Our Animals
Babydoll Sheep | Sebastopol Geese | Honey Bees | Heritage Breed Chickens
Our animals play a key role in the health and biodiversity of the farm. The rich soil, beautiful flowers, and food you see are a reflection of them and the regenerative cycle they have created at Forest Creek.
With a lifetime of experience breeding, showing, and caring for animals, we have spent years hand-selecting our favourite breeds of family friendly, chickens, geese, sheep, and honey bees to offer to our customers. We work with a team of veterinarians to ensure the health of the animals and maintain high standards in biosecurity.
Many of the breeds we offer can be found on the Livestock Conservancy's Priority List with only a few hundred to be found in North America. We feel by sharing them with you, we can preserve and maintain the longevity of these breeds.
Olde English Babydoll Southdown Sheep
Our flock of Babydoll Southdown sheep are dual and triple registered with the OESBR, NABSSAR, and BSSBA. Babydoll sheep are a rare heritage breed known for their compact size, friendly nature, wool and meat production. Here on the farm, we breed and use them for their wool and lamb sales for the pet trade.
We use the wool in making some of our farmhouse goods. The sheep also play an important role in keeping the soil healthy and maintaining the grounds. In the summers, you can find them rotational grazing in the wildflower meadows we planted for the bees or weeding the peony beds.
Lambs are for sale to pet homes in black, white, and spotted wool. Available lambs will be posted each spring. Our flock is tested and free of Scrapies, Johnes, CL, and Maedi Visna.
'Poppy and Daisy' our foundation ewes pictured above
Sebastopol Geese
Sebastopol geese are a flightless and best known for their long, trailing curly feathers that make them look like backyard ballerinas. They come in a variety of colours like white, gray, buff, blue, lilac and saddleback patterns. We love them for their medium size, weeding abilities, and incredibly friendly nature. Workshop guests love how they following them around with their insatiable curiosity. They are always looking for a good cuddle.
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Heritage Breed Chickens
We love our fancy breeds of chickens and baskets full of green, blue, pink, speckled, and chocolate coloured eggs just as much as you and your farm gate customers do. We're just like you, we want all the chickens, too, but we picked the best of the best breeds to get you those pinterest-worthy backyard photos and the health and hardiness you need for Canadian winters.
The Bees
Angela chose beekeeping when she became a high school administrator nearly 10 years ago. While she finds the job extremely rewarding, the level of responsibility required and stress of the job requires a high degree of balanced and grounded leadership. Enter bees. You cannot be disregulated with bees. They will let you know. Ang uses her bees as a means of training her leadership muscles.
That being said, as a mom and mentor to new beekeepers through her coaching, having the right breeds matters. Unlike most commercial beekeepers in Ontario, Ang is focussed on producing family-friendly, productive honey producers and confident beekeepers. As such, the bulk of the bees on the farm are based in Buckfast and Italian stock.
Photo Credits: Ashley Smith Mathewson and Stephanie Tieblis