The last Friday of every month is my favorite day! It’s the Amish Animal auction in Yoder, Kansas. It’s a 2 hour drive from home but completely worth it.
We love being able to get away from the homestead for a day and being around other chicken people. We’ve made some really good acquaintances.
We started coming here last fall and every month it’s just gotten bigger and bigger. The auction starts at 4 pm and sometimes doesn’t end until after midnight.
I’ve got some amazing birds here over the fall and winter months. Although we’ve gotten pickier on what birds we want. I lean more toward the exotic breeds now. I still have your every day run of the mill birds though.
My free ranging yard birds are Rhode Island Red, White Leghorn, Black Jersey Giant, ISA Brown, Americana, Easter Egger and Blue Laced Wyandotte. I love getting the variety of different colored eggs.
I have been thinking a lot about just going to one breed for my free range yard birds. I have fallen in love with Bielefelders. They are beautiful birds. The biggest plus is they are auto-sexing! Only time will tell if this is something we do.
Back to the auction though and stop rambling. LOL When we first started coming it was fairly small. They have a barn they start running row upon row of chickens, rabbits, ducks, quail, pheasants, pigeons, geese, turkeys, goats, pigs, peafowl and cows. The rows are about 50’ long, and they can fit anywhere from 7 to 8 rows in the barn. Now it’s not unheard of to find 5 to 6 rows outside the barn.
This auction has become my fast favorite. I was unsure of it in the beginning. You hear horror stories about some auctions but we’ve never had an issue here.
Today we brought Mini Rex rabbits, Silver Appleyard ducklings, guinea keets and Blue Cochin Bantam chicks. It’s a small day selling day for us. My husband sold 95 quail yesterday that we would’ve normally brought to auction.
It’s 98 degrees today with not much wind. Luckily we brought our camp chair to sit under the big shade tree.
So if you are out and about today near Hutchinson Kansas come out and see what it’s all about. Everyone is friendly and will stand and talk about animals with you for hours. Have a great weekend and stay cool!
0903 Homestead 