The Poultry Congress a Success!

         This past Saturday should be deemed a holiday for chicken and all poultry lovers alike. The Northeast Poultry Congress was held at the Big E in West Springfield Mass. That meant, of course, that I was there in a heartbeat!

        Chicken lovers from all over came to show or buy birds. Even Jan Brett, the illustrator of popular childrens books, was there!
        The echoing stadium was lined up with cage after cage of talking birds. Over a thousand different birds were showed. You can imagine how many roosters crowed every second!  Each one competed with the cockerel in the cage next to him for volume! Their attempts at manliness were as cute as a little roo can get...
        A  separate room was devoted for birds being sold. My fellow chicken lovers came along: my dear friend Rebekah and my boyfriend Steve. Rebekah drove home from the congress with a little Cochin rooster. The farmer that sold her the bird made a point to mention what a shame it would be to cull the rooster if he wasn't sold. That comment was all it took for her, the softy that she is, to buy the little roo. We later joked that he could sense she was a Subaru driving vegan. But who knows? I bet the old time farmers do have a sixth sense for Subaru drivers!
     The farmer that sold Rebekah the roosters hatched his chickens out  himself. It goes to show that if your interested in hatching out your own chickens, you'll likely end up with  a ton of roosters. If you use that method, know what you're getting yourself into! Very few people are interested in buying roosters.
     I, on the other hand, came home with my sweet little Old English Wheaten Game Bantam.

              ^^^^^  (Rebekah and I with our new lil chicks!)

Steve and  I made sure it was a little hen for our tiny apartment. Our neighbors would wonder if they heard a rooster crowing every morning.
         For more information about going to the Poultry Congress go to (http://poultrycongress.com)....It's worth it!