25+ years ago my son and I ordered standard buff Cochin chicks from a man in California. When fall came we decided we wanted to show them at the state fair. I bathed them and dried them with a hair dryer. It was a very cold January so I'd didn't dare put them back outside so I put them in some large boxes in our basement which was unfinished at the time. About 3 in the morning I woke up to the most awful sound...the young roosters starting to crow. Next day we took them to the show and on the way home we stopped for some Chinese food. First course was a bowl of chicken rice soup. It smelled like those wet feathers from when I groomed the Cochins. I couldn't eat it. My son won several prizes at the show including Reserve Champion which was 2nd best in a show of about 300 chickens.
