Poultry Terms & Conditions

Please keep in mind that we are a small family-run farm in Alberta, not a commercial hatchery, and we do this so that we can share our love of poultry with you. We both have full-time jobs (and now a baby and a 2 year old) so we need each order to be consistent and predictable so that we can continue to share our flock with you. With that in mind, the following terms apply to each order. Please also see the bottom for other frequently asked questions.

Hatching Eggs

Gender: On average, eggs are usually a 50/50 split for males/females – but this is just an average and individual batches may deviate from the norm.
Timing: We're fulfilling orders in the sequence they were received. I'll contact you before shipping anything to you to make sure that you're ready for them and I can always push back the timing if you're not ready. Ordering early will give you priority for your desired timing.
Hatching Guarantees: Our eggs have fantastic hatch rates when we hatch them here at our farm. As soon as eggs are transported, hatch rates usually decrease and other factors may decrease hatch rates as well, including the quality of your incubator. It is your responsibility to do thorough research before purchasing hatching eggs to make sure you can maximize your hatch rates. Once the hatching eggs leave our farm, we cannot guarantee the outcome because there are too many variables that are out of our control. We highly recommend “Hatching & Brooding Your Own Chicks” by Gail Damerow as a starting point which you can purchase here.

Shipping

Shipping Products: For this year, shipping is only available for hatching eggs and merchandise. All other products (chicks, live birds, perishable food products) must be picked up from our farm.
Shipping Timing: We ship Mondays or Tuesdays via Canada Post and will send you the tracking number.
Shipping Location: This year we're back to offering shipping across Canada. Shipping is calculated at checkout based on Canada Post rates to your area. Technology is great but not perfect so please let me know if you're having issues with shipping at checkout.
Shipping Damages: We put a lot of time and care into packaging our eggs and we carefully inspect each egg before it leaves our farm. However, sometimes the eggs are mishandled in the mail and may be damaged because we cannot control Canada Post once the eggs leave our possession. We try to include extra eggs just in case some are damaged in shipping.

Chicks and Other Live Birds

Timing: We're fulfilling orders in the sequence they were received. I'll contact you before the chicks are ready to you to make sure that you're ready for them and I can always push back the timing if you're not ready. Ordering early will give you priority for your desired timing.
Gender: You should expect approximately half of the chicks to be female and half to be male – but this is just an average and individual batches may deviate from the norm, especially in smaller batch sizes. Aside from our autosexing breeds, it’s not possible to identify the gender of day old chicks.
Quarantine: While our flock is happy and healthy, transportation and rehoming stresses a bird’s immune system and they can become sick as a result. It is very important to follow good biosecurity practices when introducing any new birds to your flock, including an appropriate quarantine period, even for previously healthy birds from any source.

Refunds

Order Cancellations: Please make sure that you’re committed to the purchase before placing an order. As soon as you place an order, we get charged fees by the website, credit cards, and bank accounts. If we need to do a refund, we get charged more fees a second time. As a result, if you absolutely need to cancel an order, 75% will be refunded and the remainder will be forfeited to help us cover our expenses.

Show Quality

We spent years scouring Canada searching for the best foundation birds for each of the breeds that we raise. We are a member of many breeders’ organizations including the American Poultry Association and we work with dedicated mentors to get second (and third) opinions about breeding strategies. Each year, we choose only the very best birds to keep for our breeding flock and this increases the quality of our flock with every year. Despite all of these factors, genetics are still variables and as such we cannot guarantee that any specific bird will be show quality. As with any living creature, there will always be room for improvement in the constant pursuit of perfection and flaws will exist. All we can guarantee is that we are doing everything that we can to provide you with the highest quality birds possible.
If you’ve read this far, we want to sincerely thank you for being a responsible livestock owner and taking the time to read the details before making your purchase. Once you place your order, send me a quick message with your order number and the gift code “IReadTheTerms” so that we can give you an extra gift with your order.

FAQ: Timing- When do you start hatching/shipping for the season?

Answer: The timing of the beginning of our season depends on a few main things.

Weather/hens: I try not to push our hens outside of their natural tendencies. Usually our breeders don't increase how much they lay until it is warmer and the daylight hours increase. And then a cold snap can sometimes make them pause their laying again. On average this is around April.
Availability of my time: I'm a full time Chartered Professional Accountant so January through April is tax season. If I'm awake during these 4 months, chances are that I'm at the office. When I need a mental break I do usually start setting up a few breeding pens but it takes a lot of time so I can't promise to have any specific breeds set up until after tax season.

So while sometimes I get lucky and can start filling a few orders in April, May is a safer bet for the start of our breeding season. Remember that we fill the orders in the sequence they were received - unless you prefer a later date which is okay too!