You might say, “But…” “It doesn't matter to me; I like them the way they are, and I don't care.” Well, we shouldn't think that way, regardless of whether or not we want to enter our birds—whether for their shape, color, value, qualities, etc.—in local, national, or international poultry shows.

We need to understand that they will be examined, evaluated, and scored—or not (if they do not meet the breed standard)—on a scale by poultry judges and evaluators, who are highly qualified and experienced in this field; they have been preparing for this for some time.

In Spain, the process takes five years (two years as a judge within the association to which one belongs, and three years of theoretical and practical exams administered by FESACOCUR); in other words, not just anyone can claim to be a poultry judge, no matter how much they know about the specific breed they raise, even if they could be described as an expert. Serving as a judge is a position of the utmost importance that, like any profession, requires dedication and professionalism. Of course, there are many breeds, and they must know and be able to evaluate all of them.

A good judge must have a thorough knowledge of the breed in question, surpassing the knowledge that the rest of us may have. Let’s not kid ourselves: no one can be an expert on the standards of every breed of chicken that might appear at a show.

We should not think that a judge’s job consists merely of quickly filling out a couple of judging forms and then leaving; rather, a judge’s evaluations should guide breeders and set the direction for a breed’s development, and often serve as a corrective measure to ensure that a breed does not deviate from its standard or pattern.

There is hardly anything worse than a judge who, in this case, does not master his craft; that is to say, in the first half of the collection assigned to him, he criticizes, for example, the color of the flaps on a breed of chickens, while it says nothing about the animals’ ears in the second half, and these animals have even worse ears than the first ones. As a result, such judging discourages breeders because they don’t know what direction the judge is taking with his criticism.

To this end, this illustrated guide aims to highlight all the most common issues related to the head and face of the Castilian Black Rooster. These will serve as indicators that our birds do not conform to the breed standard, and, much to our regret, we must remove them from our coops and limit ourselves to breeding with well-selected, high-quality breeders that do not have these serious flaws in their external structure, which we can quickly spot when observing the birds. With the guidelines provided in the photo itself, we will have and can form a very clear idea.