April 28, 2025 • 28 mins
Join us for an exciting episode of the Poultry Nerds Podcast as we dive deep into the highlights and behind-the-scenes secrets of the 2025 Pips n Chicks Virtual Poultry Show with special guest Breanna Patz. Discover insider tips on winning poultry competitions, understand judging criteria, and learn how to prepare your flock for virtual shows. Whether you’re an experienced breeder or new to poultry competitions, this episode is packed with expert advice, practical insights, and fun poultry show stories that will help you elevate your birds to champion status!
Keywords: Pips n Chicks, virtual poultry show, poultry competition tips, Breanna Patz, poultry judging criteria, champion poultry breeding, preparing poultry for show, Poultry Nerds Podcast, virtual livestock events, chicken show prep!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Carey (00:01):
Good afternoon everybody, and happy Monday.
Today we are here with Brie andwe are gonna talk about her Pips
and Chicks live virtual show.
Good afternoon, Bree.
How are you?
Bre (00:16):
I'm doing great.
Very glad to be here.
Carey (00:19):
Jennifer, you look ecstatic.
Bre (00:21):
This is like our very first like extra show we've ever done.
Carey (00:26):
Yep.
But this is like a huge dealbecause.
Nobody except for Brie that I'maware of even tries to put on a
virtual show much less, does areally good job of finding
licensed accredited judges tomake it real.
A lot of people just post abunch of pictures of their stuff
(00:47):
and yeah,
Bre (00:49):
It's so easy.
It just, I don't know why morepeople don't do it.
Carey (00:53):
I think Brie would probably argue that fact because
before'cause
Bre (00:58):
lot of work.
Carey (00:59):
Before I hit the word, the record button she was
talking about the exhaustiveamount of website problems.
Bre (01:09):
The gray hairs.
Carey (01:11):
Yeah.
Like she probably already hassome and she's.
Can't even go buy a beer.
Bre (01:17):
And it's not even Thursday yet.
Carey (01:19):
Yeah.
And it's not Thursday and guysThursday's when it kicks off.
Bre (01:25):
Yeah.
I'm super excited it'll start.
May 1st officially is when we'vegot a whole host of things
going, so
Carey (01:33):
that's awesome.
So I've got a few questions foryou and I think it's gonna help
people learn a little bit aboutyou because everybody wants to
know what.
What's behind, what they'rewatching and why they should
enter.
So can you share some of theinspiration behind founding Tips
(01:53):
and chicks, the name for yourfarm and all of that good stuff.
And tell us about your journeyin breeding poultry, how it
began, and feel free to throw ina little bit about your
education as well, so everybodyknows that, you're a super brain
person.
I.
Bre (02:12):
The nerd.
She's a nerd.
We thought
Carey (02:15):
we were nerds, which is why the podcast is Poultry Nerds
Podcast.
Brie actually is.
Bre (02:24):
Oh yeah.
So Pips and Tricks started inprobably eight years, I don't
know, eight years ago and waswhen we got our first chickens.
And it was maybe a year afterthat.
A year or two that we startedit, I actually started it with
my younger brother who wasn'treally interested in chickens at
(02:45):
all.
He was just doing it'cause I wasdoing it.
And we called it Pips andChicks.
We had planned to just hatcheggs out and sell the chicks.
'cause that after, no, you hadyour, I know after you had your
first shakes out, you just getaddicted.
And we called it pips and chicksbecause as chicks are piping out
it rhymed very nicely and that,that was the most exciting time
(03:06):
for us was just,
Carey (03:07):
Yeah.
'cause they pip and then youhave chicks.
Yeah.
It makes perfect sense.
And your brother, is that theone that makes the little
pterodactyl arms for yourchickens?
And that would be the
Bre (03:20):
youngest brother?
This is my middle brother.
Carey (03:23):
Okay.
Okay.
Bre (03:25):
That, that we get'em all like ball.
Carey (03:28):
I seen pretty cool.
Farming a lot of times is afamily, it's a family thing.
Bre (03:33):
Oh yeah.
For very much and even like thatkind of carried my me through
high school, right?
And we were, we would hatch out,we'd sell some most of the time
we'd hatch up for ourselves.
Then I got into quail.
And then at the end of highschool, when I graduated, I
sold.
All of my quail off which iswhat I focused on.
And my family now, my dadespecially, takes care of my
(03:54):
chickens.
Back at home, we found a smalllayer flock, just mixed layers.
And yeah, so I like that was acompletely redo, but really good
way to bring in the familythere.
And then I realized after abouta year in college, I just, I
missed it too much.
I missed not having birds andanimals specifically on my quail
(04:14):
again.
So I got I was back up inMichigan at that point, so as
about as far north as you canget in the United States.
And still be in the UnitedStates.
Yeah.
And I ended up working with alocal farmer, kept some birds
there at, in their on theirproperty and then did that for
about a year.
Before I transferreduniversities, I decided I, I
(04:36):
wanted to go even more in depthinto it.
I loved physics and I lovedmathematics, but I really wanted
to see the practicalapplications specifically with
the animals.
And I had a research project.
I pitched it with Quail and Ipitched it to River Falls, and
they accepted it wholeheartedly.
They told me, come on in, we'llget the paperwork started on,
give me a pretty goodscholarship and.
(04:59):
So I'm at University ofWisconsin River Falls studying
specifically agriculturalengineering right now.
But the focus on mechanizedsystems and livestock systems.
So my goal is to be able tointegrate poultry and equipment
together and design some of thatpoultry equipment, poultry barns
different livestock barns, bringit all full circle.
(05:21):
But through all of that, pipsand chicks has kept going in.
I focused on genetics, colorgenetics for a while.
Different breeding programs, thelast, I don't know, year or so
I've worked to develop thepoultry program here on campus.
Built like barn designs for themthat they're actually building
up right now.
