At Brinkhaven Acres, we hatch and ship chicks and hatching eggs weekly to most of the US.Brinkhaven Acres is the culmination of three generations. Starting as a dream in the 1960's our grandparents set out to find a special place to build a small family farm. Their wish came true when they found the 100 acre property they now call home. From the ground up, they turned their dream into a reality, designing and building a beautiful home situated next to a tranquil pond, overlooking fields that fade into the forest. Growing up, our grandmother told the story of how the farm earned it's namesake. Her sister would visit often from the city and was mesmerized by the beauty she found. Each time, she called it Brinkhaven, or “edge of Heaven.” It suited the property well and Brinkhaven Farm was born.
We grew up on that farm not knowing how lucky we were to have the edge of heaven in our backyard. Our parents, the second generation of Brinkhaven, carved their dream into the property in the 1970's breaking ground on the second home built on the property. Our childhood revolved around that farm. We spent our days working in the fields, maintaining the grounds, tending to our 4-H livestock and of course, the normal shenanigans of children; four-wheeling, snowmobiling, hiking, biking, fishing, and so on.
We're a brother-sister duo who’s passion for poultry was born at Brinkhaven Farm. Grandma and Grandpa kept laying hens for as long as we can remember. Many nights after dinner we would take a four wheeler ride to their house and toss scraps to their hens. In exchange, we would help Grandpa collect the eggs and off we went with a dozen of our own to take home. At our part of the farm we raised a menagerie of livestock until we found the one type of animal we liked best; poultry.
As pre-teens we converted our playhouse into a mini hatchery. Big brother, Ben, constructed his own incubator out of scrap wood and parts found around the farm. I pretended to answer phones and write up orders as Ben did all the hard work. The first baby to hatch was, I kid you not, an ostrich! You see, Ben worked part time at an ostrich farm not too far away and the owner allowed him to try his hand at hatching. He was successful time and time again with pheasant, quail and even emu eggs. In addition to raising game birds, we raised rheas, meat birds and many types of turkeys. We got the word out by mailing fliers to anyone we knew who might be interested in our product. In our minds we were big time poultry moguls.
Flash forward to the 21st century. Ben and I each found our own homes which to us, is our own edge of heaven. Hence, when we decided to continue our hobby into perpetuating rare breed poultry, it was only fitting to call our business, Brinkhaven Acres. We feel it carries on the memories we had growing up in such a majestic place and those we'll have with our family at our own little paradise. Brinkhaven Acres incorporates all of the acres of the edge of Heaven; our grandparent's, our parent's, and ours.
But wait! The story gets even better! in 2018 after the passing of our grandfather, Jess, her husband and two sons moved into the original Brinkhaven home where now, in 2019 Ben, his wife and newborn daughter also live as they build their own home right here on the farm. It's all come full circle and we couldn't feel more blessed to grow our families and our business on edge of Heaven.
