Winner is whiter than white

Eight hens were vying for the True Bantams female class at Virginia on Wednesday, and it was up to poultry judge Ciara Sweeney to decide which would top the pecking order.

Her wingmen, stewards Jim Brady, Dennings Jim and Noah and skilfully cajole and manoeuvre the birds from the cages – many of which have been newly built by Virginia Men’s Shed. The stewards then pass the birds over to Ciara who gives each a thorough inspection turning them this way and that to rule out mites, ensure they aren’t too dirty, their comb’s condition, face colouring, counting of toe-nails, and examining feather condition and patterns.

“Also, when I put her back in the cage, I want to see which way she stands.

“Markings are lovely,” she can’t resist commenting of a fine Serama.

“You want a nice bright red face,” she adds. “When they have a bright face you know they are outside eating grass, and it looks better.”

She moves onto a Sebright. “You are looking at the feathers, you want black lacing around the brown or gold. You see the markings there are quite good – you want them the whole way around.”

Taking one of the bantams in hand, it crows especially loudly.

“This one’s a bit grumpy. You’re just giving out aren’t you?” she coos affectionately.

Are pecks on the hand an occupational hazard?

“I got bit by a duck a few weeks ago,” Ciara recalls of an incident long enough in the past that she can laugh about it now. “It grabbed onto my skin – it was really sore.”

We mosey on down the line.

“This is a nice bird,” she remarks of a white Pekin. “It’s lovely. It’s very well cleaned. The feet are hard to get right because they are always standing on their feet, so there’s always dirt on them.

“It’s very clean,” she marvels.

She takes out a retractable stick, like a chubby radio aerial with a blunt tip, and gently nudges the birds this way and that in the cage.

“It’s just to see them stand in different positions,” Ciara explains. The most impressive birds have that tummy-in-chest-out-head-up posture of a soldier on parade.

“People train them in cages like this at home to get them used to people handling them, and you get them used to loud noises.”

When Ciara prepared for competitions she left her hens in cages with the radio on for an hour or so a day to acclimatise them to the bird shows din.

“In England there could be 5,000 birds at one show, so they have to be used to the noise or they are going to get stressed, and that’s not fair on them.”

Ciara is impressed by the pristine whiteness of two Pekins, They’re nearly camouflaged against her judge’s coat. She explains how too much sun, can leave their feathers yellow.

“You can get the yellow out by using purple shampoo. The only thing about the purple shampoo is that it can also turn them purple if you leave it on too long – I’ve seen a few people enter birds which have turned purple,” Ciara says, admitting she’s guilty of it too.

It’s surprising how varied the hens are in true bantam class. The variety of breeds makes Ciara’s job all the trickier.

“It’s harder when they are in a class with different breeds. You are looking for different things in different birds because all the breeds are different,” she says noting that in the North they have bird classes for each specific breeds.

“They all have different qualities,” she observes.

One of the qualities apparent in a pair of white Pekins is the shape of the voluminous leg feathers, called a skirt.

“You want no gap there,” she says pointing to where the feathers arch upwards slightly between her legs. “It looks like a skirt – so you want them to look like they have no legs basically. With this one, she’s not bad – could be a bit lower, but she’s still a nice bird. And she’s quite attentive and standing quite well.”

Eventually the white Pekins share first and third while a Sebright splits them to take second.