Show Fever

Yes....yes yes yes yes...YES! This is what I need! There is going to be a show in Dalton, Georgia on November 28th. This is my FUN thing. This is what I do, and I have the trophies and ribbons to prove I am getting good at it, or at least getting good at having an eye for good birds and owning said birds!

So far, I have fifteen birds on my list to show, if they are showing Seramas, if not, then I have 13. Lucky 13? Yeah...Lucky 13. ;)

4 Barred Rock Bantams...2 cockerals (this is what they are called if under a year old but must be at least six months old to show) and 2 pullets (same rules apply here too)

My trio of Silver Spangled Hamburgs...one cock and two hens.

The above mentioned has fine looking offspring I hatched that is of show age..so three Silver Spangled Hamburg pullets, and I have one good looking Silver Spangled Hamburg cockeral.

My two brown red modern hens. I have a nice rooster, but I refuse to 'dub' him as I think it is cruel and I won't do it. They require this for showing, so he has to stay home. I am sure he will miss his girls terribly that day. He is a good boy. :)

If they are showing Serama...I have a really nice B size solid white cockeral.

I also have Buzzbomb, he is a perfect Serama rooster and I think he would do very well. Here is a picture of him. This picture is old, but he still looks the same pretty much.







I will see about getting some pictures of my show prospects so you can see for yourself how fine looking my selections are. ;)

Until then, here are some pictures I pulled from the internet of the others...

Brown Red Modern Hen here...and then picture number 2 is of a SSH hen, and picture 3 of a SSH rooster.










and...here are examples of bantam barred rock hens and roosters...









I have a secret I haven't shared yet. It all started one day when I saw Seramas for sale on Craigslist. I found out they were about fifteen minutes from me, and reasonably priced. As usual a lot of the roosters were too big. That doesnt seem to matter yet at the shows here as they don't weigh them, so you can show one the size of an elephant...okay, maybe not that big, but you know, they are supposed to be the smallest chickens in the world, and still get away with it.

I bought a little white rooster from her.

But I need to back up. This young lady had about 300 seramas to start with and has slowly sold them off and given them away. She got them from an elderly lady in South Carolina. The elderly lady had failing health (she was in her 80s) and wanted to sell them, but not seperate them, whoever bought them had to buy them all, so Dani did. Dani is a young lady, she is in college and has been breaking and training horses since she was 8 years old. I guess she is pretty good at it because a week from tomorrow they are hosting a Parelli horse class at their home. In light of her busy schedule, she doesnt have time for all her chickens, so she has seen fit to give a lot of them to me, yes GIVE. I feel so fortunate, I feel like I have hit the chicken lottery! :) Some are good show prospects, some are not. Thats just my opinion, I am no expert. I am rehoming about five roosters to Dwain, which is a chickenaholic like me. You may remember he went to two shows with me last year and had a blast.

She also had two pairs of nice barred rock bantams and asked if I wanted them too, so I said yes of course. I also was allowed to relieve her of about a dozen Rhode Island Red chicks and two Buff Orpington chicks. I had neglected my layer population this Spring and Summer because I was concentrating on my Seramas, Silver Spangled Hamburgs and Silver Laced Polish this year for not this show season, but for the next. Have to think ahead...way ahead. There is no telling how many are boys and how many are girls, I am just going to keep my fingers crossed and hope I have a lot of pullets.

She still has some chickens, but not near as many as before, thanks to me. Because one cannot have too many chickens. You can have too many roosters, but never too many hens.

I heard today that the auction barn I had been frequenting will open back up. Remember the guy that I sold those two white baby goats to..for Joe? I saw him at Tractor Supply today, and he said he had been talking to the owner, and there is promise of it reopening sometime in February. They had to close for financial reasons. I was making a good bit of pocket money before they closed selling off some roosters and chicken related items such as metal feeders. You may think it is hard for me to sell off anyone, but the truth is, too many roosters make the hens very upset...for obvious reasons...ahem. I have several locked away that would gang up on my hens and play three way tag all the while the poor hen was screaming in protest. My girls shouldnt have to endure the barbaric practices of young roosters that have no manners, so they get locked up, until they are sold.

So you see, I have been busy with all these new chickens..and I promise, I will have pictures of them all, even the ones going to Dwain, so if your reading this Dwain, you can see what you are getting the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Next up, a show in Hartwell, that will be a trek way out east in Georgia, but way out. That is also an all bantam show. Just have to try and keep everyone clean for that one. May have some bath and blowdry time for some again before the December 12th show.

So how is that for some chicken talk? Tomorrow I will post pictures I took at the Georgia National Fair back in October...got to keep things rolling on the catch up this week. Yesterday and today were busy busy busy so I didnt get a chance to get on at all yesterday. Sorry I missed a day!

Everyone have a great weekend!