Royal Bath and West Champions 2018!

Pipinchick are Royal Bath and West Show Champions 2018.

Pipinchick decided after having been asked so many times why we don’t show our lovely hens that this would be the year to take the plunge into showing!

This was our very first show and we could not be happier with the result.
We have never shown before and were not quite sure what to expect, we have heard the stories good and bad about showing, so with open minds off we went!

We decided to show at the Royal Bath and West as it is a Royal show with good standards and not too far from us.

Our show preparations began the day before where our kitchen became a fully equipped chicken salon,
with tables, hair dryers, a warm bubble bath and a team of chicken hair stylists ready for action.
We had selected some birds prior to show and kept them seperate form the main flock they wated in the wings for their spa day!
Washing and blow-drying chickens is a strange concept, but actually the birds seemed to love the process and the satisfaction gained seeing freshly blow dried and fluffed hens was very rewarding.

We then put our girls to bed, begged them to not dip their freshly floofed pom poms in any water and off we went to try and sleep, nervous energy and anticipation meant a restless night and morning came way too soon.

5am with the dawn chorus crowing we were up and at 'em!

We arrived at the show nice and early, found our pens and began unloading our giant fluff balls... the energy was tense to say the least. Once all the birds were secured in their show pens, off we went to explore the competition.
There were so many beautiful birds, all different types but the most competitive class had to be the bantam soft feather where our Poland’s were, there were breeds ranging from Pekins, Seabrights to Minauture Silkies!

The day went on and we nervously watched as Judges dutifully looked over every single bird, checking eyes, beak sizes, weight, leg colours, pleaumage etc… they were painstakingly thorough.

Champion Bantam Soft Feather Mabel

2nd Place in Class Laced Polish Loop

2nd in Class LouLou Coucou Poland Hen

As the morning closed and ribbons were being handed out, our hearts sank a little as we noticed we had nothing on any of our pens... "Oh well" we said "maybe next year."
No sooner had we spoken than a steward came and whisked our Gold Laced Poland Mabel out of her pen and wandered off with her!
OMG!!
New to showing we had no idea where she was going! We watched anxiously as she was walked over to the other side of the show area and popped in another pen!

Off we went to investigate!
To our surprise and joy Mabel had ben selected Champion Bantam Soft Feather!
....... CHAMPION!

On returning to our other pens we then saw that our lovely Partridge Silkie Lady P had also been awarded a green 3rd place ribbon!
And our other 2 Polands LouLou and Loop had also been awared 2nd and 3rd in class!!

What a day and we could not be happier with the result of our first ever show!
Champion Bantam Soft Feather
3rd Pace for Light Feather Large Silkie

Well done girls!
 
We will be taking Mabel, Loop and Lady P to our next Pop up on the 9th June where they will be available to purchase.
LouLou  has already been sold.

Photograph of Show Pens

Pipinchick Awards

3rd in Class Partridge Silkie Lady P