Sometimes you end up buying something unexpectedly. This can occur anywhere, even (maybe especially?) at the NY State Fair – and fried cookie dough, fried oreos, and other atypically fried foods don’t really count as those are now expected at the fair.

One of our neighbors mentioned that they bought a steam mop at the fair a couple of years ago.  At this year’s fair, we even saw the steam mop display, but just walked on by.

However, we did end up with an unexpected purchase from a different area of the fair – the poultry building.  As the fair was more than half over, there were a number of chickens on display in the poultry building that were listed for sale.  We ended up with 2 new black and white Wyandotte hens!

The seller put them into a small wood and wire crate for transport. I actually just carried the crate with the hens in it right out of the fairgrounds. Although no one tried to stop us or verify the purchase, we did get a lot of strange looks from other fair-goers throughout the grounds and especially on the shuttle bus out to the parking lot.

Two hens in a small crate.

The crate was not very large for 2 hens and the hens kept trying to squeeze out of the gap in the top before we got home.

Close-up of the hens in the crate.

After we got them home, we let them out of their small crate into the chicken tractor for their quarantine period.  They seemed glad to be out of the small crate and be able to stretch their wings.

Hens from the State Fair in the chicken tractor.

We’ll keep them separate from the main flock for at least a week or so to make sure they seem healthy before moving to integrate them into the main flock. They were born in the spring so they should be ready to begin laying eggs for us soon – though with fall arriving and declining daylight hours, they may not begin laying until the spring.

Here is a video of the hens in the chicken tractor: