Showing chickens & the time comittment

Here's a question from a newbie exhibitor. I'm hoping for my poultry showing debut to happen in December at the CHB event in Red Deer. I've attended a couple of shows but haven't had any birds myself on display.

So, I am assuming it is quite important to be around to do clean up and bird related chores regularly. I'm thinking first thing each morning and throughout each day of the event. Is is reasonable to be leaving the building for several hours at a time? Or as an exhibitor do you feel a responsibility to be on hand pretty much all day?

I'm also trying to work out the logistics of hotels vs driving back and forth. I'm just far enough away to make driving difficult, and just cheap enough to try to dodge hotel expenses.

One bonus is that there are vendor tables available as well. Selling a few birds could help off-set some of those extra expenses.
I can see how the showing end of things can become a rather expensive hobby when you look at travel, entry fees, accomodations and of course the inevitable shopping that is bound to take place from fellow exhibitors!

At the show here you put the birds in place on Friday or too early on Saturday morning and you take them out after 4 PM on Monday. The show people feed, water, gather eggs, and clean up after them between those times while the exhibitor enfoys the rest of the fair.

This will be my second year showing at the CHB. As an exhibitor, staying with your birds all depends on yourself really. While the judging is going on, there isn't too much you can do as the judge doesn't talk to you neither can you handle your birds. You can go and do other things. Some exhibitors take the time to talk to others, they network, talk shop. There isn't anything that says you have to stay in the building.

I know we generally stick around as I like to watch over my birds, see that they are okay. We do leave to eat, ect.

We also stay in a hotel while showing. We live about 2 hours away from Red Deer. I do know some who do make the trip back and forth. I just find it too hard a drive back and forth. Also there is the awards dinner that can go late and it's nice not to have to make a 2 hour drive home afterwards.

One word of advice. If this will be your first time showing, don't worry if after judging one of your birds goes missing from its showing cage. At our first CHB show, we came back after the judge went through our row and found one of our birds gone. We freaked! Our bird was picked as a finalist and was moved to a special row. We had no idea. *LOL*

Being we are so far away from all shows we do find it expensive and time consuming. We have to leave in good time on Friday to coop the birds Friday night, then spend 2 nights in hotels because driving just wouldnt work, and then there is the food, entertainment, etc.
We make it our final holiday of the year, that way we have an excuse for all the money going out.
I like the idea of the sales booths, like you said sell a few birds to off set the cost, also networking and just simply seeing all the other birds people have and how they rank, etc. The only downfall this year is the late season show, not sure how well birds will sell in December, not to mention the safety of travelling all those birds up that far in cold weather. I know the ladies at CHB didnt have much choice on timing so not complaining at all, just thinking out loud.
My girls are very excited about showing so it is nice to encourage it.

I'm concerned about the timing too. I know that CHB didn't have much choice in the booking date that was offered. It is also close to Christams so not sure if that will be a factor in anyone choice in doing the show.

The joke on me was after doing the fall 2010 CHB, when I found out the date for this year's show I booked our room back in Feb. I purposily booked Friday thinking we could cage and then sleep over before judging on Saturday. I only found out recently that this year with 2 judges at CHB, the judging will actually start on Friday.
*lol* What a hair puller!

Thankfully the show will allowing caging up to early Friday morning to help out us out of towners. Or else I would be so screwed!

toybarons wrote:One word of advice. If this will be your first time showing, don't worry if after judging one of your birds goes missing from its showing cage. At our first CHB show, we came back after the judge went through our row and found one of our birds gone. We freaked! Our bird was picked as a finalist and was moved to a special row. We had no idea. *LOL*

Great to know! It would be shocking to find your bird gone from the cage and not know why! Now that I know the reason, I would sure be thrilled to find an empty cage!!

As far as caring for your birds we have a designated poultry care volunteer that will be strictly be taking care of feed and water. Because of the size of entries this was required. We have some birds that are being flown in for the show, so the owner will not even be present. We will be having a birds sales area and a non-bird vendors area available. Some exhibitors will be entering birds in the show and selling from the show cages.Show birds are required to stay in their show cages til coop out time,but can be sold anytime during the show. This may be a more economical way to sell if you don't have a bunch of birds for sale.

I find poultry shows are well worth the expense. I think of it more as a vacation. These poultry shows are a great time to net work and learn lots from the judges and expert breeders.

