I had a great time at our SE district meet this past weekend. It was a good day for the Ameraucana breed! We were blessed with Champion LF the first show with a blue wheaten pullet and Reserve Champion LF the second show with the same blue wheaten pullet.
Champion Ameraucana was the aforementioned blue wheaten pullet and Reserve Champion Ameraucana was one of our self blue hens. I took a video of the birds that were shown. It is floating around on Facebook. If you would like me to send it to you, just send me a PM.
The full meet report can be viewed here:
http://ameraucanabreedersclub.org/meet_reports/10-30-21%20Heart%20of%20Dixie%20Poultry%20Show%20Fort%20Payne,%20AL%20DISTRICT.pdfIt was good to meet and catch up with fellow ABC members. Dee did an awesome job with table set up, greeting and helping ABC members. She even reeled in a member or two. Jaclyn and Zac Head are two of the sweetest people I have come across at the show hall. Great members of the club that are excited to work with and improve the Ameraucana breed. Amber Fox and her son were doing well! Our newest member in Florida is looking forward to promoting the breed with juniors. We missed Pat Dukes. She had hoped to come but her husband was recently in a car accident. Prayers for the family. Our daughter Brooklyn showed for the first time and really enjoyed it! We are looking forward to hatching a lot of bantam white and splits in 2022 to work on the variety. It will be a fun mother/daughter project.
Two personal takeaways from our district meet:
1) Don’t be overcritical of your birds. A bird that I considered leaving at home took top honors in LF.
2) When traveling to shows it’s worth it to go ahead and drive in on Friday versus early Saturday when possible. The show room lights were really bright at the venue and the wheaten and blue wheaten were a little frazzled when we cooped them in. By Saturday morning they had settled down.
Jerry Couch (last photo) is not a member of the club but I included his photo to tell a story. Jerry was at the first show I ever attended and immediately became a source of encouragement to me with my hobby. We both landed on Champion Row that first show and again this past weekend. He escorted me to the aisle where the birds were while we laughed. After my win at my first show, I added several color varieties of Ameraucana. At one of the following shows that Jerry and I both attended, he took a look at all the varieties I had in tow and jokingly asked me if I planned on being a breeder or a hatchery. Some people have ample space to work on several varieties and do them justice but I do not. He encouraged me to pick a few varieties instead of several and to really focus in on improving them. After that, I dropped down to two varieties in large fowl (I have since added blue, black and splash while we work on the splash approval process). It has paid off and has been fun fine-tuning the birds. Anyway, I thought I would pass on Jerry's advice in case it is of help to someone out there. Jerry- thank you for being a mentor and friend over the last several years! You have been a blessing to my family.
