The Urban Chicken Podcast - The Urbanite's Podcast Resource for Keeping Backyard Chickens - UCP Episode 027: The Pacific Northwest Poultry Association, A Double Poultry Show & Sher Jennings

UCP Episode 027: The Pacific Northwest Poultry Association, A Double Poultry Show & Sher Jennings

09/27/13 • 59 min

The Urban Chicken Podcast - The Urbanite's Podcast Resource for Keeping Backyard Chickens

Pacific Northwest Poultry Association – April Show 2013

The Pacific Northwest Poultry Association is one of the largest poultry organizations west of the Mississippi River. Commonly called the PNPA (though the full name is a solid name, its a bit of a mouthful), the group has historical roots that date back to 1989 when the Willamette Hen House Gang and the Northwest Bantam Club combined forces. Since its commencement, the PNPA has enjoyed membership by some of the best chicken breeders and showmen in the business. Its core of accomplished and knowledgeable membership makes the PNPA a force majeure in the chicken world. However, it is the PNPA’s insight and vision about the chicken keeping world, that makes the group particularly remarkable.

Salmon Faverolle Cockerel – photo by DiCicco

Chicken keeping is not just limited to farmers and breeders of fancy birds. For the past several years, chicken keeping has gone main stream as average citizens started seizing control over their food sources and their health. Urban chicken keeping is a trend on the rise with no plateau in sight. The PNPA uniquely has recognized this hobbyist, backyard chicken trend and has chosen to embrace this new segment of the chicken-keeping world. The PNPA’s very core mission now includes seeking out and welcoming all chicken enthusiasts of all backgrounds and levels.

Judging Chickens – photo courtesy of PNPA

Sher Jennings is the current president of the PNPA and is hard at work to help implement the PNPA’s progressive vision for itself and the emerging new segment of the chicken-keeping world. Together, with an amazingly dedicated Board of Directors and crew of several dozen dedicated, tireless volunteers, Sher is currently busy preparing for the upcoming Fall Poultry Event, which is scheduled for October 19th and 20th. The Fall Poultry Event is a double poultry show — that means twice the birds, twice the judges, twice the competitions and for the attendees — twice the fun! Sher estimates that somewhere between 700 – 1,000 chickens of all different colors and breeds will be on display and also for sale at the event. Moreover, the event is FREE (which happens to be my favorite price).

Sher Jennings with her Jersey Giant named “Tiger” – photo courtesy of Sher Jennings

In addition to the main chicken competitions in the open and youth categories, there will also be special breed events within the Fall Poultry Show. For example, one the several breed club will be holding their organization’s national competition at the PNPA’s Fall Poultry Event, is the National Jersey Giants Club. They will conduct their national competition simultaneously at this PNPA show. The Serama Council of North America will also be holding their national breed competition at the PNPA Fall Show as well. Subsequently, this means that the largest and smallest chickens will both be competing in large numbers at this event!

Additionally, there will also be several other types of poultry, besides chickens at the show, such as ducks, geese, turkeys and guinea fowls. Along with all of the beautiful birds on display, there will be many vendors selling crafts and goods, some of which are poultry related and some of which are not. One will also be able to find many breed specific booths at this event, where any and all questions regarding the specialty breeds can be answered. There will also be raffles and drawing for terrific and valuable prizes. Truly, if you live in the northwest and can make it over to the Vancouver, Washington area for a weekend, you should attend this poultry show!

Raffle Booth at the PNPA Show in April 2013 – photo courtesy of PNPA

MAIN SEGMENT:

Pacific Northwest Poultry Association website LINK
Pacific Northwest Poultry Association’s FACEBOOK
National Jersey Giants Club website LINK
Serama Council of North America website

Pacific Northwest Poultry Association – April Show 2013

Salmon Faverolle Cockerel – photo by DiCicco

Judging Chickens – photo courtesy of PNPA

Sher Jennings with her Jersey Giant named “Tiger” – photo courtesy of Sher Jennings

Raffle Booth at the PNPA Show in April 2013 – photo courtesy of PNPA

MAIN SEGMENT:

Pacific Northwest Poultry Association website LINK
Pacific Northwest Poultry Association’s FACEBOOK
National Jersey Giants Club website LINK
Serama Council of North America website

Previous Episode

UCP Episode 026: Ears & Eggs – What Color are Your Eggshells and Why?

Colorful Chicken Eggs – photo by Todd Dwyer

Ears and Eggs. In chickens the two are oddly linked. There is a general rule that the color of a chicken’s ear (actually it’s earlobes, since the ears are covered in feathers and not readily visible) can help you determine what color of egg that chicken will lay. Chickens with white earlobes lay

Rooster with White Earlobes – photo by Dave Kilman

white eggs, while chickens with red earlobes tend to lay brown eggs. Some examples of classic white egg-laying breeds include: Andalusians, Faverolles, Leghorns and Lakenvelders. Examples of a few brown egg-laying breeds include: Barnevelders, Rhode Island Reds, Welsummers, Jersey Giants, Delawares and Orpingtons, whose egg colors vary from light cream to dark brown. There are exceptions to this rule however. The Dorking chicken has red earlobes and yet lays a white egg.

Chicken with Red Earlobes – photo by mikecogh

Chicken aficionado, Gail Damerow, wrote in her book, “Your Chickens: A Kid’s Guide to Raising and Showing,” that chickens that are from a Mediterranean background tend to lay white shelled eggs. Damerow further observed that brown shelled eggs were generally layed by the American breeds of chickens. Though Damerow’s observation of the regional heritage of chickens relating to their egg shell color may be overall true, there are of course exceptions to this generality. For example, the Maran breed was developed in France and yet it has red earlobes.

