A small family farm in Lyons, Boulder County, Colorado raising Coturnix quail, Khaki Campbell ducks, and dairy goats. Hatching eggs, fresh eating eggs, and chicks — raised by hand, sold local.
We bought this land and started hobby farming in 2010. The name Bear House Farm came later.
Coturnix quail mature fast, lay generously, and take up almost no space — which makes them one of the best small-farm birds going. We keep several color lines, each with its own look and its own egg.
Coturnix japonica
The blue-egg line. A recessive gene turns the shell a soft robin's-egg blue instead of the usual speckled brown. Genuinely rare and the first thing anyone notices in a carton.
Coturnix japonica
A striking pattern line — warm sandy ground color with fine dark barring. Calm birds and steady layers, handled daily by the kids like everything else here.
Coturnix japonica
A light amber-gold bird. Unlike our Range line, Autumn Ambers can be sexed on feather colour once they are grown, which makes them a much friendlier bird for anyone new to quail who wants to know what they have.
Coturnix japonica
Bold, high-contrast markings on a pale ground — the showiest bird in the yard, and the one visitors point at first.
More lines in the pens than we have written up yet. Ask us at the fair — or email and we will tell you what is laying.
They're about a fifth the size of a chicken egg with a proportionally larger yolk, which makes them richer. Five quail eggs is roughly one chicken egg for cooking. People buy them for pickling, for ramen, for charcuterie boards, and for kids who think tiny food is the best food.
Quail also start laying at six to eight weeks — so a chick bought in spring is producing before summer is out.
Setting eggs by variety — celadon blues on the right, patterned lines to the left.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Hatching eggs — mixed dozen Our choice of varieties, whatever is laying well that week. Collected fresh, never washed. | $15 / dz $30 / 24 |
| Hatching eggs — variety specific Egyptian Fee, German Pansy, Ginger Fawn or Autumn Amber, kept separate and sold as that variety. | $18 / dz $27 / 18 |
| Hatching eggs — Range celadon Both parents are proven celadon, so every one of these eggs carries two copies and the daughters will lay blue. Not feather-sexable at any age. | $20 / dz $40 / 24 |
| Eating eggs Fresh table eggs by the dozen or the flat of 18. | $8 / dz $11 / flat of 18 |
| Chicks — day-old, straight run Go home at one to three days old. Reserve ahead — we hatch to order, not to stock. | $6 ea Range celadon $8 ea |
| Chicks — one to three weeks old Grown on by us through the fragile first weeks and sold still on heat. Straight run. | $8 ea Range celadon $10 ea |
Our quail are fed 100% organic, and the adult birds are corn-free and soy-free. Every quail here is raised on certified organic feed from day one — Modesto Milling organic chick starter to begin with, and an organic, non-GMO, corn-free, soy-free ration once they are grown. That is a deliberate and more expensive choice and it is part of what you are paying for. If you are buying quail eggs to eat or quail to breed, you are getting birds that have never had conventional feed.
One drake and two hens, all Khaki Campbell, all three being shown at the Boulder County Fair. The ducks are not for sale. What we sell is their eggs — hatching eggs if you want to raise your own, table eggs if you want to cook with them.
| Item | Price |
|---|---|
| Duck hatching eggs Khaki Campbell, fertile, collected fresh and never washed. Sold by the half dozen. Very limited — see the note below. | $7 / half dz $12 / dozen |
| Duck eating eggs Fresh table eggs. Bigger and richer than a chicken egg, and the reason bakers go looking for them. | $10 / dz $6 / half dozen |
Please read this before you order duck hatching eggs. We have two hens. Between them that is roughly one and a half eggs a day, so a full dozen takes us more than a week to collect — and hatching eggs are at their best inside the first week to ten days. In practice that means we can offer about one half dozen of hatching eggs a week, and only when we are not selling those same eggs for the table. Order ahead, expect to wait, and do not expect us to fill a big order quickly. We would rather tell you that now than take your money and disappoint you.
Two Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats, shown by our kids at the Boulder County Fair this year. They are not for sale, they have not been bred, and we are not milking them — they are family. We are telling you about them because they are half the reason anyone stops at our booth.
