Chicken Buyer Etiquette 101

[TomK]

Scottishpet..i just get them at my local feed mill..about 6-7$ each..in a printed brown paper wrapper..course pine shavings...they work great and I find they last a decent amount of time before needing to be changed..and its a scream when i clean the coops and add the new bedding...like christmas morning for the girls... :running-chicken:

[WLLady]

yeah, for shavings, find a local feed mill. in a pinch TSC will have them too, but the feed mills are generally cheaper. and if you have storage space you can usually get a discount for buying a full skid (50 bags) at a time. also, feed will likely be cleaner and cheaper at a feed mill than TSC as well....just in my experience.

[Killerbunny]

I prefer the ones in brown paper. One time they had them in plastic and they were AWFUL!

[Jaye]

I got mine at my local TSC store, when I was still using wood shavings as bedding. I bought the yellow bag - the finer shavings - because I liked it better than the regular size shavings. I only use wood shavings in a pinch now. I did use flax bedding until I could no longer source them, and have recently given "dust extracted" refined straw bedding a try. I like it. The bag I bought to try it out was from the feed store in FInch, which is a bit of a drive for me, but this past weekend I popped into my local TSC in Kemptville for something else and was pleased to find out that they are now stocking "The Straw Boss" bedding.

[scottishpet]

Jaye thanks...I love details... stuff I make note of and can check out as I prepare my chicken paradise.

[scottishpet]

Tom and WL... I shall look for that! I would prefer to get the paper bag kind too KillerBunny. Local feed mills are not a place that I have frequented for decades and decades. But I am sure there must be a few in our area. Time to get antiquated with them. I went to the local livestock auction mart last week...just to mingle with "my people". I loved it! I was in my happy place. I hate the mall...never felt like it was fun to go there. In ten years I have been in the mall like 3 times...I would park and run into Sears, but never venture into the dreaded mall space myself. Just not my thing. But I could see me happily hanging out at the feed store!

[Brebis]

I use Picton Farm Supply on Talbot in Picton the most. It’s a small family owned feed mill that carries Purina products but also sells local grains and some organic feeds. They are very friendly and often will look into odd products. They also are a distributor for Marweld, a Mennonite welder that makes a wide range of livestock equipment at reasonable rates. They did at one point arrange to get birds from McMurry in the States and Porters Turkeys but haven’t due to various problems, but I was lucky to get some very nice chickens and turkeys from them when they did!

There is also the County Farm Centre in Picton too and though a bit bigger, is still very friendly and is part of the Country Depot group.

[thejonesboy]

They cost approx. $5 - $6

[thejonesboy]

@Brebis, the guy from Picton Farm supply, Bryce I think he's called sells ready-to-lay hens. I got some from him through O'Neills/TCO in Napanee a few years ago.

[WLLady]

That red bag top bedding is exactly what i use.