Congratulations to everyone who submitted brackets and who has been participating so far in the March Madness competition. Here are all of the brackets that we have received, as well as some of the participant introductions and explanations. At the end of the competition, the exhibitor with the best explanations and the exhibitor with the closest bracket will both be announced with the winning bird.
Submissions for brackets are closed, but anyone interested in participating for the best explainations can submit comments on the posts and FB page until the last day.
Bracket Participants:
-Castiel Hannon
-Grant Mlodik
-Ali Mlodik
-Chris Mlodik
-Gavin Mlodik
-Catherine Cleveland:
-Jada Spiegel
-Nicholas Peters
-Nadia Konesko
-Blake Bell
-Emmy Lineweaver
Introductions and Explanations:
Blake Bell:
Jada Spiegel:
Hi, I'm Jada. I am a freshman at UW River Falls. I breed and exhibit Belgian Bearded d'Anvers bantams. Someday, I hope to become an American Poultry Association licensed judge. For now, I judge fairs around Wisconsin.
Jada's comments can be seen on the Facebook page and featured in a majority of the result posts.
Catherine Cleveland:
Hey there, thanks for the opportunity to join in on this fun-filled event! My winner in this bracket was a clear choice, although I really liked that lovely male quail that was on day 16... The Ancona girl stole the show the moment I saw her. She for me is like opening the APA book and seeing what a near picturesque bird should look like for her breed. She compliments the SOP.
A little about myself, I was born and raised in Massachusetts, I received my first 6 chicks from a kindergarten project in 1993-1994. That quickly got me involved with 4-H poultry at 6 years old. I spent years showing in Massachusetts and Connecticut with multiple breeds in both bantam and standards. I also eventually showed guinea hens and turkeys as well. My show career featured 4-H shows, local fairs, and invitationals to specialty 4-H shows, APA shows, and a few meetings. I was featured with some of my birds in newspapers and even worked for a few years with celebrity Steven Tyler, whose children at the time wanted chickens of their own. I've had countless first placings, reserves, champions, and a few grand championships in my youth career and had many judging opportunities within the community. At 18 I had to step away from the show world and took a hiatus from being a professional showman, handler, and breeder. I stayed in the industry helping people with my knowledge of poultry, mainly chickens.
In 2020 I rescued a Plymouth barred rock hen from a family member that wasn't receiving proper care for a head wound. She was malnourished and weighed barely anything. In the year I was blessed to have her, she became my queen, spoiled, and loved. Her death shattered me and pushed me to achieve a long-standing dream to move to Maine and start my homestead in her honor and get back into my passion and my heart animals, thus in July 2022 the Miss Bawks Memorial Homestead was established. My current focus is working on my heart breed- Ameraucaunas and the ever-so-fun Easter Eggers. I hope in the near future to delve into Mottled Javas and Russian Orloffs as well. Being a professional handler and breeder has allowed me to find the virtual show world and I was happy to attend last year's Pips and Chicks show, having never even experienced a virtual show before. I watched each judge painstakingly look at all the birds and saw just how tricky it can be to literally judge a photo and all the considerations.
Over 20 years in the poultry industry and I always love learning something new and watching the new youth showman come to life in this industry. Thank y'all for reading and congratulations to all the winners in the chart and those whose birds were chosen to represent this march madness.
-Catherine (Cleveland) Mailloux, Miss Bawks Memorial Homestead (North Eastern Maine)
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