And then helped lay out likewhat a poultry program should
(05:44):
look like, just from top tobottom, helping with their
breeding practices, their theirmanagement, their hatching
cycles, all of that.
So that's been.
Super fun the last, I don'tknow, nine months.
Yeah.
Carey (05:55):
But at the end of the day, that was just your way of
having quail and chickens atschool, right?
Bre (06:00):
Pretty much.
Carey (06:02):
We won't tell'em that.
We won't tell'em.
Bre (06:05):
Yeah.
I've got, I live, they actuallylet me live on the farm now, so
I live on the farm and I keep myquail where I live.
That's awesome there.
And yeah, it has been justabsolutely wonderful.
Carey (06:20):
That's incredible.
Bre (06:22):
Good story.
I'm glad you decided to do, Iknow the whole personal story
and everything'cause we'refriends off the show, but I'm
really proud of you for doingwhat you've done.
You you've done well.
Thank you.
No.
All right.
So tell us about this virtualshow.
Like what was the story behindthat part?
Yeah, so we started now fouryears ago.
(06:46):
It was the peak, like AI wasstarting to creep, then it was
starting to be a big thing inthe United States.
And I actually, and like rightafter Covid, during Covid, there
was some of my friends that haddone virtual livestock shows.
And I thought, Hey, we could dosomething like that for poultry.
So the very first time we did itall for Google Drive, had no
(07:08):
clue what we were really doing.
Got several hundred entries andput it together just with,
friends that I knew that wereinterested in judging poultry
and really enjoyed it.
And it's just grown every yearsince then.
So the last year we had about2,500 birds in there and over
300 exhibitors from across 36different state, and it's just
(07:32):
continued to grow and it's beenjust an absolute blast of a
time.
Carey (07:38):
Did you say 36 different states?
Bre (07:41):
Yep.
And I think there's threedifferent countries as well,
aside from the United States.
Carey (07:47):
Holy cow.
Bre (07:50):
So what's different this year?
That's new.
Yes.
Yeah.
So every year we try and wegrow, right?
We've fi figured out what'sworked, tweaked, what hasn't
worked, and tried to improveevery single year.
So the first year we used justGoogle Drive and our website and
it was Google form.
And then judges would comment onthe pictures and we'd post the
(08:12):
pictures after.
Last year and the year before,we tried to do live streams and
that worked really well.
So you could actually listen tothe judges live as they were
going and you could askquestions, you could see in real
time how they were placingeverything.
But on the back end of things,that was a lot of work.
We had to go through andmanually label all of the
(08:34):
photos.
We stripped like the exhibitor'snames off of them.
Order them on these slides, puteverything in the proper place.
And when you do that to 2,500birds, there's, it's hours and
hours and hours of time.
And it was easy to miss thingsin the cracks.
So what we did this year is wecompletely revamped the program.
So instead of posting it on thetypical website it'll be the
(08:56):
same link this year.
But on a completely newplatform, it's all gonna be
integrated.
You'll go in, you'll be able toupload it there, you'll be able
to see all of the entries thatother people are entering.
You'll be able to watch thejudging there, see all of the
judges.
You can go on like people'sprofiles so you can see and you
can share those images rightaway to social media.
(09:19):
So it.
Streamlines it from our side.
So there's less places for us tomake mistakes and we can keep
track of it so much better.
And it also makes it so mucheasier from the exhibitor side
of things as well to go through,upload all of your pictures to
keep track of your entries andalso see in real time what
everyone is entering.
(09:41):
When you say we, do you have amouse in your pocket or what?
Who is we?
Yeah I'm
Carey (09:46):
like I thought this was Bree.
I didn't, where's is shespeaking about the other, the
clones that she's created tohelp her with this?
Bre (09:57):
Yeah, usually for the most part it's just we, this year
we've got a couple of different,I use we,'cause I'm used to just
saying that like in our classprojects and things like that.
I do have a programmer that ishelping me like fix all the
little bugs, make sure thewebsite's working pretty well.
And then this year, which is newthere's a judging committee.
(10:18):
So we've got a group of four ofus that are going through to
pick out all of our judges.
Make sure that we've gottimelines set up really well.
Judges are all reallycomfortable with the software
and the platform we're using.
And they're gonna help pick outall of the youth judges too,
which I'm super excited about.
And then we've got I've gotanother person that's doing the
(10:38):
awards this year, so they'retaking care of ordering the
awards, mailing those all out sothat they get out in hopefully a
little bit more timely manner.
And then we've got a couple ofclinicians coming in.
So we're gonna run about fourdifferent clinics four or five
of them throughout the span ofthe entries for people to just,
they'll be completely free.
The whole show is completelyfree.
(10:59):
So from entering to judging tothe clinics, all of it, there's
no cost to any exhibitors.
But.
The clinics will be a good wayto deep dive into some topics.
So we're gonna have one onphotography, we're gonna have
one on selecting your birds, oneon showmanship, different things
like that.
So you get the full experiencefrom start to finish and
(11:20):
hopefully improve your breedingas you go.
But I've done a lot of it andI'm still, I'm doing most of the
work myself, but it just hasgotten to, it's continuing to
grow and therefore I've gottenpeople.
And with me this year to helpand make it a little bit easier
on me.
Carey (11:37):
That's awesome.
So tell us what theparticipation process is.
If someone wanted to enter theirbirds, who's eligible to do
that?
Is it too late?
Since it starts in a couple ofdays?
What are the steps to registerand submit entries?
Bre (11:54):
Yeah, so it, this year it's easier than ever.
In previous years you've had tohave a Google account and sign
in and things like that.
This and this this year it'll beall through the website.
So you'll go in, you'll, you cansee all of your entries and ev
like everyone else's entries andthe judges and the sponsors and
all of that without logging in.
(12:17):
But to actually enter it, you'llgo ahead.
You'll create an account.
Then you'll be able to uploadit.
So they'll have a little placefor that, says entries on it.
You'll click that and you cansubmit as many entries as you'd
want.