Sales booths at shows really help with show expenses. Also remember any birds entered in the show can have show tags put on their cages for sale.

The date for next year will be earlier for next year. This was the only date available for this year.

I find that the hotel stay is well worth the expense at a show (even when it is a travelable distance). Alot of discussions and good debates go on often to the wee hours of the night, plus there is always a banquet that is strongly recommended to attend afterwards on saturday night.

IMHO you miss out on part of the experince without the hotel stay.

toybarons wrote:I'm concerned about the timing too. I know that CHB didn't have much choice in the booking date that was offered. It is also close to Christams so not sure if that will be a factor in anyone choice in doing the show.

The joke on me was after doing the fall 2010 CHB, when I found out the date for this year's show I booked our room back in Feb. I purposily booked Friday thinking we could cage and then sleep over before judging on Saturday. I only found out recently that this year with 2 judges at CHB, the judging will actually start on Friday.
*lol* What a hair puller!

Thankfully the show will allowing caging up to early Friday morning to help out us out of towners. Or else I would be so screwed!

Is this really true??? That may change my ability to let the girls show this year...3 nights in a hotel instead of two makes a big difference as well as more days of missed school. There is no way I can coop up birds early Friday morning. Liz HELP!!!

I believe the judging doesn't start until 12 on friday. So coop in on friday morning would be fine.

Hopefully I can clarify some of the questions and help set the record straight.
It is a single show, not a double show as once proposed. There will only be one judge judging the birds. It is an APA and ABA sanctioned show. You will have until 11:00 AM Friday December 9th to coop in. Judging will start at 12:00 noon on Friday. We need at least an hour to prepare for judging, that is why coop in must be completed by 11:00 AM. Judging will go until 5:00 PM on Friday and start again at 9:00 AM on Saturday. All judging should be completed by early Saturday afternoon.

As mentioned we do have volunteers to feed and water the birds. CHB members will be available to help keep the place clean and tidy.

There will be a champion row where the champion and reserve champions of each class will be moved to and displayed.

After the awards banquet on Saturday night, the out of province exhibitors will have the option to coop out or stay over night and leave before 9:00 AM Sunday morning. There will be no exhibited show birds allowed to leave after 9:00 AM Sunday morning. All remaining exhibitors must stay until 4:00 PM on Sunday, NO EXCEPTIONS. This is done so the paying public will not be disrupted when viewing the birds.

If you have any other question please don't hesitate to call or ask.

I live in moose jaw Saskatchewan so what time do u think that I should leave for red deer.What are the fees for exhibiting a bird.

This is my first show and I'm only 14 and showing spangled Russian orloffs.

Hi Sultan,

Moose Jaw to Red Deer in normal driving condition would be 9 hours. The show is in December, the driving condition can be a little testy, so I would give yourself 12 hours. Since the birds must be cooped in by 11:00 AM, you will probably need to travel on Thursday.

The entry fee is $3.00 per bird. It would be very nice to see some Russian Orloffs displayed in the show. The American Poultry Association (APA)do not recognize the large Orloffs as a breeds, which means they cannot compete for show champion. You can certainly show them and they would go under Any Other Standard Breed (ASOB) class. The Orloff bantams are recognized by the by American Bantam Association (ABA)and can compete for show champion under the ABA. I assume yours are the large Orloffs.

I raised the Spangled Orloffs for a few years back about ten years ago.

I hope this answers your question and hope to see you at the show. Great to see younger people interested in showing.

Thank you for helping me I'm new at this and would like to go and see all the diffrent breeds.It's sad that I have to travel this long since there's no shows in saskatchewan. I'm pretty sure mine are large what would I put it under.is alright that they are not full grown.

It does not matter if they are not full grown, but they should represent the breed, so the closer to the correct size the better. How old are the birds? What you need to do is give the color, sex, weather it is Cock, hen, cockerel or pullet. Our website Canadian Heritage Breeds will have the entry form available soon.

Lloydminster is have a show in November 12th. A few of us will be going to that show.

They would be 5 to 6 months old and how big is it compared to red deer

If they are under one year old they will be cockerels and pullets. The Lloydminster show will be about 1/3 the size of Red Deer.

Do u think it is worth the drive should I wait till the red deer one ?

Well, the Red Deer show would be much better. More people more to see and lot more birds, but your choice.

Yeah I go to the red deer show.