Welcome to my (first) contest! I wanted to host a contest here in order to get more involved and get to know some more of you here and your lovely chickens.
I have a special place in my heart for Barnyard Mixes, so I've decided to host a contest this summer and invite you all to show off some of your "homemade" flock members! I hope this will be a fun way to admire some pictures of the unique and interesting traits of these mixes.
What Are Barnyard Mixes (and why are they so awesome)?
Barnyard Mix chickens are any mixed breed chicken that isn't a specific proprietary hybridization from a hatchery. They may be mixes of pure breeds or they may come from a long line of mixes or landrace chickens that don't include any pure, recognized breeds at all.
They come in all shapes, sizes and color patterns
Due to being a mix of anything, they are highly variable in terms of egg production, maturation rate, and behavior. Usually the "apple doesn't fall far from the tree" but they are often very surprising, and some keepers of BYM swear by their vigor compared to pure breeds.
Due to their diversity, breeders working with barnyard mixes can pursue any traits they choose! The sky is the limit with creating your own personal barnyard flock.
Rules -
- You may enter as many times as you want. The more the merrier!
Just please only enter each chicken once.
- Each entry must be your own photo of your own chicken. All ages and stages of chicken are allowed as long as its yours and is a barnyard mix.
- Other animals/people/items in the images are allowed but please make sure the main subject of the image is the one chicken you want to enter.
- Raw or edited photos are both fine
- Post each entry in a separate reply using the template below
- The photo's subject (the chicken) and the photo itself (composition, etc) will both be taken into account when judging the entries. Since there is no SOP for mixes I am simply looking for healthy, beautiful birds
- Chatting along is welcomed! Do you have something to share about barnyard mixes?
- Contest Ends 9/14/24 That's September fourteenth at 12 PM (noon) Pacific Standard time.
Entry Template -
Name: if the chicken doesn't have a name, please give your photo entry a unique name even if its just 'BYM #3' so that I can tell them apart when counting up entries and judging.
Tell us a bit about the chicken in the picture! What mix are they, if you know? How long have you had them, how they get along in your flock, that kind of thing.
[insert your picture, make sure it falls within BYC's rules for sizing or use a thumbnail.]
Miscellaneous -
There are three prizes!
An egg-gathering apron, a tote bag, and an assortment of chicken-themed vinyl stickers.
First place gets their pick, I will reach out to winners as well as share them here. After 1 week, if they haven't responded with their choice of prize I'll move on to the next winner. If you respond later than 1 week you will be awarded the prize left over after both other winning participants have chosen their prize.
Prize details - you must be comfortable with providing me an address to mail your prize to you in order to receive one. I can only send to people in the US, if you live abroad I may not be able to get a prize to you. I'll add photos of them soon but for now here are descriptions of the items.
Egg gathering apron - its a waist-tie apron with a pattern of chickens and lots of pockets for gathering eggs while keeping your hands free
Tote bag - a sturdy canvas tote bag with linework illustrations of different chicken breeds
Collection of chicken stickers - Mostly vinyl. I've got a bunch of these, more than I'll ever use and want to pass them on, there are some duplicates. Nice illustrations of roosters and hens, some travel stickers, some slightly colorful sayings! Things like "mother cluckers" and jokes involving other words for rooster. If you'd rather not receive those, let me know and I can sort through the bag before sending it off.
Other info -
I plan on judging this contest but if there's anyone who'd like to volunteer as a judge rather than entering the contest, feel free to reach out
----------------------------
Let's get to it! I'll post an example entry using my rooster just to kick things off. I am excluded from winning the contest, of course.
Example:
Name: Long John Silver
He is around two years old now but this is him as a yearling. He is a mix of Wyandotte, cuckoo marans and who knows what lines from a friend's flock. He is gentle and talkative with the hens, non-agressive with humans, a good escort, watchful for threats and has vocalizations that remind me of his predecessors. All traits I like in a rooster.
I have a special place in my heart for Barnyard Mixes, so I've decided to host a contest this summer and invite you all to show off some of your "homemade" flock members! I hope this will be a fun way to admire some pictures of the unique and interesting traits of these mixes.
What Are Barnyard Mixes (and why are they so awesome)?
Barnyard Mix chickens are any mixed breed chicken that isn't a specific proprietary hybridization from a hatchery. They may be mixes of pure breeds or they may come from a long line of mixes or landrace chickens that don't include any pure, recognized breeds at all.
They come in all shapes, sizes and color patterns
Due to being a mix of anything, they are highly variable in terms of egg production, maturation rate, and behavior. Usually the "apple doesn't fall far from the tree" but they are often very surprising, and some keepers of BYM swear by their vigor compared to pure breeds.
Due to their diversity, breeders working with barnyard mixes can pursue any traits they choose! The sky is the limit with creating your own personal barnyard flock.
Rules -
- You may enter as many times as you want. The more the merrier!
Just please only enter each chicken once.
- Each entry must be your own photo of your own chicken. All ages and stages of chicken are allowed as long as its yours and is a barnyard mix.
- Other animals/people/items in the images are allowed but please make sure the main subject of the image is the one chicken you want to enter.
- Raw or edited photos are both fine
- Post each entry in a separate reply using the template below
- The photo's subject (the chicken) and the photo itself (composition, etc) will both be taken into account when judging the entries. Since there is no SOP for mixes I am simply looking for healthy, beautiful birds
- Chatting along is welcomed! Do you have something to share about barnyard mixes?
- Contest Ends 9/14/24 That's September fourteenth at 12 PM (noon) Pacific Standard time.
Entry Template -
Name: if the chicken doesn't have a name, please give your photo entry a unique name even if its just 'BYM #3' so that I can tell them apart when counting up entries and judging.
Tell us a bit about the chicken in the picture! What mix are they, if you know? How long have you had them, how they get along in your flock, that kind of thing.
[insert your picture, make sure it falls within BYC's rules for sizing or use a thumbnail.]
Miscellaneous -
There are three prizes!
An egg-gathering apron, a tote bag, and an assortment of chicken-themed vinyl stickers.
First place gets their pick, I will reach out to winners as well as share them here. After 1 week, if they haven't responded with their choice of prize I'll move on to the next winner. If you respond later than 1 week you will be awarded the prize left over after both other winning participants have chosen their prize.
Prize details - you must be comfortable with providing me an address to mail your prize to you in order to receive one. I can only send to people in the US, if you live abroad I may not be able to get a prize to you. I'll add photos of them soon but for now here are descriptions of the items.
Egg gathering apron - its a waist-tie apron with a pattern of chickens and lots of pockets for gathering eggs while keeping your hands free
Tote bag - a sturdy canvas tote bag with linework illustrations of different chicken breeds
Collection of chicken stickers - Mostly vinyl. I've got a bunch of these, more than I'll ever use and want to pass them on, there are some duplicates. Nice illustrations of roosters and hens, some travel stickers, some slightly colorful sayings! Things like "mother cluckers" and jokes involving other words for rooster. If you'd rather not receive those, let me know and I can sort through the bag before sending it off.
Other info -
I plan on judging this contest but if there's anyone who'd like to volunteer as a judge rather than entering the contest, feel free to reach out
----------------------------
Let's get to it! I'll post an example entry using my rooster just to kick things off. I am excluded from winning the contest, of course.
Example:
Name: Long John Silver
He is around two years old now but this is him as a yearling. He is a mix of Wyandotte, cuckoo marans and who knows what lines from a friend's flock. He is gentle and talkative with the hens, non-agressive with humans, a good escort, watchful for threats and has vocalizations that remind me of his predecessors. All traits I like in a rooster.