An entry is simply a picture ofyour bird.
So you want obviously very nicepictures of your bird.
Preferably standing still.
(12:38):
You want a good side picture andside profile.
There's just one photo per birdthat you need with the exception
of quail.
So we'll have actually a seminaron quail and how to do quail
entries, because that one's alittle bit more complex.
But for the rest of them, it's asimple one-off profile picture.
You upload it, you'll go aheadand click what class it is in,
(13:00):
what variety it's in.
You'll give it a fun name if youwant to, and then submit it.
And that's pretty much all youhave to do.
It'll keep track of your name,keep track of all of that and
then you'll come back on thejudging.
We'll post the drudging dates asit gets a little bit closer.
But when we say the show startthis Thursday the entries start
this Thursday.
So you've actually got until theend of June to get all of your
(13:23):
entries in.
You've got over two months takepictures of your birds.
Maybe you want to condition themout a little bit different, or
you wanna you wanna wash them,bathe them, or you're taking
them to a show when you wantpictures at the show.
All of those are allowed.
And you've got plenty of time tobe able to do that and prepare a
little bit.
And then into July is when we'llhave those judges go through
(13:46):
those birds.
It gives them a little bit oftime to sort through them.
And then they'll start placingthem live in July.
Carey (13:53):
Ooh.
So the show's judged by a PA anda BA licensed judges, right?
Bre (14:00):
Yep.
Carey (14:02):
All right.
Cool.
So
Bre (14:04):
the only exception there is the youth.
So anyone can enter the show.
Jennifer (14:08):
Yeah.
Youth
Bre (14:08):
can enter an open show.
If you're under 18, you canenter the same birds in our
Youth Judged youth show.
So we've got
Jennifer (14:16):
Okay.
Bre (14:17):
Specific youth judges.
We pick people that.
Usually are a little bit older,so they're usually they're under
21.
They're not quite an A-P-A-A-V-Ajudge yet.
Some of'em have thought aboutgoing on to become an A-P-A-V-A
judge and are working towardsthat.
But they're really qualifiedpeople that, and we wanna give
them an opportunity to practicetheir judging skills, practice
(14:39):
their reasons.
And sorting through birds.
So we, this year we're gonna gothrough, we're just gonna reach
out to different kids that weknow that would be highly
qualified.
They're showing already, they'rein showmanship, they're judging
and things like that.
And then they'll be judging thedifferent shows for the youth.
But for the open show, all ofthat is gonna be a PAB a BA
(15:03):
licensed with, and then quailwill be a CBA.
So we try and keep all of theorganizations we want, obviously
the best quality judges that wecan get, and just like what you
would see at a real show.
Carey (15:16):
Cool.
So education seems to be asignificant focus in the virtual
show.
How does the event contribute topromoting poultry education and
breeding for excellence?
Bre (15:31):
Yeah.
Like I said, we try and keep itas realistic to a real show as
possible.
The goal is always to be pickingthe best birds to win the show
and to be improving and helpingbreeders improve.
And by having judges judge livelike we've done in the past, and
actually give reasons, you get achance to hear exactly why
(15:52):
they're placing the birds theythe way they did.
And because it's so easy to doand it doesn't cost anything.
We get a lot of new exhibitors,we get some grandmaster
exhibitors all the way down topeople entering a show for the
very first time.
And so it's a really goodexperience to be able to see how
birds compare to the standard,how these standards should be
applied to the birds in front ofyou.
(16:15):
And even like how to take goodpictures how to properly present
your birds.
Kind of everything from start tofinish is really involved in the
virtual show.
Carey (16:26):
That's cool.
Bre (16:28):
And you have the clinics too, so what's the topics of the
clinics?
Yeah, so we're hoping hopefullyto have carry on for a feed one
feed and nutrition.
Probably
Carey (16:38):
work that out.
Bre (16:39):
Yeah, I think we're trying to figure out when we're gonna
have that one.
Sometime in June, probably.
We'll have a quail clinic inMay.
So that's specifically going tobe how to put your quail entries
together.
Put how to what variety theyshould go in, how to figure out
what variety and what place yourquail should go in.
(17:01):
We'll have a showmanship clinic,so someone that's gonna help
specifically youth go throughtheir showmanship routine.
Things to think about, things toimprove, how to approach it if
you've never done it before.
And then we're gonna have oneother person go through and talk
about.
How to select birds.
So whether you're looking atyour breeding pens or you're
(17:23):
looking to go out and buy birds,what you're gonna look for to
make a really good show bird atthe virtual show.
And then the last one will bephotography.
So how to take the best picturesof your birds.
That one will be pretty prettyquickly coming up in May.
So we'll get dates posted assoon as the main event of the
show, like the entries havestarted.
(17:45):
What challenges have you facedcreating this new website?
I know it's, oh, what?
It's been a doozy, hasn't it?
Oh, yeah.
Programming is.
It is not as easy as it lookslike on tv.
It's on tv they just if it wasthat easy, we'd all be doing it.
(18:08):
Exactly.
Every time it felt like,especially going through the
debugging, it felt like everytime I would try and fix an
error, I would make an errorsomewhere else.
So about three weeks ago, we hada test run for the virtual show.
We got everything up and runningto the point where it could
accept entries and we couldjudge like a mock show.
(18:31):
And we had 10 people run throughit, submit entries, get little
bugs and little, all find all ofthose little things that we
couldn't see.
And then I spent the last threeweeks.
Working through that, figuringout how to integrate things
properly, how to make sure theseimages are stored appropriately
so they're not just gonnadisappear on us.
(18:51):
And then all of the littlethings.
The, so like adding socialmedia, adding a, forgot your
password for all the people thatforgot.
Forget what their login is.
Just little things like that youmay not think about.
But the last man, it's probablybeen.
Five months putting the platformtogether.
And there's still things I'msure as the show will go on,
(19:13):
that will crop up.
