The National Poultry show

exploring the most fancy of fowl yesterday in Lincoln.

chicken boy - paperback

The annual December pilgrimage that I used to take most years to Stafford for the National Poultry show involved waking up in the dark and getting several trains. I have not undertaken such a journey since 2019 because the shows have not been able to take place at all over the past few years thanks to avian flu and its entailed lockdowns of poultry movements. This autumn though thanks to many meetings and robust organisation by the Poultry Club of Great Britain, founded in 1877 it was granted that a national show could take place at the Lincolnshire Country Showground. Poultry shows are very much a cultural need for those who love their pure and rare breed poultry. Each breed of chicken has its own breed club and therefore its own community of likeminded fanciers who show their birds constantly trying to achieve their breeds particular standards and merits of looks.

poultry club of Great Britain

Keeping any flock of chickens is a year round occupation they require care in all weathers, much protection and attention but adding into this breeding and hatching to show ones birds turns such a hobby often into a worthy obsession. When you begin breeding a particular breed of hen that you especially fall for then you quickly realise that you have to have all your eggs in that breeds basket because you have to hatch and rear a lot of chicks each spring and summer to hopefully end up with a few birds that are good enough to enter into the shows. You have to of course also (in an ideal world) be able to keep cockerels. These cannot always be allowed to be running in with the hens at their leisure because their passions spoil the hens back feathers!

Facebook especially, has allowed many breed club chicken communities to be online with many breeds having their own breed club page which has been a life saver for many clubs in the event of the covid lockdowns and indeed avain flu.

The latter has cast a shadow over the fancy for a long time and continues to do so. Any keeper of chickens now has to register with Defra despite their being much protest over this in last years consultation and their being no debate of this new law in parliament. Now everyone’s dear birds will be on a mapped out list and my worry of gas chamber loaded white vans being driven by Dr Who white coated ministerial slaughterers seems a possible reality but we are told all of this is being done to indeed protect our birds from the risk of bird flu. A flu that has mutated within the billion dollar industry that is intensive chicken farming that of course any modern government is very much roosting up with. Such modern diseases thrive when animals have the same weak genetic code, within bodies already pushed to the limits of endurance to produce unnatural yields that our greedy modern society demands. Rare and Pure breed poultry in comparison not only are beautiful to look at but they carry a diverse and precious array of strong genetics.

If you have not been to a poultry show before, then the incredible chorus of so many cockerels crowing and the cries of the naughty, wind up toy like little call ducks is an amazing thing for ones ears to listen to. It is an incredible carnival to behold with each row of cages holding more and more beautiful varieties of fowl whose feathers are so beautiful. After a while, the endless cages holding such clucking finery almost merge into moving little tapestries of coloured silk. The show of eggs is also remarkable. Eggs in every natural shade of shell as nature intended. The dark chocolate ones laid by the French Marans and the terracotta ones by Welsummers then the karki and sky blue thanks to the Legbars and Araucanas. Their are other eggs too, the speckled and large belonging to turkeys! Each egg sits in a rounded plant saucer of sand some alone others in clutches. I especially like to observe the judges inspecting the birds. They handle them with effortless ease, reassuring the bird as he or she is inspected their wings stretched out and faces especially looked at in detail.

I used to take my proper camera to shows but taking decent photos of chickens in their show cages is largely a fools task as the backgrounds of the photos involve cage bars but if you want to take up close shots of fancy feathers you can get some nice details although the overhead lighting often like those of football stadiums in such places is never a help. Winning birds and eggs get their photos taken properly against a sky blue background.

Such gatherings are very different to the often dirty rabbles you might have seen at fur and feather auctions which should always be avoided really despite the lure of a supposed bargain that often will be carrying an illness. Poultry shows that are well run professionally such as the national are scrupulously clean and the birds are very much attended to in terms of them being presented well and being fed and watered, volunteering stewards go around giving each entry some corn and water in little cups. It takes a huge amount of effort for people who are showing their birds because by the time public viewing takes place they will have been at such shows for the best part of the day, often arriving either the evening before or in the early hours so that their birds are penned before judging takes place. And before this, indeed days before, each fancier will have washed their birds, dried them and then done their best to keep their feathers clean before the show. The National and Federation shows are our longest shows that are two days, most smaller shows are one day events which suits poultry and owners alike as being away from home for any length of time is usually an annoyance to most! I arrived at Lincoln as early as I could do journeying by Train from Nottingham. It was lovely to see Emma of the cochin Club who does an incredible job looking after the small number of us who keep cochins and also Brereton, a leading authority on poultry plumage genetics whose partridge wyandotte’s are second to none. Grant has written several practical books on hen keeping and showing that are very useful bibles this is his website - Grant Brereton

All too soon it was time to leave the show but hopefully this is the start of the fancy fowl shows returning to be regular events again. It was especially wonderful to see so many breeds at large after drawing so many of them last winter for my next book that will be out next October 2025 titled as ‘The Hen Party’ In it I have drawn many breeds of chickens with profiles about their breeds, its been a labour at times painful due to my neck that has suffered in the name of art! It is being published by Penguin here in the Uk and has also just got an American book deal too!

My book Chicken boy was published in paperback form last month, so please leave it a amazon review if you liked it as this is so helpful in getting future books a deal.

chicken boy paperback

My personal bible of pure breed poultry is the wonderful book that is poultry for anyone by Victoria Roberts. Victoria is an esteemed poultry show judge and also vet.

poultry for anyone