The 128th Junggeflugelschau Poultry Show was held on the 17th-18th October this year in Hannover, Germany. The Germans certainly know how to put on a good show and the two days that I attended still didn't seem long enough to look at and photograph everything I was interested in which was pretty much all of the poultry and waterfowl on display! The Germans organise their shows a little differently to the British. The birds are judged before the doors open to the public, in most cases the day before the shows open. The results are published in the catalogue that you buy on the way in so it is easy to see the spread of marks in a category.
Birds are awarded between 90 and 97 - so the highest you can get awarded is 97 points. The winning birds in a category would typically be getting 95 or 96.
It is interesting to see that sale birds are priced in the catalogue and are also judged. It is possible to pick up some really exceptional birds that have been priced low but marked high by the judges! How would you fancy picking up a bird that comes close to winning its category, yet is the lowest priced bird for sale? Well, this happens and as you can imagine creates a great deal of interest amongst the breeders.
There is a great deal to see at the show, around 11 thousand chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and guinea fowl in fact, spread out over two very large halls. These halls are on a par with the size of exhibition halls at the Birmingham NEC. There are some very well presented pens as well as some rather nice looking display pens and information about the breeds of birds they hold as well as the usual trade stalls. It was interesting to see the social aspect at the show, the German Indian Runner Duck club had their own bar area that was very popular and many other breed clubs had their own little areas for their members and other enthusiasts to meet. The overall quality of the birds was very good as was to be expected and it was interesting to see how the German Standards differed in places from what we are used to seeing in the UK. Some birds looked smaller, had slightly different colouring or a different shape or carriage for example.
I took so many photos of so many of the birds that were on display, I have only been able to put a small selection into this article but more photos will be added to the breed sections over the next few months if you are interested in a specific breed. The next Junggeflugelschau in Hannover is from 23rd to the 24th October 2010, there is more information about this event in our poultry shows calendar. If you enjoy shows or are serious about showing, then I would highly recommend a visit, it certainly is an enjoyable weekend.
I have been told that there are 3 big shows in Germany and Hannover is the smallest! The National Show at Dortmund has around 20 thousand birds and the Lipsia-Show at Leipzig (which includes a pigeon show) the entries have reached as high as 38 thousand birds!!
Book & Equipment Reviews 
The 128th Junggeflugelschau Poultry Show was held on the 17th-18th October this year in Hannover, Germany. The Germans certainly know how to put on a good show and the two days that I attended still didn't seem long enough to look at and photograph everything I was interested in which was pretty much all of the poultry and waterfowl on display! The Germans organise their shows a little differently to the British. The birds are judged before the doors open to the public, in most cases the day before the shows open. The results are published in the catalogue that you buy on the way in so it is easy to see the spread of marks in a category.
