Neil Watson

Jordan, 17

Linda Black

Wilfred Wales

Alex Batey, 13

I breed and show hens - I just fancied taking it up as a hobby at first but then it grew from there. Some parts of it are competitive but it is mostly friendly. My first show was just a small village one but it was a good experience.

The first chicks I hatched and reared were belgium's bantams - they were good mothers. Call ducks are especially hard to breed.

Steve Grinham

My involvement in breeding and showing began when my wife gave me two hens as a present and it started from there. The world is competative but always friendly and you feel nervous but excited.

I used to have a call duck I bought in Acton and she won every single show I put her in.... I did not have a clue what I was looking for!

Richard Toward

I'm involved in breeding and showing just for the sport of it. My family always had hens but I was the first one to show. Although my great-grandfather showed so i suppose it's in my blood and just came naturally. I just got it in my head one day and now I'm addicted.

The first one I hatched and reared was a cross-bred that won nothing! It was a silke cross. But you're going back a long way trying to remember that.... I've been keeping my own since I was 10 and i'm 23 now.

My first show was in the May when I was about 17. It was nerve wracking but I won every class I was in. I don't like being beaten so it became an obsession. You just have to have the best. Winning reserve champion was probably my highlight so far.

Claire Guest

I'm the partner of someone who keeps chickens. He kept chicks as a child and asked if we could have some on the farm. It was 'No, no... well okay', and now I'm a chicken widow. The chickens have taken over.

We were given an egg at the westmorland county show and put it under a broody hen. A very small, black bantam cockerel was the result and we took it to all of the local shows. It was the first one we hatched and reared ourselves.

I had to go to the Scottish National Show last weekend with the Modern Game as my partner was on milking duty. We won first price, best opposite sex.

I'm quite new at the game and only really stand in when needed.

Charlotte Skelton

I got into chicken keeping because i'm interested in rare breeds and collecting different breeds to sell in the future. I keep them to sell and for enjoyment, however I can see many backyard chicken keepers would buy them to be self sufficient or just for pets!

I have a couple of acres full of different types of chickens. They all have their own pens so they are seperate. I have blue laced wyandottes, silkies, polands, rhode island reds, gold laced wyandottes and a few more. There are too many to count! But they're all very friendly and inquisitive.

Pros: Beautiful, friendly creatures. Eggs and hatching eggs

Cons: They tend to wander off!

If I were to give advice I would suggest people recognise that they do need looking after, ie, locking in at night. And research breeds, for example silkes don't fly, vorwerks can fly 2 meteres! And Ixworths lay lots of eggs.

Derek Sowerby

I'm involved in hen keeping as I'm the chairman of Eden Valley poultry club. I've been in this job about 6 years, it's the best hobby I've ever had, I'm really enjoying it. There are loads of people that want to help you. Sometimes you can get a bit set in your ways and complacent but then someone new and enthusiastic comes along, does a lot of research and is more committed... it proves successful!

It's just a hobby for me. I was a shepherd all my life... until foot and mouth. And then I needed a hobby. A friend of mine said I needed hens... I said I didn't! But then with the help of other people I've just got in.

I like something that's flashy or showy like I would in cattle or sheep. I have old English game birds. They're not very commercial... they don't lay many eggs, but I'm drawn to the style rather than the functionality. If you're walking down the aisle and a bird stands out it just makes your head turn. And then you go from there. If something catches your eye...

Judging poultry is all experience. There's a book of standards for size, colour, head colour, leg colour... that sort of thing - it can get quite technical when it comes down to it. If they don't fit within that standard they're not even worth showing in the first place. But you listen to experienced people and learn. And it's a good day out.

Stanley Simister

I got my first bantems when I was 3, I'm 81 now. Over the years I've probably kept about 50 different varieties of breeds. I've been a poultry club panel judge for 46 years. My daughter used to show but now she's married with a family so doesn't have time, other than that it's just been me in the family. It's been a lifelong hobby.

My father and grandfather both kept poultry and waterfowl. My father bought me by first trio of banties when I was 3, so then I went on to other breeds and it just grew from there. There was a period where I couldn't keep them because we lived in a property without sufficient land and then when we moved house and hand land again, it started up again. It's just been a lifelong hobby.

I was secretary of the poultry club in kent and chairman of another. We used to get about 800 entries in the annual show, and we used to hold social get togethers and smaller shows. Other than that I've judged throughout the country... England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales... and I've thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it.

Now I'm having to cut down because I had a serious illness so I'm having to ration my judging now. But in the summer you could be out every weekend at different shows because they come fast and furious at that time. All being well I'm due to judge at the Scottish National next year. But age has crept on so you have to be careful! I like the pleasure of being able to examine other peoples birds and compare them... and compare them to your own. I don't know what it is, judging just brings general enjoyment.

