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How To Start a Homestead

Have you been used to buying your groceries at the supermarkets? Never raised animals or had a garden?

Are you trying to figure out how to get started on the path to providing for your family? Have you thought about starting a homestead?

It can certainly feel overwhelming just to get started. So think about getting started, but doing it on a small level.

Trying to do too much too quickly can be a recipe for burnout and frustration.

Here’s what we did when we first move here in 2006. Learn from our mistakes and keep an open mind. And have fun – never forget to have fun!

How to Set up a Homestead

Starting small will not only get you on the path to providing for your family, but it will teach you a lot. As your confidence grows and time goes by, you can implement another activity on your homestead (or in your backyard).

Let’s start with a garden.

Planting a Garden

What kind of vegetable seems to on your family’s plates the most often? That’s a good one to plant this year.

For us it is potatoes. So, it’s important for us to be sure to grow lots of potatoes this year.

The bonus with potatoes is you can feed them off to animals, once you are sure you have enough to store for winter eating for your family.

Other veggies we eat a lot of include green beans (so 2 double rows get planted), beets (3 or 4 rows) peas (so plant these up the fence that runs around the garden perimeter.

If you don’t have much experience with veggie gardening, it will take a few years before you can closely figure out how much to plant, in order to put enough by so there is food for your family over the winter.

Just get a start this year, and this fall you can count up your jars of canned beans, then figure out if you need to grow more next year.

Take a look at our 5 Easiest Vegetables to Grow and just start small!

Keep notes and start a garden journal to record this kind of information.

Next year, when it comes to ordering seed, you’ll have a good idea of how much seed you will need.

Raising Chickens

Looking to add animals into the mix? As far as I am concerned, #1 are chickens. Wonderful, you just feed them and water them – every day (almost) they will pay you back. We started with 4 hens, the next year we were up to 15.

EVERY time you have an extra dozen, (after you have put a couple dozen away for your family) sell the eggs. Keep the egg money in a separate jar. Once you get an egg customer, call them each week and see if they are in need of another dozen.

Pay for your chicken feed OUT of the jar. Find another customer (or as it often seems to happen, your one customer will find you the next one)….rinse and repeat.

Over time, you will have enough money in your jar to pay for their feed and still more money in the jar.

Got an extra $15 in there? Next time you are at the feed store, pick up a couple of T-posts or pick up a roll of chicken wire.

I am a big fan of T-posts and chicken wire. Temporary fencing can be set up wherever you need it and for however long you need it.

Put the chickens in there in the afternoon, and let them find their own food of bugs and grass.

Don’t let them scratch right down to the ground. Before that happens, pull out the T-posts and set your fencing up somewhere else that needs a good grazing.

Setting up fencing against existing buildings or fence posts reduces the number of T-posts you need.

Chickens like to work! Bored chickens get unhealthy and start picking on each other, just to give themselves something to do.

Harness that energy and put it into something that will help you. Chickens allowed to free range and graze will lower the feed bill, and that’s what you want.

Meanwhile, your family is enjoying the eggs, extras can be sold, and the money saved up for feed and the “next thing on the farm list”.

If you have access to fresh manure, set up temporary fencing around the manure pile, and let the girls in.

Within days they will have eaten all the small seeds they find and any bits of leftover grain.

They’ll also scratch and fluff up that manure pile for you. Let Them do the work! Then move the fencing.

Once the manure has sat for a month or two, you can wheel it over to use on your veggie garden.

Raising Chicks for Meat

Meanwhile, you’re saving your egg money in the jar. Over time, say you end up with an extra $50 in there (after the feed, that you are now able to buy in either bulk or buy multiple bags so you have them on hand).

An extra $50 will buy you some meat birds (in season of course). Here in BC, $50 will probably get you 20 birds, by the time you take shipping into consideration.

How many meat birds can your family eat? Averaging about say 5.5 lbs, 20 chickens will enable your family to have chicken every 2 1/2 weeks or so.

It’s possible to get 4 meals off a chicken (including the soup at the end). See how all this is adding up over time?

Yes, the first year you will have to put out money for meat bird feed, however, time it right for your season.

Raise the birds when you hardly have to supplement their heat after the first 2 weeks.

During the spring, summer and fall, if you let your laying hens free range of graze in temporary coops, you won’t be spending as much money on their feed.

Use the money instead to buy feed for the meat birds (20% protein). Keep selling eggs – rinse and repeat.

Another easy way to offset your laying hen’s feed bill (while collecting their eggs) is to feed them veggies and greens from the garden during the growing season.

You can feed greens to meat birds too, but you’ll always have to buy them their special feed.

Meat birds are bred to gain weight FAST, and they just won’t do it living off of garden greens.

Read how we manage to raise 8 pound meat birds in just 8 weeks.

Eight weeks later, butcher your meat birds. Still have your one or two egg customers?

Do yourself a favour (and them) and give them one bird, all dressed out. Thank them for buying your eggs and hand over a chicken.

