Went to the Fair (yes, pictures)

I knew there was quite a bit of interest in rabbits and poultry at this fair (middle of 4H country and mostly farms instead of city folks). But I was NOT prepared for the number of rabbits and poultry. Holy moly. I didn't take many pictures inside because lighting was REALLY poor (cloudy day, with minimal lights inside the barns...and the cages just weren't conducive to getting good pictures of rabbits) and I didn't want to use a flash without knowing if it would disturb the animals...so...I just looked.

This is the JUNIOR poultry barn..HALF of it. The chickens were mostly on tables, with ducks and geese underneath..Chickens 2 high, 18" to 2' cages (smaller for bantams), stacked 2 high. lordy that's a lot of crowing and clucking.


quite a few Bantams (12" cages) but the vast majority of the poultry was normal farm sized birds..LOADS of turkeys, which is unusual at the fairs here. And ducks and geese! good lord!

The 4-H show rabbits had a barn just as large, with 5 double sided tables...34cages each side...so that's approx. 340 rabbits. PLUS a Cavy section. HOWEVER....at least 2 full tables were lops

..another 1/4 were Rex. A few rare breeds, like this Havana


I must say...the rex are REALLY gorgeous. Oh yes...there were quite a few Satins, too. ONE angora. ONE! and he was in horrible shape..I couldn't believe anyone would enter a fiber rabbit with MATS! Unless he was supposed to be used as a "how to groom a fiber rabbit", it was really disgusting.

The "open" barn rabbits were, again, a lot of lops and rex...but that's where we found the Californians and New Zelands. Also the "fryer" pens. And I have now seen my first Giant Flemish buck. Again, no picture, but he FILLED his cage.

The only judging that day was junior showmanship, so not a lot of people around to talk to in the rabbit area, sadly. The showmanship was interesting to watch...hehehe...there were 2 types of kids..those in normal "kid" dress, and those who mom had dressed in "professional" looks


Have to include a picture of the lamb barn. LOTS of meat sheep...but the best of show, in my humble opinion, was this pair My jammies aren't NEARLY so cool looking!


The rest of the day was spent watching some classes in the steer and heifer sections, some lamb showing, and then wandering through the food and crafts sections. LOTS to look at. Oh..and the rides and games and FOOD!

What a cool fair! I haven't been to a fair in... must be about 45 years!

Looks like FUN

Those are really nice pictures! I love the goose one lol. However that is not a Havanna rabbit; is is a Tan!(the breed) Those lambie jammies are cool. I know that 4-h kid somehow, though how I don't know hehehe i think he won a few BIS's with his Hollands.

HEY!!! we had that exact same bumblebee at our fair today!

looks like you have a lot of fun.

Not a Havana? oh dear. That exhibitor is going to be in for a surprise..er, WAS...judging was today. Sure was a friendly pretty thing tho! I had a hard time not scritching it's nose

The kid...he was sounding pretty polished and sure of himself, I must say. I was amazed that the rabbits stayed in those little boxes (sort of like nest boxes?) when they were put in. There were 22 entries in that particular class. Put all the rabbits in the boxes, then go sit down. When your name is called you go get your rabbit and take him to the judging table. I was thinking back to ANY of my rabbits sitting in a box...they stayfor maybe 30 seconds. :lol:

And we did have a good time I go to the Stoughton Fair, and a couple others around the area, but this one is by far the largest in the area that stays true to "county fair" atmosphere. Our Dane County fair is huge...physically...but so MUCH of it now is demonstrations sales booths. It's like going to a sales expo with mega rides.... where they just happen to have a few animals

Maggie...Mike says he goes REGULARLY to the fair..once every 20 years and then that's enough for him for a while. :roll:

I've been to two fairs already, with about 6 or 7 more to go. :shock: The one today was cold, wet and miserable! But I came home with some ribbons and there will be a cheque in the mail. Goat shows, dontcha know? Then there will be rabbit shows.

I must say, I don't like the idea of putting my rabbits in at the fairs - they have to stay there for three days, as a rule, and having seen some of the behaviour of people with animals - well, it ain't happening. I don't leave my goats alone for long.

The last county fair we went to was a couple of years ago, and someone had a goat that kidded in her little pen in the tent. It hadn't been born long when we saw it. I'm not sure why you would take a due doe to a fair.

Not to be the downer, but I'm pretty sure the "havana" isn't a havana?

X3

That's a lot of poultry.... Our fair had less poultry than rabbits! Lol. But we only had like, 100 rabbits total. (And probably 80 of those were from me and four other people...)

Tans are pretty rare too I think, maybe more than Havannas!

Our fair is small and...dirty? Sort of cluttered, shabby, and lots of litter and stuff. Was it really that CLEAN? I thought fairs were always a little scruffy, part of their charm, but your pics are so bright and clean looking--I keep thinking you must have posed those shots!

Ok, wait, there might be a little dust on the railing around the lambs...

The whole place was spotless. The kids keep the aisles swept; they have a manure/straw pile behind every barn, and THAT is cleaned away 2x a day. Under the rabbits was a deep bedding of shavings to catch the droppings. That was swept out of the aisles almost anytime someone kicked it.

Never saw even ONE piece of paper just left to blow around. I DID see a couple of fairgoers (not staff) bend down to pick up things from the ground. VERY excellent atmosphere there. The carny was clean and ... well...HAPPY. Usually you see a kind of hard bitten slightly boozy sort of folk, but this one was just filled with young people, everything was clean and tended well. Just lovely

Miss M":51kcdouf said:

The last county fair we went to was a couple of years ago, and someone had a goat that kidded in her little pen in the tent. It hadn't been born long when we saw it. I'm not sure why you would take a due doe to a fair.

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Most fairs up here won't allow it, or does within three weeks of having kidded, because of the risk of transmission of Q-fever. Very serious, very contagious to humans as well as goats.