Up at Dawn

Raising chickens is a lot of fun. I especially love hatching chicks and raising them. I'm hatching chicks so I'll have birds to show this year. The down side is, I have to hatch maybe 50 to get a few that are really good show birds. The other 40 are "culls," but not in the true sense of the word. They are still very good birds, if I could find someone who needed them.

Barred Old English bantam. Not a show bird, but great color, hard to find. Off to the auction.

Dominique Bantam cockerels. The one in front has great color, a great comb.
Is already bigger than the standard. Off to the auction.

The problem is, everyone who shows birds also has more than they need. So it's a problem finding homes for the extras. I can sell a few at shows, but the shows don't start until the fall and I need to clear my cage space right now. The only avenue I've found is to take them to the Roseville Auction on the first or third Sunday of the month.

That's what I did this morning.

Last night Bob helped me catch the ones that were going. I put them in carriers overnight in the game room. Got up at 5:30 and made it to the auction at 6:30. I always feel like such a bad person when I leave the birds to their fate and drive off.

I don't feel as bad as I once did, though. With the rising popularity of backyard chickens, there are a lot of new people in the poultry world. Many treat their birds as pets, so when they have to get rid of a rooster because of zoning conflicts or complaining neighbors, and take their little darling to the auction, they are pretty picky about how he's handled. The people who run the auction seem to have adapted to this. They still have the same rickety old pens, but the pens are under a roof, not out in the sun or rain. The personnel handle the birds much better than they used to...in the old days I'd find myself snarling at those boys once in a while.

I'm always interested in unforeseen consequences.

While some of the new chicken people can drive you nuts with their "Chicken Run" mentality, overall their participation has been a benefit to us all. The feed stores have geared up to serve a bigger poultry market, so I don't have to go online to get what I need.

The game bird people have similarly had some good effects. I do not in any way approve of cock fighting, I'm glad it's illegal and hope all those idiots get caught. However, the guys who raise those birds do spend a lot of money on them. A lot of the medications, specialized feeds, and other things are available at the feed store because of the game bird market. I appreciate that. I also appreciated it when we were at the county protesting a proposed chicken regulation a couple of years ago, and the game bird raisers showed up and testified, too. It's not illegal to RAISE game fowl, only to fight them.

Anyway, I took a dozen birds to Roseville this morning. It's nice to be driving on Sunrise Blvd. early on Sunday morning when there's no traffic. It reminds me how things used to be, when I could get to Roseville in 20 minutes instead of the 45 it takes me now on a weekday. There were a few interesting people out walking at dawn. One young lady, dressed in running clothes, was scooting along on the sidewalk in a motorized wheelchair, accompanied by a young fellow who was running alongside her. She leaned forward a bit, as if she was trying to beat him to their destination.

A little further down the road a young lady in a skimpy tank top and shorts was wandering aimlessly across the 4-lane road. She had long, stringy hair that was half blonde and half brown. Her face had  a vacant look, with a weird half-smile pasted on it. On the way home I saw her again. She was on the sidewalk at least a mile further down the road. You have to wonder what was going on in her life, I wouldn't expect someone who was zonked out to be up and about that early in the morning, let alone walking at a pretty good clip.

I stopped for eggs and bacon at Denny's. I stopped at Lowe's to check out the storage sheds. I was home before 8:00. I'll be working all day to clean pens and move birds around. I still have a few babies in the house, but most are outside now and have plenty of room to grow. It looks like a good day to work outside, it's overcast and cool. I probably won't have to go to the auction again for a couple of months.