State Fair of Texas - experiences?

[shawthorne44]

Can someone tell me about their experience showing their chickens at the State Fair of Texas?

I started out looking for threads here on showing at state fairs, I saw some scary ones about non-Texas fairs. I wouldn't want to subject my darlings to that trauma. But, then Texas is Texas and better. We have Australorp layers so that is what we'd be entering. We are proud new owners, and our chickens have sparkles in the air around them when we look at them. But, I get that other people won't see that. We'd do it just for the experience. Is it an expensive experience?

We've been many times to the State Fair, but we target the non-busy days so I've never seen the chicken show, which is on the weekend. I've also never seen an animal in distress.

 

[Belle Pepper]

I have never seen any of the animals in distress there either. I haven't shown any chickens, but I have been on the weekend during the chicken show. It looked like the animals were well taken care of. Good luck! I hope to see your beauties there!

 

[shawthorne44]

In the end, I decided that we won't do that this year. I started filling out the online form and I was confused about what I needed to pay for. It is still a definite possibility next year, so I'd still like to hear any advice. If I'd had the idea earlier in the summer, we'd probably be going this year.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

$2 per bird, $8 processing fee and you may want the fur and feather parking pass for additional $45. Other contests to enter are more like the egg contest for $3 etc.

 

[shawthorne44]

I saw that. What the heck is an egg contest? Eggs seem very very similar to each other.