Chicks

 In spring of 2023 we will be hatching three specially selected breeds of layer chicks:

  • Black Copper Marans

  • Crested Cream Legbar

  • Isabella Leghorn

  • A small selection of Wyandottes

  • Possibly some Sapphire Super Blues, space dependent

We will also be hatching four dozen Mistral Gris (hatching April 20), which is an excellent bird for meat purposes. We purchased eggs from True North Heritage Hatchery in Armstrong, and this is what they have to say about the Mistral Gris:

“the best breed for healthy chicken meat. They grow much faster than the best pure-bred heritage birds, but not too fast like the commercial broilers. These are robust chicks that feather quickly and can go outside to start foraging at a few weeks old. The Mistral Gris reach 5 lbs (live weight) by 9 weeks old, dressing out to meaty fryers, but in our opinion, they are at their best at 12 weeks, when they become the best roasters you'll ever eat. They have broader breasts and heavier thighs than the Freedom Rangers, Western Rustics, etc. Despite the black feathers, they dress cleanly. Rub with butter and roast in an open pan for the most divine dinner!”

The Black Copper Marans lay the lovely dark chocolatey brown eggs that everyone loves. Chefs love the Copper Marans for their delicious eggs and exceptionally tasty meat. These birds are great foragers and beautiful birds with their copper neck plumage.

Crested Cream Legbars are great to breed because they are easily sexed at hatch time. They are friendly birds, great foragers, alert and agile. And of course, they are productive layers of lovely blue eggs.

Isabella Leghorns have beautiful lavender coloured plumage and are very productive layers of bright white eggs. The roosters especially are stunning to look at. Isabellas are active foragers, very cold hardy and a nice addition to any flock.

Wyandottes have beautiful feather lacing and come in a wonderful assortment of colours. They are very cold hardy, docile and gentle. These birds are a fantastic dual-purpose bird, with the hens laying a respectable number of brown eggs each year and the males filling out to a nice 8-9 pounds.

The Sapphire Super Blue is a hybrid blue egg laying chicken, most often a cross between a white legbar hen and a crested cream legbar cock. With strategic breeding, we are hoping to further deepen the shade of blue that our hens will produce. They are excellent layers, often producing up to 300 eggs per year.


Ducklings

Runner ducks are the best ducks! They are amazing garden helpers and will gobble up all your snails and slugs. They are flightless, making them very easy to contain, and they don’t have strong instincts for going broody, so they won’t proliferate uncontrollably (like a certain Muscovy duck I know). Their eggs are delicious, even tastier than our chicken eggs, and they spend their days foraging and require little in the way of poultry feed. They are, however, very vulnerable to predators. Our small flock was happily living with our Embden geese and enjoying the protection offered to them by that large and very territorial breed of goose, but the ducks got too curious and found a way to escape the fencing. They were then picked off one by one until there was only a single remaining, a lonely male, who has wisely resumed life with the geese.