A small American dairy breed — adults stand around knee height and weigh about seventy-five pounds, which is a large part of the appeal. They are a true dairy goat rather than a miniature pet breed, and they are known for being gentle, curious and extremely people-oriented.
Gelado is the black and white one. Talenti is brown and white with a white blaze down her face. Both of them behave more like dogs than livestock — they follow us around the property, come when they are called, and supervise everything anyone is trying to do outside.
We are in the foothills, where fire is the thing you think about every summer. The goats browse down the scrub oak and brush that builds up against the property, which is real fire mitigation and not a job either of them considers work.
Not for sale. Not bred. No milk, no kids, no herd shares — just two goats we like very much.
No account, no checkout, no shipping surprises. Four steps — and you do not pay until we have told you we actually have the birds.
Fill out the form — it takes about a minute. Scan a QR code at the fair or use the button below. This is a request, not a purchase. Nothing is reserved and nothing is owed yet.
We reply within 24 hours with what we can actually fill, your total, and a pickup date. If a hatch is smaller than expected, you hear it from us before any money changes hands.
Once you have our confirmation, send payment to @meganftz. Put your name and the pickup date in the Venmo note. Your order is reserved when the payment lands, not before.
Chicks and ducklings go home at one to three days old, once they are dry, fluffed and drinking. Eggs are ready whenever you are. Pickup at the Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont, or at the farm in Lyons.
Why we do it in that order. We hatch to order rather than keeping chicks in stock, and a hatch is never a guaranteed number — eggs that look perfect can still fail. If we took your money first, we would be selling you birds that do not exist yet. So we take the request, wait until we know what we have, and only then ask you to pay. It means an extra email. It also means we have never once had to refund somebody for a chick that never hatched.
Set your eggs quickly. Hatching eggs are best set within about a week of being laid. We date every carton so you know exactly what you have.
The quail and ducks here are Colin's 4-H project. He and his sisters handle every bird almost daily, which is why they are calm to pick up rather than wild. He handles the daily feeding and watering, sets and turns the hatching eggs, keeps the hatch records, and does the selling. When you buy from Bear House Farm you're buying from him.
Place an OrderNo. Local pickup only. We are not shipping eggs or birds. Pickup is at the Boulder County Fairgrounds in Longmont, or at the farm in Lyons — whichever is easier for you. Saying this plainly saves everybody time: if you are not able to come and collect, we are not the right farm for you.
Under good conditions, quail hatching eggs commonly run 50–80% and duck eggs similar, but hatch rate depends heavily on your incubator, your handling, and how the eggs were handled. We guarantee the eggs are fresh and collected within 7 days of the date on your carton. We cannot guarantee a hatch rate, because the incubation is out of our hands entirely. Anyone who promises you a hatch percentage is overselling. One thing in your favour: because you are collecting these in person rather than having them shipped, they have not spent three days in a mail truck, which is the single most common reason hatching eggs fail.
Set them within 7 days of collection for the best results. Store them pointy-end down at around 55–65°F, out of the fridge, and tilt the carton once a day. Fertility drops off noticeably after about 10 days.
Yes for hatching eggs — we collect and label by pen. For chicks, tell us your preference and we'll do our best, but hatch results vary and we can't promise a specific count of a specific color.
Chicks are sold straight run, meaning unsexed. There is no way around this — and for our Range birds it does not get easier with age either. Range is built on the extended brown gene, which erases the plumage difference between cocks and hens, so Range birds cannot be feather-sexed at any age. They have to be vent-checked once mature. If somebody offers to sell you a sexed Range chick, they are guessing. Our patterned lines like Autumn Amber are a different matter and can be sexed on colour once feathered.
No returns on live birds or on hatching eggs. Once an animal or an egg leaves our property we have no way of knowing how it was kept, and that is not a judgement about you — it is just the honest limit of what we can stand behind. What we will do: if an egg carton is cracked or a bird is not right at the moment you collect it, tell us there and then and we will replace it or refund it on the spot. Check your order before you leave.
The quail are on 100% certified organic feed from the day they hatch — Modesto Milling organic 24% protein chick starter, which is non-GMO, corn-free and soy-free, and an organic corn-free soy-free ration once they are grown. They are kept in the yard rather than in a shed, and they are handled by Colin and his sisters almost every day, which is why the birds you meet at the fair sit still in your hand instead of thrashing.
