Metchosin Poultry Swap and Sale Dates - July 11th, Aug 8th, Sept 12th, and Oct 10th

Hello everyone, Happy Canada Day!

A friendly reminder we have the Metchosin Poultry Swap & Sale coming up on Sunday July 11th, 11am to 12:30pm.

Our first three swaps have been such a great success! We are turning this into quite an event, for sellers, buyers and those interested in learning more on the possibility of owning backyard chickens. Thanks goes out to all who take the time to talk to people who have questions and a keen interest in owning chickens themselves.

We are a very diverse group and I think we represent a nice cross section of the lower Vancouver Island small scale raising chickens/poultry industry. From the 'production' hens to rarer heritage breeds that are being represented and sharing our knowledge along with our desire to sell and buy poultry, this is a great thing!

Which brings me to the OrganicIslands.ca Festival coming up on July 10th and 11th. Via Facebook I asked them if they had anyone talking to people interested in having backyard chickens. One thing lead to another, and now they do have someone, ME! The organizer Deb Morse said I am an 'ordinary' person who has some chickens in the backyard, hatches out chicks and did start our Metchosin Swap, so figures I am a good person to have at the Festival being somewhat 'successful' in my extremely short time having a backyard flock.

So two requests: would someone 'volunteer' to arrive at the July 11th Metchosin Swap & Sale early, to start the parking. It's not a big 'job', as we all pretty much know the space we have and all I have done is direct the first couple of vehicles to get everyone lined up. We all know the 'drill' pretty well now, but would feel better knowing someone will make sure this happens. I also do a once over at the end, just to make sure there is no litter laying about. So far only a small handful of paper has been dropped, hard to say if it was even us, but I picked it up anyway. The District of Metchosin is letting us use this space for free, so we must make sure we respect that, and pick up after ourselves!

My second request is to ask if anyone is interested in coming to the Organic Islands Festival to answer questions that may come up? Last year there were over 5000 people who attended, when I think about our success, I figure knowing more about poultry will be quite popular, and it would be nice to have others join us for perhaps a few hours. The Festival is open from 10am to 5pm, a super long day talking to people, and if anyone would like to help for a few hours, that would be great. I am still working out the details with the organizers, but so far the 'plan' is to have some heritage breed hens, some egg colour samples, a tractor that will easily break down to fit into a van with the seats out and house 4 hens in an urban backyard. VIHA does not want anyone to hold chickens! So sadly they will remain caged.

If you can help with either of these two requests, please email me back, I greatly appreciate assistance and encouragement!

Metchosin Swap & Sale dates:

July 11th,

Aug 8th,

Sept 12th (is also Metchosin Days, still figuring out logistics)

Oct 10th. The last for 2010.

As a 'group', I would also like us to think of possible ways to help those 'abandoned' roosters! There must be some way to keep people from dumping these unwanted, for what ever reason, roos into the wild. You know about the one I caught and re-homed, a week later I was at Metchosin Golf Course catching two more. These were RIR crosses and I couldn't find a home, so they ended up with the Animal Control people. Sad, but I couldn't keep them. Perhaps there is someone who can take unwanted roos, even if only to raise to be food for those less fortunate? All suggestions welcomed!

Many thanks and will miss you July 11th!

Liz