Crossroads Poultry Show Report

I attended my first large poultry show this past weekend - the Crossroads Poultry Show in the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis.  It was a great experience!  There were over 10,000 poultry from 40+ states and Canada.  Each bird is judged using the Breed Standard for that particular breed - feather coloring, structural correctness, style and balance.

This is how many birds were entered:
  1747   Ducks
    395   Geese
      68   Guineas
      42   Turkeys
  8024   Chickens
10,276  Total Poultry - with about 20% being Junior exhibitors

Half of the Champions Pavilion with Large Dewlap Toulouse in the front.  In the back is the sales area where exhibitors can bring birds they are not showing and sell them during the show.

The Marsh Blue Ribbon Pavilion. The cages were double high in the far half of the building because of the number of birds - as each bird gets its own cage.

Along with their volunteers, these are the people that dreamed up and brought this show to fruition - twice!  Bill Wulff, daughter Jennifer Wulff-Frank, granddaughter Samantha and son David.  I tried throughout the show to get the whole family together for a picture.  I finally had to go with these four as Bill's wife, Joyce, was taking someone to the airport!  Always working!  This show took a tremendous amount of planning, organization and management and all net proceeds go for youth awards and scholarships.  10,000+ poultry and their caretakers owe the Wulff's a big Thank You.  A show edition will be printed up in the January issue of the Wulff's Poultry Press.

We had a booth at the show and handed out literature and answered waterfowl questions.  We also brought our Waterfowl Sexing video and played that throughout the show.  There always seemed to be someone watching it!  It was very rewarding meeting many of our customers at the show.

P. Allen Smith and Kathy Hopkins

Kathy, of Silver Spring Farm, won Best of Breed with her Buff goose, which she purchased as a gosling from Metzer Farms.  Kathy loves her Buff geese and wants to share their special attributes with everyone.  With Kathy is P. Allen Smith,  who has become well known nationwide with his GardenHome television spots, is also a poultry advocate.  He was at the show to present an award for the best display of a heritage breed from his Heritage Poultry Conservancy.

The Super Grand Champion Bird was Danny Padgett's Male Black Muscovy.  This was judged to be the best bird over all the chickens, geese, turkeys and guineas.  It is rare for a waterfowl to be judged the best bird in the show.  Congratulations to Danny!

For those of you not familiar with the judging process, if a bird wins in its class (young female Pekin duck for example), it then competes against all other Pekin winners (male and female) to determine the Best of Breed.  The Best of Breed then competes against all other Breeds in its Class (Heavy Duck).  The Best of Class then competes against all other ducks for Champion Duck.  The Champion Duck then competes against the Champion Goose for Champion Waterfowl.  The Champion Waterfowl then competes against the best chicken, turkey and guineas for Super Grand Champion Bird.

If you have an interest in showing birds, check with your local county fair and see what they have to offer.  Talk to the person in charge of poultry as they usually know of all shows in your area.  We also post an extensive list of poultry shows on our website.  We have another blog that gives instructions on how to prepare and handle your birds for a poultry show.  Time to start a new hobby!