Some of them will fix this yearand I'll fix as we go.
Some of them will just be,that's a thing to pencil in for
next year, suggestions tochange.
But it's been really neat to seeit grow and continue to get
better every time.
So you've done all this work?
We're do.
You're doing the poultry show.
So what are you going to use theplatform for the rest of the
(19:36):
year?
Yeah, so we'll see where it goesfrom there.
We'll see how well the firstshow with this platform goes if
it works out really well.
I'm, right now I'm in alivestock judging.
I'm on the beef management teamhere, livestock judging team,
poultry judging team here.
And we put on several big shows.
There's one actually that justhappened last weekend.
(19:59):
That's like a statewide largelivestock show.
So I anticipate doing additionalvirtual shows, whether that's
with large livestock throughclubs like the Block and Bridal
Club here on campus, or whetherthat's more poultry with like
breed clubs that wanna get moreshows going.
Or in the quail world with the ACBA.
(20:19):
I'd love to get to a point to beable to keep doing more shows
and help other clubs, othergroups and other people that
wanna do shows, get, get theground running with something
that's already established andit's been working.
Carey (20:34):
You get this working perfected, like you're working
on.
That you could probably easy,easily do one a quarter.
Bre (20:44):
I don't.
I don't wanna bite off more thanI can chew yet, but if it all
goes,'cause in previous yearsit's been so much behind the
scenes work.
And just days and days oftaking, making sure I have off
for the judges, making sure,answering questions from people,
sorting through all theseentries.
(21:04):
If this works it'll be so mucheasier to do.
And I love to be able to domore.
More per year, but it's gonnadepend on if everything goes
according to plan.
Carey (21:17):
Most definitely.
Last question I have for you isfor the listeners that are
interested in participating orsupporting your initiative, what
steps can they do to getinvolved?
Bre (21:31):
Yeah, so this year, which is new this year, we've got our
judging committee.
And all of like our awards chairand all of these different
volunteers.
Those are pretty much set.
We do have openings for clerks,so if you're interested in
following along, making surethings are running smoothly
while the shows are going, whichmeans you need to be able to sit
(21:52):
down and watch all of theseshows or one or two of them
we've definitely got a need forthat.
So go ahead and reach on out.
But the biggest way right now tosupport is gonna be fundraising.
So on Thursday it's not beencompletely public yet, but so
this will be the first, A lot ofyou guys are hearing about this,
Jennifer (22:12):
we won't
Bre (22:14):
on our big fundraiser this year is gonna be called Poorly
Drawn Poultry.
So we've got a group of aboutseven artists right now where
you'll upload a picture, you'llpay, we've got a link on there
to pay.
And again, this will be goinglive on Thursday, so you'll
watch our Facebook post for it.
And we've got the artiststhat'll go through and draw the
pictures of your pet and some ofthem.
(22:36):
Are phenomenally talented.
Like they, they literally willdraw things pretty close to
outta the standard ofperfection.
Some of them are likegrandchildren of people that,
are showing in the show.
They're six, seven years old andthey're just really excited to
draw.
So you may get something andit's fantastic.
You may get someone scribble onthe back of a napkin.
(22:58):
That's the fun of it.
And you can upload as manypictures as you want.
You'll pay for each entry.
And then we are we do pay ourartists for some of it, but the
rest of it goes to the show.
And then we'll also open upsponsorships so companies can go
in and sponsor different awards.
They can sponsor anything from aBest of Show award.
(23:19):
Down to your class awards.
This year we'll do somethingwith youth awards.
So we'll probably have anexceptional Youth award, it
sounds so for one of the youththat kind of goes above and
beyond throughout the show,we'll have special little awards
here and there.
And then you can also justdonate too.
So we've got links on ourwebsite that you can donate, you
can sponsor.
(23:39):
We've got merch available, sowe'll have t-shirts and.
Hats and like all sorts of funthings in between that you can
go and buy on there too, to justshow off that you're part of the
show and everything in between.
So a lot of ways for people toget involved and help out.
Carey (23:57):
That sounds awesome.
Bre (23:58):
You sound like you've got it all pulled together.
Oh, I hope so.
I always think I do and thenthings come up and we roll then
as we go.
But.
I'm really excited for how thisyear is shaping up and getting
ready to go.
Good.
I'm excited.
So there's nothing we can dotoday other than just be
excited.
(24:18):
Then have to wait till Thursday.
So
Carey (24:21):
let me ask this for this super anxious person, is it like
Thursday at midnight?
Thursday at more like clock.
Is that at
Bre (24:36):
am on the dock
Carey (24:36):
Pacific Eastern?
What time zone is that in?
Bre (24:41):
That'll be in central time.
Carey (24:43):
Oh, Thursday.
Eight o'clock central time.
Bre (24:49):
Yeah, we should be go to pips and chicks.com.
Yeah, in
Carey (24:55):
Turkey, in
Bre (24:56):
Central.
Nine o'clock.
I don't know any other timezones, but if you go to pips and
chicks.com/auctions, or you goon our Facebook page will be
where a lot of these posts arecoming out.
You'll be able to see the poorlydrawn pets and the sponsors
start to come through.
So follow our Facebook page.
(25:17):
The links will drop then.
And then our website will alsobe live at eight o'clock.
On the dot.
Carey (25:22):
So if one of your artists wants to draw a Rhode Island red
like this I would be willing tothrow down some cash on that
poor.
Sure.
Bre (25:36):
I can't promise for the poorly drawn pets.
It'll be any, any better thanwhat I could draw.
But for.
I know a lot of them do.
Do I think there's at leastthree of them that do
commissions on the side, so Oh,wow.
Carey (25:51):
We'll have to talk about that.
And 11 by 14 would be, thatwould look good behind my desk
at my office.
Bre (25:58):
Yes.
Carey (26:01):
All right.
Jennifer, do you have anyquestions?
Bre (26:04):
No, I guess we just won't sleep between now and Thursday,
just the pictures.
