So they ended up with 1,100 entries, 450 in the junior show and 650 in the open show.
They had entries from 42 states, Alberta & Ontario Canada, plus Australia, England, Finland, Germany, Ireland, South Africa and New Zealand. I was surprised that they had that many entries. The judging will be announced on Saturday, November 14.
Ah, but what about Japan? Every country is slightly different and they all have their own poultry governing bodies for judging. The EU is much more uniform now. When I lived in the UK and Ireland, (early 1980s), they did not have much positive to say about U.S. APA Standards. Also the antique breeds have to be much older in Europe. I mean, it makes sense, the United States is a fairly young country in the scheme of things. Judging in Japan is by far the toughest though, just my humble opinion.
They were judged by U.S. APA and ABA Standards. By entering the show, regardless of what country you are from, you agreed to be judged by the U.S. Standards. However, we will see how this goes. I am very intrigued now because I communicate with some of the EU judges as well as the U.S. judges. Plus, remember, the birds are judged by two photographs only! The consensus is with you Robin. Nobody really wants the virtual shows but they are trying to figure it out in case they have to do more.
Wishful thinking, JP. It's not just the winning, it's being able to put a high price on the birds they sell. Even if the quality doesn't meet breeder standards.
No seriously, I'm retired, I refuse to be negative, and you and I have seen some negativity over the years. I never felt good about how some of the bigger shows were run. A thousand birds in person, it's really not humane in retrospect. This is my hobby now. Hard core exhibition is not fair to the birds. I do not have to be part of any commercial aspect of the exhibition business. If Fossil Ledges is able to do a charitable educational show in 2021 it will be an open show geared toward fun and education only! I'm beginning to think a virtual show might be okay. We would get a lot more entries than we used to with our Trumbull County shows.
Do you know I never showed any of mine? That little girl in my avatar was near perfect but she would come unglued when I would just sit her on the seat in my truck. I couldn't do that to her and decided that none of the others needed to go through it either.
And when you were a show secretary you saw poor behavior at the shows, rude callous breeders and shyster exhibitors who didn't care about their individual birds. The current circumstances have forced us to embrace more technology to communicate with each other. I would like to see it have a positive impact on more humane treatment of our birds.
You're right. But I did see many who worried over their birds. The women more than the men. They would travel with water from home so the birds' system wasn't shocked by foreign water. That kind of thing.
And truthfully? I hated being show secretary. Hated it. I don't think I was cut out for any kind of serious bird shows. I had more fun at swaps.
That's why we always tried to teach the kids good exhibiting habits. Being a show secretary is usually a thankless job. Being a judge isn't much better, you are always dealing with a few mental health folks.
One of the things I never did was approach the judges. If they were introduced to me, fine. But if they didn't approach me again that was fine too. I felt they were already being crawled all over by exhibitors so just leave them be.
As Robin said, regrettably some folks only see the birds as commodities. Those are most often the folks hitting you with either flattery or being straight up menacing.
And regrettably, in the States, there are a few methods, (not many), to game the rules of the system. A careful reading of the APA appeal rules demonstrates a few.
Good point! There's really not an organization geared toward education and the hobby. Maybe, that's part of our role.
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