These are the comments and results of the entire March Madness poultry judging. For previous pairings, instructions, and a copy of the bracket, please see our other "blog" posts. All of the participant comments are available on our FB page and previous posts here.
FINAL PAIRING: Sunny vs. 3BM
CHAMPION BIRD:
I'm going to skip to the good part: 3BM won the entire bracket! Congratulations to Jimmy Church for the champion bird overall. Just overall a very well-put-together bird, nice type, nice conditioning, nice coloration, and all-around just fantastic breeding. There's not too much more to say on it!
Participant Champions
This one I'll drag out a little bit longer. It was really fun to watch everyone interact and work through the birds. From the comments and insights to different perspectives, it was neat to see. If you enjoyed being on this side of the show, we do still have spots open for different judges and clerks for the virtual show (needed: Youth Largefowl, Open Bantam Second Judge, tentative Youth Bantam Second Judge, and Second Showmanship Judge and more clerks as needed). The deadline has been extended until April 30th, and the youth cutoff extended to anyone under 20. It's a fun time and a great learning experience to be able to talk with the judges directly and see what it looks like to help run the show. Anyways, if you placed first in either competition, please reach out to me. You have your choice of hatching eggs if you are local to WI/MI (or meeting up at a major show this year), or $10. I hope everyone enjoyed March Madness as much as I did and was able to walk away with more than they started with, and that the virtual show this year will be met with just as much success.
I want to thank our judge, Mr. Brian Decker, for volunteering his time and expertise to create the official bracket. It is not easy to earn the APA judging license and he has extensive experience with poultry from all aspects, but I threw some new species at him and despite everything going on in both of our lives, he was able to give solid placements for us to compare to. It really would not have been possible to do this without him.
I also want to thank all of the following breeders: Jimmy Church, Austin Noah, Jennifer Bryant with Bryant's Roost, Riley Rupp, Zachary Wrzesinski, Nadia Konesko, Rebecca Lynch with Thieving Otter Farms, Joy Brattlie with B's Garden Poultry, Sarah Spiegel with Wandering Fowl Farm, and last but certainly not least: Susan Buchanan with Buchanan Belgiums. They were all able to get photos put together to use in less than two days to fill out almost all of the major classes. All of them, regardless of placement, are fantastic breeders and great people to learn from.
Winners in the Evaluation Competition:
Jada Spiegel easily takes first here. Consistently, every day, she was able to give a very in-depth and detailed explanation of the bird she had chosen. Regardless of species, pattering, or previous choices, she was still able to go through and evaluate each one with good comments and pick apart important details.
Blake Bell takes a very firm second. The explanations, while not as consistent as Ms. Spiegel's, are very detailed (especially for the latter half of the bracket), and very thorough. He also was able to pick out the correct champion bird easily enough and gave great explanations behind each of his choices.
Catherine Cleveland takes a very enthusiastic third! She hit almost every single day, even if they were a bit shorter at times. Always very upbeat and excited, and it was great to see.
Winners in the bracket competition:
Participants here got points for each bird that matched the judge's bracket. Points were weighted based on an online scoring algorithm --thank you to Walker for making a quick scoring program for me to use.
In first place was a tie between Nicholas Peters and Blake Bell. Mr. Bell correctly chose the champion bird, but pointwise they scored the same. Both participants will receive the award.
Second place was a decent three-way tie between Gavin Mlodik, Emmy Lineweaver, and Ali Mlodik. All three will also be acknowledged during the Virtual Showmanship Awards.
The following placings are listed in order:
Nadia Konesko & Chris Mlodik (another tie)
Jada Spiegel
Grant Mlodik
Catherine Cleveland
Thank you again to everyone who participated in the March Madness bracket for 2024! If you have any questions or would like to chat about birds sometime, please reach out. Otherwise, I hope to see you involved with the virtual poultry show coming up in May-July, and some of you in in-person shows across the country this spring and summer!
All the best,
Bre Patz
Pips 'n Chicks
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