I probably won't be getting toomuch, but No.
All right.
I'm sure we'll talk to you againand you can tell us how it went.
Absolutely.
All right.
Carey (26:19):
Yeah, I'm curious.
All right have a great week, andwe looked forward to eight
o'clock central time onThursday.
Bre (26:28):
Yep.
Yeah.
Bye.
Thank you.
Good afternoon everybody, and happy Monday.
Today we are here with Brie andwe are gonna talk about her Pips
and Chicks live virtual show.
Good afternoon, Bree.
How are you?
Bre (00:16):
I'm doing great.
Very glad to be here.
Carey (00:19):
Jennifer, you look ecstatic.
Bre (00:21):
This is like our very first like extra show we've ever done.
Carey (00:26):
Yep.
But this is like a huge dealbecause.
Nobody except for Brie that I'maware of even tries to put on a
virtual show much less, does areally good job of finding
licensed accredited judges tomake it real.
A lot of people just post abunch of pictures of their stuff
(00:47):
and yeah,
Bre (00:49):
It's so easy.
It just, I don't know why morepeople don't do it.
Carey (00:53):
I think Brie would probably argue that fact because
before'cause
Bre (00:58):
lot of work.
Carey (00:59):
Before I hit the word, the record button she was
talking about the exhaustiveamount of website problems.
Bre (01:09):
The gray hairs.
Carey (01:11):
Yeah.
Like she probably already hassome and she's.
Can't even go buy a beer.
Bre (01:17):
And it's not even Thursday yet.
Carey (01:19):
Yeah.
And it's not Thursday and guysThursday's when it kicks off.
Bre (01:25):
Yeah.
I'm super excited it'll start.
May 1st officially is when we'vegot a whole host of things
going, so
Carey (01:33):
that's awesome.
So I've got a few questions foryou and I think it's gonna help
people learn a little bit aboutyou because everybody wants to
know what.
What's behind, what they'rewatching and why they should
enter.
So can you share some of theinspiration behind founding Tips
(01:53):
and chicks, the name for yourfarm and all of that good stuff.
And tell us about your journeyin breeding poultry, how it
began, and feel free to throw ina little bit about your
education as well, so everybodyknows that, you're a super brain
person.
I.
Bre (02:12):
The nerd.
She's a nerd.
We thought
Carey (02:15):
we were nerds, which is why the podcast is Poultry Nerds
Podcast.
Brie actually is.
Bre (02:24):
Oh yeah.
So Pips and Tricks started inprobably eight years, I don't
know, eight years ago and waswhen we got our first chickens.
And it was maybe a year afterthat.
A year or two that we startedit, I actually started it with
my younger brother who wasn'treally interested in chickens at
(02:45):
all.
He was just doing it'cause I wasdoing it.
And we called it Pips andChicks.
We had planned to just hatcheggs out and sell the chicks.
'cause that after, no, you hadyour, I know after you had your
first shakes out, you just getaddicted.
And we called it pips and chicksbecause as chicks are piping out
it rhymed very nicely and that,that was the most exciting time
(03:06):
for us was just,
Carey (03:07):
Yeah.
'cause they pip and then youhave chicks.
Yeah.
It makes perfect sense.
And your brother, is that theone that makes the little
pterodactyl arms for yourchickens?
And that would be the
Bre (03:20):
youngest brother?
This is my middle brother.
Carey (03:23):
Okay.
Okay.
Bre (03:25):
That, that we get'em all like ball.
Carey (03:28):
I seen pretty cool.
Farming a lot of times is afamily, it's a family thing.
Bre (03:33):
Oh yeah.
For very much and even like thatkind of carried my me through
high school, right?
And we were, we would hatch out,we'd sell some most of the time
we'd hatch up for ourselves.
Then I got into quail.
And then at the end of highschool, when I graduated, I
sold.
All of my quail off which iswhat I focused on.
And my family now, my dadespecially, takes care of my
(03:54):
chickens.
Back at home, we found a smalllayer flock, just mixed layers.
And yeah, so I like that was acompletely redo, but really good
way to bring in the familythere.
And then I realized after abouta year in college, I just, I
missed it too much.
I missed not having birds andanimals specifically on my quail
(04:14):
again.
So I got I was back up inMichigan at that point, so as
about as far north as you canget in the United States.
And still be in the UnitedStates.
Yeah.
And I ended up working with alocal farmer, kept some birds
there at, in their on theirproperty and then did that for
about a year.
Before I transferreduniversities, I decided I, I
(04:36):
wanted to go even more in depthinto it.
I loved physics and I lovedmathematics, but I really wanted
to see the practicalapplications specifically with
the animals.
And I had a research project.
I pitched it with Quail and Ipitched it to River Falls, and
they accepted it wholeheartedly.
They told me, come on in, we'llget the paperwork started on,
give me a pretty goodscholarship and.
(04:59):
So I'm at University ofWisconsin River Falls studying
specifically agriculturalengineering right now.
But the focus on mechanizedsystems and livestock systems.
So my goal is to be able tointegrate poultry and equipment
together and design some of thatpoultry equipment, poultry barns
different livestock barns, bringit all full circle.
(05:21):
But through all of that, pipsand chicks has kept going in.
I focused on genetics, colorgenetics for a while.
Different breeding programs, thelast, I don't know, year or so
I've worked to develop thepoultry program here on campus.
Built like barn designs for themthat they're actually building
up right now.
And then helped lay out likewhat a poultry program should
(05:44):
look like, just from top tobottom, helping with their
breeding practices, their theirmanagement, their hatching
cycles, all of that.
So that's been.
Super fun the last, I don'tknow, nine months.
Yeah.
Carey (05:55):
But at the end of the day, that was just your way of
having quail and chickens atschool, right?
Bre (06:00):
Pretty much.
Carey (06:02):
We won't tell'em that.
We won't tell'em.
