I was wondering how many of you have entered birds in an APA sanctioned show and found that not only was an EE entered as well, but it was not DQ\'d and may have even won an award?
Also, along the same lines, have y\'all run into many judges that don\'t seem to know the difference between a standard Ameraucana and an EE?
I bring this up because I entered a Wheaten and a Blue Wheaten pair last Saturday at the Cascade Spring Show. Mike got it scheduled as an ABC Meet. Unfortunately there weren\'t enough Ameraucanas there to make a difference or matter for anything but, had there been, the judges were supposed to award accordingly. However, in addition to my four birds there was an obvious EE listed as a \"Buff Ameraucana\".
The bird was anything but a Buff and, as I said, it was an obvious EE. The bird was entered by a \"Junior\". So I talked with two different judges and without wanting to appear as complaining just asked, \"Did you not DQ this bird because it was a Junior Exhibitor?\"
Having talked with them both at length, I could tell pretty quickly that one of them for sure and possibly both didn\'t even know that it was an EE. I\'m not sure either of them truly understands what a standard Ameraucana is.
When I mentioned to the first one that the bird was obviously an Easter Egger, he got a little upset and said, \"I don\'t care if it lays Easter Eggs or Christmas eggs, I would have just marked it down for not being a Buff as it was marked to be.\"
This is the second time in less than a year that I\'ve experienced this. Another obvious EE was given BB at the Evergreen State Fair last year. So anyways, I was wondering what y\'alls experiences have been and whether or not you\'ve encountered such things.
Check out this comment from an email I just received. This guy has been judging poultry for 9 years in Canada!
He says, \"From what I\'ve seen the Ameraucanas are not real popular at the Shows I\'ve been at. There\'s only a couple of breeders out this way and they didn\'t show very many. Most Judges look past them at Shows because they\'re not sure about Judging them. I\'ve never seen any at the Royal when I was up there. It seems the Canadians are more into the old Standard breeds.\"
Maybe his statement \"Most Judges look past them at Shows because they\'re not sure about Judging them.\" answers my question? Your thoughts?
God Bless,