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- 9. Chickens can compete again at the Pima County Fair
- Chickens can compete again at the Pima County Fair
By Dan Sorenson
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
The chickens return to roost at the Pima County Fair next month.
Poultry shows were canceled at last year's fair after a state Department of Agriculture ban on showing and transporting birds. The ban was ordered after Exotic Newcastle Disease outbreaks in California, Nevada and a backyard poultry flock in western Arizona.
The viral disease is almost always fatal to unvaccinated birds and can kill even vaccinated poultry, according to an Arizona Game and Fish Department health advisory issued in March 2003.
The ban was lifted in September, allowing enough time for poultry fanciers to raise show birds from chicks, said Curt Peters, the extension agent for 4-H Youth Development at the University of Arizona College of Agriculture's Cooperative Extension Service.
That's good news for 4-H kids because chickens are to animal contests what Volkswagen bugs were to teen-age driving: not very flashy, but affordable.
"For a commercial laying hen you can go to a feed store and buy one for what, $1.25," said Debbie-Lee Porter, the mother of three 4-H children and a chicken breeder herself.
Her two oldest children quit showing, but her youngest is carrying on the family tradition.
"I'm showing some Orpingtons and I'm showing Dutch Bantams," said Israel Porter, 14, a member of the Starr Pass Riders 4-H Club.
His main interest is an even more exotic English bird, the Modern Game. His mother said Israel and his older brother and sister took chicken-raising a bit past the level most 4-H members do, learning about their breeds' genetics and breeding chicks for sale to others.
The Porters were so into chicken-raising and competition that Israel and his father built a "chicken town," patterned after Old Tucson, complete with a hotel and saloon.
"You don't have to do what we do to be in 4-H," says Debbie-Lee Porter. "You can go buy some chicks and if they're up to standards, you can enter."
Standards, she says, require that certain parts of specific breeds should be a certain color. If they do, they're good enough to at least use for what is known as "showmanship" competition.
Kathy Witte, a former 4-H poultry director, says that in the showmanship competition, the owners "get into an arena and show themselves, but also show the birds. They show the wing, the breastbone, different parts of the body. They answer judges' questions about the breed they're showing."
If you've seen a dog show, says Witte, you get the picture. As with most hobbies, Witte and Debbie-Lee Porter say, you can spent a lot more, and those who win probably will. Still, even a high-end chicken, a promising example of an exotic breed, is not going to cost more than a couple hundred dollars.
And, says Debbie-Lee Porter, you can buy a breeding pair of "good show fowl for about $45 to $50" and raise your own egg machine. - Updated: March 26, 2004
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