Virginia

oh, well then I don't feel so bad about not going then...your basques are probably what would have tempted me beyond my ability to resist! will you have them in the fall this year, then?

Yes, I aim to hatch at least 100, so roughly 50 fryers/capons for me, and 50 pullets...I'll keep the 20 voted most likely to succeed, and let the other 30 go as layers.
 
I am happy to hear the donkey got a new educated home. I am eventually going to get a donkey, but not ready yet. But that poor donk did need help. I am kicking my self that I didn't ask price.

This was my first time there too. We just browsed, but got there late (1-2 pmish) so everyone was packing up and leaving as we walked around. We did bring kennels, so we could buy if we saw anything. But we were looking for runner ducks with nice stature, white, female sebastopol gosling, wool sheep or really distant possibility of alpacas/donkeys. But by our time we mostly just saw pigs which we arent zoned for, chickens/turkeys and rabbits. Sept I think we will have to get there sooner. And not have eggs hatching the night before/that am. Do people really start shopping at 5 am?
 
I don't know about people shopping at 5am, we got there about 5:45 and started setting up, started selling as soon as it was light enough and the birds were set up properly.

as far as never selling or buying from a swap, you have to choose your battles. Leigh and I did ALL the handling of birds, keeping kids fingers out of the cages, etc. Leigh sold everyone she brought with her, I sold all but about half of the youngest (under 10 days old) SFH chicks and one slightly older chick.

broodies were my solution to keeping youngsters warm if necessary, though it did warm up enough that I was able to put some younger babies in the cages for a while to make them visible.

it was great seeing everyone who stopped by, sorry I didn't find others (tho I did look for you!)

I limited myself to bringing home only 4 new birds. all youngsters. one crested sfh cockerel from Marcia and 3 blrw pullets from another breeder (don't remember their name). and as much as I trust the quality of Marcia's birds, I can't guarantee that they might not have picked up something while at Gilmanor, so they will be going in my new quarantine pen down the hill for a month. it's far enough away from the other chickens that even the free rangers don't wander down there, secure against predators, and my feed/water system is self-sustaining for at least a week at a time, so they will be essentially hands-off during quarantine. and I have one extra blrw cockerel about the same age who will be joining them in 2 weeks to verify they're not asymptomatic carriers of anything.

fwiw, I thought the turnout was pretty good. sales were decent too. the only issue I had was with someone's loose dog peeing on my stuff. but that was taken care of as well.
 
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nope just us chicken addicts.
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Roanoke co here... everyone else is probably recuperating from their weekend at Gilmanor. (huge swap, if you hadn't heard).
 
I did not know about any huge swap. Another great reason to be on here! Getting all the news! LOL!
New Kent is between Richmond and Williamsburg.
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