Ontario

[meholtspan]

Anyone out there from Ontario? I'm purchasing some day-olds from McMurray in July and wondering how the customs border-crossing stuff will work out. Any experienced "importers" out there?
Marilyn
Angus
Ontario

 

[miss_thenorth]

Hi and welcome from near chatham!! There are places you can order from in Canada. Me personally, I wouldn't go throught the bother of ordering from the states unless I were getting rare breeds etc that you might not be able to find in Canada. I ordered chicks from my feed store. you can order from TSC, there's performance poultry, Frey's hatchery etc etc. Where are you in Ontario??

 

[patandchickens]

I would recommend www.performancepoultry.com . In Carrying Place, near Belleville. probalby the best selection of 'fancy' breeds you'll find at a commercial hatchery in Canada these days, although I do not know how fully he may be booked up already for this year, you'd have to ask. Also the guy in quebec, I forget the website addy offhand but google "genetic preservation chicks quebec" and I bet you'll find it.

There *are* people around who've imported from McMurray - although this year some of them were caught in the AE thing and lost chicks

I gather that's basically fixed now since I've heard no recent reports of McMurray chick problems, though.

There are at least a coupla threads, I forget whether they're under Everything Else Chicken or under Raising Baby Chicks, about this subject that you should read. Use the 'search' utility (on the blue bar, above) for "importing chicks canada" and that should turn 'em up. Also you could post on the "canadianchickeneggswappers2" MSN group.

The reader's digest version is: yes, people do it. It costs a lot, especially if you could just drive to Belleville to pick things up or order common breeds through the feed store. You need to be within easy driving distance of the border, and be able to take the day off to head down there on a moment's notice since you can't be sure exactly when the chicks will arrive. There is likely to be higher mortality on average than locally-picked-up chicks, although not necessarily higher than shipped-across-canada.

Pat, preferring to support canadian hatcheries because we sure don't need MORE going out of business

 

[Stella1964]

Hi fellow Ontarians! I'm in Seagrave, which is just north of Oshawa (east of Toronto). for the first time, we purchased 4 chicks to give it a try. They're 4 weeks old now and living in a small coop in our garage until the night time weather stabilizes so we can get them outside. We got our chickens from Sunderland Coop, who gets them from Freys Hatchery.

I'm finding that my chicks don't seem to know how to peck at food, only crumbles from their dish! Are you having the same problem?

 

[miss_thenorth]

Quote:
Are there beaks trimmed? this could possibly hinder them in pecking at food.

 

[Stella1964]

Quote:
Are there beaks trimmed? this could possibly hinder them in pecking at food.

No they haven't had their beaks trimmed.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Well hello (sorta) neighbor! I'm north of Uxbridge, I drive to Sunderland every wednesday for the playgroup there and buy most of my non-feed farm type stuff from the co-op there.

Do you know anywhere around that sells the chick waterer bases that you screw onto quart mason jars? I mean, without mail-ordering?

I have ordered chicks from performance poultry that will be hatching next weekend so I need to get my act together

(edited to add, what do you mean "food" in terms of not pecking at. If you mean like watermelon and lettuce and pasta type things, they may just be too young.)

Pat

 

[morelcabin]

Hi Everyone,
I'm just outside of North Bay Ontario. I ordered from performance poultry last year, they are great! Chicks arrived here within 24 hours, healthy and fine:>) This year I didn't want many so ordered from our local feed store who gets them from Freys. Freys has great birds but very little selection. I have thier Shaver Reds.

Chicks never eat out of a dish right away. Spread some newspaper down and spread it all around the food dish and in the dish for a few days. Eventually they will associate the dish with food:>)

 

[Stella1964]

Quote:
Well hello (sorta) neighbor! I'm north of Uxbridge, I drive to Sunderland every wednesday for the playgroup there and buy most of my non-feed farm type stuff from the co-op there.

Do you know anywhere around that sells the chick waterer bases that you screw onto quart mason jars? I mean, without mail-ordering?

I have ordered chicks from performance poultry that will be hatching next weekend so I need to get my act together

(edited to add, what do you mean "food" in terms of not pecking at. If you mean like watermelon and lettuce and pasta type things, they may just be too young.)

Pat

Hi Pat, we're practically neighbours! Sorry, i don't know where you'd get the waterer base. I've been looking for that myself. i think we have to order on line or maybe ask the TSC store in Lindsay to order it in. As to my chicks not seeming to know how to peck at food, yes, I mean scraps of certain kinds. They just poke at it once, and walk away. You're right, maybe 4.5 weeks is still too young.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Hey Pat, I realize this is not much help to you now, but a guy had a booth set up at the Mt. Forest sale selling all sorts of those things.

Would the red-based waterers not work? They are only ~ $6 at TSC.