Poultry Show ~ Lacamas Community Fair 2013

This past August we attended our local community fair. Our grandson & granddaughter are now showing chickens where their mother showed chickens and rabbits when she was their age. Here is Bugs with one of his bantam d'Uccles, waiting for his turn in the Fitting & Showing competition.

In this competition the competitors are required to wear white long sleeved shirts and dark pants or skirts. The chickens , ducks, turkeys, or any other poultry being shown must be perfectly groomed.The judges award points in this competition based on the condition of the bird, the knowledge of the handler, how the competitor handles the bird and him / herself . Some fitting and showing competitions also require the competitors to take a nomenclature test which is a chart of a chicken with about 50 blank lines with arrows pointing to various parts of a chicken's anatomy. Yup, a "fill in the blank" test !

Bugs answers the judge's questions.

I think he did O.K.

Both Bugs and his sister did O.K. Congratulations to my two bird-brains !

Washington Feather Fanciers Winter Brisk ~2013

 My grandson Bugs & I attended a poultry show this past weekend. I saw it advertised in this months issue of Backyard Poultry and we decided to check out the chickens on display.

 This little rooster won big !

 These Sebastopol geese are beautiful, and I wish I had written down the name of the owner of this pair. ( Not that I'll be buying any more geese Jim. )

 Here are the very breed of chickens my grandson has been wanting for quite awhile. Salmon Faverolles. Bugs wants bantams though and we finally found a breeder of bantam Salmon Faverolles right here at the poultry show ! Above is a hen and below is of course, in all his glory, the rooster.

 Bugs raises this breed, and loves them.

 An African Buff goose. This goose was huge. There were quite a few geese at the show,

 and turkeys too. This is a magnificent Narragansett Turkey.

 "What are you looking at ? "

 We had to wait awhile to view the chickens I especially wanted to see, the Silkies. This is a judge very carefully checking out each fluffy bundle and the young man on the right was writing down her comments.

 Just look at this cute Silkie !

 I must admit, I came home with 3 half-grown Silkie chicks, but I'll show them in another post.

 Now here are some serious curls. I have never seen any birds with such tightly curled feathers. Click on the picture to enlarge and really look at the feathers these pigeons are sporting.

The weather this past Saturday was terrible and to get to the show was a 2 hour round-trip drive. I almost canceled because of this, but Bugs wanted to go. I am glad we did. The Washington Feather Fanciers Winter Brisk ~ 2013 was well worth it and Bugs is thinking about entering some of his own chickens next year !

Sebastopol Goslings

These are my new Sebastopol goslings, Ella & Fella. My grandson ( Bugs) is holding them. Fella , the male, is the lightest colored gosling, behind Ella. He likes my grandson. Bugs & Fella watched t.v. together, and Fella loved to tuck himself up under Bug's arm.

Western Washington Junior Poultry Show 2012

At the end of September  I went to the Puyallup Fair, all of my birds did pretty good. Two got best of  variety and one got reserve of variety . I also did pretty well at fit and show I answered all of the questions right but I got a red because my bird's feet weren't the  cleanest and the judge also said my bird's feathers were all over the place , which really didn't matter to me because she was in moult. Also , it's been a real challenge to keep my breed's foot feathers from getting broken ,shredded, and dirty, but over all I'm happy with how my birds did.  Above is me and my friends before we went to fit and show.

Bugs Draws Bantam Chickens

Bugs loves to study about and draw his chickens. Here is a Bantam Bearded Booted Mlle Fleur.

Bearded Porcelain Booted Bantam

One of the best ways to study any bird is to really observe everything about it, and drawing the bird helps you see and remember the details. Anyone desiring to raise poultry for practical reasons, for pleasure, or for showing ,should study their birds. Of course, enjoying and appreciating their beauty and personalities only makes this pursuit all the more fun! I know my grandson ,Bugs, loves his chickens and his drawings tell me his interest in poultry will most likely be life-long. I hope so !