The last couple of days have been hectic! Our APA District meet is in Minden, Louisiana tomorrow and I have 10 Araucana entered. Yesterday I washed my three large fowl white entries. What a job! I think I finally have my best hen, Dove, (and the others) clean. It is a bad thing to do but I have been getting her beat lately (Reserve of Breed every time out) because she just was not clean. No judge is going to use a dirty white bird over a good black bird sitting next to it. And as we all know black birds don’t show stains! My bad. 🙁 I just hope they all get a good look at the show tomorrow. I am also taking a Brown Red large fowl cockerel who is coming right out of the breeding pen (he will be bathed). 5 Araucana bantams (3 Blacks, 1 Birchen, and 1 Brown Red). With at least two other Araucana exhibitors attending we should have a really good representation of our breed at the District Meet. Wish us all luck. I will report results here later and include a few pix from the show.
On the subject of show birds I did something weird today. As most of you know I am accepting deposits for Spring hatching egg orders now. Those will begin shipping in April. After 15 years of breeding and exhibiting these birds I am ready for a bit of a slow down on the weekly settings of eggs (yes I do this year-round). Anyway – I had an odd desire to get started on that idea now. So what did I do? I just listed 3 large fowl Araucana hatching eggs on Ebay for shipment on Monday. These are straight out of current exhibition breeding pens! I may not be setting as many eggs this Monday as I usually do. 🙂 Take a look if you get a chance: SkyBlueEgg Araucana Egg Auction
Now it is back to washing birds and getting ready for the show. If anyone has a chance to get to Minden on Saturday look us up. We will have at least 3 ABEC club members present showing Araucana. You may even find a bird or two for sale!
Until next time . . . Thanks you for reading.
Ann
4 replies on “Getting Ready For A Show”
I’ve been wondering… are horse show sheens like Pepi safe to use on chickens for showing? Or what would you recommend to get a good shine on a showbird?
Many exhibitors use horse products on their chickens. I am not familiar with ‘Pepi’ but if it is a spray on highlighter or is oil based don’t use it. Judges hate it, it gets all over their hands and makes a bad impression. When judging condition, judges are looking for birds that shine from the inside out – from being healthy. Although technically an Araucana does not have a preen gland they still have a natural shine just as nice as other breeds do if they are healthy.
Are there any supplements you can feed them to increase shine? Back when I was showing halter horses we used to put one or two tablespoons of vegetable oil in their grain. It really made their coat shine!
Some exhibitors use sunflower seeds or other seeds that have a high oil content to increase shine plus the birds usually love them. It is less messy than oil in their feed. I have tried oil but it seems to draw ants here (extra protein for the birds?) and we have fire ants – not nice. Other than that it would probably work fine.