Let them know you’re going to do meat birds the following year. If they should want some, they can order some.

In addition, you’ve just been given a LOT of fantastic manure from those meat birds.

Let it compost, then add it to your veggie gardens – rinse and repeat.

Meanwhile, you’re making sure you spend any egg money on feed. If you have leftover money, keep buying T-posts or wire or veggie seeds.

Every time, put the money BACK into either your garden or your animal needs.

You will see, over time that you can add slowly to your homesteading – every little bit helps.

Concentrate first on what your family needs are, sell any excess.

Keeping Goats for Milk

Does your family drink a lot of milk? Think about saving towards a goat. You can supply milk and cheese for your family.

Goats like to eat brush and scrub, so if you have areas like this that you want to clear off for future pasture or gardens, put the goats in there.

You’ll need stronger fencing tho than T-posts, you know what they say about goats!

If you have small trees that need to be spaced, you can cut the trees down and use them for fence rails.

You can also take the branches off and use them for bean or pea supports in your veggie garden.

The idea is to spend as little as possible in the beginning. Over time, keep plowing your monies back into your barnyard and gardens.

Feed ANY weeds you pull to your laying hens. When you finish harvesting parts of your veggie garden, move the T-posts in to section off part of the garden, then put some hens in there.

They’ll work your soil, eat the bugs, and add manure all at the same time. Better for you that They do the work.

When you cut the grass, give the clippings to both the laying hens and the meat birds.

If you have excess, start putting it down between the veggie garden rows to keep the weeds down. It will also add to improving your garden soil.

One more thought – for goodness sake, don’t underprice your eggs!

That is the Worst thing you can do – any customers that are wanting to buy farm fresh eggs or veggies are willing to pay at Least what the supermarket charges.

It should be more, because of your attention to growing as naturally as possible. People are willing to pay a premium for this.

Don’t overcharge, but jeez, don’t undercharge. That’s totally shooting yourself in the foot, plus you are messing up any other farmer’s plans to try to recoup their original costs.

Note I’m not including hay in the above, the way we work here, we do not overwinter any animals except for laying hens.

We may get a beef cow in the future, once we start rejuvenating our pastures and putting aside our own hay to feed them over winter.

You’ll need to have some hay or straw or something on hand for on the floor of your chicken coop.

No reason you can’t grow the grass long, then cut it down and use that.

Or straw, leaves or anything else you can think of that is no cost. Your hens will not mind!

Begin to think of your farm or backyard as a cycle. Everything has a season and as much as possible needs to be returned to the land to increase soil fertility.

Put things in (cover crops, green manure, composted manure) and take things out (the meat, eggs, vegetables).

Focus on improving your soil and the health of your family as cheaply as possible.

I’m willing to wager that in the next couple of years, you will be eating a LOT healthier for a lot less money.

Start small, but get started! You can do it!

Your family will eat healthier, eat fresher, you’ll save money and hopefully in a year or two, all your animals will be self-sustaining.

Think about how you can get started on the path to providing for your family.

Rooster Versus Chicken: What’s the Difference

By Annie

Looking to raise birds on your land but unsure where to start? Check out this guide on rooster versus chicken for information so you can decide what’s best for your needs!

If you are going to raise some meat birds, you will have a choice of ordering unsexed chicks, all rooster chicks or all pullets (hens). Should you order roosters or hens?

We always order unsexed (or straight run as they are called) chicks. They are cheaper than ordering all roosters or all hens. We like a variety of sizes of chickens in our freezer, another good reason for ordering them unsexed.

The pullets will be smaller so we can put a 6 lb bird in the freezer. Since the roosters will grow larger, we can grow them out to get 8 pound birds.

Chicks in an enclosure feeding. — When they’ve just hatched, it can be difficult to tell the difference between genders in chicks. After 3 to 4 weeks, they’ll start to differ in their physical features enough to make educated guesses about their sex.

We always order our meat bird chicks from a hatchery. They have catalogues or websites where you can learn about the different breeds they have. Give them a call and request that they send you a catalogue.

Remember that it takes 3 weeks from the date of ordering until your chicks arrive. This is because that is exactly how long it takes to hatch the eggs.

If you have hens and a rooster, you can have a mama hen sit on the eggs and take care of them. For meat birds, we always order Cornish Giants (or Cornish Cross). These birds have been bred over the years for fast weight gain, which is why we can fill our freezer with chicken in only 8 weeks.

What are Straight Run Chickens?

Essentially, this refers to a flock of chicks that you’ll order from a hatchery unsexed. This option is good if you have a lot of space to work with and you’re interested in raising chickens for both eggs and meat.

For more information about whether you should go for sexed or unsexed chickens, check out this post on Straight Run Chickens. This will help you find out what’s best for your needs.

However, because they come unsexed, you may initially be unsure of the ratio of males to females. That’s where this post comes in handy! Keep reading to learn a myriad of ways to determine the difference between roosters and hens.

