We're back from the show!
Okay, so we did fine! My oldest did Showmanship for the first time ever. The leader did a couple of practice run thru's with him (on the side) before it was his turn. The poultry leader there was super nice! I totally loved her! And a couple of other parents helped him and pointed out some tips with showmanship before it was his turn. Anyway, after it was all said and done, he did great, but he forgot to take his bird out of the cage HEAD FIRST-- so he got disqualified. The judge told the leader that he was hands down the best one there and if hadn't been for that, he'd have won first place for his age. Not that he had all the holding and stuff down, he's 8yrs old and it was his first time-- but he was so impressed with his knowledge of the silkies and the parts on the body-- he named all the wing feathers, and body feathers (hackle, saddle, crest, primary, secondary, etc, etc...) Anyway, the judge thought he was going to trip my son up and asked him who brought silkies over to the "new world" and my boy responded back quickly, Marco Polo in the 13th Century! LOL Proud, I am. (Yoda's voice) We've been doing chicken flash cards for a while now to practice for it.
Our silkies did well, too. He said our cockerel only had a couple of faults and they were minor. Despite his comb being the perfect shade of mulberry-- his wattles were a bit too red under the beard. (why is that??? I noticed that when I was bathing him) He also said that his crest is a bit irregular, but it's not that big of a deal-- just would like more of a rounder shape to it. Our pullet did the best! She won first place in her breed and then she made it to the next round. It was down to 4 birds for best of class (bantam) and then it was down to two-- mine and this beautiful black bantam cochin and they won it. The judge came back and told my son he'd have won grand champion but that our pullet's crest just needed to be a tiny bit bigger-- he said, not by much. He said maybe after her first molt, it might be there. (maybe not--since I've never heard that before-- but he was patting my son on the back and telling him we had some of the best birds there) A LF Buff Orpington won Reserve. I think that was the BIGGEST BO I've ever seen!! LOL
But I'll warn you now-- don't bring any hatchery birds to the shows, the judge practically didn't even judge them. Just skimmed over them and told the kids if they were interested in that breed, to get a hold of a breeder. He was SUPER nice about it... but save yourself some heart ache and do it right from the start. 
It is hard to talk about. I lost everything and its been very depressing but I realize hiding from what I love is not going to help me. Trying to rebuild with little to no income has been twice as hard on me. Ok I will quit depressing everyone. Thanks for listening...I love looking at all your silkies they are beautiful.
