The evening Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1918-1920, 1919-09-24
HOW II POULTRY RAISER
PREPARES TO WIN A PRIZE
Conditioning Fowl for Fair ands Show Circuit Involves
Careful Feeding, Training, and Attention to-
Prepare Birds for Active Competition;
Show-Ring Etiquette
Especial Information Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture)
Show-Ring Etiquette

The beauty contest season for
poultry is again at hand and fanciers
who previously have fretted over egg
record and feeding rations are now
concerned with grooming their birds
in their best bib and tucker and pre-
pairing them for inspection by judges
at fairs and poultry shows.
Something besides external beauty
and fine feathers is required to win
in the show ring. Every fowl
whether young or mature, should be
in first class show condition when it
enters the exhibition hall. The plum
age should be the standard length for
the breed, lustrous and plentiful, the
head bright red in color, and the
comb developed to the required size,
says the United States Department
of Agriculture. The specimen should
appear in handsome dress, good ply
steal condition, and trained to exhibit
his good qualities to advantage. Care
full training imparts to a bird suti-
cient confidence to assume and hold
desired poses under showroom con-
ditions.
If possible, obtain exhibition coops
similar to those used at the show you
will attend. Cover the floor with
short, clean straw, or a mixture of
bran and straw for feathered-les
breeds. Two months before the
show place in the coops at night the
birds you intend to exhibit. Visit the
coops as frequently as you can and
handle the birds often. Garry them
around under the arm, open their
wings and examine the undercolor,
and accustom them to every move
ment of the judge. 1t is not advisable
OF necessary to keep the show birds
confined in the training coops. A day
at a time is sufficient; then allow
them the run of the house for two or
three days, and outdoor exercise if
seasonable.
DIET MAKES HENS HANDSOME
Show birds should receive a variety
of foods. If you wish to increase
weight rapidly, make a mash of equal
parts of corn meal, ground oats,
wheat middlings and thick sour milk
or buttermilk. Sweeten it with
brown sugar, and add 10 per cent
linseed meal. The mash should be
of the same consistency as thick oat-
meal porridge. This is similar 70
milk feeding r%ations, but it should be
fed only each morning. Feed whole
or cracked corn, wheat, Kafir corn,
barley, OF buckwheat, or a CONNER
cial scratching food, in the middle O
cial scratching food, in the middle Of
the day ard again in the late after
noon. Feed yellow corn to buff va
%rieties, and white corr to white,
black and p~arti-colored. Yellow corn
may cream the plunnage of white
birds. A little cooked or raw meat
or ground bone will be beneficial, ex-
cept to specimens inclined to grow
large combs.
1t is necessary to examine your
show birds carefully at least 10 weeks
before the show. Remove all impe"-
feet feathers in the hope that they
will be replaced by feathers of STAN
dard color. Frequently a colored
feather showing a little white along
the edge of the web will mott out
perfectly when the fowl is well fed
on the sour milk mash, meat, and'
grain. Never pluck a new feather
n in which the quill is filled with
fuid-as it will invariably return
partially white. A few days before