Day 217

Our 4H learning would be focused on the reason we joined 4H in the first place: chickens. Poultry was becoming a more and more important part of our life so it made sense to join a group that would help us navigate the ins and out of this new hobby.

Personally, I had a lot to learn. I never knew what I didn't know. There was so much to the chicken world that was opened up to me as soon as I attended our first poultry-specific meeting. To me, a chicken was a chicken. I understood the difference between roosters and hens but I had never heard of cockerels and pullets until we had some of our own. I was also very unaware of the amazing array of chicken colors, chicken species, and chicken characteristics. I was also very naive to the fact of how serious showing animals at the fair really was until we started learning about them. Even after months of meetings, I have still barely scratched the surface of understanding the chicken world.

But our time in 4H was already paying off. We were learning more, making connections with other families, and our children were gaining great experiences and exposure to skills that were sure to benefit them in the future. 

Still relatively new to the 4H scene, we decided we weren't quite ready to show any chickens at the fair, but we were happy to volunteer time and energy into helping out at the fair. We felt this would be helpful to our process of gaining knowledge and experience with what it would take to responsibly show animals in the future if we chose to do so.

Besides the more physical task of setting up and taking down the poultry tent, we completed a few shifts of Poultry Patrol during fair week. When on duty, we would check the birds for food and water and answer any poultry questions to the best  of our ability at the “Ask an Eggspert” table. We thoroughly enjoyed our time volunteering  at the Waukesha County Fair. Though we didn't bring our own chickens to share, we did find other ways to show off our skills.