Heritage chickens are perfect for northern climates! Here are some of the best heritage dual purpose birds. Want to get some backyard chickens? Here's something worth considering if you live in cold winter climates - look into heritage chickens. They are naturally more suited to cold winters than breeds like Cornish Giants or Polish. Do some research as to your weather conditions, how harsh … [Read more...]
8 Pounds in 8 Weeks: Raising Day Old Chicks for the Dinner Table
Ever wondered about raising some of your own meat? We find the chickens we raise taste so much better than the watery chicken we have bought at the grocery store. Once we started raising a few birds every year, we were convinced raising our own chicks for meat was the way to go. Filling the freezer is pretty easy and it only takes 8 weeks from start to finish. Now, almost … [Read more...]
The Modern Homesteader’s Guide to Keeping Geese
I've always been more of a chicken fan, and haven't tried raising geese. We find it easy to keep a bunch of hens here - they give us eggs and help keep the place more bug free. Plus, they like to work! Read here about how we put chickens to work so they earn their keep. But friends do keep quite a few geese on their property and they love them. They think geese are better bug eaters than … [Read more...]
Fodder for the Laying Hens
Here's another thing I am adding to my list of goals - producing fodder for our chickens. I have been doing some research into sprouting grains and am finding some interesting stuff. I'd like to cut down the feed bill. During the growing season, our chickens (and pigs) have their own garden here. We set aside a large area and grow lots of different vegetables for all of them to … [Read more...]
Chicken Farming 101 (Chickens for Beginners)
An intro to chickens for beginners if you want to start keeping hens in the back yard. Chickens are hard workers in our backyard. Every animal we raise here has a job to do while they are with us. If you want to have chickens, here's some of what we've learned having our hens. Think of it as Chicken Farming 101! Raising Chickens for Beginners Our chickens are always … [Read more...]
Chicken Questions and Answers
Want to start raising chickens? Wondering how to get started? Here are a few chicken questions and answers to get things going. Chickens are a fantastic addition to your backyard or homestead. If your city doesn't yet allow backyard chickens, consider getting involved in the growing movement to change council's mind. While I can understand urban areas not allowing roosters, I … [Read more...]
The 10 Things I Love About Chickens
Chickens are often the first "livestock" people get when they are starting to become more self sufficient. There are a lot of benefits of raising chickens. They are easy to raise and are a low cost way to feed your family wonderfully fresh eggs. We wrote a book all about raising chicks. It's all about how we raise meat birds and called 8 Pounds in 8 Weeks: Raising Day Old Chicks for the … [Read more...]
Setting Goals for Your Homestead
These ideas for setting goals for your homestead can help you plan your coming year. Winter is setting in and that means we can linger over that extra cup of coffee in the morning and just generally move at a slower place. After a few weeks of rest, our minds gradually start turning to the next year. Usually, that means beginning to set some goals for the year. We're … [Read more...]
Temporary Housing for Chickens
This is an old goat house that was on the property when we bought it. One of the boys who used to live here had a goat for awhile. We used it first for our main chicken coop. We started with 4 chickens as I wasn't sure whether I would like having them. I had zero experience with raising chickens and starting with small numbers would allow us to … [Read more...]