Thought I would give an up date on how the Welsummer chickens that my DD took to fair did at judging yesterday. She entered a cockeral(hatched Feb 2011), a pullet(hatched Feb 2011) who laid her 1 st egg tuesday just as we put her into the cage at the fair, a cock(father to the 2 above) and a hen(sister to the cock). There were very few birds in the Continental class, however she competed against her brother who was showing Campines.
So the first to be judged was the cockeral and he ended up with a pink because the judge found a few stubbs on the legs- think I need to have my eyes tested as I didn't see them and we looked everyone over-so a pink for that one. Her brother's Campine cockeral however won top blue and would go on to compete against the other 3 birds in this class for Champion and Reserve Champion. What was interesting was because it was so hot yesterday, they were trying to get all birds judged and so she ended up taking her brother's birds up because he was stuck getting his bantam's judged
Next came the Welsummer pullet and she won top blue so she would come back for the final picks in this class, her brother's campine pullet won blue(just not top)
The cock was next(I did post his picture many pages back), he got top blue too!
The hen was last and she also got top blue!
Now my DD has 3 of the 4 chickens competing for Champion and Reserve Champion against her brother who has the top blue cockeral.......
Wouldn't you know it her Welsummer pullet took Champion and her Welsummer hen took Reserve Champion for the Continental class....
so this means she has to bring these 2 chickens plus her Blue Andalusian pullet and Blue Andalusian hen back up when they pick the Standard Champion and Reserve Champion out of all the classes. Talk about juggling chickens- they did allow the parents to help get the chickens up to the judging row.
SO the judge placed all the birds and we noticed that he would place them in order of how he was thinking they should go- they did keep a space between the chickens that won Champion of the breed class and those that won Champion Reserve of the breed class. DD's pullet(named Sally) was placed in the first cage.... another pullet was in the second cage(this bird had similar coloring to the Welsummer but wasn't) and the rest were place from there, about 16 birds total. Now sitting in the audience watching this, it seemed to take forever but probably no more than 5 or so minutes, so back and forth the judge went between DD's pullet and the 2nd pullet looking them over several times and looking at feather and such, than consults the SOP and back he goes.....finally he picks up the mic and says that DD's Welsummer pullet is his choice for Standard Champion and the 2nd pullet is Champion Reserve- it came down to the tail feathers- DD's pullet was missing 1 and the other pullet was missing 2 or so....talk about a shocker! This is the 2nd year in a row that DD took Standard Champion in poultry at our fair(Last year her Blue Andalusian won)! This year was extra special as she had a big part in deciding who to breed together and to raise this pullet from egg on- she was on cloud 9 and then some.
I have to get the picture and will add the picture in a few minutes!
Here are 2 of the pictures we took: