It's Show Time!

The first show of the year in California is in Paso Robles. It's a long drive to get there. This year I was happy that Carlotta went with me. The weekend was 1/3 chicken show, 1/3 visiting with friends, and 1/3 exploring new territory.

If you're not familiar with showing chickens, this is the schedule:

A couple of weeks before the show, send in entries for birds and make hotel reservation for people.

A week before the show, wash the birds. I do this in the kitchen sink. This time it was sunny and warm so I got to put the birds outside to dry. Most shows are in the middle of the winter and I set up cages in the house near the wood stove for this purpose. Each bird has its beak and nails trimmed and its comb, wattles, and legs are lightly oiled. Sometimes you run across a problem, like one of the hens that I washed had just started to molt and half her feathers ended up in the sink. She went back to her pen after she dried and I found a substitute.

Friday morning I inspected each bird carefully for new dirt (not much, thanks to the show pens Bob made), and put them in the carriers. My carriers are very light, about 12 inches wide, 12 inches high, and 24 inches long. There are 4 compartments in each. I took 2 big carriers and put the 9th chicken in a cardboard cat carrier. (This is so much easier than hauling horses.)

Carlotta and I left about 10 a.m. Our first stop on I-5 was at Santa Nella, for lunch at Andersen's Pea Soup restaurant. We had our picture taken there.

We also stopped there to pee, so I was very Hap-pee.

We got to the fairgrounds in Paso Robles about 6 p.m., unloaded the birds, got them settled in their show cages, and went to our hotel. Here are some of the birds I took:

White Old English Bantam pullet, #42

Dominique Bantam cockerel #42

Dominique Bantam cockerel #18

Dominique Bantam Pullet #16

There were over 1,000 birds at the show. The entries are up possibly because, thanks to Martha Stewart and the local foods movement, more people have started keeping a few chickens. At this show I saw breeds and varieties I'd never seen before. Some were indescribable. This one, for instance. I think it's a Barred Frizzle Silkie.

Just chillin'

Some people check in Friday night, like we did, and stay in a hotel. Some people make that loooong drive on Saturday morning. There were people who pulled in before 8 a.m. on Saturday who had even further to travel than we did. By 9 all the chickens were settled in their pens and the 3 judges went to work.

As an exhibitor, your job is to just stay out of the way and let the judges do their job. The birds of each type are penned in adjacent cages so the judge can compare them. He or she takes each bird out of its cage and examines it, then stands back and looks at the whole category, makes a determination and writes the placing on the card. For my Dom Bantams, for example, there are 4 categories: cockerels, cocks, pullets and hens. The first place birds in each category are compared and the judge decides which is Best of Variety (BV) and which is Reserve of Variety (RV). In many breeds there are several varieties. The best of each variety are then compared to award Best of Breed (BB) and Reserve of Breed (RB). Then those compete for Best of Class. The Class champions get to compete on champion row for Best of Show.

My pullet #16 was BB and BV, my cockerel #42 was RB and RV. This is not a big deal, there were only 2 of us who entered Dom Bantams. I had also taken 2 white OEGB pullets. Neither placed. Old English Game Bantams are always the largest class. At this show there were 250. A pullet that was caged next to mine ended up winning Best of Show.

It takes all day to judge the birds. While that's going on, people are sitting and talking. You get to know people over the years and it's fun to see them. Everyone wears their best chicken attire. This one was one of the best.

In one corner of the room the 4-H kids do showmanship. If you've ever been a 4-H parent, this photo might tickle you as much as it did me. The girl on the left has been in 4-H 3 years, you can tell by the stripes on her hat. The other two are younger and beginners. They haven't mastered the technique of paying attention even when the judge is facing the other way. Their parents were probably sitting in the audience, trying to send hand signals.

4-H Showmanship

Sometimes as a parent you want to crawl under your chair and disappear. Sometimes you have to work really hard not to laugh. My favorite beginning showmanship class will always be the one almost 20 years ago when one of my group, little Erin who could barely see over the table, stood waiting for her turn. Instead of holding her bird in the proper position, she had it on the table. She was hanging onto its legs, making it dance. The kids are my favorite part of a show, even though my days as a 4-H parent and leader are long past. You see kids running around all day carrying their favorite bird under their arm.

How do kids sit like this?

By the end of the day the competition was all over. Some shows judge Best of Show on Sunday morning. At this one the winners were announced at the banquet on Saturday evening. Most exhibitors stayed in a hotel that night. The birds were picked up on Sunday morning. At this show most of the birds were gone by 8:30 a.m. and people were on their way home.

Carlotta was the navigator. She chose a route home that was off the busy freeways for half the trip. We went up Hwy 25 past the Pinnacles.

The first part of the trip took us through a lush farming area a lot like the one where I live. The major crops this time of the year in the cool coastal valleys are cabbage and lettuce.

California Cabbage Patch

We soon left the fertile valleys, the road took us up into the coast range hills which are steep and dry, then wound north right on top of the San Andreas Fault. There are a few cattle ranches along the road. We saw a roadrunner and a bobcat and lots of ravens. If you ever want to take that route, these are the best lodgings we saw.

This was second best.

The north end of Hwy 25 goes right past the small fairgrounds outside of Hollister where a chicken show is held in early January. We got gas in Hollister. That was a shock.

While we were at the chicken show, California was subjected to another one of those nebulous events where the gas companies suddenly raise prices. They always do this during a presidential election. I have no idea why, I don't care, it just makes me mad and I hope those CEOs end up with an incurable infestation of warts on their butts.

After Hollister we stopped at one of my favorite places, Casa de Fruta. We bought dried fruit and nuts and a piece or two of chocolate. After that it was over the pass and back down into the Central Valley and I-5. San Luis reservoir, by the way, is lower than I've ever seen it.

By the time I got home at 3:30 and discovered the problem with the goat, Carlotta and I had talked nonstop for 2-1/2 days. Some of you fellas probably think women just gossip all the time. Nope. We discussed ancient aliens, religion, nutrition theories, reincarnation, politics, social theory, and several other topics we both read about a lot. And, of course, there are lots of things along the road to wonder about. Like that lone truck and camper out in the cow pasture. We also talked about why it's harder to travel with guys because they never have anything to talk about.

Carlotta was great help at the show. She had studied the Standard of Perfection on the way down and knew a bit about the different breeds and varieties. She saw lots of birds that she wanted, beginning with Silkies and ending with a Toulouse goose. But she didn't buy anything. We just talked about it.