleas for more room.

Well now that I have vented for the day I wish you luck in your showing ventures!

 

[TK Poultry]

your fair sounds like more competition ours isnt ours was held in a tent for awhile and at first as part of the goat barn until they started to fill it then they moved to a tent now we have a lean to that is our "barn" our fair has a max of 100 birds!

 

[australorp_breeder]

Our fair is small. We're so close to not even having dairy anymore because only two people show them. We've had to call people from out of town just to bring their dairy so that we can have some competition. It's interesting because both people that show dairy are friends of mine, and they're friends too, so some of their dairy have come from the exact same place. So the cow's statistics are very, very similar. One of the two that was showing bought a heifer from the other people showing, so sometimes the competition is by related cows, which I think is cool.

lol, thanks for the ranting roboboy! I appreciate it! And I appreciate everyone else answering too!