Hello from Wiarton Ontario Canada

Hello everyone and Hi Gwen!
Just thought I'd introduce myself. I am thrilled to find you all. We have been at our farm about 2 years, and as we work full time we are starting off slowly, with about 35 hens (and too many roos, one of each breed and the odd spare). Actually it's gotten out of hand quite quickly!

I love hens that are heritage, blue, rare or fancy eggs layers. We have adult Dominiques, Welsummers, Cuckoo Marans, EE Americaunas, Partridge Chanteclers, Black Sumatras, Wheaten Pendesencas, Marradunna Basque Hens, Sicilian Buttercups, also blue Silkies, and white frizzle cochin boy. I like my birds friendly, and they get lots of attention here.

We are trying these breeds this year too and have young birds we are very pleased with. Standard Blue Laced Red and Silver Penciled Wyandottes, Blue Cochins & Andalusians, Barnevelders, Black Pendesencas, Silver Gray Dorkings and some Spangled Orloffs. I got Mille Fleur and Self Blue D'Uccles, as well as more blue silkies, and white frizzle cochins and bantam blue cochins.

We sell our Rainbow Eggs at the Around the Sound store in Owen Sound and we are thrilled with peoples response to them. It is so nice to be appreciated, and especially when you love what you are doing.

Oh I grow lavender as well and had 500 plants going into the winter and have about 40 now (and about 500 replacement cuttings raring to go)! Very cold winter.... for us too:/! I hope to sell locally, on the farm and maybe some pick your own. It is heaven out there, the views are lovely where we are and it is a dream come true working out there on the lavender. We did get a small lavender harvest last year, and it was a delight to process and dry it.

I am excited about getting two Belted Galloway cows it the fall and a boy calf for the freezer. A nice little Dexter wouldn't go amiss either.

We usually have a huge veggie garden though we were late getting started this because of all the chicken tractor building!!
and I have been away WWOOF-ing (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) to volunteer to help out farms bigger animals and make cheese etc and bee-keep as I am not really from a farming background and I want to make sure I don`t harm any of my animals from my lack of knowledge.

I do sell soaps/lotions etc on ebay and rare antique linens on there for 9 years (Mill Pond Cottage). So if anyone needs ebay questions answered I`m happy to help.

I work away from home for a week or two at a time, so DH looks after the birds then. I hate to be away from the farm, but it means I can be home full time for weeks too, so I can handle it!

Look forward to meeting you all online and maybe in person too!
Hope to chat with you all,
Claire Smith

from Utah

Hi Claire and welcome to BYC. You sound like my kind of woman with all of your farm, chicken, and ebay adventures going on. Sounds like you have some beautiful birds. I too try and raise the heritage breeds and I would be interested in buying hatchig eggs from you when you are ready to start selling them. I have a thread titled "Journey through a different way" and invite you to take a visit and see everything I have going on on my little farm I started a year and half ago. Sounds like we have a lot in common.

Monique "Ruth"

Edited to add a link to my Journey "blog"

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=36944

from MO

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. I do belong to a couple of Canadian poultry forums, and so many people I have met in person through having the chickens have told me about BYC. I thought it was time to join and find out what they were addicted to! I think I am hooked already

I read your entire thread today Monique Ruth! I feel like I know you! You are certainly going for it, full on like we are. It seems impossible to resist once the urge is here, and when the time is right. We got our first birds 2 years ago, about 17 young birds (Partridge Chanteclers and Cuckoo marans) that we drove 7 hours each way for within a week of moving to out 100 acre farm. We hadn't even unpacked most of our boxes!

Last spring we got 100 Rarest of the Rare chicks from McMurrays and another 25 EE Americaunas and more cuckoos, and BCMs and Euskal Oiloas (Basques) and Wheaten Pennies from Quebec. We sold our extras and all the ones we didn't absolutely love. This year we got even more chicks picking up more birds of the breeds we seriously want to breed and keep. More blue ones! I would love to get even better birds through quality hatching eggs, in my favourite breeds this next year. An Easy Ova Brinsea incubator is on the wish list, my Brower top hatch isn't cutting it so far!

Our birds are free range too, except when we are collecting purebred fertile eggs (and the 4 weeks before). It is so cold up here in the winter, the girls have a big insulated coop and rarely go out in the deep snow or windy sub zero celcius days, at least they have the choice!

I certainly want to catch up on the reading on here. Could take years . I am away working this next week so I think I'll be catching up in the evenings. I think the week is going to fly by! Then I'll be home again for a month with DH and my chooks. Heaven!

from

Thanks for the welcome. I will get you some Chanty egg pics tonight!

I live In Blind River Ontario, was wondering if you would ship me some silver laced eggs ?

Hi Claire, very nice to meet you. Glad you joined us at Backyard chickens . Didja know there is a thread called "Canadians, check-in-here."