Chicks

How to Brood Chicks Inside

February 5, 2024 by Leigh Leave a Comment

You went to tractor supply to get dog food and they had baby chicks. Of course, you had your kids with you and some how you managed to get talked into a couple of chicks. How does this happen?! The good news is, it’s not rocket science to brood chickens. But for someone who has never raised day old chicks? It sure seems like it. In this post I’m going to go over the basics of how to brood chicks inside, what we use, and other tips and tricks I’ve learned. If you want to skip most of this click the “jump to recipe” at the top of the post for my lists.

The Ultimate Homesteader’s Starter Bundle – Only $47!

Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

Includes:
✅ Schedule F Tracker – Simplify tax prep
✅ Profit Calculator – Track earnings
✅ Hay Calculator – Plan livestock feed
✅ Garden Journal – Digital & printable
✅ Herd Health Tracker – Monitor animal care
✅ Simple Budget – Manage finances
✅ Backyard Homestead eBook – Essential tips

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

Buy Now

What Do You Need?

This is going to depend on how many babies you get. But you need a place to put them, a waterer, feeder, medicated chick feed, a heat lamp with red light and bedding. That’s really it. You don’t HAVE to use medicated chick starter but I do recommend it for baby chicks. It helps prevent coccidia in your flock and that my friends is huge. Coccidia and other parasites are the number one killer of all baby animals on all homesteads, except maybe predator’s.

When it comes to a place to put them, it really doesn’t have to be fancy. We use a plastic tote when we have to brood a smaller batch of chickens. There are 25 in here and this will only last about a week, maybe two. Once they have out grown this, *fingers crossed* they will go into the new chicken coop. You can read about our experiment with a metal chicken coop here . But they will stay here until it’s a “problem” and then they will be moved elsewhere. Usually if you are only brooding a couple up to maybe 6, this tote should be fine.

We put this tote in our living room for a couple of different reasons. Our other chickens like to come up onto the deck. Since having the chicks, the other chickens have been jumping up on the mini fridge out front to look through the window. This is going to help when the time comes to integrate everyone into the new coop. The other chickens know that we are brooding chickens in here. George and one of black stars have taken to keeping an eye on them.

George and his ladies trying to find the chicks

While you are brooding chickens, you want to try and maintain their temperatures around 90-95*. At this age, they are simply too little to regulate their own temperatures well. Every week you decrease their temps by moving the light higher and higher. If you notice your chicks staying away from the heat lamp or panting, move the heat lamp up because it’s probably too warm for them. Another thing you can buy to help gauge the heat is a Temp gun. These things are amazing for so many things beyond a chicken brooder.

If you are new to heating with firewood and are looking to master the finer points of it. We’ve got a great eBook that goes in depth of what tools you should consider, how and where to stack, how to build a fire and so much more!

Buy Now

The other reason we brood chickens in the living room is so they get used to us and our noise. We are hoping that being around us will socialize them better and we will be able to handle them more. There is also the added bonus of photo ops like this one.

This is the first time for us using a red light for heat. Since we have reptiles, we have an abundance of CHE (ceramic heat emitters) and we used those for our first two batches. Unfortunately, we had a couple issues with our meat chicks pecking each other. After doing some research I found out that chickens are attracted to red things and they are cannibals. They will peck each other and then once they see the blood, they will kill that chick. So we got this red light and we already had the lamp with caging. But the new one is so far so good. We got ours from Tractor Supply and love it.

When it comes to feeders and waterers, it comes down to size. When they are little, you don’t need a ton of feed and water but you do want to make sure that they don’t run out. You can find the feeder shown in the picture here. However, when that one breaks we will be switching to this one because the one we have takes up a lot of space and can really only be used for chicks. I like our waterer and we will continue to use it for chicks. When the ducks come, they will need a different waterer because they like to play in it.

Tips and Tricks

Socializing

So you’ve got your set up, got all the things. Now what? Love on those babies! Seriously. If you want happy chicks that will run up to you, love on them. Let your kids play with them. Socialize them to the point where they are excited to see you. We didn’t do that with our first batch and it’s hard to get them to come to us. Our meat chicks however, loved us. They would come running when you came outside and they would follow you around because they associated us with food.

