Surviving Minnesota!

I took a nap and feel human.

My birds are safely tucked in. I bought a bunch of new cages at the show. (6 of them). the WWD was not happy with her get well gift. I think the words she used were " take em back". What kind of gratitude is that?

With my old cages I actually have open cages in the pole barn. I can bring in more birds now!

Let me tell you the secret of success at a bird show..

Be the only one showing that breed and you are bound to win best of breed!

Be to only one showing that variety and you will win Best of Variety!

It is so simple to be a winner!
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The only breed I had competition in was the Speckled Sussex, but I managed to beat them out. Which was a shocker to me. There was one pullet a lot larger than mine so I thought I would lose to it. I think the reason I won was the feathers on the hackles, It did not have white spots on the tips of the feathers there. Also the back of the bird was too white. Body wise it was ok, but I thought mine was better and I cannot really tell you why, the other looked "dumpy" compared to mine, but that is my opinion and not a judges. I was happy to have beat someone else..LOL


I learned a lot from quite a few people. Mike Gilbert taught me how to tell if a pullet is laying or not, or close to laying. I was impressed as to how easy that is. He also gave me some pointers on what I should work on on my birds. BTW Wienerhead is the rooster that won. It had to be the jack butt and not the friendly one. Mike pointed out to me why it won, or why he thought it won over the other ones. The only things he said I needed to do on him was work towards a smaller comb and try to match him with a hen that is less "reddish" to remove a few red "spot" on the breast. When I say red spots I am talking about spots the size of a deer tick, NOT VERY BIG!

He did say he would breed either of my cockerels I showed, but Wienerhead was better. I wish I had more age on them though. I can see where a couple months makes a huge difference on the young birds.


Mike advised me on the white sports to register them as "white legbars" instead of Cream legbars/ white sports. He said that would get them out of being judged with CLB's. With the proposed standards and the first APA show of CLBs coming up in December they will eventually get admitted. At that point the white sports will never win unless they are registered as white legbars, The people doing the work on getting CLB's admitted have said they will work towards getting the whites admitted as a second variety after they get the cream in. I hope they do.


I think I had more interest in the CLB's than the other birds. Most people did not believe the whites and Creams were brothers and sisters. I wish they had laid a pretty blue egg while we were there. I did get one from one of my whites tonight. The cutest bluest egg but oh so tiny.


I did have a discussion with the Show secretary before we left. I told him if they were not going to issue participation ribbons they should at least sell them so I could buy some. I also told him if my birds get an inferiority complex because of some getting ribbons and them not, he would be hearing from me.

It did not seem the have the desired effect, he just laughed. I do not think he plans to get them next year either. This could require a mass action to get them for the sake of our birds.

MnChickMom and her family helped me load birds, I so appreciated that. BTW Getting her daughter to want a certain breed or chicken is not a hard feat. She just has to look at it and wants it. She is like a younger version of holms only female. BTW I think she gets it from her Mother, who seems to like every chicken there too.
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Minnie's birds were fantastic. She must not like them though she left them there....
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They wanted Minnesota people to help pick up afterwards. I started and did for a while but when they started dumping the chips on the floor the dust got too much for me I had to leave. Next year I will bring a mask to help cut down dust. I ended up with a couple of asthma attacks on the way home. (thank you Benezine Spill) EJB knows what that was. Yeah, I wear one around my birds whenever I kick up dust.


The size of the Plymouth rocks is unbelievable! They look a lot like my toads for size. Nice looking birds. Of course, all of them were.

There were ducks and geese there so that required disinfecting myself, my clothes, my vehicles and my birds. They should really have the ducks and geese in a different county around 1200 miles away...
 
Woot! Ralphie and Minnie! We have a nice crew of chicken folk here and I'm so proud to see their efforts rewarded. Fantastic!!!

Ralphie: So fun that you got to meet Mike. We've heard so much about him!

Worked yesterday. Got in a photo shoot for a family who asked me to take their pictures right before sunset. They did great. We took some cool ones with Long Grass and milk-weed fuzzing out and in the middle of the grass was an old rusty well pump. with handle and such. So it was a pretty cool shoot made even more neat with this random relic.

Had couple of good friends over for coffee and apple crisp this morning and Watched the Vi-Queens. Did some watercolors with my daughter. And then the boys arrived home from NDak. Full of stories and duck glory. Good hunting.
 
I am so glad you did well and got more help for next time.


I have questions about showing open class at a county fair. Basically I need the whole list of what you need to do and if birds need to be tested for disease ect, ect, ect. I have never shown before at all and want to bring in some of each breed we have this summer just to bring the number of animals up at our really small fair in Red Lake County. It is not to be confused with Red Lake Indian reservation. We are near it but not it. Plus we have 7 different breeds and thought we show them off. I had some one look at me in disbelief the other day saying, " I didn't know there were that many different breeds of chickens!" So it is just for fun and educational for those looking.

So who wants to give me the low down on all of that?


@oakridge have you ever brought birds to the Pennington County fair in TRF?
 
I am so glad you did well and got more help for next time.


I have questions about showing open class at a county fair. Basically I need the whole list of what you need to do and if birds need to be tested for disease ect, ect, ect. I have never shown before at all and want to bring in some of each breed we have this summer just to bring the number of animals up at our really small fair in Red Lake County. It is not to be confused with Red Lake Indian reservation. We are near it but not it. Plus we have 7 different breeds and thought we show them off. I had some one look at me in disbelief the other day saying, " I didn't know there were that many different breeds of chickens!" So it is just for fun and educational for those looking.

So who wants to give me the low down on all of that?


@oakridge have you ever brought birds to the Pennington County fair in TRF?


You are best asking Minnie or Jerry, they do this a lot. I think there is a thread on her about getting birds ready to show too.
 
@Bogtown Chick how far up North are you? I know Oakridge and I are close but I keep seeing location as Northern Minnesota and figure we all must be nearby unless you are to the East which in reality is nearly everything from me! Haha anyway just curious.
 
I would say search Youtube for showmanship --maybe a 4-H video.

Look up the SOP for each breed reviewing your birds characteristics with that detailed check list.

Then I suppose preparation of the bird. Again a Youtube video.

Read the rules or guidelines for each fair/ or show as far as entering.
 
@Bogtown Chick how far up North are you? I know Oakridge and I are close but I keep seeing location as Northern Minnesota and figure we all must be nearby unless you are to the East which in reality is nearly everything from me! Haha anyway just curious.

Near Leech Lake. not as far in the Toolies as the two of you... But still the Toolies.
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Near Leech Lake.  not as far in the Toolies as the two of you... But still the Toolies.  ;)


We drive past Leech Lake on Hwy 2 when we drive home to my moms house in WI. We also can drive right past Ralphie's if we go through the cities to get to the Eau Claire area. Dreaming of being able to get some Dominiques from him on a trip back home one time. But right now we have nearly 60 birds so it will not be right now. Sigh. Was really tempted about the BAs but knew I didn't have room for them now either. Sigh again.
 

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