How to Prepare Your Chickens for the Fair - 5 Important Steps

How to Prepare Your Chickens for the Fair - 5 Important Steps

If you've raised your selective entries from the moment you received them from the hatchery though, it's your skill and commitment that will be demonstrated as the judge makes his appointed rounds. Though some people recommend getting your birds from a certified breeder, this is not absolutely necessary to produce a trophy winner at a county fair. It is imperative, though, that you compare your chickens with the requirements in the American Standard of Perfection (or the appropriate standard for your country).

Selecting your entries well in advance of the fair date is very highly recommended. Ensure that baby chicks all have access to plenty of food and water, as this is the key to their developing to their potential perfect body types and other desired traits. At about 5 weeks of age, you can study each one and compare it to the standard for the breed. Start with the head. Does it have the proper comb type and color? Is the head nicely rounded and matching the photo? Check the eyes for proper position of the pupil, as well as color, and alertness. Then take a look at the beak-will it need trimmed? And don't forget the wattles. Go through the listed standards in the book all the way down to the toes of the chicken. Pay close attention to color - of every part of the chicken's anatomy.

After you've checked each of your birds, write a list of the ones that come closest to meeting the standards. You'll want to have a few extras in case some become ill. Continue to feed and care for them properly and then make your final determination of those you'll be showing within a month of the show. Handle them daily, then several weeks before the fair date you should begin cage training them. Preferably, you should use a poultry judging stick. Learn more about cage training on my website. You can access my free report on fitting and showing chickens there, too.

Then, in that final week or two before the fair date:

1. Practice putting the chicken in the cage and lifting it out once a day.
2. Practice inspecting the bird just like the judge will, as detailed above. Lift the wings out and check them for evenness and quality and placement of feather types.
3. Separate your exhibition birds from the rest of the flock ensuring they have plenty of room and soft bedding - a broken feather could be disastrous.
4. Bathe the chicken(s). Follow the instructions on my website; they come from an early book by Loyl Stromberg. If you're showing a white chicken, keep it out of the sunlight, limit greens, scratch consumption, and keep out of direct sunlight. This combination will cause untreatable yellowing of the feathers. Use a small amount of bluing to correct minor yellowing.
5. Check the legs to make sure no lice are present. Check the toes - does the chicken have the proper number? Do the toenails need to be trimmed? Make sure no toenails are missing or broken, the judge will notice and subtract points.

A few minor touch ups, such as last minute removal of dirt, polishing with a silk scarf or spray shine and final inspection of legs and feet and you and your chicken(s) will be well prepared for the big day.