How to participate in exhibitions?

The exhibiting of farm animals has many advantages and is a pleasant affair for young and old. For the novice enthusiast, such a first exhibition can mean a lot of questions, since such a first time is nevertheless awkward. Experienced breeders within the club often do not realize that the first exhibition seems to be an insurmountable thing for their new fellow members, especially when the person in question does not dare to ask questions. That is why it is explained here in a well-arranged manner which conditions you must meet to be allowed to exhibit, how you can participate in a show, how you can prepare your animals for the show and finally how such a show is practically put together.

Mandatory conditions to be allowed to exhibit.

To be allowed to participate in an exhibition, you must meet a number of administrative conditions as a breeder. In the first place you must be a member of AOBA. If you are not yet, please contact us. You can request an official breeder card through AOBA, which is also your AOBA membership card. The application form for the breeder card can be found on the "Members Resources" page. From an administrative point of view, you are now fully in order to participate in exhibitions.

​​​​​​In addition to the breeder, the animals must also be OK. In the first place, they must be provided with an official ring or mark so that individual identification of the animals is possible. For fowls and bantams, pigeons and park and water birds, this is an inexpressible closed foot ring, for guinea pigs an ear clip and for rabbits a tattoo in the ear. Certain wild species of park and water birds must have a nominative ring. All information about ordering the rings can be found on the page about rings and marks.

In addition to an official identification mark, some animal species must be vaccinated against a certain disease in accordance with your local law. Fowls must have been vaccinated against Newcastle Disease or Pseudobird Fever (this is the same disease), rabbits must have been vaccinated against Viral Haemorrhagic Syndrome (RHD) and pigeons must have been vaccinated against Paramyxovirosis. Below you will find the necessary vaccination certificates:

• Fowl-like vaccination certificate
• Vaccination certificate rabbits
• Vaccination certificate pigeons

These vaccinations must be carried out by an official veterinarian who fully fills in the vaccination certificate. Keep in mind that the animals must be vaccinated a few weeks before the show, so that the vaccine can build up sufficient protection before the animal comes out. The message is therefore timely vaccination!


The diseases mentioned above are the only ones an exhibition breeder is obliged to vaccinate against. A breeder can decide to also vaccinate his animals against other diseases, but that is completely without obligation. Although these extra vaccines mean an additional cost, this can ensure that your lofts are not affected by all kinds of diseases, so that you have lower medication costs and lose fewer animals. Sometimes worth considering ...

Register for an exhibition.

If you are okay with your breeder card, your animals have been correctly marked and they have received their compulsory vaccine, you can consider taking part in an exhibition. To let the AOBA know that you want to participate with your animals, you must complete the question program. This question program is sent to you, although we also use the extra section of the AOBA E-magazine to distribute their question program to a larger number of enthusiasts. In time, clubs will also be offered the opportunity to offer their demand program digitally via this site, which also makes it easier for the interested exhibitor.

In addition to the preface and some mandatory official formulations, a question program consists of various parts:



• Place and planning: date and time of cages, inspection, exhibition, sale, withdrawal, award ceremony ...
• The species of animals that may be registered;
• The address to which the registration form must be sent and the deadline thereof;
• The registration fees per animal, the price of the palmares (1 palmares per family required) and the account number to which this must be transferred;
• The conditions for the sale of animals;
• The requested inspectors per animal group;
• The name of the provincial representative and the vet on duty
  ...
  This is based on the official regulations for AOBA exhibitions.
  
  The following is a list of the various prizes awarded. Their number varies from show to show. Some common types of prizes are:
  

• Champion prizes: for each animal group the head jury determines which animal is the best of the show. Often there are several champion prizes that are divided per gender, origin (native or foreign), size (large fowls / bantams or large / medium / small / dwarf in rabbits), umbrella group (often with pigeon breeds) ...
• Predicate money: for a certain predicate you receive as a breeder a (often symbolic) cash prize that increases as the predicate is higher.
• Series champions: to promote larger series of the same breed, a minimum number of animals is provided per series. So it can sometimes be interesting to register one or more animals more.
• Judge prizes: at some shows the judge may award an extra cash prize to his best three animals.
  Prices of the special club: this usually requires you to be a member of the special club. This can be a prize for the winning animal, but also extra predicate money or a standard amount that is reimbursed per registered animal.
• Indicative prices: here the breeder must indicate a certain number of animals that he or she thinks will score high. Points are awarded per predicate and the breeders with the highest number of points for the stated number of animals receive an extra prize.

All sorts of sponsors can also award different prizes. At regional, national, international competitions, extra prizes are also awarded by the provincial association or the AOBA respectively.

At the end of the request program you will find the registration form, which is structured in the following way:

• Personal data such as name, address, telephone number ...
• Breeder card number and the club of which you are a member;
• A table in which you must enter all desired animals per animal group, breed, color, gender (Male or Female) and age (Young or Overyear).
• The identification number of the animal in question is also desirable, although this can be replaced by another animal of the same breed, color, sex and age when it is being folded.
• You can also indicate the selling price of that specific animal.
• The price calculation, where you enter the number of desired palmares and the number of registered animals, as well as the total price
• Date and signature
  
  You send the fully completed registration form signed, together with a copy of the vaccination certificate. When you have transferred the registration fee, you can start preparing for the show.