Ohio National Poultry Show

On November 8th and 9th, I was in Columbus, Ohio for the Ohio Poultry Breeders Associations Fall Poultry Show with 15 of my silkies. Had a great time and was able to visit with several very nice people. There were 5300 birds entered in this show, entered by 442 exhibitors.

Dispite a very frightening 6.5 hour trip from NY, having some major problems with my bird trailor, I was so thrilled that we made it to this very large show safely. There were 47 silkies shown by 8 exhibitors, and my young white bearded pullet got best of breed and a white bearded hen shown by Shari Evans got Reserve of Breed. Had a great time visiting with Shari again and look forward to the next show we are both able to attend. Terry Britt was the judge for the silkies.

My other birds who got BV or RV included splash hen BR, splash pullet RV, partridge pullet BV, cuckoo pullet BV, cuckoo pullet RV, blue partridge cock BV, and white showgirl pullet BV.

Thank goodness our 5 hour trip home was uneventful. We got home a couple of hours before the snow started to fall, which by the way has not stopped since then. Hope to see even more silkie friends next year, this is a show that anyone who loves poultry should not miss.

There was also a great turnout for the call duck national meet, with Art Lundgren of Jamestown NY getting the Best of Breed with one of his white calls, a gorgeous little duck.

Canfield, Ohio : Buckeye Fancy Feather Poultry Show

The Buckeye Fancy Feather Poultry Club held their spring poultry show on June 14, 2008 in Canfield Ohio. Despite some rainy weather, the show turned out to be very nice with a good turnout of birds and people.


There were 31 silkie bantams shown in the open class by 4 exhibiters and 1 in the junior show. Over all, there were 71 exhibitors registered for the open show, coming from OH, PA, NY, MI and VA. There were 37 junior exhibitors registered, coming from OH, MI and VA. The show was judged by Glenn See and Daniel Dysart. There was a great representation of many breeds and varieties of poultry.

Silkies were represented in a rainbow of colors, with the Best of Breed going to a white bearded hen owned by Shari Evans and Reserve of Breed to a white bearded cock owned by Kathy Dahlbeck. In the junior show, Jewli Cruz had a nice bearded white cock entered which got Best of Breed.

Standings for the various varieties of Silkie Bantams were as follows:


Open Show


White Bearded:

• BB,BV Hen-Shari Evans


• RB,RV Cock-Kathy Dahlbeck
  

Black Bearded:

• BV Hen-Lauren Haehn


• RV Cockeral-Jeff Oxley

Splash Bearded:

• BV Cockeral-Kathy Dahlbeck


• RV Cock-Kathy Dahlbeck

Cuckoo Bearded:

• BV Pullet-Kathy Dahlbeck


• RV Pullet-Kathy Dahlbeck

Blue Bearded:

• BV Pullet-Shari Evans


• RV Hen-Kathy Dahlbeck

Gray Bearded:

• BV Pullet-Kathy Dahlbeck


• RV Pullet-Kathy Dahlbeck

Buff Bearded:

• BV Hen-Shari Evans


• RV Hen-Shari Evans

Partridge Bearded:

• BV Cock-Kathy Dahlbeck

Black Nonbearded:

• BV Pullet-Shair Evans

Buff Nonbearded:

• BV Pullet-Shari Evans


• RV Pullet-Kathy Dahlbeck
  

White Nonbearded Showgirl:

• BV Pullet-Kathy Dahlbeck
  
• RV Cockeral-Kathy Dahlbeck

Junior Show

White Bearded:

• BB,BV Cock-Jewli Cruz

Had a great time and met some very nice folks. Hope to see more at the next show. To see pictures of some of the winners, come over to my website.

Kathy

http://dahlbecksilkies.bravehost.com/

Buffalo and Western New York Poultry Show

Preparing for my first poultry show of 2008. I have entered 20 of my silkies in the B & WNY Poultry Associations Spring show, which is being held at the Hamburg NY Fairgrounds on May 18, 2008. The show judging begins at 9am and all birds must be cooped in by 8:30am


Tomorrow, I will be getting my birds that are entered bathed, so they will be looking their best for the show. Much to my astonishment, the birds actually enjoy a good bath and they enjoy the blow drying even more. They will spend the night in the greenhouse where it is nice and warm to finish drying off completely before going back to their pens to await their day on stage.