Bre (06:05):
Yeah.
I've got, I live, they actuallylet me live on the farm now, so
I live on the farm and I keep myquail where I live.
That's awesome there.
And yeah, it has been justabsolutely wonderful.
Carey (06:20):
That's incredible.
Bre (06:22):
Good story.
I'm glad you decided to do, Iknow the whole personal story
and everything'cause we'refriends off the show, but I'm
really proud of you for doingwhat you've done.
You you've done well.
Thank you.
No.
All right.
So tell us about this virtualshow.
Like what was the story behindthat part?
Yeah, so we started now fouryears ago.
(06:46):
It was the peak, like AI wasstarting to creep, then it was
starting to be a big thing inthe United States.
And I actually, and like rightafter Covid, during Covid, there
was some of my friends that haddone virtual livestock shows.
And I thought, Hey, we could dosomething like that for poultry.
So the very first time we did itall for Google Drive, had no
(07:08):
clue what we were really doing.
Got several hundred entries andput it together just with,
friends that I knew that wereinterested in judging poultry
and really enjoyed it.
And it's just grown every yearsince then.
So the last year we had about2,500 birds in there and over
300 exhibitors from across 36different state, and it's just
(07:32):
continued to grow and it's beenjust an absolute blast of a
time.
Carey (07:38):
Did you say 36 different states?
Bre (07:41):
Yep.
And I think there's threedifferent countries as well,
aside from the United States.
Carey (07:47):
Holy cow.
Bre (07:50):
So what's different this year?
That's new.
Yes.
Yeah.
So every year we try and wegrow, right?
We've fi figured out what'sworked, tweaked, what hasn't
worked, and tried to improveevery single year.
So the first year we used justGoogle Drive and our website and
it was Google form.
And then judges would comment onthe pictures and we'd post the
(08:12):
pictures after.
Last year and the year before,we tried to do live streams and
that worked really well.
So you could actually listen tothe judges live as they were
going and you could askquestions, you could see in real
time how they were placingeverything.
But on the back end of things,that was a lot of work.
We had to go through andmanually label all of the
(08:34):
photos.
We stripped like the exhibitor'snames off of them.
Order them on these slides, puteverything in the proper place.
And when you do that to 2,500birds, there's, it's hours and
hours and hours of time.
And it was easy to miss thingsin the cracks.
So what we did this year is wecompletely revamped the program.
So instead of posting it on thetypical website it'll be the
(08:56):
same link this year.
But on a completely newplatform, it's all gonna be
integrated.
You'll go in, you'll be able toupload it there, you'll be able
to see all of the entries thatother people are entering.
You'll be able to watch thejudging there, see all of the
judges.
You can go on like people'sprofiles so you can see and you
can share those images rightaway to social media.
(09:19):
So it.
Streamlines it from our side.
So there's less places for us tomake mistakes and we can keep
track of it so much better.
And it also makes it so mucheasier from the exhibitor side
of things as well to go through,upload all of your pictures to
keep track of your entries andalso see in real time what
everyone is entering.
(09:41):
When you say we, do you have amouse in your pocket or what?
Who is we?
Yeah I'm
Carey (09:46):
like I thought this was Bree.
I didn't, where's is shespeaking about the other, the
clones that she's created tohelp her with this?
Bre (09:57):
Yeah, usually for the most part it's just we, this year
we've got a couple of different,I use we,'cause I'm used to just
saying that like in our classprojects and things like that.
I do have a programmer that ishelping me like fix all the
little bugs, make sure thewebsite's working pretty well.
And then this year, which is newthere's a judging committee.
(10:18):
So we've got a group of four ofus that are going through to
pick out all of our judges.
Make sure that we've gottimelines set up really well.
Judges are all reallycomfortable with the software
and the platform we're using.
And they're gonna help pick outall of the youth judges too,
which I'm super excited about.
And then we've got I've gotanother person that's doing the
(10:38):
awards this year, so they'retaking care of ordering the
awards, mailing those all out sothat they get out in hopefully a
little bit more timely manner.
And then we've got a couple ofclinicians coming in.
So we're gonna run about fourdifferent clinics four or five
of them throughout the span ofthe entries for people to just,
they'll be completely free.
The whole show is completelyfree.
(10:59):
So from entering to judging tothe clinics, all of it, there's
no cost to any exhibitors.
But.
The clinics will be a good wayto deep dive into some topics.
So we're gonna have one onphotography, we're gonna have
one on selecting your birds, oneon showmanship, different things
like that.
So you get the full experiencefrom start to finish and
(11:20):
hopefully improve your breedingas you go.
But I've done a lot of it andI'm still, I'm doing most of the
work myself, but it just hasgotten to, it's continuing to
grow and therefore I've gottenpeople.
And with me this year to helpand make it a little bit easier
on me.
Carey (11:37):
That's awesome.
So tell us what theparticipation process is.
If someone wanted to enter theirbirds, who's eligible to do
that?
Is it too late?
Since it starts in a couple ofdays?
What are the steps to registerand submit entries?
Bre (11:54):
Yeah, so it, this year it's easier than ever.
In previous years you've had tohave a Google account and sign
in and things like that.
This and this this year it'll beall through the website.
So you'll go in, you'll, you cansee all of your entries and ev
like everyone else's entries andthe judges and the sponsors and
all of that without logging in.
(12:17):
But to actually enter it, you'llgo ahead.
You'll create an account.
Then you'll be able to uploadit.
So they'll have a little placefor that, says entries on it.
You'll click that and you cansubmit as many entries as you'd
want.
An entry is simply a picture ofyour bird.
So you want obviously very nicepictures of your bird.
Preferably standing still.
(12:38):
You want a good side picture andside profile.
There's just one photo per birdthat you need with the exception
of quail.
So we'll have actually a seminaron quail and how to do quail
entries, because that one's alittle bit more complex.
But for the rest of them, it's asimple one-off profile picture.
