Where is the learning in showing? Exhibitors? Judges?

[Robert Blosl]

Wife to Super-Man, mother to 4 and their pets - Great Dane, 2 cats, RIR, Sumatra, and Silkie chickens, Pastel Call ducks, Royal Palm turkeys, Toggenburg dairy goats, Jersey Wooly rabbits, Polish rabbits, and one pig. Update: Pig is now at freezer camp

I read this thread I still dont know what kind of chickens you are showing. R I Reds show stock or hatchery? Silkies Pastel Call ducks show stock or hatchery stock? we should be able to help youwith these breeds.

I had a person come up to me at a show sunday to ask for help. He had a mixed bag of chickens. He had normal poor quality birds that thried to be a standard breed but they where large bantams poor type and color but he got a hold of a frizzle cochin that I really liked. He did not get it from a hatchery but he ended up with tenth best chicken of the show. He is going to have a big ribbion to hang on his wall for this little pullet. He is good at rasing his birds he just needs birds with better type and color. He is a newbebe and I do not want to loose this guy, but I think he will make it just got to get him into better quality stock. There was at least three hundred hatchery birds there at this show and those folks could care less about having a standard of perfection or not. They are just in it to show and win some prize money and they will get rid of these birds to some buggy or eat them.

If I had a breed you want to learn about I have tons of articles I can send you on color nor maybe the breed. I raise Plymouth Rocks and have articles of every color and how to breed them. If you raise wyandottes you can use these articles to help you breed for color. If you need a standard of perfection there on the internet under certain books and their are breed books that can be read on the internet.

So what breed do you want to learn about. Where did you get your chickens from. Is this a breeder who can help you?

Look forward to your reply. You at least have one thing going for you your husband is a super Dad and superman. bob

Clover leaf Farm You like my avatar Tell me how much do you think that Rhode Island Red weighs.? I will be back to see what you think. bob

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Quote:
Well, the bantam standard calls for 34oz..but I'll tell you what I think...I think it's a trick question! LOL No really, I know nothing of RIRs, bantam or large fowl, I just think that a well bred, correctly colored RIR of any size is one of the most beautiful fowl I've ever seen.

 

[Robert Blosl]

It was a trick question. Many people think this male is a lagre fowl. Fooled a lot of people on this site. He is a three year cock bird now. I took this picture one night allmost dark and caught this male off gauard. He is a product of a process of shrinking down a strain of large fowl 22 years ago to a bantam. I have five young cockerels from him who look very much like him. I entered four males in a show this weekend and normaly my males win because this has been a male line for about five years. A young pullet was chosen best of breed I was shocked so my female line has caught up with the males.

I use to live in Centralia Washington and traveled to three shows in Oregon each year. Those where the good old days for me.

bob

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Bob, that's great! Congratulations!! Wow - it must be an amazing feeling to have decades of time, energy and dedication pay off like that! Yeah, I love this area, unfortunately there isn't much in the way of poultry shows in our immediate area, but we are working on trying to change some of that, in the meantime I am making plans to start traveling more so I can make it to more shows this next year. Do you ever get out this way? The PNPA shows in Stevenson are growing by leaps and bounds, they still don't compare in size to some of the shows I've heard of in Ohio, etc, but for us, we are getting huge!

To the OP - this has been a great example of how, if you dig a little and chat someone up, you have the opportunity to learn something of value from an experienced breeder, whether it is your breed of choice or not.

 

[hcammack]

The way to learn is to come in contact with the admirers and breeders of the breed you like. For example I am interested in Faverolles so I talk to Peter Merlin, Leisha Comer, and Dick Boulanger to get my information about breeding and showing Faverolles.

Henry

 

[Chris09]

Bob,
The bird in your avatar, is that your "Black Spur"?

Chris

 

[BCBrian]

I think every judge should HAVE TO judge they way I do - the way I was taught to. I carry on a running monologue on what the standard requires - and how the individual bird measures up to that standard - and the other birds being shown. Of course - this requires confidence in knowing the standard inside out. If a judge doesn't know the standard - then, of course - he shouldn't be a judge.

I get thanked over and over again for judging birds this way. I can't, for the life of me, understand why everybody doesn't do it this way. How else are people supposed to learn?

 

[Doug the Chicken Man]

At our local fair we had an APA judge.
I had my daughter out of school so that she could see what he was doing.
he saw that she was there as he was judging and asked her what she thought of a couple of the birds in the cages. He then proceeded to explain what he was doing as he judged the breed. She learned so much from him in this way. At the end she was able to ask the judge about her specific birds and learned even more . This was a small show so he had the time and was glad to see that a kid of 13 was interested in what he was doing in order to improve her knowledge of what to work on for her birds.

She was happy that he took the time to talk to her and help her out. She went home and made notes about what she had to improve on for the birds he judged.

 

[poltroon]

Quote:
Not sure what "Poultry Press is not easy to find until you lever yourself in somehow" means. Poultry Press is a subscription publication with a website. All you have to do is subscribe & you'll find it in your mailbox every month.
As to most of the rules at poultry shows being unwrittem that's simply not true. Both the APA & the ABA have published show rules. Organizations that sponsor shows send out entry materials to prospective exhibitors & any local rules are included therein.

What I mean is that you have to know it exists. It's all circular, you see.

Once I heard about it, we subscribed.

You can find out about Poultry Press if you go to a poultry show. You can find out about poultry shows from Poultry Press. It won't come up if you google "chicken showing" or "Poultry Showing" (I've put some links in this post to help it come up a bit higher in the search rankings.) And it's not on a newsstand at a feed store. A breeder will tell you about it, but Poultry Press is how you find breeders too.

A couple of people have said, for example:

You need to find as many books as you can and read as much as you can. When we first started we had an EXCELLENT 4-H leader, and I learned a lot from him, his knowledge was so great. There are MANY excellent books that would be advantageous to those starting.

WHAT books? Titles, authors!

Our three county rural library system only has a few books about chickens (one of which is the SOP, which is nice). I'm making some donations to change that, as I find books that I find helpful. Searching Amazon doesn't provide much help either.

BYC is a tremendous resource and has grown quite a bit. It is getting easier all the time to find information online, and as we hang out around chicken people, we've picked up a lot of leads. But starting from scratch was pretty hard. It still is in many ways.​

 

[poltroon]

Quote:
http://www.poultrypress.com/
Go to the above link and click the " click here to subscribe" tab, fill out the information form and pay the $26.00 a year and it will be in you mail box. No "having to lever yourself in somehow".

Chris

See! Now where were you four years ago?