The Arkansas State meet & special meet were a great success for our Ameraucana breed, with 5 exhibitors from four states exhibiting 56 LF in the open shows. One Jr., Matthew Smith showed 10 LF Ameraucanas in the Jr. show for a total of 66 head of Ameraucanas as there were no bantam Ameraucanas shown this year. It will be different at our national meet next time! I’m hoping for at least 100 head of each! Great News from Jacob Bates came Monday after the show-2015 will be a two-day double judged show instead of squeezing it into one. That means we will have an extra evening and Sunday to enjoy talking poultry!
The first judging was designated to be the Arkansas state meet and it was judged by Art Reiber. There were 30 head of blacks shown by 5 ABC members! Max Strawn of Texas won the top two spots with a cockerel and cock respectfully. Max’s cockerel also won BB and Res. AOSB. Max’s cock also won RB. Max also won the top two blue with a pair of pullets from 10 blues shown by 3 members. There were two blue wheatens shown by 2 exhibitors. Sharon Caywood of Arkansas won BV on a pullet and Paul & Angela Smith of Texas had RV on a pullet. Clif Redden of Kansas showed 4 brown red. A cockerel took BV and a pullet won RV. Great to see Clif get a start of the scarce brown reds! I feel they will become popular in the SC district in the next few years. Max showed 3 lavender which the show management insisted on calling self blue. Max’s pullet won BV and his hen RV. Sharon Caywood showed the only splash a pullet which took BV. There were 6 wheatens by 3 members. Sharon won the top two spots with a cockerel and pullet respectfully.
The 2nd judging, a special meet, was judged by Walt Leonard. The black class was still won by Max’s cockerel which was chosen BB and Best AOSB. The RV saw a change as Clif won with a pullet which also won RB. Max’s blue pullet topped the blue class. The RV saw a change as Paul & Angela won with a cockerel. The blue wheaten class had a flip flop as Paul & Angela had BV and Sharon’s pullet had RV. The brown red’s stayed the same with Clif’s cockerel BV and his pullet RV. The lavender class also stayed the same with Max’s pullet and hen winning respectfully. The splash class also stayed the same with Sharon’s pullet winning BV. The wheaten class also had a flip flop of the top two. Sharon’s pullet was selected BV and her cockerel RV.
The junior show was judged by Lewis Hinkle. The juniors only have one judging. They show for showmanship in the afternoon, rather than having a second judging. Disappointed that other juniors didn’t show any Ameraucanas this year. It will be different at our 2015 national! Matthew Smith’s placings were black cockerel BV, BB and Res. AOSB. His black pullet was RV. His blue pullet was selected BV and his cockerel RV. He also showed a blue wheaten and lavender pullet-both BV. He showed two splash pullets-BV and RV. His wheaten cockerel was selected BV and RB. His wheaten pullet was RV.
Over all a great set of Ameraucanas were shown! Looking forward to having our 2015 national at Fayetteville on November 7 and 8. We are in the process of blocking rooms for ABC members. Sharon Caywood is working on finding us a good restaurant for our dinner and awards distribution. Make plans to attend this national show.
Paul Smith
SC district director.
Photos of all BV and RV will be posted ASAP.
