Our First Poultry Show: A Malay Chicken Jailbreak at the Washington State Fair
After years of raising and working with our Malay chickens and Asils, Viggo and I decided to try something completely new: entering our first Malay chicken poultry show at the Washington State Fair in Puyallup. It was our first time ever showing poultry, and we were both a little nervous.
The night before, we stayed up late getting the birds ready and safely set up for transportation. I was up around 4:30 the next morning and Viggo around 5:00. Even though we budgeted an extra hour for the drive, traffic was heavy, and somewhere along the way we started wondering whether this whole poultry show idea had been such a good one.
But Viggo was a champ, and we made it just in time.
This work is part of our long term effort we call the MIGHT Project, Malay Invigoration Gene Hybridization Team. It is a father and son project and continues to guide how we think about balancing strength, health, and traditional breed characteristics in our chickens.
Before the show, Rachel Gatlin had been incredibly encouraging and supportive of us giving it a try. When we finally arrived, she warmly welcomed us and helped us get situated. We were also fortunate to meet Jennifer and Kailyn Hess, a wonderful mother and daughter team who were tremendously helpful to us newcomers and had some beautiful birds of their own in the show.
Kailyn, in particular, was something of a chicken whisperer. Our birds aren’t handled a tremendous amount and can be pretty wild, but she had a remarkable talent for calmly and confidently handling them. We were extremely grateful for her help.
That talent was soon put to the test.
As our Malay rooster and white hen were placed into their show cages, they apparently decided the Washington State Fair was no place to surrender their freedom. Our mighty Malays jumped and flew hard enough to pop open the tops of their cages.
Suddenly, we had chickens loose in the poultry show.
For the next few minutes, everyone was chasing and corralling our Malays with brooms while Viggo and I watched our first poultry show turn into a jailbreak. The staff did a fantastic job catching them, and afterward the cage tops were secured with zip ties. We were told they hadn’t had that happen before.
Strangely enough, Viggo and I took a little pride in that.
In our last post about the MIGHT Project, I wrote about our effort to “rewild” the Malay by developing healthier, more athletic and vigorous birds. Apparently, our Malays decided to provide their own demonstration.
Once everyone was safely back behind bars, we had a wonderful time seeing the incredible variety of poultry other breeders had brought. We also received a lot of positive feedback about our own birds. When you work with these animals every day, sometimes you forget just how unusual and beautiful they are. It was rewarding to hear the perspectives of people seeing them for the first time.
I also couldn’t resist having a little fun. When people stopped to admire our birds without knowing they belonged to me, I would occasionally heckle my own chickens: “Those look like turkeys. They shouldn’t even be in a chicken show!” Or, “That’s not a real bird. That’s an AI robot.”
We also appreciated the feedback from the judge, particularly regarding our Asil. He seemed to like the bird and asked Rachel to show us a photograph of an Asil that had done well in competition so we could better understand the type and continue improving our breeding program. Our birds earned ribbons as well, and all in all, we felt pretty good about how we did for our very first show.
But the ribbons weren’t really what made the day special.
These birds represent many years of work and a tremendous investment of time, money, emotion, disappointment, learning and hope. Being able to finally bring some of them out into the world and share that work with others meant a great deal to me.
Afterward, Viggo and I walked around the Puyallup Fair, enjoyed the sights and played some fair games, especially enjoying the bumper cars and having a great time crashing into each other before making our way home.
It was a very long day, but as I look back on it now, I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to share it with my son and to share with others something we have truly poured our hearts into for so many years. There is something very precious about being able to work on a project like this alongside my son, learning together, overcoming the challenges, and finally having the opportunity to share a little of what we have accomplished together. ❤️
