Going once… Going twice…

Today was our first real foray into the farming world. By popular demand, Caledonian Marts in Stirling were hosting a poultry auction. The only time I’ve ever been near an auction my dad was trying to buy a car and it confused me way more than it should have. We’d decided to make a day of it and brought the kids along for the ride.

After some mis-direction, a visit to a Blair Drummond Safari Park ticket booth to ask for directions and a visit to a Horse paraphernalia shop at another auction site on the wrong side of Stirling we made it to the auction. We arrived just as the livestock auction finished and the egg and equipment auction started but we still managed to see all the stock that was on sale. I think we were quite amazed at the price some of the mature chickens were going for and you could see pound signs light up behind my wife’s eyes at times just in case we ever end up with too many chickens for our garden.

We seemed to have caught number one son’s attention finally with the chickens, although not in any way that most people might have thought of . He’s a healthy young boy who is almost seven years old so when he seen a Silkie cockerel he wanted it there and then. When we asked him why he liked that one…

“Because you can see its brains!”

I’m not sure if it’s a breed standard or whatever but this Silkie’s comb was short and flattened and for all intents and purposes looked just like a bluey-purple brain. He seemed to perk up a little when he found out that 2 of the chicks that hatched were Silkies.

Just to finish off the day we took the kids up the Wallace Monument to get them some fresh air and stretch their legs before the drive home.