We went to the Cement Auction tonight. Because of the heat, there were fewer people and birds there, although they had 2 big water cooling fans in the auction area, and an air conditioner in the office/snack bar area. Plenty of water was available for sellers to hydrate their birds, but several had expired from the heat ... they arrived near death, and some never recovered. I don't know why some sellers don't try to cover their birds during the trip to the auction. We always try to put a piece of cardboard or carpet over the birds on the trip. The combination of sun, heat, stress and lack of water were too much for some of the birds. Since it was so terribly hot today, we only brought what birds we could fit inside the truck in air conditioning, and brought water for them too.
The birds that sold for the highest prices were silkie and polish chickens, up to $18 each for desirable colors! Most other chickens were low in price, less than $10 each, especially roosters (of course).
Well, we are going to start hatching more of our silkie eggs now. Silkies always seem to sell well, and they're just so darn cute!
Next week is the new Newcastle Auction. We spoke to the people that are starting it up. They were at the Cement auction. I sure hope they do well. If they get a good enough response, they just might have the auction twice a month. That would be great for us, since it's only about 10 miles away from our house.
