Tour the Farm!
Families, groups and bus loads welcome.
Families or groups of 8 or smaller, stop in during our store open hours, Thursday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm , no appointment necessary. Pet the Donkeys, get up close and personal with the pigs, chicken, ducks and cows. See how we farm.
Groups & Bus Tours, email info@farmqueenfoods.ca to book a tour. Farm Tours can be customized to target your groups interests, or an overview of all aspects of our farm can be highlighted.
Farm Tour Highlights
The Farm Store
The Farm Store is open each Thursday to Sunday from 10am to 5pm. Farm tours for families or small groups under 8 require no appointment, you can visit anytime during store hours. The Farm Store is fully stocked with over 130 cuts of beef, pork and chicken. From May to December you can also purchase Lamb, in the fall we have Rabbit, Duck, Turkey and Bison too. All year long, we feature a great selection of locally made preserves, BBQ sauces, beeswax candles, handmade soaps, handmade crafts and kitchen accessories.
The Barn
Walk through the 100′ x 74′ pole barn that houses the brooder room for hatching some chickens and ducks, the farrowing pens where the piglets are born, the Pig Saloon where the weaned pigs spend their winter, the donkey pen, cattle pens and in the winter, the”silver bullet mobile layer haus”.
Heritage pig breeds are on display and enjoy seeing new faces. We have a unique layer flock that was started from 9 heritage breeds of chickens to make the interesting laying flock we have today.
The beef cattle are a mix of Hereford and Belted Galloway Cross, both excellent grass-fed beef breeds. They lounge in the pastures all spring, summer and fall, but enjoy resting in the barn in the winter. Free to enter and exit the barn whenever they like all year long.
We call this girl Dotty, she’s a Hereford, Belted Galloway Cross. Or as we like to call them a Belted Baldy’s. Dotty’s unique dot on her back, makes her special!
The Shed
The driving shed keeps the farm equipment safe and dry and stores much of the hay and straw the animals need all winter. Come and meet our tractors, “Doug” the loader tractor, “Big Martha” the field tractor and “Little Ruby” the lawn and garden tractor. They are an important part of our farm. With their help, we are able to do the hard work needed to make hay, grow fruits and vegetables, clean out the barn, and make the big bales of hay to feed the cows.
The Pastures
We pasture everything we grow. In the front pastures you will find pigs, chickens, turkey, ducks and donkeys. They rotate through fields all around the barn to keep them safe and easy for us to take them feed. The donkeys protect the flocks, while the pigs root up the pastures so we keep them on the move too.
The cattle pasture through our pasture fields on a rotation, the fields are close to the house and barn. We rest the fields for 10 days or more before they restart the rotation again. Often times they tell us when its time to move to a new field by standing together at the gate and mooing loudly. When the white dutch clover comes up in July, they can hardly wait to get into the next field so they can enjoy the sweet white blooms.
In the back pasture fields, the cattle range through a system of small pasture fields. We rotate them through in a system of Mob Grazing which keeps the pastures short and sweet, just they way they like it.
Look for the pastured poultry huts, they look like small green houses. They are on wheels, and don’t have a floor, so the chickens and turkeys are safe from predators, but also get fresh pasture to munch on each and every day. The manure they leave behind feeds the soil!
And look for the Silver Bullet. The Silver Bullet is the mobile layer flock house that we re-purposed out of a small utility trailer. It features a grate floor, natural wood roosts and exterior nest access to collect the eggs. The slanted roof collects rainwater to fill a rain barrel, which is is gravity fed to inside the coup to provide the chickens water.
“Why does a chicken coup have 2 doors?”
“If it had 4 doors it would be called a chicken sedan!”
The Pond
Wonder back to the pond and enjoy the back farm lane. See where the pigs have rooted up the land to reduce the weed burden and fertilized some marginal areas that we now use to grow pumpkins, squash and melons. You can pick them and take some home if you like. The extras we feed to the pigs all winter long to keep them entertained.
The Gardens
Wonder through the vegetable garden and flower beds. We grow most of our own food from organic and heritage seeds. With the help of the honey bees, we grow over 80 vegetables to eat fresh or to preserve for the winter. Each summer and fall, many hours are spent stocking up the fruit cellar and freezers so we have food in the winter from our gardens.
A resting area to enjoy your bagged lunch, washroom and hand washing sink are available.
See you at the farm!