Difference Between Roosters and Hens

This may seem obvious, but not everybody knows! The difference comes down to gender.

A rooster (also sometimes called a cock) is a male chicken. When compared to females, they tend to have distinctive tail feathers, including saddle feathers which are long feathers that cover the rooster’s tail and behind.

This is sometimes called a sickle feather due to its curved shape. Roosters also have distinct hackle feathers around their neck, and are typically larger than hens.

Roosters and hens roosting in a chicken coop. — Roosters versus Hens – here’s how to tell them apart.

And it’s not a myth that roosters crow (in other words, you will actually hear that classic cock-a-doodle-doo)! Female chickens can also exhibit crowing behavior on occasion depending on pecking order, but crowing tends to be a male chicken behavior.

Another indication of gender in chickens is the presence of spurs, which grow on the legs in the opposite direction of the toes of roosters. Their beaks can be bigger, and they also have larger wattles than hens.

On the other hand, hens are female chickens. One of their most notable characteristics is that they lay eggs. This can be a fantastic option if you’re looking to raise chickens for fresh eggs, either to use in your own kitchen or to sell.

Hens laying eggs daily for us to enjoy is one of the top reasons I love having chickens! We often keep two separate flocks here:

Cornish Giants for meat (raised in 8 weeks)

Hens for eggs – we raise a variety of Heritage chicken breeds that do well in northern climates.

A picture of the head of a rooster. — You can tell this chicken is a male (a rooster) because of the length of the feathers on the top of its head. If you compared it to a hen, it would also be noticeably larger.

How to Tell: Rooster Versus Chicken

By the time they are about 4 weeks old, you can begin to tell the difference between the males and the females because of sexual dimorphism. This is just a fancy word that means males and females of the same species will have markedly different characteristics.

Not only will the roosters already be a fair bit larger than the hens, the roosters will have a larger comb (the red on the top of his head) and also will have larger wattles (they hang down). See the picture above of a rooster (also known as a cockerel).

You may want to keep some hens for longer than 8 weeks to grow them out a bit more. Or, you may decide to butcher your roosters at 6 or 7 weeks, instead of 8. It depends on the size you want your finished birds to be.

Here’s a full list of things to look for:

Neck feathers – Roosters will have particularly pointy neck feathers, whereas hens’ hackle feathers tend to be shorter and rounder.
Wing feathers – This is one area where hens have roosters beat. Male chicks tend to have shorter wing feathers, and they also typically develop later. Female chicks will have round and neat feathers with more length. This may actually be the most apparent in one and two day-old chicks, as the progression of wing growth tends to become fairly even beyond that point.
Leg size – If a chick seems to have thicker legs, that’s a good indication it’s a male. In many cases, this also means longer legs.
General size – Roosters are stockier and sturdier than hens, and will generally be larger.
Coloration – Hens tend to have lighter plumage than roosters. This can vary depending on the breed. There are also some types of chickens that have been bred specifically so that there will be a particular marker on one gender or the other that can help you determine.

Graphic for 8 pounds in 8 weeks, a book about raising day old chicks for the dinner table. — This book will teach you everything you need to know about the best way to raise chickens from the second they hatch up until it’s time to put them on the dinner table! It only takes about 2 months–learn how here!

If you want to learn everything there is about raising meat birds, grab our book 8 Pounds in 8 Weeks: Raising Day Old Chicks for the Dinner Table.

FAQs

Why are roosters so different from hens?

This comes down to evolution for the most part. In flocks of chickens, roosters are typically the protectors of the hens and their chicks when it comes to predators and other threats. As a result, they’ve evolved to be larger, have more stamina, and have more distinct markings to look more intimidating.

Do we eat meat from hens or roosters?

Most store bought poultry comes from both sexes. There isn’t a difference in taste, since birds are processed for meat between 6 and 12 weeks of age, there is really no difference between roosters and pullets (young hens).

They’re often fed the same way as well, which contributes to further similarity.

Are a chicken and a rooster the same thing?

Yes and no! A rooster is just a name for a male chicken. In other words, all roosters are chickens, but not all chickens are roosters.

Hens in a chicken yard. — Tips to tell a rooster from a hen.

Will hens lay eggs without a rooster?

All hens need to lay eggs are a safe space to do so and a proper, healthy diet. The difference is that without a rooster, the chicken’s eggs will not be fertilized, which means they can’t possibly hatch into chicks.

These are the kind of eggs you’ll find at the grocery store! Most egg-laying hens don’t have mates, and many of them have never even been in the presence of a rooster.

What is vent sexing?

This is a method of examining a chicken’s vent (in other words, the place where feces and eggs will exit the body, also commonly called the cloaca) in order to determine the gender. For the inexperienced chicken owner who’s just getting started with backyard flocks, I don’t recommend this method.

Professionals know how to safely determine a chick’s sex this way, but because chicks are so small and fragile, it’s easy to injure or harm them if you don’t know what you’re doing.