I get asked several times a year "Why Poultry & Rabbits?"  Well for one the kis could handle them at a young age and take the project on pretty much by themselves.  Number two, genetics, genetics, genetics.  You can learn so much about genetics when you can create or recreate a litter or clutch in 28 days.  Now it did takes us a while to figure out what to do with the extras, especially the rabbits but we are figuring it out.  

Poultry is anybody's game!  You are a lot of times going to a breeder and buying day old chicks and that breeder really doesn't have any idea what they are selling you unless they grow them out a little but first.   So anybody can play the chicken lottery.  We have had some great birds that we have purchased that have won open class categories at the State Fair (competing with adults) and success on the 4-H table.  

My bird lady Lydia has now decided she wants to create he own winners which is awesome.  In 2025 she wont the country fair with her own bird that she bred, incubated, hatched, and rasied.  This was a great accomplishment.

Make sure to find a reputable breeder, not a hatchery (Murray McMurray, Hoover etc.) These are local people who are raising birds for the sake of keeping the Poultry Standard.  If you are planning to show poultry more than a year or two make the investment to purchase the Standard of Perfections from the American Poultry Association.  This will tell you which breeds and varieties (colors) are showable at this time.  It will also tell you what to look at when you are chooisng your birds for fair.  It will tell you everything from the color of beak it should have to the color and pattern every feather should have to make the perfect bird for the show table.

If you have birds from a hatchery, NO PROBLEM.  There is a commerical/market class for poultry.  This is a pen of three.  You will need to check your handbook to see what that looks like for you county or state.  This year Elizabeth entered a pen of 3 she hatched that were crossbred chickens.  She did recieve a Blue ribbon (Good) on these due to the fact that that one of the hens had a different comb.  The ultimate goal here is to find 3 birds that are as identical as possible.  That means the look the same but also that you weigh the birds and that they weigh almost the same too.  There are meat classes and egg laying classes broke out by color.