Show worthy?

[ravencreek]

I have a pair of chicks that I am hoping to let my son show at the county fair this September. I just need to know if they are show worthy or not. Since I have no idea what it takes to have a SQ bird. I'm not even sure if they are old enough to tell yet. HELP!!

I will get better pics when I have help holding them.

 

[silkie freak 22]

where did you get the birds and where are you showing?

 

[ravencreek]

I will just be letting my son show them at our local fair here in Polk County TN. I bought the birds from a local breeder here as well. Do you think they will do ok?

 

[Kanchii]

You haven't even told us what breed they are supposed to be

Also, you want a bird to be at LEAST 5 months old before you show. And even then they're not mature enough yet usually.

 

[ravencreek]

Oh sorry. They are Welsummers. See I know NOTHING about showing so he may just get to show the Turkens, Barred Rocks and Polish this year. Thanks for the info!!

 

[ravencreek]

Anyone else want to take a stab? Should I wait til next year with these or go ahead and give it a try? They will be ALMOST 4 months by the time of the fair.

 

[Kanchii]

Quote:
They don't look nearly mature enough yet, sorry. They'd probably be DQ'ed if you showed them even in a few months from now. I'd definitely wait till next year, Welsummers in particular tend to be slow to mature, I wouldn't recommend showing them at all until they are over a year old. Post pics a year from now and we'll be able to critique them better for you.

 

[ravencreek]

Thank you very much. I will wait on showing them. I figured once they had feathers they were old enough to be shown. I didn't think about the fact that they moult and can change color and feather patterns.

 

[walkswithdog]

Those are JUVENILLE feathers. They don't feather in with adult feathers as chicks. There is an intermittent stage in ALL partridge/wild color based chickens.

So no, at that age, in juvenille feather, there would not be any way to even determine the quality or color of adult feather, or much else. Judges are looking for the right weight, breadth, height, comb, proper tail set - all of which happens later.

You should read up on what they're supposed to look like - which is in the breed standard and should be discussed on the Club website. There's also a yahoo group - for breed discussion.

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Welsummers/

They have links to breeders and other Welsummer websites.