Ideas on finding chickens in Ontario

[Pepperanne]

Hi members,

I am new and planning on a spring chicken debut. I have been reading about chickens for 2 years (Amazon.com loves me lol) and I think I am ready to build my coop and get started but I have one problem... Where do I get my chicks from?? lol

I live in southern Ontario, Canada and for some reason chickens are a little harder to find here. I am hoping you guys have a few suggestions.. this is what I have been looking at so far.

We don't seem to have the big chicken shows you guys in the States do.. but there are fall fairs and I have visited those hoping to get an idea about where to pick up some different breeds... thing is, the ones I was looking at had poor feet (like sores on their feet-- no not on all but some) ... am I wrong in thinking that someone who really cares about their chickens would do their best to not let that happen? I'm under the understanding that this is from poor sanitary conditions in the coop. The ones that have their chickens entered are larger farms I am guessing..

My other options are hatcheries but the problem with that is that I don't want that many chicks at once (and no, I cannot cull some of the chicks-- I just can't). I don't know anyone to share an order with either.

I can't get eggs from USA unless they are certified ($40 cost which I am willing to pay for but can't seem to find people who will do that for me lol)

So other than those two ways to get chicks.. are their any others? I am sure I am missing some obvious ways of finding chicks..

I was hoping to get two silkie chicks to start with and then get eggs in the fall or the following spring.

Any ideas folks?? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

Sorry this is so long but I want to make sure you understand my dilemma.

Thanks,
Annabel

 

[crysmom]

if you go to groups.msn.com there is a canadian chicken group called canadianchickeneggswappers2 there are a lot of canadian small breeders who will send you eggs, some who ship chicks and maybe you'll get lucky and someone is close enough to you to purchase chicks

hth
Crystal

 

[adoptedbyachicken]

Canadianchickeneggswappers2 ( http://groups.msn.com/CANADIANCHICKENEGGSWAPPERS2/general.msnw ) is great, and here we have the Where are you? part of the forum where you can hook up with other Canadians. I'm in BC so not really helpful but we do have Ontario members. You have lots of hatcheries in Ontario ( http://www.roblyneyriefarm.net/ comes to mind)and if your near any maybe you can pick up a small order. They will not ship due to the chicks getting cold, you need a box full so they can keep themselves warm. Also try your feed stores often they have chick order dates where they get all the customers to preorder and then split the shipping costs and they all come to the store together so they are nice and warm.

Good luck and welcome!

 

[LittleChickenRacingTeam]

Egg swappers or a local feed store would be your best bet.

 

[Pepperanne]

Thank you, thank you so much, both of you That is very helpful!!!

Cheers,
Anna

 

[Pepperanne]

I know that the TSC store sells chicks but they are all leghorns and I want more personable type of chickens-- pets that like me, you know?
Thanks for the suggestion though

Hopefully that link to that group will put me in contact with some swappers

Cheers,
Anna

 

[crysmom]

Quote:
our local feedstore carries chicks from www.rochesterhatchery.com the only ones they have "in stock" are production types, leghorns and broilers. But they were willing to add on my order to theirs but they only order in march april, the fellow told me. So I went with eggs. I ordered my hatching eggs from www.preservation.ca and had a 50% hatch rate (which is what I was told to expect) and that was shipped all the way from quebec to bc

 

[Pepperanne]

wow... I wonder if they all would do that.... that's a great tip.

I'll check out that link for eggs

Thanks

Anna

 

[crysmom]

Quote:
I'm fairly certain anyone would add your order on, but it depends what the selection is from the hatchery where the feed store buys their birds. There are some hatcheries that only handle production type birds

 

[patandchickens]

Also there is Performance Poultry http://www.performancepoultry.com/index.php , which is probably within driving distance of you.

Where in Ontario are you? I am in Uxbridge and will be in a similar situation to yours next spring, would be interested in comparing notes and discussing perhaps splitting an order or sharing a trip or something like that.

(fwiw, our current 3 chickens came via the feed store)

Pat