what makes a blue ribbon brahma?

[Makenziejh]

This year I am going to the state fair with two of my birds. I have a brahma rooster and a new hampshire red hen. I've been looking online and I cant find anything about what a prize winning brahma or New hampshire red chicken looks like. I could really use some help. I have no clue whether I have a chance at a ribbon or not.

Any suggestions?

 

[Chris09]

Where did you get them? Breeder or Hatchery?

Chris

 

[big medicine]

A good start would be to get hold of a Standard Of Perfection, study the description, and pictures. Catch any shows in your area, notice how the judge places them, any comments written on coop card, talk to breeders. The link I've added is to the Brahma page at Feathersite it shows some good ones and some that are so so. Keep in mind these birds posted are from all over the world, and have slightly different standards, the overseas birds come in colors we don't have in the U.S., they also are more relaxed about vuture hocks. The links at the top of the page may be of some help, The American Brahma Club webpage crapped out a few months ago.

http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/CGA/Brahma/BRKBrahma.html

 

[Makenziejh]

Quote:
I got all my birds from cackle hatchery

 

[poltroon]

Since my daughter has bantam buff Brahmas, I am always looking out for pictures of brahmas that have done well in shows, to try to get a better sense of how the standard applies nationwide. I've collected some pictures in various places, including some pairs and trios that sold for high prices on eggbid with multiple bids, and slowly developed a small image library.

Here is an exhibitor with multiple pictures of their Brahmas that have won at various shows:
http://www.skytopbantams.com/brahmas.html

Look at some of the completed auctions of this seller:
http://www.eggbid.com/search/search...er_by=date_end&sort_order=DESC&auction_mode=0

Is there any hope for the American Brahma Club website coming back to life? All the pages are still there, but you have to manually fix the link for every page to http://www.americanbrahmaclub.webs.com/ . (Never hardcode the server name in your links!) It's tedious, but there's a lot of great info in the forums.

 

[Makenziejh]

Quote:
Wow! thanks a lot! I really appreciate it!

 

[Illia]

Quote:
I got all my birds from cackle hatchery

I wouldn't want to sound mean or offensive, but I wouldn't be so hopeful of your Brahmas getting a blue ribbon if they're from a hatchery then. I've yet to see hatchery bantams, but LF Brahmas from hatcheries have a LONG road of improvement before they get any ribbon.

Take mine for example - Love my girls, but as they're from Murray McMurray hatchery, they have a LOT of disqualifications: All of them have black feathers or black pencilling somewhere on their backs, one of them has a single comb, only two of them have small waddles and a decent "dewlap," the heaviest of them is 5 pounds. and one of them has a body in the shape of a U, with its tail extremely erect, and pointing towards the sky.

Course, who knows, maybe your girls are bantams and/or pretty up to standard, but hatchery birds are likely not to be, especially rare breeds. Just giving you the heads up.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Remember...it's probably a local fair with a limited number of entries. Even with poor-quality birds it's possible for this person to get blue ribbons because of the low entries in that class.