Hello from Peterborough Ontario

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A big Texas size
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Just because you love Chanteclers.. Try performance poultry in Carrying Place. It'll be probably an 1.5 hour trip for you. It's on the island in Belleville. I live south of Marmora (east of Havelock) in Springbrook. PP has Chanteclers. You put in an order in January and you pay on pick up. www.performancepoultry.com

Let me know if you ever need any help finding supplies! I've got it down to a fine art now
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Hello to everyone since my last reply.

Accio - I am poking around PP a little bit - was originally looking to buy Red Stars thru a local feed store.

I love your personal site - love your pictures as you develop your hobby farm. I know you mentioned that there was a building attached to the back of the barn that was used for chickens - but I am not sure that you completely built the building your chickens are in now, or you resurrected another building. The underlying wood looks old so I am assuming you did a partial gut and remodel. Looks great though. What size is it?
 
Yes there is a building attached to our barn, you can see it in photos of the barn. It's actually half torn down now. A few owners back it was used to raise meat turkeys and chickens. They had about 400 at any given time.

We use a building next to the ice, it used to be an ice shed (is actually labeled as being made in Peterborough) and it dates back about 90 years. We did do a partial gut on it, but it is being retired as the chicken palace come next year as the chickens will be moving into a purpose built chicken house. This 'shed' is just not condusive to chicken raising. I'm turning it into a little barn for my Pygmy does as their current house will be taken over by the buck and wether. The building the chickens currently inhabit is 13ft x 17ft but we only use about 13ftx12ft.

I actually have 14 of the redstars from Freys... I've been pleased with them, but I did lose 2 to unknown causes. One as a pullet and the other a couple months ago that I found dead under the roosts. My biggest concern with them is some of mine have lost feather condition and are moulting for whatever reason, though it could be an environmental problem (we may have had a case of mites a while ago I treated for, but if the mites took out the feather shafts and she has moulted yet, then she won't grow those feathers back until she has moulted). Otherwise, my chicks came to me all alive and happy from the Orono Co-op (we had just moved when we bought ours, we still lived in Bowmanville when I ordered). We purchased 5 Easter Eggers from PP and 3 Buff Orpington ducks from him as well and I'm super pleased with my birds
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Accio - thanks for clarifying the sizes, and the additional information makes sense when I looked at your pictures again.

I will spend the next month deciding if I would like Red Stars - or whether I may decide to go with a place like Performance Poultry (thanks for recommending btw). Do you know if you can order the various breeds as ready-to-lay pullets, or if they only do chicks? I checked their site - and was planning to email for clarification.

Love your wintering with the hens and ducks page.

With the title called Lupin farms - have you ever planned to get some bees to add to the farm? Just curious - I am planning to start a hive of my own in the spring as well.
 
I don't believe PP does started birds, but IMO if you go with started birds although you get the convenience of having birds almost ready to lay, you miss out on the growing up stage -- which is the most fun really
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PP is such a lovely place to visit, his birds live in luxury and he has the most hilarious turkeys ever. My dad was considering beekeeping. I'm a little sore from bees, ever since gutting the chicken building and finding about a million bees nests but it is an option eventually especially considering we have a large garden to keep tended and fruit trees.

Right now we just have Lupin flowers everywhere
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Hoping to add more in the spring down the driveway and across the frontage. As far as emailing PP, be prepared for a bit of a wait... we don't have highspeed down here and I'm not sure he does either in Carrying Place but he does reply, it just usually takes a couple weeks. If you do order from him, make sure to check their website frequently. He opens up ordering in January via the website 'shop' you can also order chicken keeping supplies from him (not feeds, just supplies). He'll send you a confirmation email and on/around the day of pick-up he'll call you.
 
Accio - thank you for the additional PP information. I will mull it over and talk to my wife. We just may not have a lot of time to spend with chicks this year (not that it takes much time but since I plan to start a 4 semester compressed College course in May) we thought that we could be ready in 2011 to watch some babies grow, especially when we order heritage breeds. But never say never
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One thing I am not a huge fan of in typical Langstroth beekeeping is the startup costs. It is not crazy high to price someone out completely, but on a limited budget it stings. I have been researching and plan to build a Kenyan Top-Bar Hive (aka TBH). You can make one for about $30 in lumber and can use lemongrass oil as a potential swarm attractant. I may put myself on a local swarm list, or just order some bees if I don't get any thru the other means. It is a much more natural bee environment that imo is less stressful on the bees. You do not have to do much with them, and do not need a lot of equipment to start. You take less honey, but gain more wax. If interested - just google it. You should be able to find some plans online. If not I can always email you some of the stuff I have saved.
 

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