If you have older children, around five or so, make this their chore. Giving kids an animal helps teach them responsibility, empathy, and kindness in a way that human to human interaction just doesn’t do.

Pasty Butt

Chicks will get what is called pasty butt. It’s a thing. The best thing you can do to combat this is apple cider vinegar in their drinking water. I do about a tablespoon in each time we fill up our 5 Qt waterer. You can absolutely do more but I wouldn’t do much less. If your chick does end up with pasty butt simply take a warm wet rag and GENTLY wipe it off. If you are too rough you can damage their vent and that is fatal.

The Ultimate Homesteader’s Starter Bundle – Only $47!

Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

Buy Now

Feeding Your Chicks

Chicks only need the medicated feed for the first bag. Again this depends on how many chicks you have and what size bag. We buy a 50lb bag for 50 chicks. If you only have 5? Get the 5lb bag. Just use common sense on how much your chicks need. Feeding them more isn’t going to hurt them but not enough could.

What do you feed them after that first bag? Just regular chick feed. You do want about 20-24% protein until they are mostly grown, about 4wks-2months. Also make sure that it is crumbles for a while and once they get most of their feathers, you can switch to a pellet. After that we switch our laying hens to a layer feed. This keeps them from growing too fast but also have different nutrients for healthy chickens and eggs.

You can see that they have most of their feathers and now they are outside

How long do you brood chickens? About 3 weeks or once they are fully feathered, they can go outside into their coop or to free range. If it’s cold out, make sure to bring the heat lamp with them for nights. If it’s warm, make sure they have plenty of water.

Buying List For Brooding Chicks

Print Recipe

Equipment

1 Brooder Box
1 Clamp Lamp
1 Red light
1 bag Pine shavings
1 bag Medicated chick feed
1 waterer
1 feeder

That’s about it! If you have any questions about how to brood chickens feel free to comment below. Feel free to share this on your social media and like us as well!

If you like the content I put out, feel free to buy us a coffee! It helps keep this site running, marketing and the goats in grain!

Buy me a coffee

If you like this post, feel free to share it and follow us below on our social media accounts!

Cons Of Getting Chickens

January 9, 2024 by Leigh Leave a Comment

I will be the first to tell you that I am not a big fan of chickens. So if you are a die hard chicken lover, this may not be the post for you. BUT if you are in the research phase of chickens, or maybe you are new to chickens and looking to get some insight, I just want to tell you to use caution. There are a few cons of getting chickens.

text saying cons of raising chickens and a chicken staring at the camera

Cons Of Getting Chickens

I want to start this whole blog post by being completely transparent. I don’t like chickens. Like at all. I prefer ducks. Those creatures don’t get into my gardens because they are too big to fit through the fence holes and they can’t fly.

The Ultimate Homesteader’s Starter Bundle – Only $47!

Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

Buy Now

But chickens are here for Jared and Jaxson’s enjoyment. So I am absolutely biased. Now that that is out of the way, I want you to take off the rose colored glasses or blinders and really look at chickens. We already know the pros of getting chickens, right? Eggs!

But what are the cons of getting chickens? Well, I’m here to tell you that the list is pretty extensive. Chicken poop being the top of that list. Then there’s wing clipping, they die easily, predators, eggs, sickness, they get into EVERYTHING…. just to name a few things.

So why get chickens?

Good question…. Don’t get me wrong, chickens are pretty cool creatures. They are the hardest working, most productive animal on the farm, hands down. But they come at a cost which I will go into further down.

Chickens are the gateway animal for a lot of homesteaders. They are relatively easy to care for, cheap to purchase and raise, don’t require a ton of time or attention, and you get eggs! Chickens are great to get rid of kitchen scraps, too.

But that poop!

If you have a dedicated coop, and they will ALL go into that coop, you may only have to deal with massive amounts of poop in one spot. And it should be relatively easy to clean up, especially if you are using pine shavings for bedding. However, if you don’t have a dedicated coop because they free range, or they don’t ALL go into it, you will find their favorite roosting spots. The next morning…. after you’ve stepped in a HUGE pile of chicken poop.

