Chicken People Page #2

we've got just

a little indentation.

You see that?

- I see it.

- Okay.

- Okay, Lindsay,

she can go home.

- Okay.

- I thought this fella

was pretty well colored,

hackle and saddle.

I think their best two

are over here.

- Do you?

- Yep.

- The silver-laced wyandottes,

when I started with them,

they never won.

They never beat the whites

or the blacks, ever.

The color pattern

is so complex,

judges see the faults

in them very easily.

And, you know, there's a lot

of other good birds up there.

- Black wyandottes,

reserve of breed...

Silver-laced is best.

- Did he win?

- Yes.

- Wow.

- I won best of breed.

That's huge here.

Wow, that's really neat.

- Congratulations, buddy.

You're gonna

go all the way.

I'm telling you right now.

- Oh.

Did it.

Wow, I didn't expect that.

600 wyandottes,

and he's the best one.

Pretty cool.

I normally don't get like this,

but I am, so...

This is big.

A lot of work

to get to this point, so...

I've never won the show,

the whole thing.

This would be pretty serious,

if I won the whole thing.

- Reserve grand champion

of the show,

second place,

silver-laced wyandotte

by Brian Knox.

- Biggest win I've ever had,

by a long ways.

This is huge.

- Super grand champion

of the show,

a white rock pullet

by m&j farms.

I'd like to thank

everybody again.

Have a safe trip home.

- What can you do to bump up

from third place to first?

What can I do next year,

planning for this show,

to win?

- Takes a lot.

You know, you just

have to keep at it.

So I'm not quitting now.

- I'm good to go.

I'm ready to go home and start

hatching me some more chicks.

- You got to photograph

my bird.

Did you do it?

- Oh, yes.

- You already got him?

- Yeah.

If ever there was

a more perfect subject,

I never had one.

- Really?

- He stood there,

it was like Paris Hilton.

- Every piece of the puzzle

is out in the barn.

I have all the pieces to make

the ultimate perfect bird,

but the complex part of it

is putting it all in one.

This is the champion male

from the Ohio national.

He was the best show chicken

that I've ever showed

in my life.

He's got a phenomenal head

on him.

The comb is supposed to be wide,

and then it follows the head.

He's got nice, even wattles.

He's got the black

with the edging,

really hard to get.

He's got a few little issues

that I want to correct on him.

These feathers aren't quite

as sharp as I'd like to see.

I'd like to see

a little bit sharper black.

This saddle feather,

it's not bad,

but it's not perfect,

and perfect is what

we're shooting for here.

I have a plan,

and I think I can do it.

I'm gonna breed this bird

to daughters of another male

that has better saddle color.

Okay, so you're gonna come out.

I'm an engineer.

I do that for a living.

I'm always coming up with ways

of making a motor

run better

and beat somebody on a track.

Building motors for tractor

pulling and competing there,

that's my job.

In my job,

I cut back to half days.

I only work half days;

I work 12 hours.

So then you got to work

at the chickens after that.

This male here,

I'm leaning towards putting him

on that pen down there.

I got to just see what

the genes are behind him.

348, 532.

This is the bird's number.

I got the family tree,

who its mother and father is

and who the grandparents are.

I can picture every one of them

in my head.

I just remember

what they look like.

You probably know

thousands of people.

You could walk up and you'd

see a person, you know them.

Well, I know chickens.

I just know them.

Oh, and 3091.

She's still here.

She's five years old.

4125, he was a little short,

but he had awesome color.

He's been dead for eight years.

- The whole chicken-oholism,

I think, is a huge growing

problem in the nation today.

- It was a really

short journey,

going from, "let's just

have a couple chickens,"

to...

- Goose.

- My wife, she always says,

"how many birds

does one person need?"

We started off with,

like, 500 this year.

So I still got a ways to go

to get them down.

- What aggravates me

more than anything

about people who don't

understand chickens

is that they think

chickens are dirty

and they stink

and they're nasty.

Or, like, we're a bunch

of yahoos over here,

raising a bunch of chickens,

and they're just

crapping everywhere.

That's just not true.

I spend anywhere

from three to four hours a day

cleaning or breeding

or setting up pens.

I mean, hours.

I've been called obsessive,

which, you know...

I wouldn't go that far,

but I do think about it a lot.

- Yeah, we started out with,

like, maybe five

little chickens,

and it's exploded.

- I didn't think that we'd

end up with this many chickens.

But I am really honestly

happy for her.

- You know, and she takes over

all these areas.

It was the little playhouse,

and then she's moved

to the garage, the back porch,

and that entire pole barn.

- Kyle, get off of there.

Hey, come on down,

because you're getting

all the animals upset in there.

No, Zoey, don't chase the cat.

Watch out.

My goals coming out

of Ohio nationals

are to improve

on what I already have.

I like his nice,

full beard.

Very nice turquoise lobes.

I really would like

to work on that crest.

When it's shaped correctly,

it's actually kind of like a

ball on the top of their head,

like, almost like a hat.

This group of birds will produce

potential champions.

Each has great qualities

about him.

This bird's pecking me

on the ass.

Somebody just pecked me

on the ass.

- You can tell, like,

by what sound they make,

like, what they want

or what's going on.

- don't you say

that we must part

don't you break

my aching heart

It's pretty lonely

in Branson for me.

Being in an apartment,

I don't have my chickens.

I don't have the dogs.

I don't have that agricultural

release that I need.

- Hey, little girls.

- So this one in here

needs washing now?

- Yes, yes.

- Being in Branson,

I'm obviously not able

to care for my birds.

So that responsibility

falls to my parents.

My parents

are not chicken people.

I'm chicken people.

It's a whole lot

of work for them

that they don't enjoy,

that they're

not passionate about.

- You really don't need

to clean all that,

because it will just

get nasty again.

- Well, periodically,

you do.

- It does take a toll on you,

you know, when you can't hear

the roosters crowing

every single day

or you can't go look

at the baby chicks

or mow the grass.

You know, these are all things

that I love to do.

After you've gone away

And there's the '60s show.

When I approached my bosses

about missing two performances

to go to the Ohio national,

they said, "great, great.

"You go to Columbus,

and you don't have a job

next year."

And at the end of the season,

it was understood

that they weren't going to

offer me a contract for 2015.

But that's how it goes.

- Of course we're concerned

for him.

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