Hello from Ontario

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Depends what you want from a bird--there are so many to choose from. Don't know how close you are to Mount Forest--but they have a fur and feather show April 26 (sunday) I highly recommend it--it s a great way to spend the morning--and worth the drive for us. Get there early. You can also order chicks from perfomance poultry--at least check out their website. It'll give you info on what they have. I also order from my local feed mill for meat birds etc.
check out the canadians-check in here post. (Use the search)Lotsa Ontarians there too, some will to sell eggs /chicks.

good luck! they are so much fun! And they make you breakfast!
 
Hi, welcome to byc!
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I'm a bit north of Toronto <waving hi>

The "learning center" (see link at top of page) is a good place to start, but really I learned a WHOLE lot just by browsing threads that happened to catch my eye, when I was starting out.

A sexlink or very good production type hen will give you nearly an egg a day (per hen) nearly the whole year; if you want particular breeds, they will usually not lay quite as well, ranging from *almost* as well to only a couple eggs a week per hen. A lot of people (me! me! me!) start out THINKING they only want chickens for eggs but then discover that chickens are actually pretty neat and worth having more on their own merit, so I would not build too small a coop, you can always use it as a toolshed or whatever if worst comes to worse
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Here in ON it is awfully good to be able to have electricity in the coop so that you can run a heated waterer or heated waterer base; and you want it somewhere that won't be too obnoxious to access in winter. But not somewhere that will flood come thaw time!

If you just want sexlinks or basic production type birds, your local feedstore should take orders for deliveries every month or so all spring. If you want something fancier than that, www.performancepoultry.com is your best bet for hatchery birds of various breeds, or you can ferret out private breeders of particular breeds (also the way to go if you want more show-quality type birds).

I'd be reaaaallll careful about buying grown birds, especially at a swap or auction, especially if you are not well acquainted with signs of health and how to deal with illness (even if the bird goes *to* the auction/swap completely healthy, it may leave incubating some exciting bug...). Day-old chicks are pretty problem-free although obviously it will be longer before you get your first egg. You can usually buy point-of-lay sexlink pullets via feedstores but be aware they're likely to be debeaked (b/c of being raised under extremely crowded conditions), they do ok with it but it is something you would want to expect.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat
 

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