Let's Swap!

It was a dark and miserable morning, but it was jolly inside LuLa cruising down the back roads to Ellsworth.  I was on my way to the first small animal swap of the season, and I had a couple of good friends along for the ride. 

Plus, we had coffee.

It took about an hour to reach the Pierce County Fairgrounds and maneuver the maze of buildings before reaching the pole shed where the swap was being held.  The first thing that greeted us was a woman with a pickup load of goats.  Check out this cutie:

 

A bottle fed baby, sweet as can be.  (No, I didn't bring him home.)  Unfortunately, he was the only healthy one in the truck.  The others were sneezing and coughing and dripping goo from their little noses.  The lady selling them blamed it on the weather, but somehow I don't think so...

Anyway, after that it was into the pole shed to check out the offerings.  They were pretty slim, with some mixed bag chickens and show rabbits.  I was a little disappointed--I was hoping for more selection of rabbits, and definitely not show ones.  They are lovely, but mini rex and lionhead rabbits won't add much to my meat production rabbitry.  I was hoping for a new doe from a hardy bloodline, so I'll keep looking.  There will be other swaps!  And there were a couple of chicken  breeders there, with lovely Buff and Black/Lavender Orpington breeding trios for sale and some straight-run Cuckoo Marans, Partridge Wyandotte and Araucana chicks for sale.

I got to talking with a woman and her daughters who raise chickens on their farm and had brought a collection for sale. They weren't the prettiest chickens there, but all were healthy and well feathered.  I was hoping for a Light Brahma hen, but they only had cockerels.  It was okay, though, because I found a lovely little pullet of mixed heritage who is sweet as can be and only a couple weeks away from being ready to lay her first eggs.  I've already named her.

Meet Doris Day.

 

 Isn't she lovely?  A couple of days in the isolation cage to acclimate and take care of what looks like a slight case of scaly leg mites, and she should mix in with the ladies of the Big Coop well.

Stay tuned for the other adventures that ensued after the swap!