Day 2- for the birds

My friend Dusty and I are the poultry superintendents.  Quincy was helping us.   As we were entering stuff yesterday, Quincy noticed there were no waterfowl entered.  Now, we had discussed this at length. She has 4 ducks.  One has a crippled leg, one has no feathers for some reason and the others should have been butchered 18 months ago and are way past their prime.  We decided not to take them to the fair.  But, when there were no other entries, she knew she had a good chance to win the class.  So with 40 minutes left before entries closed, she talked her brother in to running home and getting some terrible looking ducks to show!  Crazy girl!  

Today was the poultry show.  The girls got up early and did the needed tooth brushing beaks and toes. Quincy did an amazing job of helping the little kids learn the correct way to carry a bird as well as walking them through knowing their chicken parts.  I was very proud of her!   I was also proud of Harper for being brave and talking to the judge even though it isn’t something she likes doing!   All three of our girls did a great job today!  

Quincy was the senior poultry showmanship champion!   This always makes me proud!  She loves her birds.  I was helping the judge, and so I had a front seat for her presentation.  She is impressive in her knowledge.  She truly deserved to win.  

Not all winnings were earned today!  The ugly ducklings did indeed win champion and reserve champion waterfowl.  The girls giggled about it.  I might add that the featherless duck did not win, she got a white ribbon!   It’s not hard to win when you’re the only ones!  Maybe next year we can do a little better keeping the baby ducks alive.  We had a hard spring with baby ducks!  

Evelyn didn’t like the chicken show.  She had her eye on the cows.  She kept yelling cow.  Cow!  And then taking off to the cows!  Atta girl!  

One other thing I might mention - the girls had 6 chickens there today.  They all got blue ribbons The judge told me that they were in the best condition of any chickens there, but he just didn’t like to consider them for champions because they were black sexlinks which isn’t a recognized breed for chicken breeders. We also had some production reds, which are hatchery crossbreds.  It seems to me like every other species recognizes cross bred animals so I’m not sure why chickens aren’t allowed that?   The man did tell Quincy he could tell she took excellent care of her birds.  That’s all that really matters to me.  Learning to work hard and take care of stuff are important lessons!  I’ll take it!