Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma
Christian Estill and his chicken have had quite a summer.
The 16 year old (Christian, not the chicken), who will be a junior at Oasis High School, recently returned from Sacramento where he won Best in Breed, Best in Variety and Best in Confirmation at the California State Fair.
Christian, who is the past president of Fallbrook 4-H and currently serves as the youth director of San Diego County 4-H, brought home those blue ribbons with his Black Rosecomb Bantam breed of chicken named Mrs. Brewster Junior.
"I showed 11 chickens this year and the Black Rosecomb just did the best," Christian said. "She's really docile and ended up training really, really well. Every season I try a new training session and she was the best behaved."
Christian said he spends about four months training the birds every single day to get them ready for competition. And it's not an easy process.
"You have to teach them how to walk, how to pose, and how to be comfortable being flipped upside down," he said. "They like to fly away in the beginning and it takes a lot of practice to train them to walk and not the leave the table or fly away."
Perhaps you can try to reason with the birds, but Christian said there's one thing that always works.
"They like peanut butter," he said. "They get peanut butter if they do well."
Christian said he raises chickens, rabbits, pigs, dogs, and soon, pygmy goats.
"Chickens were the ones I latched on to," he said. "I fell in love with them. Chickens are probably my favorite animal to do."
In addition to the great results in Sacramento, Christian and Mrs. Brewster Junior finished sixth overall at the State Fair in showmanship.
"The competition involves both me and the bird," he said. "I have to answer questions and exhibit the bird and she has to perform."
Christian said he is required to answer up to 50 questions about the breeds of birds and the standards expected, and that is very difficult.
The duo also won at the Eastern San Diego County Fair and won the round robin event where Christian showed all of his animals. Just last weekend he showed at the Ramona County Fair and won first place overall and finished third in the round robin event.
What's next for Christian? He said he is looking forward to continuing on as the youth director with San Diego County 4-H to get more young people involved in animals.
"And now that I am a state champion, I have paid my fees and I am now a registered breeder and can start selling my chickens," he said.
After high school, he said he plans to pursue animal management in college.
Jeff Pack can be reached at [email protected]
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