These are the everyday tools and supplies we actually use here on the farm — for the garden, the coop and looking after our animals. Most of these are the exact items we’ve bought and rely on; the links go to Amazon.ca so you can grab the same gear we do.
A quick note: The Humble Goat Stead is a participant in the Amazon.ca Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases — at no extra cost to you. It helps keep the farm going, and we only point you to things we’d actually use.
Gardening
Garden Seeds
We start peppers, lettuce and greens from seed every spring. This is the kind of Canadian-grower variety pack we reach for — good germination and built for a short season.
Walk-Behind Seeder
The EarthWay precision seeder we run down the garden rows — sets seed spacing and depth in one pass. A real back-saver once you are planting more than a bed or two.
Garden Watering Wand
A solid metal watering wand with thumb control reaches the back of the beds and the hanging baskets without soaking your feet. Ours has held up season after season.
Trimming Snips
Sharp little pruning snips for harvesting, deadheading and trimming. We keep a pair in every coat pocket come summer — a multi-pack means there is always one handy.
Earth Auger
Chucks straight into a drill and saves your back setting posts, bulbs and transplants — we reach for ours constantly. This is the auger bit we use.
Garden Hand Tools
The trowels, weeders and cultivators that live in the garden bucket. Nothing fancy — just tools that hold up to real dirt.
Chicken Care
Chicken gear changes with the bird — what a hatching egg needs and what a laying hen needs barely overlap. We’ve split it by stage, and each stage has a full guide that walks you through it.
Hatching
The incubator run, start to finish — the full walkthrough is in our guide to hatching chicken eggs at home.
Egg Incubator
Forced air and an automatic turner are the two features that decide whether the incubator runs the hatch or you do. This well-reviewed 20-egg unit fits a small-flock setting.
Thermometer & Hygrometer
Built-in incubator sensors read wrong often enough that a second opinion at egg height is standard practice. Calibrate before a single egg goes in.
Egg Candler
A bright candler makes the day-7 call easy even on brown eggs — pull the clears, keep the growers, and know how your hatch is tracking.
Brooder Heat Plate
Chicks duck under it like they would a hen, it draws a fraction of a heat lamp’s power, and the fire risk drops with it. The go-to heat source for small batches.
Chicks
Brooder-stage basics — the whole setup is in what you need before your chicks arrive.
Chick Feeder
A flip-top trough keeps starter crumble in birds instead of bedding, and the whole batch can eat at once without standing in it.
Chick Waterer
A narrow-trough drinker day-old chicks can’t drown in — week one’s most important piece of plastic. Add clean pebbles for the first few days.
Chick Electrolytes & Vitamins
A packet in the first waterer helps shipped chicks bounce back from the ride. Cheap insurance you’d rather have on the shelf than on order.
Growers
The awkward 8–18 weeks mostly buy space and fencing, not gadgets — here’s how to run the teenage months, and the pen itself comes from our temporary fence panels and mesh panels.
Garden & Coop Netting
Heavy bird netting we use to keep critters off the garden and out of the coop run. Cut it to fit, and it lasts.
Hardware Cloth
Half-inch galvanized mesh over every opening a raccoon could work through — the difference between a coop and a buffet.
Layers
When the eggs start, the setup changes — the full transition is in layer flock essentials.
Nest Boxes
Metal nest boxes, one compartment per 3–4 hens — mounted lower than the roosts and in place before the first egg, so the habit sets right.
Oyster Shell
Free-choice calcium in its own dish — hens take what they need. This crushed shell is Canadian-sourced and a bag lasts a small flock months.
Chicken Waterers
Automatic cup waterers keep the flock in clean water without daily spills. Screw them into a bucket or pipe for a low-mess setup that lasts through Okanagan winters.
Chicken Feeders
A no-waste port feeder cuts down on spilled feed — and the rodents that come with it. Easy DIY setup into a bucket, and this is the style we run.
Heated Waterer
The winter chore-killer from Osoyoos to Grande Prairie — water that stays liquid at -20°C instead of three kettle-hauling trips a day.
Coop Heater
For brooding chicks and cold Okanagan nights, a carbon-fibre coop heater is safer than an old-style bulb and still throws good warmth. This is what we hang in the coop.
Other Critters & Barn Basics
Grooming Scissors
A proper grooming-scissor kit — not just for dogs. Handy for trimming goats, matted coats and all sorts of farm grooming. Sharp, and worth having a set.
Animal Care Essentials
All the little odds and ends for looking after critters — the stuff that quietly makes chores easier. A rotating pick of the barn basics.
Looking for fencing, gates and farm equipment instead? That’s our local catalog — browse it here or get in touch.