Munchkin will be attending the Sussex County/New Jersey State Fair for the third year! Of course, we’re both super egg-cited to get to be spending so much time there and to get to meet some of our fans. The fair has always been one of my favorite events each year, and especially once I started showing poultry.
My love for fairs began when I was really young and went to visit my cousin’s campion dairy cows. I had just fallen in love with the whole scene, and of course, I loved seeing all of the chickens and ducks. Each year my parents let me buy a duck stuffed animal, and I still have all of them.
It wasn’t until I was in 5th grade when I first joined 4-H. I was in a horse club and had a lot of great experiences. Being able to show in the fair for the first time will forever be one of my greatest memories. I may not have won many ribbons, but I had an amazing time.
As the years went on I began to show in all kinds of contests at the fair. I particularly took to the art and photography classes and after years of experience, I took home grand champion several times.
My best friend and I joined a poultry 4-H club our freshman year of high school, and it has seriously been one of the most influential and amazing experiences of my life. This club taught me more than I could ever need to know about raising poultry and also taught me extremely important life skills.
The first year I got to show chickens and ducks in the fair was one of the most exhausting yet rewarding memories of my life. The fair is a solid 45-minute ride from my house, and having to go and feed my birds every day was certainly a lot of work, but I enjoyed every second of it. It was this first year that I bought my first duck harness-as a joke. I had it custom made at the fair, and my ducks Frappuccino and Cappuccino just loved it! I let them walk around and play in puddles, and we even got interviewed for a local news station.
My birds did well, but my best friends goose took home grand champion. There’s also a show where the owner of the animal is judged on their knowledge of that animal (showmanship), and I got second place in that which I was extremely proud of considering it was my first time and no one told me that competition existed until about an hour before.
The next year I came super prepared for all of the competitions. The judge said my ducks were fat so they didn’t place very well, but my chickens did fantastic. My 4-H club started a kissing booth and my sister and I had a blast letting my ducks kiss people. We even brought a tiny pool for them to swim in so they didn’t get too bored during the week at the fair.
I won the showmanship class that year which meant I qualified to compete in a round-robin which is where all of the 1st place kids from each animal compete against each other to show every species of animal. It was quite nerve-wracking at first because I have no experience will animals like pigs and alpacas and most of the other kids had dealt with livestock like that. The competition ended up being super fun and I laughed a lot because the animals didn’t exactly listen to me. For example, my pig just laid on the ground when I was supposed to be walking it, and my alpaca wanted to walk in the opposite direction we were going. I even got extra nervous with the chicken and forgot just about everything I knew about them! Overall it was a super fun night though.
This was also the year I met and adopted Munchkin. I made an agreement with my parents to let me adopt her and her twin sister from one of my good friends. She was even sweeter than I could have ever imagined her to be. I almost named the girls cream & sugar but decided it might sound weird. I bought a chicken coop and built it inside my house so that my new babies would be protected from the local wildlife. I spent every second I could with Munchkin and Kava. Munchkin ended up becoming my very best friend, and I realized Kava would much rather prefer hanging with her boyfriend than humans. Adopting Munchkin has been absolutely lifechanging.
The following year I was the fairs ‘poultry princess’. That was an actual dream come true. I got a beautiful purple sash with white feathers along the side, and I got to wear a dress to the fair every night. The livestock representatives even make an appearance at the fair queen competition and get to ride on the float in the parades every day.
Thank goodness for my friends in the 4-H club that year. One day, while pushing a wheelbarrow full of manure into a dumpster I managed to tear my dress. Luckily, 4-H kids tend to come prepared and I was able to borrow a change of clothes. Later in the week my tiara completely snapped in half, and you’d never guess how we fixed it. Zip ties. One on each side. It was the perfect fix, and you couldn’t even tell.
Overall, the last two years at the fair have left me completely exhausted by the end of it. One summer I was working two jobs, and traveling to check up on my ducks all in the same day for 10 days straight, and last year I was at the fair for almost 48 hours straight before I blacked out while feeding Munchkin. I wouldn’t change anything though, because the fair has become such an important part of my life. I work all year long on my 4-H projects and birds to get them ready for this and seeing people learn more about these wonderful animals is extremely rewarding.
That brings us to tonight as I prepare for the fair tomorrow. I have everything (except the ducks) packed and ready to go in my car already. The ducks had bathed in clean water so that they’re extra soft. I gathered up all my supplies which have managed to end up all over my house through the past year. I found my 4-H club shirt, pulled my super blingy cowgirl belt out of the closet, and tried on my cowgirl boots to make sure they still fit. I probably won’t get much sleep tonight because I’m just too excited. I don’t have any competitions tomorrow, but I will be in the poultry barn at the kissing booth for most of the day. It’s going to be a very long day, but luckily I have easy access to fair food to get me through it.
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