I'd say experience makes a good, winning hen. If you've kept a breed, you're better at judging that breed because there isn't a living person that could tell you every detail of every breed. You've got a wide view of the breeds but you have thorough view is something else. At the shows we have specialists for different breeds. In my case its sebright bantams that I've had for about 40 odd years; I've judged and showed those at championship level at the national shows.

Ali Horn

My cousin had a henhouse that he had built at school and advertised in the local paper to sell it. He sold it and we just thought that we wouldn't actually mind getting into hens. So we went to a local auction, started with wellsummers first and he bought some cream legbars and then after that we sort of got the bug and went to different sales and making henhouses and stuff like that. It was after we used to go clubbing... when we stopped we needed something to do!

So we looked at all the different breeds and what they should be like in Poultry Standard and 5 years later we have 28 different breeds, one for every letter in the alphabet. And bantems, geese, turkeys, allsorts. Then we did a little bit of showing and it was just a hobby that got carried away! The people you met through it were interesting because they're different to the sorts of people you'd meet before.

The shows are just a bit of fun. Everyone has got a chance. Whatever background you come from, everyone has got a chance at winning a rosette. If you do start winning and collecting prizes it just gets quite addictive. It's just about doing the best you can. It's just not a bad way to spend an afternoon!

Edwin Parkin

For me it's just following in my fathers footsteps. My father was a keen exhibitor and breeder and I followed on from him. I realized it was an interest you could work on and it started from there. I started taking him round the shows when he was too old to drive, because you don't retire. You get into the team of people that you meet and its social as well as the exhibition side.

 The showing world is hard to describe. But you meet people and get to places just with a box of hens that you would never have gone to. You drive through or past somewhere and know nothing about it... but if there's a show on you put some birds in a box and go. The people that are here today aren't from around here. It's a social thing - you compare notes and exchange birds. It works.

The skill is to not keep very many but breed good ones. Every year you think I'll do it better next year - I'll improve and improve. That's what keeps you going. You keep trying, you have your favourites... but then you move on to a new one. Always trying to improve your standard along the way. Some people keep a specialized breed, some have a few. Every one is different. My focus is the game birds.

Margaret Bell

I'm not sure how I got into judging eggs... someone just asked me and I said yes! There's different classes and different things that make a good egg. Shape, colours; tinted, brown and white and numbers; threes, fours, sixes and single eggs. The groups on a plate all have to match, so the colour and the shape... it's a lot harder than you think to get 3 or 4 eggs exactly the same. Just because they lay one, one colour and shape one day, doesn't mean they will the next day!

And then there's contents, where you break them and judge the inside. The yolk has to stand up nicely and be a nice colour and that sort of thing. You don't get a lot if you win... probably a rosette! It's just interesting and keeps things going. My favorite are probably the greeny colour eggs, or a nice dark brown.

Jacob, Luke & Harvey

We got into hen keeping because they looked good and it's a good hobby - it's nice to look at them and that. We thought we'd have a go at showing them... we thought it'd be good to take part, that's the main thing. Today we're showing old English game bantams. The judges are looking for a bird that's shaped like a heart, and I think that's about it

We've been doing it for a couple of years - my dad used to always keep them. They just make you happy. It makes you proud of keeping them. We aim to get some of the best, and have some of the best in the game and win everything.

Trevor Addison

I've been keeping them about 14 years - I was an estate agent and an auctioneer and when I retired I was looking for something to do, so I decided to show poultry. We have a few friends that show, so we tried it out with a couple of breeds before we settled on the one that we fancied showing - those were large white wyandottes'. We got first and champion at Skipton Christmas show with them. We used to keep a lot of bantams too.

 A lot of people say the white take a lot of looking after... I mean they do, but the big white wyandottes are so gentle. You can wash them... they're no bother, no bother at all. Silverlaced, for showing, you've got to have that lacing spot on. The under-colour as well, and the feathers... I mean different judges want different things, different fancies, so...

My son is showing old english game today, but really it's a bad time of year. 99% of our birds are in the breeding pens and we've set off our first set of eggs in the incubator. You can't set them off showing and also have them for breeding, it's one of the other.

Charlie Simpson, Carlisle

 It's a hobby, I have 27. I haven't all of my life... I don't know how it began really, I just started keeping them. I thought we may as well have our own free range eggs - we have plenty customers for them. I have 2 different breeds - barnevelders and welsummers. I don't name them, there are far too many for that.

 They're not that hard to look after. Just food and clean water every day and then you have them to clean out once a week and all that. It's something to do when you've retired. So you go out in the morning and feed and water them, and then I maybe go down later in the afternoon and then when it gets dark I go down and shut them in... cos Mr Fox comes along. So i've got to fasten them in of a night.

 I come to the shows just as a matter of interest. I like to come and see what's in the boxes, what's being shown. I wouldn't show myself though - I shouldn't say I haven't time, because I have time... but no, I've never fancied showing myself. It's a lot of commitment.