There are many great reasons to raise sheep on your homestead. For starters, sheep wool is wonderful. It's nice and warm and very valuable. Sheep milk is super nutritious with far more calcium and vitamins than cow milk. And if you decide to breed your sheep, you can make a lot of money from the offspring. The downside of sheep is that they … [Read more...]
3 Animals Every New Homestead Needs
When people talk about homestead animals, they're usually referring to cows, goats, chickens, and other livestock. But in this video from Becky's Homestead, she talks about other types of animals that every homestead should have. For example, cats are great to have around because they keep mice and rats away. Also, livestock feed tends to … [Read more...]
10 Common Livestock Mistakes to Avoid
On a homestead, there is no time more exciting than when livestock first arrives. When animals begin to fill the barn, pens, and hutches, it makes newbie homesteaders feel like they have finally arrived. Unfortunately, a well-crafted plan to grow and raise your own groceries can rapidly turn into an epic failure if you make one of many common … [Read more...]
20 Creative Ways to Cut the Cost of Chicken Feed
If you have a dozen chickens and you're feeding them organic, non-GMO commercial grains, you're going to spend well over $100 a month just on chicken feed. But as Justin Rhodes says in this video, we've only had grain for chickens for about a century, and chickens have been around for thousands of years. This is very good news because it means … [Read more...]
10 Predators to Beware Of On Your Homestead
Homesteading life is filled with lots of fulfilling work, dirty jobs, great joys, and sometimes, tragic sorrow. The one sure way for a homestead to fail, and fail quickly, is to allow a predator problem to go unchecked. When wild animals are not taught farm avoidance, it will result in not only heartache, but wasted money, and a lot less food to … [Read more...]
6 Ways to Protect Your Livestock from Predators
Whether you keep poultry, cows, sheep, goats or other types of livestock, there are predators that will try to make a meal out of your animals, and there are common principles and methods you can use to protect your livestock from said predators. Here are a few of the most effective ones. The first three items on our list are types of fences. … [Read more...]
9 Most Popular Animals Among Homesteaders
If you're a new homesteader or thinking of starting a homestead, you've probably been wondering which animals you should get first. There's no need to jump in too quickly. Investing in animals for your homestead is a big commitment. It's important to take plenty of time to consider your options so you can do what's best for you and your family. … [Read more...]
8 Best Dog Breeds for Homesteaders
You’ve outfitted your homestead with a garden, stockpiles of food, fortified windows, and the ultimate backyard BBQ area. Your kingdom is almost complete! There is only one thing missing: your four-legged friend! A house isn’t a home without companionship, especially when you have kids around. When it comes to selecting a pup that is going to be … [Read more...]
8 Tips for Raising Happy, Healthy Ducks
If you’re considering getting birds for meat or eggs, ducks may be an excellent choice for your homestead, farm or backyard operation. They are hardy, relatively disease free, easy to care for, reliable egg producers, and are exceptional foragers, eating many garden pests such as slugs, snails, grubs, and a wide variety of plants (including many … [Read more...]
10 Things You Need for a Basic Chicken Coop
If you've been dreaming of eating freshly gathered eggs in the morning, you may be considering building a chicken coop in your backyard or on your homestead. Designs and plans can vary widely for chicken coops, depending on what building materials you have on hand and how many chickens you want to raise. However, there are some basics every good … [Read more...]
Butchering a Year’s Worth of Chickens (In One Morning)
I've known many people who talk about how great it would be to raise their own chickens for meat, but most of them have never actually butchered a chicken, and a few of them would probably be too squeamish to handle it. Butchering chickens is not exactly fun. It's messy and brutal, but necessary. If you're interested in raising chickens for … [Read more...]
9 Quieter Chicken Breeds for Urban Homesteaders
It's no secret that roosters can make quite a bit of noise when they're sounding the daily wake-up call. In fact, they often raise the alarm all day long, even if it's only to let the hens know they've found a bug. But did you know that hens can be as noisy, if not noisier? Many hens will start cackling when they're getting ready to lay an egg. … [Read more...]
Train Your Milk Cow to Love You
Having a milk cow is a wonderful thing. You can get fresh delicious milk and use it to make butter, cheese, yogurt, and other delicious foods. The problem is, getting milk from your cow won't be easy if she doesn't like you. When my father bought himself an old Holstein cow (back when I was in college), he had a heck of a time milking her. She … [Read more...]
How I Feed 30 Chickens For Only $1.25 a Day
One common concern people have when thinking about raising backyard chickens is the cost. Of course, you can feed your chickens table scraps, but you're going to have to buy lots of chicken feed. Chicken feed typically sells for $1 or more per pound, and since chickens eat 1/3 of a pound a day or more, that means it costs at least 33 cents a day … [Read more...]
5 Birds (Besides Chickens) That Are Worth Raising (& 3 Not To Raise)
Though chickens are the best-known type of backyard poultry, there are many other breeds worth considering. A mixed flock has many advantages, as each type of bird will eat different forage rather than directly competing, meaning you can keep more birds in a single space without depleting resources. If provided with ample forage and outdoor … [Read more...]
9 Questions to Ask Before You Start Beekeeping
Beekeeping can be incredibly rewarding both to the beekeeper and the entire community as the bees go to work pollinating crops, regardless of fence line boundaries. Though bees are one of the few homestead animals that largely feed themselves, tending them can require a huge investment of time and money, especially if you're not prepared before you … [Read more...]
5 Deadly Mistakes To Avoid When Raising Chickens
Raising chickens has become very popular in recent years. Not just among homesteaders, but among suburbanites. Anywhere raising chickens is allowed, you can be sure that at least a few people are doing it. But with all these new chicken owners, lots of people are making deadly mistakes. In this episode of Becky's Homestead, Becky talks about … [Read more...]
