The Sale Barn

First, I must apologize - Since I did not take a camera with me to Veedersburg, the true picture of this experience was not captured for your viewing pleasure. So, you will have to be appeased with 1,000 words, instead! We took a cage of 6 Buff hens and 2 Black Star hens. We also took the last 2 doe kids to sell. It was an overcast, but warm evening. It would later turn very cold and pour rain. Sam and Elizabeth, a young(er) married couple, actually WANTED to accompany us down to the sale. They are both misplaced farm kids, homesick for the country.
When we arrived at the sale barn, the place was busy. They normally have an outside sale going on at the same time as the animal sale inside, but because of the forecast of rain, all these items were inside the barn with the animals. The outside items are usually farm related , and there are usually lots of small bales of hay - for the horsey people, mostly, though goat and poultry owners buy a bit of this hay, too. So there were two auctions going on in the same building at the same time, with two loud and verbose auctioneers on two different P.A. systems. I'm sure I was more annoyed by this than most of the auction attendees, but fortunately, all the clucking, honking, quacking, gobbling, and baa-ing (is that the sound that goats make?) drowned out most of the second auctioneer.
We walked through the items in the "outside" sale - sometimes you can find something of use - nesting boxes, an 6-foot oak board, fence posts, and the like, but sometimes there are really odd things, like a warming box from a caterer or vibrating recliners, and this night, it was stuff that looked like someone had cleaned out his barn...and his garage...and his basement. So, we skipped that sale and went into the arena for the "critter" sale. We had walked through the cages and boxes and stalls before the auction started and it was pretty much the norm - no donkeys or peacocks this time. Of course there were hundreds of chickens and rabbits, quite a few goats, and some odd (i.e. strange) sheep. There were a few turkeys that showed up late, but we didn't stay long enough to see them sell.
After 20 lots sold, we led our two does into the ring. These "girls" are an Alpine/Boer cross, which is a milking breed crossed with a meat breed. I'm pleased to report that they sold for $70 each - and as I later learned, the woman who bought them had no intention of milking OR eating these two - she wanted them for PETS! The chickens went for $4 each, the 6 Buffs to one buyer, the 2 Black Stars to another. However, because of the commission of 35% on small animals at this sale, I only made $20 on the chickens! The commission on the larger animals is state-regulated at only 10%. I guess our government does work - sometimes!
While at the sale, Elizabeth fell in love with a baby bunny - it really was sweet and cute (calico) and soft - "and she will love him and pet him and name him George". She ended up buying him when she found out that he was also missing part of a hind leg (poor baby). On a sad note, after spending $3 for the bunny, $15 for a cage (with tray), $7 on feed, $2 on a waterer, and $2 for rabbit treats, "Skippy" died on Monday morning. I guess Elizabeth will be wanting to go to the next sale in the spring - though by that time she will have her own (human) baby. We'll see how she feels then before we make any plans to go down to Veedersburg again!