THE SKY DIDN'T FALL ON CLUCKING CONTESTANTS

The champions won't be declared until this morning, but there was plenty of crowing Saturday afternoon at the A.C. Brase Arena Building.

More than 800 chickens, assorted waterfowl and a few pigeons entered in the first Heartland Classic Poultry Association Show made a constant ruckus as breeders, spectators and judges walked the aisles of cages.

Three American Poultry Association judges evaluated the fowl for conformity to established breed standards. There are more than 200 breeds of chickens, 100 of which are represented in the Heartland show. Within each breed are as many as 40 varieties.

Some are unusual looking, like the Polish, which has a huge crest on its head. Silkies are white balls of fluff, the poultry version of a poodle. By comparison, the cocks of the Brahma breed are mammoth.

The varieties within the breeds compete in four classifications: cocks, hens, cockerels (cocks less than 1 year old) and pullets (hens less than 1 year old) before the four best birds vie for best of variety. The winners then compete for best of breed.

The show resumes this morning at 8 a.m. and will conclude with the naming of the champions at 10 a.m. Sixty-five exhibitors from 11 states have entered poultry.

Inga Ladd, a lawyer from Malden, is the secretary of the American Silkie Club. Their looks is her only explanation why she started raising Silkies five years ago. "They were the neatest fuzzy looking chickens," she said.

Originating in China, the small, five-toed Silkie has white feathers that do not stick together so it cannot fly. Its skin, its meat and even its bones are black. The chickens are considered a delicacy in China. In Japan the eggs are valued for their supposed medicinal benefits.

She has named only a few of her 50 Silkies just the ones that are unusual looking. Her family eats the eggs but not the chickens. "Maybe I'm a little too attached to them to eat them," she says.

She and her 2-year-old, Joshua, spend 45 minutes or so each morning tending the chickens before she goes to the office. "It's an escape from work," she says.

Ladd is glad the Heartland association has begun sponsoring shows. She is accustomed to driving 10 hours and even flying to get to a show.

The American Poultry Association, formed in 1873, is the oldest livestock association in the U.S. The local poultry association organized last year, and this is its first show.

Outside of the SEMO District Fair's annual poultry competition, which usually draws about 100 entries, this is the first poultry show to be held in the region in at least 30 years, says the Heartland association secretary, Kirk Keene of Anna, Ill.

Few poultry breeders are farmers. Keene is a screen printer. He breeds Plymouth Rocks, one of which won the Ohio National show in Columbus, Ohio, last fall.

He hatched over 600 birds last year, raising some to show and sellling others. His family eats the spare eggs. He says some people make pets of the birds but he doesn't. "We eat a lot of chicken."