Anyone keep chickens?!
Am thinking I may well wait a while before I look into getting my Canadian Chicks!
Oct 2nd 2009, 2:59 pm
#32
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Sep 2009
Location: Seaside town in Somerset, UK... but hopefully somewhere in NS soon!
Posts: 72
Re: Anyone keep chickens?!
The laws governing agricultural products in Ontario would make an EU bureaucrat proud. Basically, you can keep up to 300 chickens so long as they're registered and you track purchased feed given to them. However this doesn't mean that you can sell poultry products.
There's a "farm gate" exemption for eggs sales, meaning that you can sell them over the fence but it's not lawful to sell free range eggs, all eggs for legal sale must come from chickens raised on concrete floors or in cages. If you do want to sell eggs you need an egg sanitizing machine and a quota (good luck with getting one of those, the cost is such that it only works if you're running a chicken concentration camp).
In consequence of the regulations a distribution network similar to those for marijuana or raw milk has sprung up around me. I drop off eggs in dark places ar strange hours and money, cash only, small bills, flows back to me. Note that there is a strong "**** the government" attitude among many people in the country so places like the feed mill and the poultry dealers make an effort not to comply with the regulations; 99% of the chicken feed I've purchased has been by unrecorded transaction, it's only the TSC store that requires your SIN, sample DNA and a photograph of your gun licence before selling you grain.
There's a "farm gate" exemption for eggs sales, meaning that you can sell them over the fence but it's not lawful to sell free range eggs, all eggs for legal sale must come from chickens raised on concrete floors or in cages. If you do want to sell eggs you need an egg sanitizing machine and a quota (good luck with getting one of those, the cost is such that it only works if you're running a chicken concentration camp).
In consequence of the regulations a distribution network similar to those for marijuana or raw milk has sprung up around me. I drop off eggs in dark places ar strange hours and money, cash only, small bills, flows back to me. Note that there is a strong "**** the government" attitude among many people in the country so places like the feed mill and the poultry dealers make an effort not to comply with the regulations; 99% of the chicken feed I've purchased has been by unrecorded transaction, it's only the TSC store that requires your SIN, sample DNA and a photograph of your gun licence before selling you grain.
Oct 3rd 2009, 4:44 am
#34
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Dec 2006
Location: Cowichan Valley, Vancouver Island, BC
Posts: 1,377
Oct 3rd 2009, 5:01 am
#35
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Mar 2007
Location: Valemount, BC, Canada
Posts: 1,281
Re: Anyone keep chickens?!
Depends... Our main layers (hybrids: http://www.millerhatcheries.com/Prod...wn_Leghorn.htm) seem to slow down in their 3rd year, but I think that might be because they've been bred to lay so intensively and they "burn out" (we get 5-6 eggs per hen, per week, at their peak.) We don't get rid when they become unproductive, though...we wait for nature to take its course. It doesn't seem to take long for that to happen with the laying hens. Our more "ornamental" breeds seem to live longer.
As long as they, as a group, earn us enough in egg sales to cover their feed, we don't mind if there are some that aren't laying regularly...
As long as they, as a group, earn us enough in egg sales to cover their feed, we don't mind if there are some that aren't laying regularly...
Oct 3rd 2009, 9:41 am
#36
Living life again!!!!!!!
Joined: Apr 2009
Location: Cheshire and glad to be here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posts: 550
Oct 4th 2009, 6:45 am
#37
Forum Regular
Joined: May 2009
Location: Whitley Bay for a while.
Posts: 99
Re: Anyone keep chickens?!
Like minded. LOL
