A couple weeks ago I attended the NWODGA’s annual goat conference. It was a great day and I learned a lot from the speakers I had the privilege to listen to.

THE SESSIONS

There were a wide variety of classes to choose from, whether you were a youth or an adult. There were topics for dairy, meat, and fiber goats. There were topics on disease, cheese making, using herbs medicinally, mastitis, and more. That was one of my draws to attend the show – the variety.

There was time to attend 4 sessions.

My first two sessions were with Gianaclis Caldwell from Pholia Farm, author or Holistic Goat Care and Mastering Basic Cheesemaking. I enjoyed her a lot. She was knowledgeable, a great speaker, and definitely adored her goats.

I have her Holistic Goat Care book in my personal library. I asked her to sign it for my goat partner/daughter.

The third session I attended was on dystocia, the possible problems you may run into during kidding. Again, the speakers were knowledgeable and a joy to listen to.

The fourth and final session was an online class that I believe was developed by Washington State University. It is a new online curriculum geared towards middle and high school students. The module we did was on biosecurity. There are more modules in the works. They are great for 4H kids.  The researchers would like more feedback on the modules, so if you or your 4H group are interested please take the course and fill out the evaluation.

I had goats due to kid, so since I had my laptop with me, I was able to keep an eye on things using our security cameras. It may seem silly, but those cameras made it possible for me to go to this conference. I wouldn’t have felt comfortable being gone all day without being able to check on things in the goat barn.

THE VENDORS

I didn’t have a lot of time to browse the vendor tables. But, I was able to talk with the people from Simple Pulse, who I just recently bought a milking machine from. I also bought a couple goat coats from Coat Your Goat.

We had so much snow and ice that our road was slick enough it required chains to come and go. I had 3 goat mama’s due any day, and the conference was quite a drive. Despite the challenges at home, the conference was fabulous. I’m so glad I went.

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It has been a couple years, but I finally made it back to be an Oregon Poultry Swap vendor. OPS has grown a lot over the years and are now known for more than just poultry. It makes for a fun event.

There was, of course, many chickens and other poultry for sale. Also rabbits and pigs. Plants, honey, homemade soap, and craft items, too.

There was a seed swap, activities for kids, and lots of education information.

RIDGETOP FARM & GARDEN BOOTH

I brought week old Olive Egger, White Leghorn, and Delaware chicks, as well as a few pullets. I was surprised how quickly the pullets sold.

I also brought goat milk soap, hatching eggs, and hand designed canvas totes.

Rusty Rooster

Rusty Rooster greeted everyone at the entrance and biosecurity area.

The Faire

A few tables set up with a ton of education material. I loved that!

After I got all set up, I had a few minutes before the Faire opened to the public. I got a breakfast sandwich from the vendor doing food. So good! I don’t remember the price, but it was reasonable for the huge, delicious sandwich.

Of course we couldn’t leave the Faire empty handed. I found a few chicks from a couple different breeders. Farm Girl was my helper for the day. She picked out a rabbit, that she named Thumper.

END OF A GOOD, BUT LONG, DAY

After a very long day of driving, setting up, tearing down and being a vendor, we came home to unknown sheep and goat friends near our goat pen. Thankfully, with a bit of grain I was easily able to catch them. Then, drive around and hope to find the owners. Which, I did.

Another successful event in the books. Time to register for the next one.

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Saturday was the Oregon Fall Poultry Swap in Corvallis. This was our first time being a vendor at the Fall Swap. Although, earlier this year we were vendors at the Spring Swap.

OUR BOOTH

OTHER VENDORS

WHAT WE BROUGHT HOME

Farm Kid2 bought a Muscovy duck from a vendor across from us. He also bought hatching eggs from the vendor right next to us. The 3 light brown eggs are Seramas & the white egg is an Olandsk Dwarf. Ooh, I hope they hatch.
Update: Day 6 I candled the eggs & all 4 looked to be developing. I was so excited. However… about day 14 we were in town all day & sometime early in the morning our power went out. By the time we got home the eggs were cold & had been for a number of hours. Our power didn’t come back on until the next day. They never did finish developing.

The day went very well. My only complaint is that going to the swap as a vendor, I don’t have time to look around at what everyone else is selling or take part in the other activities. Last year at the Fall Swap I had a great time browsing & taking pics. Whether going as a vendor or a customer, though, the event is fun. I’m sure we’ll be back next year.

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When I decided to be a vendor at a poultry swap for the first time I knew I had to put together a couple things for the booth. Most importantly was figuring out the cages for the chickens. Next on my list of importance was creating signage that easily stated what we were selling as customers walked by. I came up with an upcycled project using only materials we had at home.

MAKING THE SIGN

For the individual pieces stating the items we have for sale, I used bender board. I originally installed the bender board when I designed our bird village with the hopes of it separating the garden dirt from the gravel path. It kind of worked for awhile. Then the boards split and/or came out of the ground. Maybe I didn’t install it correctly. Whatever the reason, the boards don’t work & are more of a hazard than a help. So, I pulled most of them out & used what I could to make my vendor sign. They work perfectly, primarily because they are lightweight.

The first thing I did was measure each board. Then, I used my computer to print out words that would fit on the board. I chose a font that was simple & easy to read.

The bender board is so soft that I simply traced the letters with a pencil & the pressure made an indent in the board. I used those indentations as guides to paint the words.

