If you're interested in raising chickens or just love learning about all the different and fascinating breeds, find a poultry show near you!
Earlier this month, I attended the 2024 Northeastern Poultry Congress in Springfield, Massachusetts - a poultry show held every year at the Eastern States Exposition Center. The event features more than three-thousand birds, including large fowl, waterfowl, turkeys, pigeons, Guineas, and of course, a variety of wonderful breed chickens. It’s a great way to see beautiful chickens up close and to build relationships with knowledgeable, passionate breeders. This year, I brought home six birds - three White Rock chickens and three Light Brahma chickens and some Silkie chicken eggs, which I am able to incubate here at my farm.
Enjoy these photos.
The Northeastern Poultry Congress holds its show every January. This year, was the 50th anniversary of the event. I have been making the trip for several years now – it is a very popular and well-attended gathering.
Photos of past events are hung up around the Center.
All the show birds are exhibited and judged in the Mallory Complex of the Expo Center. Visitors are able to see the various breeds up close in their crates. Each cage is tagged with the bird’s breed, color or variety, and gender.
Prior to poultry shows and again before judging, these birds are groomed and groomed again – every feather is in place.
Poultry shows are family-friendly and allow visitors to see both traditional and new breeds. The first poultry show in the United States was in 1854, before there were even standards for showing.
Here are some of the award ribbons displayed on one side of the large exhibition room.
This show enters more than a thousand chicken breeds – some with gorgeous markings and feathers. This was classified as a large fowl American cockerel.
The birds are judged against others of the same color, sex and age. They are also judged based on variety and breed. In the end, chickens compete against large fowl and water fowl.
The birds are ranked in each of their classes and then compete for super champion.
These are Light Brahmas, an old breed of feather-footed chicken from Asia. These birds are quiet, gentle, and easy to handle. They are also very hardy in cold weather.
This Bearded Black Silkie won “Best Variety.” A Silkie is a breed of chicken named for its fluffy plumage, which is said to feel like a combination of silk and satin.
Here’s a beautiful turkey being shown on “the red carpet.”
There were also some young birds grouped in X-pens, so visitors could see them more closely. The Northeastern Poultry Congress is always very informative and educational. I always learn something new when I attend.
Here are some eggs on display for competition. These are Maran chicken eggs. The Maran chicken lays the darkest brown eggs. They can be deep reddish-brown or almost black.
Back at my Bedford, New York farm, here are four of the six chickens I brought home – three White Rock and three Light Brahmas.
Light Brahmas are large, white-feathered chickens with black hackles and tail feathers. They are good egg-layers for their size, producing up to 200 large, medium-brown eggs per year.
The White Rock is considered a standard size chicken, but still quite large at six to seven pounds for each hen; roosters are a pound or two heavier. White Rocks are a variety of Plymouth Rock chicken that was first bred in New England in the late 19th century. Hens are good layers of brown eggs.
The White rocks and Light Brahmas joined a couple of Ayam Cemani chickens that are also new to the farm. The Ayam Cemani is an uncommon and relatively modern breed of chicken from Indonesia. This breed has a dominant gene that causes hyperpigmentation, making it entirely black, including feathers, beak, and internal organs.
The small group gets along very well and will eventually join the rest of the flock.
My peafowl in the adjacent enclosure are very curious and came up to the fence to say hello right away.
I am looking forward to seeing these chickens mature and thrive here at my farm. I’ve been raising chickens for many years. Not only do I love keeping them for their fresh, delicious eggs, but I also enjoy learning about the different breeds, varieties and their fun personalities.
Hard not to love a picturesque snow-covered landscape, especially at my Bedford, New York farm.
Yesterday, we got a fresh coating of beautiful, white snow that was just heavy enough to stick to the tree branches and shrubs, stone posts, walls, and steps, and the tops of all the burlap-encased urns and boxwood. The entire farm was a gorgeous winter wonderland. I always love to tour the property during snow storms. When not busy plowing the four miles of carriage road, I take photos.
Enjoy these images and please go to my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48 to see a fun time-lapsed video.
Tucked away between the Equipment Barn and a grove of weeping willows is my pinetum where I keep a wonderful collection of evergreens I started planting about 15-years ago. This area includes pines, spruces, firs, and others. It’s filled out so nicely over the years.
This snow accumulated on every branch of this evergreen pine, but thankfully did not weigh any down too much.
I add more specimens to this collection every year – some are very rare and slow growing, but I love the variety of plantings I’ve amassed.
Walking behind my main greenhouse, one sees the purple-red canes of the raspberries. They stand out next to the crisp white of the snow. I grow patches of red raspberries, golden raspberries, black raspberries, gooseberries, blueberries, and currants.
Further back is my formal rose garden. I redesigned this rose bed last year. The 68-foot by 30-foot space now includes three types of roses – floribunda, hybrid tea, and shrub roses – all with gorgeous color, form, and fragrance. And all bordered by lush green young boxwood.
And not far are my blueberry bushes – newly pruned and groomed.
Here are my weeping hornbeams. We prune these regularly to keep the beautiful shape. These weeping specimens are rare and hard to find, but I was lucky to get six.
Underneath this snow-covered burlap are the boxwood shrubs along my winding pergola. They were grown from small saplings and nurtured right here at the farm. There are more than 300 boxwood shrubs planted here, now well protected from the winter elements.
This is the little house where I store my basket collection. It is located across from my long pergola and nestled under the tall stately bald cypress trees.
This is my allée of lindens that stretches from the carriage road in front of my carport all the way down to my chicken coops. On the right, one can see a bit of the old corn crib, which is original to the property. The unique “keystone” shape, flaring from bottom to top, was designed to shed water.
