Tag Archives: chickens

How to Find and Use a Farm Sitter to Enjoy Vacation as a Homesteader

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We don’t go on vacation much. Hardly ever, really. And our version of a vacation is usually just a 3-day weekend visiting family. Between all the packing for five people; all the prep (and cost!) to leave the animals in someone else’s hands; all the stress of getting there and getting home–and worrying about everything while you’re gone!–then all the unpacking, washing, cleaning, and catching up when you do get home…blah! There’s nothing relaxing about it! Besides–we like being at home! But we also like our family. And we like adventuring … Continue Reading…

Choosing Livestock (Part 3) …The Dollars and Cents of Starting a Small Farm

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So here we are at Part 3. You’ve already decided that you’re ready to bring some livestock out to the farm. You’ve done your research and planning and know what type of livestock you want to start with. But within each species there is a huge list of individual breeds to choose from–and each one has plenty of breeders and admirers swearing that theirs is the best breed ever! The Livestock Conservancy identifies and tracks heritage livestock breeds only, and they have lists of 22 breeds of cattle, 10 individual … Continue Reading…

Using Up Extra Eggs With Breakfast Freezer Cooking

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This time of year the chickens really get down to business and each hen start laying about two eggs every three days–not quite one egg a day. Egg laying is related to daylight hours, so longer daylight hours this time of years leads to the start of the spring egg glut. {smile} With 15 chickens in our chicken house right now, we get about a dozen eggs a day! Yes, we do sell eggs. But as we’ve downsized the farm, we have reduced our marketing time and focused more on self-reliance. … Continue Reading…

Putting the Summer Cover on the Chicken Hoop House

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Our busy Sunday this past weekend also included putting a new, summer cover on our chicken hoop house. Mr. Fix-It decided to try adding a little brown spray paint to the plastic cover to offer a little bit of sun filtering and shade. We also hang a tarp on the side to create real shade, but I didn’t object to the extra step because it’s a great opportunity to let the kids practice spray painting something they couldn’t mess up. Who knew spray painting was a life skill? Like everything else, … Continue Reading…

Pros and Cons of a Hoop House Chicken Coop

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Our latest chicken coop is a hoop house style made from an old greenhouse frame, with hog panel sides and salvaged tin for the front and back wall. We wrap it in 9 mil plastic for weather proofing. There are runner boards (or skids) along the bottom on both long sides. This means we can drag it around the field as needed–something we do weekly. That also gives us something to fasten the plastic to in the winter. At the top of the hog panel wall on each side are … Continue Reading…

5 Basic Chicken Supplies…the Daily Farm Adventures {59}

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We got a lot of rain this weekend. Apparently we needed it, because several hours of rain didn’t even leave us with much mud. It all soaked right in. Most of the animals are pretty self-sufficient right now, since the grass has finally come in strong. We just keep an eye on them and keep the water buckets filled. The chickens take up the most of chore time right now. We have several pens of several different age-groups scattered around the fields. Most of chore time is spent in walking … Continue Reading…

A New Chicken House…the Daily Farm Adventures {74}

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Well, I said was interested in talking about the real costs of raising your own meat, or owning a small farm…and here’s one now. {smile} My fellas are working on a new, hoop-house style chicken house–made of pieces of a greenhouse we salvaged from a friend. This is a pretty big undertaking and a new design–which is part of what Mr. Fix-It enjoys about farming. The creative, creating, problem-solving stuff. He enjoys re-inventing the wheel because there’s always the possibility of doing it better. {smile} We’re building a new house … Continue Reading…

Figuring Out Food and Water…the Dollars and Cents of Starting a Small Farm

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By far the biggest line item (other than a mortgage) that you’re going to run into with a small farm is the food bill. Poor Mr. Fix-It goes to sleep at night muttering about “more mouths to feed.” Food and water are the bottom line in your small farm enterprise. If you don’t have them, everything else needs to go! Sometimes I feel like we’ve tried everything at one time or another! {smile} Here’s some of our experiences, which might help you evaluate your own options moving forward. Here’s a few feeding basics … Continue Reading…

The Dollars and Cents of Starting a Small Farm

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My post a few weeks ago, when I said that raising your own meat is not really “frugal”, got an interesting response. A lot of folks agreed, and said farming is not cheap. Some readers disagreed and said that “frugal” and “cheap” are not the same thing and that the long-term, intangible benefits make it a frugal choice regardless of the up-front costs. The idea of quality vs quantity. {shrug} I think both are right. It’s expensive, but it has priceless long-term benefits–they’re just not monetary. And obviously we agree … Continue Reading…

Is Raising Your Own Meat Really Frugal?

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I read an article recently about how much it costs to run a small farm, and I have to admit, it hit me all wrong. I love homesteading and our small farm and would never want to discourage anyone from trying it–but I also think that it doesn’t help people to be successful by making it all sound easy-peasy, no big deal, throw some animals in your backyard and suddenly you have organic food for a quarter of the price of the grocery store. Because the ugly side of that is … Continue Reading…

Choosing Livestock (Part 1)…the Dollars and Cents of Starting a Small Farm

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So, now we get to the fun part of a small farm–The critters. It’s the part we tend to get over-zealous and the most impulsive about–and probably the most important that we take our time and think through! {smile} On a more serious note, it really is the part people most often get in over their head with. We’ve ended up with a lot of cast off livestock over the years. From “adopting” chickens at the animal shelter, to a goat tied to our porch rail with a note, to … Continue Reading…

How to Help Needy Families with Your Extra Eggs

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As I said on Monday, We have about 15 chickens in the chicken house right now and during peak egg season that amounts to about a dozen eggs a day! As we’ve downsized, marketing our eggs has been less of a priority and we’ve focused on using them up, or giving them away. Our last post talked about ways to save those eggs for your own family’s use. But farm fresh eggs can provide huge nutritional value to families that struggle to put food on the table! This post is about … Continue Reading…

In the Cold, In the Wet…the Daily Farm Adventures {94}

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This past weekend we pulled the sides down on the chicken house for the winter. It was cold. And wet. And we all worked anyway. That doesn’t mean we didn’t have some fun along the way. Because honestly, these boys are never serious for very long! We added some screws to the towing skids to strengthen them up. Those skids are also what we attach the side walls to when they are rolled down. Everyone got to help out working tools and running errands. Then we unrolled the plastic sides … Continue Reading…

Chickens and Flowers and Fruit…the Daily Farm Adventures {84}

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The weather’s been typical Tidewater spring lately. Hot and humid, muggy and thunderstorms, cool and buggy…usually all in one day! {smile} So we opened up the sides of the chicken house for more air flow–and a few bold ladies immediately wiggled themselves through the side panels and have been free-ranging it. I don’t even have the heart to be mad at them anymore. It’s been a 10 year battle, and they’ve won. And it’s never all of them. Usually just the same handful of trouble-makers. Frenchie here (one of our … Continue Reading…

Well, It’s Been Raining…the Daily Farm Adventures {86}

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That’s about all I can say. It was terribly dry and God has now sent us FOUR DAYS of rain. I’ve given up on the keeping the floors clean! But I found a few pictures to share with you from just before the clouds rolled in… Liberty the “barn cat” that lives on our front porch, shamelessly begging for some kitchen scraps… Henny Penny, our rascally free-ranger, also shamelessly begging for a treat on the front porch… And Molly, with her calf Bubba (he’s got a noticeable under-bite and as … Continue Reading…