You upload it, you'll go aheadand click what class it is in,
(13:00):
what variety it's in.
You'll give it a fun name if youwant to, and then submit it.
And that's pretty much all youhave to do.
It'll keep track of your name,keep track of all of that and
then you'll come back on thejudging.
We'll post the drudging dates asit gets a little bit closer.
But when we say the show startthis Thursday the entries start
this Thursday.
So you've actually got until theend of June to get all of your
(13:23):
entries in.
You've got over two months takepictures of your birds.
Maybe you want to condition themout a little bit different, or
you wanna you wanna wash them,bathe them, or you're taking
them to a show when you wantpictures at the show.
All of those are allowed.
And you've got plenty of time tobe able to do that and prepare a
little bit.
And then into July is when we'llhave those judges go through
(13:46):
those birds.
It gives them a little bit oftime to sort through them.
And then they'll start placingthem live in July.
Carey (13:53):
Ooh.
So the show's judged by a PA anda BA licensed judges, right?
Bre (14:00):
Yep.
Carey (14:02):
All right.
Cool.
So
Bre (14:04):
the only exception there is the youth.
So anyone can enter the show.
Jennifer (14:08):
Yeah.
Youth
Bre (14:08):
can enter an open show.
If you're under 18, you canenter the same birds in our
Youth Judged youth show.
So we've got
Jennifer (14:16):
Okay.
Bre (14:17):
Specific youth judges.
We pick people that.
Usually are a little bit older,so they're usually they're under
21.
They're not quite an A-P-A-A-V-Ajudge yet.
Some of'em have thought aboutgoing on to become an A-P-A-V-A
judge and are working towardsthat.
But they're really qualifiedpeople that, and we wanna give
them an opportunity to practicetheir judging skills, practice
(14:39):
their reasons.
And sorting through birds.
So we, this year we're gonna gothrough, we're just gonna reach
out to different kids that weknow that would be highly
qualified.
They're showing already, they'rein showmanship, they're judging
and things like that.
And then they'll be judging thedifferent shows for the youth.
But for the open show, all ofthat is gonna be a PAB a BA
(15:03):
licensed with, and then quailwill be a CBA.
So we try and keep all of theorganizations we want, obviously
the best quality judges that wecan get, and just like what you
would see at a real show.
Carey (15:16):
Cool.
So education seems to be asignificant focus in the virtual
show.
How does the event contribute topromoting poultry education and
breeding for excellence?
Bre (15:31):
Yeah.
Like I said, we try and keep itas realistic to a real show as
possible.
The goal is always to be pickingthe best birds to win the show
and to be improving and helpingbreeders improve.
And by having judges judge livelike we've done in the past, and
actually give reasons, you get achance to hear exactly why
(15:52):
they're placing the birds theythe way they did.
And because it's so easy to doand it doesn't cost anything.
We get a lot of new exhibitors,we get some grandmaster
exhibitors all the way down topeople entering a show for the
very first time.
And so it's a really goodexperience to be able to see how
birds compare to the standard,how these standards should be
applied to the birds in front ofyou.
(16:15):
And even like how to take goodpictures how to properly present
your birds.
Kind of everything from start tofinish is really involved in the
virtual show.
Carey (16:26):
That's cool.
Bre (16:28):
And you have the clinics too, so what's the topics of the
clinics?
Yeah, so we're hoping hopefullyto have carry on for a feed one
feed and nutrition.
Probably
Carey (16:38):
work that out.
Bre (16:39):
Yeah, I think we're trying to figure out when we're gonna
have that one.
Sometime in June, probably.
We'll have a quail clinic inMay.
So that's specifically going tobe how to put your quail entries
together.
Put how to what variety theyshould go in, how to figure out
what variety and what place yourquail should go in.
(17:01):
We'll have a showmanship clinic,so someone that's gonna help
specifically youth go throughtheir showmanship routine.
Things to think about, things toimprove, how to approach it if
you've never done it before.
And then we're gonna have oneother person go through and talk
about.
How to select birds.
So whether you're looking atyour breeding pens or you're
(17:23):
looking to go out and buy birds,what you're gonna look for to
make a really good show bird atthe virtual show.
And then the last one will bephotography.
So how to take the best picturesof your birds.
That one will be pretty prettyquickly coming up in May.
So we'll get dates posted assoon as the main event of the
show, like the entries havestarted.
(17:45):
What challenges have you facedcreating this new website?
I know it's, oh, what?
It's been a doozy, hasn't it?
Oh, yeah.
Programming is.
It is not as easy as it lookslike on tv.
It's on tv they just if it wasthat easy, we'd all be doing it.
(18:08):
Exactly.
Every time it felt like,especially going through the
debugging, it felt like everytime I would try and fix an
error, I would make an errorsomewhere else.
So about three weeks ago, we hada test run for the virtual show.
We got everything up and runningto the point where it could
accept entries and we couldjudge like a mock show.
(18:31):
And we had 10 people run throughit, submit entries, get little
bugs and little, all find all ofthose little things that we
couldn't see.
And then I spent the last threeweeks.
Working through that, figuringout how to integrate things
properly, how to make sure theseimages are stored appropriately
so they're not just gonnadisappear on us.
(18:51):
And then all of the littlethings.
The, so like adding socialmedia, adding a, forgot your
password for all the people thatforgot.
Forget what their login is.
Just little things like that youmay not think about.
But the last man, it's probablybeen.
Five months putting the platformtogether.
And there's still things I'msure as the show will go on,
(19:13):
that will crop up.
Some of them will fix this yearand I'll fix as we go.
Some of them will just be,that's a thing to pencil in for
next year, suggestions tochange.
But it's been really neat to seeit grow and continue to get
better every time.
So you've done all this work?
We're do.
You're doing the poultry show.
So what are you going to use theplatform for the rest of the
(19:36):
year?
Yeah, so we'll see where it goesfrom there.
