RURAL MARTELL — Cars line both sides of the gravel road leading to Don and Cleo Madden’s home Saturday afternoon.

Signs along the road leading to the farm caution drivers to slow down. An Easter egg hunt is in progress.

The Maddens are known for the annual hunt — now in its 47th year — which draws hundreds of children and parents to their farm.

Just before 2, Don Madden stands watch at the road leading to his house to greet the hunters.

Today’s turnout of more than 300 is pretty average, he says, even though the weather is chilly.

“It’s hard to keep a thing like this organized,” he says. “After a while, it just becomes bedlam.”

Madden directs parents with kids 4 and younger to the south pasture, where the land’s a bit flatter and the eggs easier to find. Children 6 and older are sent to the north pasture with its rolling hills and trees.

The 5-year-olds can have their pick of fields, Madden says.

More than 3,600 eggs are tucked away in the two fields, waiting to be found. Of those, Madden says, about 1,200 are real. The others are plastic and filled with candy. There’s more of those this year because real eggs are running at $1.60 a dozen or higher.

When the Easter egg hunt first started, Madden says, the family held it for their three daughters’ Sunday school class. The next year they invited Sunday school classes from other churches. Then, through the years, he says, the family decided to just invite everyone.

As the time draws near for the hunt to begin, hordes of people wait at the gates to the two fields as a cold wind blows from the north.

Most of them are prepared, wearing winter coats and hats while children clutch plastic bags or baskets in their gloved hands.

“You’d be surprised how tough these people are,” Madden says.

Just after 2, the gates to both fields open and children and parents scatter across to begin the hunt.

Linda and Dean Weyers of Roca stand watch as their four children gather eggs. They’ve been bringing their kids to the Maddens’ hunt for about five years.

The open spaces give more children a chance to find eggs, Linda Weyers says. But, the eggs are also well-hidden, which makes it “like a real Easter egg hunt.”

“Once you come to this one,” she says, “the others just don’t compare.”

Reach Laura Chapman at lchapman@journalstar.com.