My back deck is COVERED in chicken poop. No matter what we try to do, they will figure out that we have gone to bed, jump the fences and bed down on the deck…. It’s like they know. They will occasionally roost on the front deck but we are usually able to get them scattered before they bed down. They also like to roost on our bikes…. Our $700+ mountain bikes. They like to roost on the outside AC unit. If we don’t shut the door to the greenhouse? They like to roost in there too.

As you can imagine, this has created a huge hassle. Despite our best efforts, we just don’t get all of them into the coops at night. Which is a downside of letting them free range and being a victim of chicken math. And leads us into the next big con.

Clipping wings to keep them contained

This is not something that I feel good about. It’s just not. But I do it, and I’m diligent about it, because I don’t want them to escape their run or electric nets. But these creatures have figured out how to jump up and/or climb over the fencing with only one set of feathers. Even electrified fencing…. They just go through it.

I’ve tried various ways of clipping wings, and none have worked to actually keep them contained. Which is disheartening.

Check out our Microgreens at True Leaf Market

Then chickens are both extremely hardy and fragile

I’m not even sure how in the world you can be both hardy and fragile but chickens manage to do it with ease. An ole timer once told me “the chicken will die of anything else before dying of old age“. And that is something I have found to be absolutely true.

Chicks are extremely fragile, if they can make out of the brooder? Then they have to run the gauntlet of not getting picked off by another chicken or predator. Then they have to make it to egg laying age before a predator gets ahold of them, or they get lost in the woods. Let’s not mention that while they can eat pretty much anything but a freaking avocado can take them out… go figure.

The Ultimate Homesteader’s Starter Bundle – Only $47!

Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

Buy Now

And finally the biggest con of them all?

They get into EVERYTHING!

Now, maybe I have mutant chickens. Or maybe we have let them free range for too long. Or even still, they enjoy taunting me. But when I say that these chickens get into everything, I mean literally everything.

I have found chickens trapped in the wheel well of my truck, under the front deck, and in the goat barn… that they walked into.

They will willing jump into my garden to peck away at freshly planted seeds or plants, but if I even THINK about putting them in a tractor over a bed? Forget it. They just poop and refuse to eat.

They will find the most inconvenient place to go broody and then scream at you when you get within 5 feet of them. Like, sorry dear but I have to go past you to get through the FRONT DOOR!

Or, and this is my biggest frustration, I create this beautiful temporary pen. It’s got all the grass, bugs, weeds, you could want. Plenty of sun AND shade, water and pan of fermented feed. But, NO, you don’t want THAT pen. You want to go into my garden and eat every single tomato transplant that I have lovingly tended for the last 6 weeks……

So there are a lot of cons of getting chickens in my book

I do not like chickens. I do not like eggs. I do not like the taste of chicken. These creatures are the bane of my existence.

BUT!

Before you leave here thinking that I hate these creatures. I will give you a few things that I like about chickens.

They eat spiders! If you hold a chicken up to a spider, they will nom nom that eight legged, terrifying thing like it’s going out of style.

Chickens will turn my compost for me! No extra work on my part? Sold.

They turn kitchen scraps and moldy left overs into eggs…. that’s pretty cool.

Chickens create a TON of compostable animal bedding to put in my gardens.

Chicks are pretty cute.

They eat bugs! Watching a chicken chase a grasshopper is probably the funniest, cutest thing I have ever seen them do.

The Ultimate Homesteader’s Starter Bundle – Only $47!

Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

Buy Now

So while there are cons of getting chickens.

They aren’t all that bad. There are a ton of ways around the irritating things they do. We just haven’t exhausted all the options. And yes, it’s frustrating but at the same time, they are the hardest working animal on this farm. So fine…. they can stay.

If you like the content I put out, feel free to buy us a coffee! It helps keep this site running, marketing and the goats in grain!

Buy me a coffee

If you like this post, feel free to share it and follow us below on our social media accounts!