Natural Blue Eggs – photo by jacksonoffice2003

Blue eggs are derived from the South American breed, Araucanas (and their close cousins the Ameraucanas) or from the two Chinese rare breeds of Lushi and Dongxiang chickens. The blue pigment, which is actually inside the eggshell – not just a coating on the surface of the egg, is the result of a harmless retrovirus. These blue egg-layers are often cross bred with brown egg-layers (e.g. Australorps or Marans) to create various shades of green eggs – which can range from light green to dark olive green. Chickens can also produce thicker blooms (also called cuticles) which can cause eggs to be pink, purple or even gray in color depending on the base color of the egg.

Although egg color is a largely cosmetic issue, with no effect on egg quality or taste, it is a major issue in production due to regional and national preferences for specific colors, and the results of such preferences on demand. In most regions of the United States, white eggs are preferred, though certain regions, such as New England prefer brown eggs. (Maybe that’s because it is the birth area of the Rhode Island Red, the Delaware and other American brown egg-laying breeds). Brown eggs are also preferred in many European and South American countries. Some Asian Countries, such as Japan for example, prefer white eggs.

CHICKEN NEWS:

Popular Science – Blue Eggshells Means Your Chicken Has a Virus ARTICLE
Business Standard – Blue Eggshell Mystery Solved ARTICLE
Watchingthewatchers – A Retrovirus Makes Chicken Eggshells Blue ARTICLE
Saturn – Oocyan and Making Blue Eggs ARTICLE

MAIN SEGMENT:

Scratch Cradle – The Genetics of Egg Color ARTICLE
Scratch Cradle – How to Breed for Blue Eggs ARTICLE
Scratch Cradle – Breeding for Other Colors

Next Episode

UCP Episode 028: Vestibulo Ocular Reflex or Why Chickens Have Steady Cam Heads & Humans Don’t

Chicken Steady Cam Experiment – photo courtesy of jeremiahwj

Mercedes-Benz recently released a new commercial in which several chickens are rolled and moved about by anonymous human arms. The point of the commercial is to demonstrate the fact that a chicken’s head is incredibly stable despite its body’s movements (and then liken their automobile’s stabilization to a chicken’s stable head). This physical attribute gives chickens the appearance of having “steady-camera” head.

This past week, several blogs and news sites reported on this unique and hilarious chicken commercial. However, none of these articles actually really discuss why chickens’ heads behave in this manner. I was dissatisfied with these blog posts and news stories and so I did a little research on the subject. I share what I learned through this research with you on today’s show.

Here is the Mercedes-Benz chicken commercial

Before I get started I need to provide you, the audience, a disclaimer. I am not a doctor – nor do I play one on television. I am in no-way connected to the medical field. What I am going to share with you herein is all that I was able to learn as a layperson. Take the following information as you will.

The Human Vestibulo Ocular Reflex

To understand why the chicken is what it is – we must first understand how our own human physiology works. Humans are blessed with a physiological system called the vestibular system. The vestibular system is a sophisticated internal system that links the eyes with the inner ear and allows for clear vision while your body is moving.

The human eye acts like a tiny camera obscura. Like a camera, light enters into your eye through your cornea that dilates (i.e. opens or closes, much like the aperture of a traditional camera) to control how much light is allow to enter into the eye. This light is then focused on the back of the eye, which is the retina. The image that is focused on the retina is then transmitted to the brain (this is how you can see). As amazing and glorious as the human eye is – the retina cannot instantly refocus an image which is being moved. If you shake your camera while snapping a photograph you end up with an out of focus picture. Your retinas are the same – if the eyes are not stable, you get a blurry picture in your head.

Humans are moving creatures. We need to be able to move and see clearly at the same time. In order to compensate for this shortcoming in the eye, the human body has the vestibular system. The vestibular system is a set of reflexes which steadies the human eye position when the head and body are moving. The vestibular reflex system is commonly referred to as the vestibulo ocular reflex (“VOR”). The VOR is actually a complex connection between your inner ear and certain muscles in your eyes.

Inner ear diagram

There are three organs in your inner ear that register the roll, yaw and pitch in the movement of your head and body. If you are unfamiliar with these terms (roll, yaw and pitch), please refer to the link (HERE) which shows an airplane demonstrating roll, yaw and pitch. The three inner ear organs that detect motion (i.e. roll, pitch and yaw), are the semi-circular canals, the utricle and the saccule.

The semi-circular canals are actually three tubes positioned at different angles and filled with a liquid inside. When your head moves, the fluid inside these canals shifts and disturbs tiny hair cells. This disturbance to the tiny hair cells triggers the VOR. Two of the three semi-circular canals detect the pitch movement. Pitch is the movement of the head up and down (like shaking your head “YES”). The third semi-circular canal detects yaw. Yaw is the horizontal movement of the head (like shaking your head “NO.”)

Short Video that explains how the inner ear is connected to the VOR

The utricle and saccule are a little different than the semi-circular canals. The utricle and saccule are not shaped like a like long narrow tubes. Instead, the utricle and saccule are small chambers. In these chambers are either a gel like substance or small calcium carbonate crystals. When your head tilts in a roll motion (imagine you were moving your head back and forth trying to touch your ears to the top of your shoulders), or if your body is moved vertically (e.g. when you’re in an elevator), or your body is moved horizontally (e.g. when you’re on a train) – the gel and little calcium carbonate crystals move in the utricle and saccu...