How to Spot the Champion Chicken at the State Fair

Judge a meat chicken on the quality and quantity of meat it will provide. Look for uniformity between chickens in the same pens at state fairs that do not judge individual chickens. Spot the fair champion and you are looking at a chicken worth thousands of dollars to its owners.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Look for quantity and quality of meat when judging chickens at the state fair. If you spot a chicken that is wide in the front and wide in the back, you have found a champion-level chicken. The perfect shape for a market chicken is rectangular.
2. Examine the amount and distribution of muscle on the chicken you judge. Look at the bird's breast, drumstick and thigh, where the most meat is located.
3. Determine if a pen of chickens are all the same size and shape. Judge a group of chickens with higher marks if they conform to the needs of the chicken processing industry which prefers to process chickens of the same size and shape.
4. Check the bird for good balance throughout its body. Discount birds as champions that are narrow through the back, hip and skull.
5. See if the chicken has bright, alert eyes and a healthy comb. Consider lice, mites, insect bites, fleas and bruises as defects. Spot a bird that looks healthy and robust, and you may have found a grand champion.
6. Pinch the web of the wing to determine if a bird has the right amount of fat properly distributed on its body. The web should feel thick. This indicates a good distribution on fat on the bird.
7. Spot a symmetrical chicken with the proper fat distribution, shaped like a well-muscled rectangle and you have spotted the fair grand champion chicken.

Tips & Warnings

• The term "finish," used in judging chickens, refers to the amount of fat in and under a chicken's skin.