How To Start A Homestead

December 29, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

I can’t and won’t tell you how to start a homestead. Each homesteader is going to have different ideas, wants, desires, goals, etc. So to give you a step by step guide is pretty pointless. But what I am going to do, is tell you how I would have done it when we started. I am going to give you the tips and tricks I wish I had known prior to starting out. Because to tell you how to start a homestead would be amazing, it’s not going to work for everyone.

The Ultimate Homesteader’s Starter Bundle – Only $47!

Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

Buy Now

Before You Start A Homestead

Before you start looking for properties, you need to set your homesteading goals. Do you want to raise or grow all your own food? Are you looking to make money? Is this a retirement plan? You really need to dig deep about why you want to start your homestead and start journaling everything.

The reason this comes first is because you are going to need to know what kind of land you need for the goals you have. When we started looking at properties, we found one that we absolutely fell in love with. It was at the top of a mountain with 15 acres and a ton of boulders. As you can imagine, living on a mountain would have a lot of challenge like, steep cliffs, rocky soil, and outbuilding issues.

Because we knew what we wanted to do on the property, we knew that doing those things on a mountain would be extremely difficult.

After Setting Your Goals

You should consider your goals with every single property that you look at. Is there enough land for your goals? Can you work the land without a lot of initial investment? Is the layout of the land going to work with your principles, goals and ideals?

If you find a property that has a ton of pasture, fencing, and outbuildings, only to find out that the land was used to grow GMO corn? That may not line up with your ideals of organic farming. While that land is already set up to farm, it’s going to take years to repair that soil.

If your property is completely raw, you are going to put a TON of work into it to get it where you want it. Our property was almost completely raw. No outbuildings, no gardens, and minimal pastures. So we have spent a lot of time and money getting everything set up. And we aren’t even close to being done.

Researching Laws On Your Homestead

If you are planning on homesteading, but your county or state laws require all sorts of regulations, make sure you know what they are before you buy that property. The sale of raw milk recently became legal in the state of Georgia. But there are a lot of regulations to go with it. Same with cow sharing and meat purchases. Don’t sink all your money into a property only to find out later that you can’t do the things you want to do.

If we had just started selling raw milk when we first started, we would have ended up in law suits with possible jail time. It’s better to know what you’re getting into before your hip deep in problems.

Start an LLC, S Corp or Similar

Research which of these business options make the most sense to you, your property and your goals. But whatever it is, get it started before you buy the first fence post, animal, bag of feed, you name it. If possible get an EIN number or other tax applications done. You want to make sure you are tracking every purchase.

This will lower your tax burden and allow you to *hopefully* get some money back at the end of the year.

I use this tracker to make sure that I am getting as much back on my taxes as possible.

After Buying Your Property

Once you’ve committed, or purchased a property, I want you to sit with it for a minute. Especially if you are a brand new homesteader! Don’t start digging a garden, building a barn, or anything else until you know what you’re land is capable of.

We knew we wanted animals, but weren’t in a hurry to get them. Until the goats. While I’m glad we got the goats, I really wish we would have waited.

Waiting On Gardens

No matter how much you know you need to wait, you want to plant more. My biggest reason for waiting was just wanting to make sure that before we started clearing huge areas for a garden, we knew what it would look like in all four seasons. I wanted to make sure that I knew where water run off would be, sunlight, and where the good soil already was.

Because we waited, we saved ourselves a ton of physical labor as well as time and money.

Waiting On Animals

This is by far the hardest thing for any new homesteader. It’s usually the first thing that we think of when we think about farming or homesteading. But trust me when I say, if you get animals before your infrastructure is set up, you will be chasing your tail for the next decade.

We brought two goats onto the property without fencing put up, shelter in place or any idea what to feed them. After we lost V, we had to scramble to buy more goats. Then more shelters, fencing, etc. That first year should have been figuring out what we wanted to do. Instead, it was a year of figuring out what we were doing.