Using outdoor acrylic paints, I painted inside the indent first with my main color, then went around the outside in white. I also used Behr’s indoor/outdoor primer & paint. It was all paint I had on hand, and I’m sure regular acrylic paint would work, too.

THE STAND

Farmer John built me this stand as a place to attach the bender board painted signs. It is quite sturdy & doesn’t require any weight to keep from falling over. The only downfall is that it doesn’t come apart & is awkward to fit in my car. But, it does fit.

Farmer John predrilled holes in the bender board signs so they wouldn’t split when screwing them to the stand.

USING THE SIGN

I bring a cordless drill & screws with me to the swaps & attach the individual signs to the stand once I get there. It is simple & takes no more than 5 minutes to set up.

I love this sign for a few reasons:
1. Perfection was not necessary. It’s meant to be fun & slightly wonky.
2. Super simple to make
3. It’s large & legible, yet easy to haul & set up
4. No out of pocket expenses

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On Saturday a friend & I were vendors at the Oregon Spring Poultry Swap. This was our first time as sellers not buyers. It was a long, yet fun, day starting with my alarm going off at 4:20am. Most of the chicks we’ve been hatching this year came with us to the swap. I was wanting to also bring a few laying hens that hatched last spring, but there was no room in my car for them. Bummer. Maybe next time.

OUR BOOTH

This was our first swap & a good learning experience. I learned our company sign rests perfectly on the legs of a particular table we have. I learned people really enjoyed the sign I made listing what we were selling.

I layed our booth out in an L shape trying to give us more table space, expecting people to come in and look at the other table. They didn’t.

So, we moved one cage from the back table to the top of the dog crate. That was perfect. The cage then was up front & at eye level. I constantly moved birds to that cage as the ones in the cage sold. We got many questions about the nipple waterers.

I also tried selling hatching eggs & my friend brought vanilla extract. FYI, the vanilla is fabulous.

Chicks we brought were:
Rhode Island Reds: ages 2 days & 1 week
Marans: ages 2 days & 5 weeks
Easter Eggers: ages 2 days, 5 weeks & 10 weeks

I brought a couple crafty things just to see if they would sell. They didn’t.
I made small garden signs out of pallet wood. They are painted with outdoor paint & sealed with a clear coat.
I also brought 2 of the cement leaves I made last summer.

OTHER VENDORS

This swap was set up in two different barns. We were in the goat barn with most of the vendors selling animals. The sheep barn was mainly for the craft vendors.

It was such a good time. The day started out slow. But, once it picked up we never slowed down until close to closing time. My crafts didn’t sell, but I sold most of the chicks. People were just as interested in the 5 & 10 week old chicks as they were the 2 day old chicks. I’m sure I would have sold a couple laying hens, too, had I been able to bring them. Many vendors had Marans & Easter Eggers & many customers wanted them. Not many shoppers were interested in the Rhode Island Red’s. I’m not sure why not. They are great layers & a fairly calm bird.

All the shoppers were friendly & great to talk chicken with.

The only downfall of the day was that I didn’t get to do shopping of my own. I would have liked to look around more than I was able. But, it’s hard to complain when the reason I couldn’t leave our booth was because there was usually customers at it.

My friend & I decided it was such a good time that we signed up for the Fall Swap.

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A friend & I spent the day at the Oregon Fall Poultry Swap. There were so many great vendors, friendly people & gorgeous chickens. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we are planning on being vendors at the Spring Swap.

VENDOR AREA

MORE VENDOR STUFF

There was much more than live birds to bring home. Lots of vendors brought handmade goodies.

It was a great event & I can’t wait until the spring swap.

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The Pacific NW Poultry Association Spring Show was this last weekend. All 5 of us went & stayed nearly all day Saturday looking, learning & exploring. This was our first show. We were planning on going to the show just to check it out. But, last month when Farm Kid2 went to a clinic on how to show your bird he left there wanting to show his bird. So, I signed him up. Win or lose, I figured it would be a great learning experience for him.

Farm Kid2 showing his bird for the first time. He has a Light Brown Bantam Leghorn.

Show Birds & Raffle Items:

To see a couple more bird pics from the show check out our facebook page.

Both our boys made posters to enter in the poster contest. Neither won, but I think they did a great job.
Left: Farm Kid2 (age 7) wanted to make his poster about chicks hatching. He wanted to include both hatching from an incubator and hatching from a broody hen.
Right: Farm Kid1 (age 10) chose to make his poster about our Golden Polish chickens. Those do seem to be his favorites. If he’s going to go hold a chicken, it’s almost always a Golden Polish.

A few more fun things at the show:
Left: Any time Farm Girl could pet a bird, she did.
Middle: Farm Kid2 also wanted to enter our eggs in the egg judging contest. So, we did that too. Again, this was a first for us & I really didn’t know how they were going to be judged. We did get 2nd place, though, out of 4 entries in our class.
Right: Farm Kid1 asked if he could get a quail & that he’d pay for it with his own money & take care of it. Farmer John has said for years that he would like quail, so it wasn’t hard to sell dad on the idea. I will admit they did look pretty cute. They are like tiny, little jumping beans. Each of the kids picked out a quail.

It was kind of a long day & parts of it were a bit slow, but we all enjoyed the show. Next time we know to bring a few things to entertain the kids. I’m sure this was the first of many shows we will take part in.

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