We'll see how well the firstshow with this platform goes if
it works out really well.
I'm, right now I'm in alivestock judging.
I'm on the beef management teamhere, livestock judging team,
poultry judging team here.
And we put on several big shows.
There's one actually that justhappened last weekend.
(19:59):
That's like a statewide largelivestock show.
So I anticipate doing additionalvirtual shows, whether that's
with large livestock throughclubs like the Block and Bridal
Club here on campus, or whetherthat's more poultry with like
breed clubs that wanna get moreshows going.
Or in the quail world with the ACBA.
(20:19):
I'd love to get to a point to beable to keep doing more shows
and help other clubs, othergroups and other people that
wanna do shows, get, get theground running with something
that's already established andit's been working.
Carey (20:34):
You get this working perfected, like you're working
on.
That you could probably easy,easily do one a quarter.
Bre (20:44):
I don't.
I don't wanna bite off more thanI can chew yet, but if it all
goes,'cause in previous yearsit's been so much behind the
scenes work.
And just days and days oftaking, making sure I have off
for the judges, making sure,answering questions from people,
sorting through all theseentries.
(21:04):
If this works it'll be so mucheasier to do.
And I love to be able to domore.
More per year, but it's gonnadepend on if everything goes
according to plan.
Carey (21:17):
Most definitely.
Last question I have for you isfor the listeners that are
interested in participating orsupporting your initiative, what
steps can they do to getinvolved?
Bre (21:31):
Yeah, so this year, which is new this year, we've got our
judging committee.
And all of like our awards chairand all of these different
volunteers.
Those are pretty much set.
We do have openings for clerks,so if you're interested in
following along, making surethings are running smoothly
while the shows are going, whichmeans you need to be able to sit
(21:52):
down and watch all of theseshows or one or two of them
we've definitely got a need forthat.
So go ahead and reach on out.
But the biggest way right now tosupport is gonna be fundraising.
So on Thursday it's not beencompletely public yet, but so
this will be the first, A lot ofyou guys are hearing about this,
Jennifer (22:12):
we won't
Bre (22:14):
on our big fundraiser this year is gonna be called Poorly
Drawn Poultry.
So we've got a group of aboutseven artists right now where
you'll upload a picture, you'llpay, we've got a link on there
to pay.
And again, this will be goinglive on Thursday, so you'll
watch our Facebook post for it.
And we've got the artiststhat'll go through and draw the
pictures of your pet and some ofthem.
(22:36):
Are phenomenally talented.
Like they, they literally willdraw things pretty close to
outta the standard ofperfection.
Some of them are likegrandchildren of people that,
are showing in the show.
They're six, seven years old andthey're just really excited to
draw.
So you may get something andit's fantastic.
You may get someone scribble onthe back of a napkin.
(22:58):
That's the fun of it.
And you can upload as manypictures as you want.
You'll pay for each entry.
And then we are we do pay ourartists for some of it, but the
rest of it goes to the show.
And then we'll also open upsponsorships so companies can go
in and sponsor different awards.
They can sponsor anything from aBest of Show award.
(23:19):
Down to your class awards.
This year we'll do somethingwith youth awards.
So we'll probably have anexceptional Youth award, it
sounds so for one of the youththat kind of goes above and
beyond throughout the show,we'll have special little awards
here and there.
And then you can also justdonate too.
So we've got links on ourwebsite that you can donate, you
can sponsor.
(23:39):
We've got merch available, sowe'll have t-shirts and.
Hats and like all sorts of funthings in between that you can
go and buy on there too, to justshow off that you're part of the
show and everything in between.
So a lot of ways for people toget involved and help out.
Carey (23:57):
That sounds awesome.
Bre (23:58):
You sound like you've got it all pulled together.
Oh, I hope so.
I always think I do and thenthings come up and we roll then
as we go.
But.
I'm really excited for how thisyear is shaping up and getting
ready to go.
Good.
I'm excited.
So there's nothing we can dotoday other than just be
excited.
(24:18):
Then have to wait till Thursday.
So
Carey (24:21):
let me ask this for this super anxious person, is it like
Thursday at midnight?
Thursday at more like clock.
Is that at
Bre (24:36):
am on the dock
Carey (24:36):
Pacific Eastern?
What time zone is that in?
Bre (24:41):
That'll be in central time.
Carey (24:43):
Oh, Thursday.
Eight o'clock central time.
Bre (24:49):
Yeah, we should be go to pips and chicks.com.
Yeah, in
Carey (24:55):
Turkey, in
Bre (24:56):
Central.
Nine o'clock.
I don't know any other timezones, but if you go to pips and
chicks.com/auctions, or you goon our Facebook page will be
where a lot of these posts arecoming out.
You'll be able to see the poorlydrawn pets and the sponsors
start to come through.
So follow our Facebook page.
(25:17):
The links will drop then.
And then our website will alsobe live at eight o'clock.
On the dot.
Carey (25:22):
So if one of your artists wants to draw a Rhode Island red
like this I would be willing tothrow down some cash on that
poor.
Sure.
Bre (25:36):
I can't promise for the poorly drawn pets.
It'll be any, any better thanwhat I could draw.
But for.
I know a lot of them do.
Do I think there's at leastthree of them that do
commissions on the side, so Oh,wow.
Carey (25:51):
We'll have to talk about that.
And 11 by 14 would be, thatwould look good behind my desk
at my office.
Bre (25:58):
Yes.
Carey (26:01):
All right.
Jennifer, do you have anyquestions?
Bre (26:04):
No, I guess we just won't sleep between now and Thursday,
just the pictures.
I probably won't be getting toomuch, but No.
All right.
I'm sure we'll talk to you againand you can tell us how it went.
Absolutely.
All right.
Carey (26:19):
Yeah, I'm curious.
All right have a great week, andwe looked forward to eight
o'clock central time onThursday.
Bre (26:28):
Yep.
Yeah.
Bye.
Thank you.
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