Please make sure that your rabbits are healthy and ready for the Lake County Fair.  Put a couple of drops of oil in their ears to prevent ear mites and ear canker.  Make sure that their noses are clear and their eyes are bright.  Check the bottoms of their feet to make sure that they do not have "sore hocks".  This will be areas on the bottom of their feet that is missing fur and could have a sore.  Also, trim your rabbits toe nails to help keep them from breaking their nails or their toes.  To trim their nails take a close look at the nail area.  Their will be a "quick" area that is either pink on rabbits with white toe nails or a darker area on rabbits with dark colored toe nails.  Do not trim too close to this area because the rabbit will bleed.  If you need help trimming toe nails, please do not hesitate to call me.  The easiest way to trim nails is to have one person hold the rabbit and another person to trim the nails. 

Below is our rabbit schedule for the Lake County Fair.  On check-in day we will have our skillathon contest starting at 5 p.m.  I would like all of our Junior and Senior rabbit exhibitors to at least try the contest.  The study manual is below.  If you have any questions please contact me and I will help you.  It might surprise you how much you already know about rabbits just by taking care of your project animal this year!  I wish everyone the best of luck on their projects but most of all I hope you all have a great time, make new friends and learn something new about rabbits!  Our judge this year will be Mr. Bill Whaley.  Please remember to tell him "thank you" for coming to judge our show this year.  Our rabbit superintendent is Mrs. Debbie Williams.  Please remember to tell her "thank you" for all of her hard work to help make our rabbit show possible.

Poultry Project Leaders

Stacey & Dwayne McEntyre

352-429-9304

Poultry...

Please make sure that your chicken is healthy and ready for the Lake County Fair.  Check to make sure that your chicken does not have any mites or lice in it's feathers.  There are products available at the feed store that can take care of this problem.  You will want to wash your chicken a few days before the fair.  This will help your chicken to be free of parasites and also help it exhibit better.  You can use a gentle shampoo and lukewarm water but be very careful not to get water in your chickens eyes or nose.  After you wash and rinse your chicken well you can use a blow dryer to help your chicken dry.  Keep the dryer on low heat and about 12" away from the chicken.  If your chicken has regular feathers follow the direction that the feather naturally grow.  If you have a Silkie or Frizzle chicken you can dry them against the natural growth direction to give them a more "fluffy" appearance.  After your chicken is dry go ahead and put a little oil on it's legs.  Then put a little oil on your fingers and gently rub it across their comb, wattles, earlobes and beaks.  You can also check your chicken to see if it needs it's toe nails clipped.  Be careful not to cut too close to the quick.  If you need help, please call me.  For the male birds, you can blunt the end of their spurs or remove them if they are not a game chicken.  All game chickens must have their spurs for showing, but you can blunt the ends of their spurs so they are not too sharp.  Usually just by going over the end of the spur a couple of times with a nail file will take away some of the sharpness without ruining the shape of the spur.  Also make sure that your chickens legs are very clean.  If it appears that they have "old" or "crusty" looking legs your chicken may have scaly leg mites.  You can take care of this problem by spraying their legs everyday with oil.  I like to use WD-40 because it is easy to use and does not harm the chickens.  After a few days they will begin to shed the infected scales on their legs.  If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact me.

Below is the poultry schedule for the Lake County Fair.  On check-in day we will have our skillathon contest starting at 5 p.m.  I would like all of our Junior and Senior poultry exhibitors to at least try the contest.  The study manual is below.  If you have any questions please contact me and I will help you.  It might surprise you how much you already know about chickens just by taking care of your project animal this year!  I wish everyone the best of luck on their projects but most of all I hope you all have a great time, make new friends and learn something new about chickens!  Our judge this year will be Mr. Danny Padgett, President of the American Poultry Association.  Please remember to tell him "thank you" for coming to judge our show this year.  Our poultry superintendent is Mrs. Terri Jones.  Please remember to tell her "thank you" for all of her hard work to help make our rabbit show possible.