I NEED Chickens!

Really... I need a minimum of 3 chickens. The kids joined 4-H and wanted to do a poultry project. So being the over achieving mother that I am I obliged and signed them up. Knowing absolutely nothing about chickens I made a few calls first:) I called a chicken man I found close to our town who has chicks for sale. I asked him if we bought chicks if they would be ready to show before the fair in July. He assured me that they would. However, he was assuming I was talking broilers. I being a chicken novice had no idea that there were so many different breeds of chickens. So I didn't know the right questions to ask. Here is where my problems get started...

I need fancy chickens. Specifically, fancy hens which are grown, that my kids can train and get ready to show by July. You see, if we got the broilers the fate of the chicken was not so good. It would have ended up being sold at the end of the fair and turned into dinner. Don't get me wrong, we enjoy a nice chicken dinner. However, our chicken dinners usually do not have names. Nor are they birds we raised from chicks that my kids bathed, handled and came to love. So we need fancy chickens that get to come home with us from the fair, ALIVE! As of now we have no chickens, baby chicks ready for us to pick up who will not be ready to show by summer and we can not change our 4-H projects at this point.

I really do not know what to do. I have joined chicken message boards (there is a secret world of chicken loving people we suburbanites don't know about). Posted ad's on Craig*s list and asked everyone I know who may know someone who knows someone with chickens. I have received a couple of emails from people on CL. So far we were offered 4 silky roosters who are hostile and 2 peacocks. That's right, I asked for fancy chickens and someone offered me peacocks. I emailed back and said "this may be a silly questions, but are you talking about the peacocks like the ones at the zoo with the pretty tail feathers or is there a special breed of peacock chicken?" I know he thought I was nuts, but who offer peacocks to someone needing chickens, seriously!?

So if any of my Ohio bloggy friends have any connections to the chicken industry... Please help a mother out. I really need these crazy chickens. I am desperate!!!