This storm system only dropped a few inches of snow in the area, but it stuck to every horizontal surface including my 100-year old white spruce fencing from Canada.
This one of my weeping copper beech trees, Fagus sylvatica ‘Purpurea Pendular’, an irregular spreading tree with long, weeping branches that reach the ground.
As trees are cut down, pruned, or groomed, neat piles of branches are placed to the side of the gardens and near the carriage road. These piles will be picked up and ultimately chipped and re-distributed as wood chips.
This is a view looking south at the center section of my pergola. The uprights for this pergola are antique granite posts from China – originally used as grape supports. They’re perfect as posts because they don’t rot over time like the wood overhead. Big boxwood shrubs flank the footpath underneath – also well covered for the season.
Can you identify what this view is? This is my pool with the interesting staddle stones at the north end. Staddle stones were originally used in the 17th and 18th centuries as support bases for granaries, hayricks, and game larders. They typically looked like giant stone mushrooms, but mine are square – a more rare and unique version.
Adjacent to the pool is this view looking through my fruit orchard. These peach trees were also recently pruned. There are more than 200 fruit trees in this orchard. Among them – apple trees, plum trees, cherry trees, peach, pear, medlar, and quince trees.
Even when bare, these great pin oaks look majestic. One can see their interesting branch habit – the pendulous lower branches, horizontal middle branches, and upright upper branches.
The Boxwood Allée looks so different in winter all covered under burlap shrouds to keep everything protected from the snow. This is why I spend so much time doing this project – to keep any heavy snow from weighing down on the shrubs and splaying their branches.
This is my original Allée of Lindens. The linden tree, Tilia, is also referred to as basswood or lime, though it is not related at all to the lime fruit. They are straight stemmed trees with smooth bark. I like to pollard these trees regularly. Pollarding is a type of pruning, a very severe method that involves cutting the branches back either to the trunk, or even all the way down to the top of the trunk to promote the growth of club-headed stems and dense new foliage and branches.
These trees are part of my “Christmas Tree” garden. I planted hundreds of evergreens here 15-years ago and they have all grown so beautifully – White Pine, Frasier Fir, Canaan Fir, Norway Spruce, and Blue Spruce.
This photo was taken late afternoon, with the sun still trying to poke through the heavy cloud cover. It was very quiet, and very calm. Today’s forecast calls for bitter cold temperatures in the low 20s Fahrenheit. And then next week, possible temperatures in the 50s.
A trio of colorful pheasants are now members of my farm's flock.
Not long ago, I went to visit the Animal Nation Farm Sanctuary in nearby South Salem, New York, a wonderful and caring organization and go-to resource for at-risk animals from New York City and the surrounding areas. While there, I saw three golden pheasants and decided they would be wonderful additions to my farm. These exotic gamebirds are native to the forests in the mountainous areas of western China. They are not particularly large - males are about 35 to 40 inches in length with their tails making up about two-thirds of that measurement. They are beautifully marked with mainly bright red, orange, and yellow plumage. Right now, these pheasants are getting acclimated to their new coop just outside my stable where they can be closely monitored. I am looking forward to learning about these birds and watching them thrive here at Cantitoe Corners.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
The Animal Nation Farm Sanctuary is home to more than 250 animals. Animal Nation also runs a non-profit Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation Facility and a Domestic Animal Rescue & Adoption Center located in Norwalk, Connecticut. The organization’s mission is to eliminate cruelty to animals while spreading and teaching compassion and the humane treatment of all creatures.
The Farm Sanctuary is home to horses, sheep, goats, llamas, pigs, turkeys, chickens, and even two emus.
There are also many birds including ducks, geese, peafowl, and swans. In fact, Animal Nation helped me re-home a wounded Mute Swan a few years ago.
In one of Animal Nation’s Sanctuary barns was an area specifically for pheasants – beautiful colorful gamebirds.
I took these three back with me to my farm – two red golden pheasants and one yellow golden pheasant.
For now, they are in this safe enclosure, where they can be warm and well protected from predators…
… And right next to some very welcoming neighbors – my gaggle of geese. My geese don’t mind the winter weather at all. Remember, they have very warm goose down feathers.
I always provide a good bedding of hay, so they can relax comfortably. Hay also helps provide good footing on icy surfaces.
This is the yellow golden pheasant. The yellow is a color mutation of the red golden pheasant. It was originally developed in the 1950s. To maintain the yellow coloring, these birds need shaded areas to protect their feathers from the sun.
This is the red golden pheasant with its bright colorful plumage. This bird is a little more social than the other two. He often comes to the front of the coop to see visitors.
Males have a golden-yellow crest with a hint of red at the tip. The face, throat, chin, and the sides of neck are rusty tan.
The upper back is green and the rest of the back and rump is golden-yellow.
All my outdoor birds get a good supply of seeds. Pheasants also eat insects, berries, and plant matter.
I provide different types of feeders with lots of seed especially now when birds like to bulk up on high-energy foods to build fat reserves that keep them warm.
Pheasants also enjoy fresh greens and some fruit for fiber and vitamins. I provide lots of fresh greens for all my birds – grown right here in my gardens.
And of course, there is always fresh water – checked and changed often to ensure it is always clean and free-flowing.
Pheasants are very curious, but they prefer to perch up high in their coop. This pheasant has a deep bold red chest.
And while they can fly clumsily in short bursts, they tend to run and spend most of their time on the ground. The striped cape can be spread in display, appearing as an alternating black and orange fan that covers the face.
Pheasants are also hardy, very intelligent, and friendly.
Well cared-for golden pheasants can live an average of 15-years. These birds will live very happily here at Cantitoe Corners. Look out for them in future blogs.
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