Photo booth for the "Ready made" crowd

Happy · Post by **Happy** » Wed Nov 16, 2016 5:10 pm

@thegawd that musta been tough

I just have chickens for fun but I admire breeders that diligently work to improve the line year after year. It's a dedication.

I have completed all my entries for the on-line photo contest and know now more than ever that neither me or my birds are cut-out for shows lol. Very glad I did it though so thank you PTO and secretaries and judge for the opportunity to participate. Gained a new perspective and appreciation for you folks that do this on a regular basis! To echo @Ontario Chick 's earlier statement...if you are still thinking about it - DO IT! I would have regretted it otherwise.

Post by **Killerbunny** » Wed Nov 16, 2016 5:19 pm

Glad you entered!

Post by **Home Grown Poultry** » Wed Nov 16, 2016 6:58 pm

@Happy I started with birds 4 years ago with my only goal being meat and eggs. from the get go I knew I wanted Rhode Island Reds but I had a heck of a time finding high quality birds. 2 years later, one night a top quality breeder posted 5 hens for sale. I saw the add a few minutes after he posted them and pm'd him immediately, a few minutes later I was talking to Stephane from English River Poultry out of Quebec on the phone. I paid for them a few minutes later via an Emt and they were mine! I got really lucky because Stephane was coming to the Sarnia Show and he would deliver them to me! I just had to wait.... Man was I ever a happy guy, Stephane suprised me with a cock bird and luckily I just acquired one of the best breeder flocks of RIR possible! can't get much better than that! since then I aquired another pair from the same group of birds just through another breeder, for some reason I lost that rooster. last Feburary I aquired another top quality cockeral, with a reserve ribbon win behind him through @BobG and Stephane. an extremely nice poultry judge from PEI picked him up and delivered him to me while on his way to the sarnia show. Oh and before I aquired all these birds I aquired another really nice group of Reds from Markvdbg while waiting for my first group to arrive. I drove through a snow storm for 4 hours to get them!

Kathy, Wllady has some pretty nice Reds as well and we have exchanged eggs.

After all the searching for good birds I have realized that there really is not a whole lot of breeders dedicated to the Standard Rhode Island Red but I am very happy to be one! I have never shown any birds before either. I ment to last Feb in Sarnia but we had a lot of life changes and we moved, things were just to hectic. I was really hoping to this Feb as well and if I do I will only show this one Pullet. I am a member of the American Poultry Association but I'm rather much a newbie myself, I've had good luck and bad luck but I have some great mentors and everyone here on PTO.

I guess all I'm really trying to say is, goals can change at any time but its always an adventure and always fun. plus we can always eat our mistakes!

Post by **Killerbunny** » Wed Nov 16, 2016 7:08 pm

Yes I'm a newbie too but loved going to the OPB show this year. I started same as Al with hens for eggs but got very lucky and again by accident acquired a quad of Beltsville Small White turkeys when their sale to the US fell through due to AI. I got 2 bloodlines and love them. Oh and yes they are delicious! I got a rooster from OC and 2 weeks ago picked up a pretty trio of Blue Columbian Wyandottes from her. Bought the APA standard this year which is very helpful and use the American Livestock Conservancy as a resource for my turkey info too.

Happy · Post by **Happy** » Wed Nov 16, 2016 7:40 pm

I got chickens because my brother got chickens and I was amazed and entertained by them. I grew up on a farm but we never had birds so I knew nothing about them. But I can certainly see me becoming more serious down the road. I already know that even if I only have them for my enjoyment I want quality birds that come from healthy lines. That's the biggest reason that I joined here. I wanted to know where breeders were and what was out there.
I love the look on people's face when I tell them I have chickens lol. Like they're not sure if it's the beginning of a joke and they're waiting for the punch line! At least I know I'm not the only birdaholic out there and I'm in good company lol.

windwalkingwolf · Post by **windwalkingwolf** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 4:20 pm

poultry_admin wrote:QR_BBPOST
windwalkingwolf wrote:QR_BBPOST How does a person make an infatuated Tom turkey NOT strut??!!
Managed that one yesterday by having a second person touching him (he folds up for that). Count down from three and when the hand gets removed, the picture is taken right away. The delay on the flash was crazy, so we needed to take the picture at "2" or the feathers would be up already...

That doesn't work on Justin--he thinks ALL people are sexy. I brought him in the house yesterday hoping he'd get worn out. Everytime he'd start to nod off and fold down, someone would move and FOOMPH like a puffer fish lol. He tried to make babies with Richard's leg, a pair of shoes, the dog, the floor...I wouldn't let him nap, and he had one eye on every move I made anyway. But the time I took him out to the photo spot, he was exhausted and only semi puffed up. I took several dozen photos of him but none are usable *sigh*
Used the'machine gun' trick a couple times during round 2, on him and other birds, and took loads of regular stills as well. All in all, over 400 pictures. Once I erased all that were really fuzzy, or had a body part cut out, or had my positioning stick in the frame, or was a butt shot, I had 10 pictures left...and they all look like "how not to take a picture 101" :-D They'll have to do!
I may yet go round 3 because I'd REALLY like some of the turkeys. I know squat about turkey 'type', and I'm curious! But I never dreamed that in the course of the pursuit of knowledge, that I'd ever be cleaning turkey jizz off the floor.

Post by **Killerbunny** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 5:55 pm

How about Pierre? Really curious about him.

Ontario Chick · Post by **Ontario Chick** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 10:31 pm

I had another go today, boy Wyandottes much more trouble then Ameraucanas, who would have thought.
One of the pullets completely hormonal tried to get at the rooster next door, plowed right thru the photo booth and the only usable picture is of one seriously peeved off pullet

Did not manage to get one picture of a bird looking anything like what they normally look like, most of them curiously seemed to be doing an impression of a giraffe.
I have a small hunting crop hanging in the barn, has been there for 20 years used with varied level of success on horses dogs and lately to herd chickens
just to direct not hit.

Since I was having no success making the Wyandotte look even remotely like a bird of curves, more like a racing leghorn really I thought I would gently touch under the chin with my trusted crop, to bring the bird in to frame, not the best idea, she went straight up and took the photo booth with her, I was really glad there is top on that cage.
Anybody remembers the time when you took a picture took the film to be developed and waited 4 days to see how the pictures turned out? Crazy!

windwalkingwolf · Post by **windwalkingwolf** » Thu Nov 17, 2016 11:58 pm

I could give Pierre a try, he and the girls will definitely be a two person job, so maybe tomorrow evening I can corral Richard for turkey holding duty. Come to think of it, ALL the birds so far have been a two person job, could be why all my pictures are so terrible! LOL! Pretty hard to find photography assistants at 2 in the morning though

Ontario Chick · Post by **Ontario Chick** » Fri Nov 18, 2016 9:02 am

I could have really used another hand, but to me another person is more of a hindrance then help and it's much safer if I do it by myself, less likely anybody getting killed in the process

Can't really imagine trying to corral a turkey to do anything close to posing for a photo.
Who knew this would be a big adventure even before the judging starts?