When I saw the dates for the Waverly swap come out on social media I immediately put them in our family calendar. I have heard great things about this swap but nothing prepared us for the awesomeness that was Waverly. We could tell by the cars as we arrived that it was going to be busy and we weren't disappointed. I'm guessing there were at least 100 sellers with everything from cages (good thing too because we bought a second one) to toys to every kind of small animal you can imagine. The really crazy thing is that people come and go from this swap for a solid 24 hours, through the night even. These people are serious about their small animals. We walked up and down the muddy rows and tried to look in every cage. I would like to say I went to the swap with a plan. That would be a blatant falsehood. I went to the swap hoping to find hens. I was not prepared for the sheer volume of choices, breeds, sizes and prices available.
In the beginning we left the carrier in the car. This proved to be a mistake as chickens we were interested would sell before we got through the swap and back around. So about halfway through we decided to buy a second carrier to go with the one still in the Traverse. Believe it or not, it was actually Tim's idea. Silly man, two carriers means twice as many chickens!! Sophie wanted more turkens (weird kid that she is), Libby wanted silkies and Melissa wanted chickens of any size, breed, color, egg color - just chickens! I had a few breeds I would have loved to find, but not picky. Only hens though so that did put us out of the running as some people only sold trios or pairs. We all ended up getting what we wanted. Throughout the couple of hours that we wandered the swap we got two silkies, some banties, some Easter egg layers and some speckled Sussex. We sent Tim back to swap carriers at one point and it was his reminder that sent us back at the very end of the swap to find Sophie's request, turkens. We did find two more little turkens and she picked out some fun colors.
Despite the fact that we were mainly chicken shopping, we sure enjoyed looking at and dreaming about the many MANY other animals we saw there. I will never forget the hilarious look on Libby's face when the trailer behind her let out a very loud and determined bray. I'm not sure if she thought the trailer was exploding or what, but she sure had the wits scared out of her. That trailer held an adorable mini donkey, as did so many others. We will have a donkey again someday! One wouldn't fit in the back of the Traverse though, darn it. We also saw every breed and color of ducks, geese, swans, pheasants, pigeons, quail, turkeys and peacocks. Boy, those peacocks were sure gorgeous. Hard to leave them behind. We learned a bunch too. I love how many of the sellers weren't afraid to talk to you about their animals and explain what they were, how they were raised, etc...
It wasn't just donkeys and birds though. There were calves, pigs, llamas, mini ponies, sheep, skunks and patagonian cavies too. Oh yes. Skunks. Descented, I'm sure or it would have been a mess as they were obviously nervous. They were not your typical black and white either, these were apricot colored skunks. Kind of cool, but I had no desire to bring one of those home. Carter and Sophie both argued hard and long about the other animal we saw a LOT of at the swap though. Both were bound and determined we need to add a goat to the farm. There were goats of every size, breed, color and age to choose from but they were both met with a firm "no" at this time. I had my reasons against bringing home a goat, like gardens, flowers and my sanity, but they were sure disappointed. Maybe next time....
If little tiny critters are more your thing, there were plenty of those too. There were guinea pigs, hamsters, mice, rats, hedgehogs, sugar gliders, chinchillas and pretty much everything that falls into the "creepy, crawly" or "fuzzy wuzzy" category in my book. I'm not going to lie that I rushed past a lot of those sellers because the cute little sugar gliders and chinchillas were usually caged right next to 20 or so mice that looked fairly determined to escape their cages. They are cute. In a cage.
All in all, our first Waverly swap was well worth the drive and a success story. We will be back and we will be more prepared the next time. Libby and I think we should bring a trailer for the next go around. I'm not sure why Tim isn't keen on that idea? I mean, just because I have a trailer doesn't mean I will fill it, right?
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