So, when is the last time you went to a poultry auction? Oh, you haven't been to one? Well, imagine that! Hasn't everyone been to at least one poultry auction? As of last night I have and I must say it's.............well, unique might be the word I'm looking for.
On my quest to find just the right chickens for my new chicken tractor my brother, Kelly, enthusiastically suggested we attend his local bi-weekly poultry auction just on the other side of the river in Oklahoma. That should have been my first clue! My next clue should've been when he told me that the last auction a couple of weeks ago went till midnight! What?? I mean, how many chickens could there be to auction off? It had to be a fluke, a one-time thing. Surely this time it would be different.........I was wrong!
We got there early because you have to if you want a parking spot closer than a mile away. The event was out in the country but up a long winding driveway to a huge barn. The first part of the auction is spent outside where there is junk to be had. It would be one thing if there was one person willing to buy the junk but this was an auction so there were actually multiple people bidding on the junk. Amazing!
It was almost dark and getting colder so we took a quick look at the outside auction items before heading into the warmth of the barn. And when I say warmth, I mean maybe 5 degrees warmer than the cold of outside, which got down below freezing last night, I might add. Yeah, it gets better!
I've got to tell you right here that walking into this huge metal building was a step into a world that is very hard to believe, much less describe. It was set up like a meeting place with about 100 chairs and not one of them matched another. And around every wall was piles of........well, I'm just not sure, really! There was a layer of dust on most of it and under the dust was just stuff. And on the floor in front of the stuff, circling the rows of chairs, were cages and cages of poultry and various and sundry animals. There were chickens, guineas, ducks, geese, rabbits, and even one goat.
It was exciting at first. Oh, Kelly and I made lists of which hens we would bid on, how many we wanted, and what our top price would be. We were pumped! And then we sat down to wait for the chicken part of the auction to start. And wait we did! Three hours, two helpings of hot chocolate, and several trips to the lovely powder room (NOT) later, the auction started and by now we were freezing our little fannies off. Everybody else apparently got the memo because they all had their coveralls on. I have coveralls! Well, Bob does anyway, so I was kicking myself that I didn't think to wear them. There were a few little heaters set around the room but we weren't one of the lucky few to secure one of those coveted spots.
But the auction finally started and we knew just what we wanted. It didn't take too long for them to get to ours and it didn't take too long for someone to outbid us and take all nine of our beautiful black and white striped Barred Rock hens. Kelly was able to win one Ameraucana hen but by that time it was 11:30 (way past my bedtime) and I was done. Done and quickly turning into an iscicle.
So as soon as Kelly settled up we toted our lone little hen out to the truck, turned on the blessed heater, and thawed out as we drove away from my very first............and maybe last (give me a couple of days) chicken auction. What a hoot!
