Poultry

There well over one hundred breeds and varieties of poultry in this country, with many others in existence throughout the world. Each of these breeds has distinct attributes and character, and is classified by The Poultry Club of Great Britain accordingly. This can also be based on a breed’s historical origins, original purpose, popularity, or size.

Two sizes of fowl exist – Large Fowl and Bantam. Both sizes can be found in many breeds, the Bantam version having been created as a miniature of the Large. True Bantams, are those with no Large Fowl counterpart and the breeds under this heading are usually for ornamental purposes. Waterfowl are similarly divided into ‘Heavy’, ‘Light’, and ‘Bantam’ Duck.

In fowl, another important distinction is that made between ‘Hard’ and ‘Soft’ feather breeds. Generally speaking, the ‘Hard’ feather breeds are the ‘Game’ varieties, whose historical origins lie in the outlawed pursuit of cockfighting. Having been developed over generations for exhibition purposes, they would be most unsuitable for this now. As the term suggests, they also have tighter feathering. The ‘Soft’ feather breeds are those remaining.

Here at the Trawden Agricultural Show, we like to encourage young keepers so all our classes have Junior sections where every exhibitor receives a small prize. We also have a section for pet hens or chicks where we are looking for healthy happy birds rather than breed standards so if you have a much loved “Heinz 57” variety please enter him/her!!

For further information on the different breeds and varieties visit http://www.poultryclub.org/breed-gallery/

For information on showing eggs visit http://www.poultryclub.org/eggs/showing-eggs/

For details on entry, please see our Schedules available here or contact our Poultry Secretary, Jill Ollerton on 07858 693497.

Results for previous years can be found on our results page here.