Our First California Poultry Show!

After a long trip, we finally arrived at the show in Red Bluff, CA. 

We entered our birds and finally got to meet Larry Stallings, another Buttercup breeder and an APA certified judge. 

This is one of our bantam Buttercup pullets that we entered in the show.

This is the large fowl Sicilian Buttercup rooster that Larry brought to the show. He's about 3 times as big as our bantams.

Not only does Larry breed bantam Buttercups, but he breeds large fowl Buttercups as well. 

As we mentioned on our "About of the Breed" page, large fowl Buttercups were the original Buttercups. They were Mediterranean birds that were primarily kept for egg production. 

Fortunately, they are not quite as rare as bantam Buttercups today, but they are still fairly rare. More breeders are still needed to help preserve and improve them.

Someday we plan to start breeding large fowl Buttercups as well, but currently we remain focused on our mission of improving our bantam Buttercups. Larry brought both large fowl and bantam Buttercups to the show. 

This is one of the bantam Buttercup hens Larry brought and entered in the show.

Here's another one of Larry's bantam hens. We ended up taking her home to add to our breeding program!

After a great show, a banquet, and a wine auction, it was finally time to head home. 

Before leaving, we traded bloodlines with Larry, which was the primary objective of traveling so far to the show. There are very few bantam Buttercup breeders, so it is important for us to share bloodlines to keep genetic diversity up and help improve the quality of our birds. 

I hope in the future we will begin to travel to more out-of-state shows. It was a unique experience.

On the way home we passed Mount Shasta, and just had to snap a photo!