POULTRY Steward Erin Calow has been running her section for the past nine years.
She is not new to the world of poultry, she started out with just a few chooks and her first show at Beaudesert was in 2013.
“I started by exhibiting and joined the local poultry club,” she said.
“Eventually I started helping out and when the person in charge of exhibits moved away I took it over from him.”
She said on average 300 to 350 birds of all different breeds were shown in the poultry section of the show.
“There’s also some rare breeds in there that you don’t get to see very often,” she said.
“They range from tiny little birds as small as a coke can, to ones as tall as your hip like the Malay breed.”
The number of entries this year are yet to be determined but Ms Calow said she was expecting around the 250 to 300 mark.
“We can fit 448 in the shed, so we are able to manage more,” she said.
“The shed gets broken up into a softfeather section and a hardfeather section.
“Then we have our waterfowl, our juniors, our pairs and the novelty section where anyone who has a sort of backyard chook can be put in for fattest hen or best crower ... that sort of stuff.”
The poultry section is also separated by age divisions and there is a junior section where anyone 16-and-under can enter.
“The most popular category is definitely softfeather because usually the Australorps and the bigger breeds of chook compete,” she said.
The difference between hardfeather and softfeather comes down to the way feathers sit on a bird.
“Your softfeather are normally more of your egg laying fowl as well,” she said.“Your Australorps are a bit more fluffier, whereas if you had hardfeather, which is your game fowl, the feathers sit really close to its body and are not fluffy.
“Old English Game, Malay and Indian Game, all of those are hardfeather.”
With so many chooks sitting around waiting for their time to shine, the question must be asked, do any of them lay a sneaky egg?
Ms Calow said they did.
“It doesn’t hurt them,” she said, “they even do a little clucking song once they’ve finished laying.
“They look really impressed with themselves afterwards too.
“You generally know when one has laid an egg as she’ll go off and all the others will go off with her.”
She said her fowls were shown in the hard feather section.
“My favourite part of doing the ag show is the kids’ education day on a Friday where they come in and ask all sorts of questions about chooks,” she said.
“That’s the part I like most when it comes to helping out at the show.”
She said even on the Saturday, answering questions and teaching people about poultry was something she enjoyed.
“There are some really interesting facts too, for example, when hens get to a certain age and decide to stop laying, some of them grow male feathers,” she said.
“So, they’ll look like a rooster but it’s just that they are no longer laying.”
Find Ms Calow in the Poultry Section at Beaudesert Show to learn more about chooks.