The poultry shows are a great place for anyone who enjoys looking at the many beautiful types of poultry. Some of the best examples available are shown throughout the country at the various poultry shows. Chickens, waterfowl, and many other exotic fowl can be see at the shows and many of the shows also have sales areas where you can purchase some of these fancy fluffy chickens if you wish. I will have some of my birds available at the sale area at this show, if amyone is looking to get a few silkies for pets or competition. I also sell hatching eggs and started birds from my home and on some of the internet auction sites.

http://www.ovabid.com/ as egglady111

http://www.eggbid.com/ as 123EGGS

http://www.ebay.com/ as egglady111

Hope to see lots of new chicken lovers at the show. Anyone who is planning on going and is interested in some of my birds, feel free to contact me and I can be sure to bring what you are looking for if I have any available. mailto:egglady111@yahoo.com

To see all the breeds that I raise and sell birds and eggs from

Check out my pictures at:

www.picturetrail.com/dahlbeckfancyfeathers

More silkie pictures at:

http://pets.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/asbc/photos/browse/3dd7
Visit myspace and join my friends list at:

http://www.myspace.com/dahlbeckfancyfeathers

Silkies the Fluffballs of the Chicken World

Silkie chickens have been documented as being admired since the times of Marco Polo. They are believed to have originated in China, where these black skinned, black boned and black meat chickens are used for medicinal purposes as well as in great food dishes. Silkies are known as being one of the more friendly, docile breeds of chicken and as such, they make great pets for children. They are a breed noted for their broodiness and for being great parents, even the roosters will assist in rearing and defending the chicks.

Silkies belong to the Feather legged Bantam Class here in the US and the first variety, the whites were admitted to the APA Standard of Perfection in 1874, and the blacks were admitted in 1965. Since then other color varieties that have been admitted to the standard include buff, blue, splash, gray, and partridge. To see pictures of some of my silkies, you can visit my google photo section at http://picasaweb.google.com/KathyDahlbeck/Silkies There are also several other colors that various silkie enthusiasts are working on including cuckoo, lavender, chocolate, porcelain and I am sure there are more in the making. I have some very nice cuckoo silkies coming from the past 2 generations and have just started to work with the lavender gene and with some showgirls.

Although silkies are only accepted as bantams here in the US, there are several breeders working on making a standard sized silkie, as there is in other parts of the world. The silkie bantam is one of the larger of the bantam breeds here in the states, with standard weights of 36 ounces for the cock, 32 ounces for the cockeral, 32 ounces for the hen and 28 ounces for the pullet. There are also some breeders working on a frizzled silkie and sizzles and a naked neck silkie which is referred to as a showgirl.

Silkies have several features that are different than most other breeds. They have black skin, five toes on each foot, feathering down the shank and on the first 2 toes, a crest on their head and a walnut comb. Silkies generally prefer to sleep on the ground in a huddled group, rather than on a roost like most varieties of chickens, though there are exceptions that do prefer to roost. Silkies have soft feathers due to the lack of the barb in the feathers, which makes them appear more a cat or rabbits fur than a feather. Due to the type of feather they have, the silkies are not able to fly. A 3 foot high fence will keep most silkies contained, but due to their lack of flying ability, they also are more prone to predator attacks when out free ranging. One other notable feature found in the silkie, as well as other crested breeds of chickens, such as polish and sultans, is that there is a hole in the skull. The area where the crest is found has an opening in the skull bone, leaving the brain less protected from injury, especially in the ones with the large vaulted skulls. Silkies also can have difficulty being able to see when they have the large oversized crests that breeders are moving toward these days.

If you would like ot see more of the birds I raise, or would like to get some hatching eggs or started birds, visit my website listed below. I also work from home with an internet business, for more info you can also find that at my website.
Kathy Dahlbeck
Dahlbeck Fancy Feathers
http://www.geocities.com/egglady111/index.html