I took Finley to the 4-H chicken show last night to show her chickens. We got there early to ensure that we would have plenty of time to let the vet take a look at her birds and get them set up in their pen. We were one of the first to arrive, and as other 4-H-ers trickled in with their birds, I couldn't help but compare their chickens to Finley's. The birds in the pen right next to hers looked like they might be a little bigger than Finley's. But they were uglier, in my opinion.
As the pens filled up with the 150 or so Black Sex Link laying hens, I was overwhelmed by the sea of sameness, and couldn't imagine how a judge could tell any sort of real difference. Most of the pens had a carton filled with eggs sitting atop the pen. One pen had a whole plastic bin piled with at least 4 dozen eggs. Our pen had a mere half-dozen eggs. This fact was a little discouraging to me. Because we had let Finley's chicken mix with our other chickens, we weren't entirely sure how many eggs her hens had laid, so I only let her bring the ones I was sure of.
After all the pens were filled, and the judge started his rounds. He would reach into the pen, grab a bird, and feel it up in some mysterious way. After letting it go, he would feel another one. Before moving on to the next pen, he would scribble something onto the card that announced the owner's name. When he was safely down the row past Finley's pen, she went out to see what he had written, but it revealed nothing to us. Periodically, he would go back to a pen he had already been to and feel up another chicken. The suspense was beginning to kill me.
Finally, the judge was done, and stepped back to leave us in suspense a little longer with a speech.
He had been involved in 4-H chicken shows for over 35 years. Just so we knew, these birds were for all intents and purposes, genetically identical, and were all born on the same day. Sometimes, he could tell the difference in birds that had been picked up as chicks in the morning as opposed to the afternoon. I had been one of the first to pick up Finley's chicks. That's good. He said it could make a difference if the chicks were given sugar water right away. Uh-oh. He said it could make a difference if the birds had been kept in too big of a pen. Finley's birds had been free range for the last several months. Oops. He said it could make a difference how long you fed the chicks the grower feed before switching to scratch, or when you started feeding them layer crumble. The birds could show underdevelopement if they were left without food for as little as 8 hours. Since Finley's birds were free range, we rarely left them with unlimited access to scratch. It could make a big difference if the birds had access to fresh water all the time. I know we didn't give them fresh water EVERY day. Oh, this isn't looking good... He went on to explain the different grades. Blue plus birds were top quality. Blue was good, but could be a bit small, or not laying yet. Red birds were underdeveloped.
At this point, I was just hoping that Finley's chickens would score blue.
After talking a little while longer, he finally released us to see what he had graded the birds. We stormed the pens.
In the right hand corner of Finley's card was a big B+. I couldn't believe it. Although she didn't win a Grand Champion or Reserve Champion prize, we had apparently done something right. So go ahead, Fin. Let that heart swell with pride.
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