Waiting On Major Purchases

When we first bought the property, we were going to build Jared’s shop, get a tractor, a side by side, and huge barn. Man, I am SO glad we waited. We had all these ideas and plans, that I am beyond grateful didn’t work out. That first year would have cost us several thousand dollars. But you know what we learned? We don’t need a tractor, a side by side, a huge barn, or Jared’s shop.

Would those things have made our lives easier? Abso-freaking-loutely! But it would have stretched us so thin that we wouldn’t have been able to do the other things that we wanted to do.

Because we waited, we learned that manual power is the advantage. We don’t need a tractor to haul the dead trees anywhere. We cut them into smaller chunks and rolled them where they needed to be.

Because we waited on the huge barn, we realized that smaller shacks for the animals are easier to move and easier for them to keep themselves warm.

Because we waited on the side by side, we found a great deal on a pair of four wheelers that don’t require payments.

We did realize that a barn, shop, tractor, side by side would make things easier but we could do more manually.

Getting To Work

Once you have sat on your property for a minute, and learned what you and that property were capable of, get to work.

Start Your Garden First

I will say it again and again, wait on livestock till you have your gardens in! Yes, this is a do as I say not as I DID. I say this with the experience of someone who DIDN’T start with gardens. I wish we would have waited on livestock but we didn’t.

When you are setting up your gardens, think about your goals for the garden. Are you planning on a fresh eating garden? Or are you looking to put up food for the off season? How big is your family? All of these questions are important to answer before you start your gardens.

I suggest starting with a larger space than you think you need. Without fail, and every year, we end up having to expand our gardens. Which is great, but does lead to issues with fencing, beds and having to change stuff around constantly.

Start On Your Animals

If you listened, which I doubt because I wouldn’t either, you have waited on getting animals till after you’ve gotten your gardens dialed in. Now, we get animals.

Unlike the garden, where you give yourself more space than you need, start small with your livestock. Start with ONLY the amount of chickens you need. Only get a couple of goats or cows. Start small and learn the animal before you get an entire herd.

I know you’re not going to and I’m wasting my time, but you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

Revisit Those Major Purchases

After you have learned how to do things manually, start thinking about those bigger purchases. We thought we would need that tractor? Turns out, we don’t even want a tractor. It doesn’t fit with our land philosophies.

Jared’s shop? Yes, we will be building it. But it doesn’t have to be any time soon. There are more important things to build. Like the barn.

One of the big things that we have noticed is that we need more space in the barn. We have 9 permanent does and space during kidding season is at a premium. In fact, the shuffle of trying to figure out who goes where is kind of intense. Especially, since the girls don’t like the other does near their babies. So it can get pretty hairy.

But if we had just built the barn, we wouldn’t know exactly what we wanted.

How To Start A Homestead

I can’t tell you how to start a homestead. I can only tell you the things that we have discovered since starting our own homestead. Things I wish we would have done differently but also things I’m REALLY glad we waited on.

If you like this post, feel free to share it and follow us below on our social media accounts!

How Much Do Chickens Cost?

November 8, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

So you’re interested in getting some chickens. I warn you now, you will become a victim of chicken math if your not careful. But one of the ways to keep that from happening is to really understand what you’re getting yourself into. It’s not as easy as going to Tractor Supply or your local feed store and picking up a batch of chicks. How much do chickens cost? A lot.

The Ultimate Homesteader’s Starter Bundle – Only $47!

Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

Buy Now

If you are looking for an audio version of this post, check out our podcast below

Before You Get Chickens

I feel like I should start every single blog post about livestock by reminding you that you should not get ANY livestock, including chickens until you have a garden set up. I also fully expect you to not listen. It’s just the nature of homesteaders.

In all seriousness, you should be prepared for chicks or chickens WAY before they ever show up on your property.

The Chicken Coop

You have a couple options here when it comes to your chicken coop. You can go as cheap or as expensive as you want. But there are some hard fast rules that you should follow. It should be secure from predators and this includes the human variety, too.

You should make sure that it is draft free, but with good ventilation. There should be roosting bars and nesting boxes. But after that, sky is the limit. We have a metal shed that we use and we like it for the most part, but I’m not a huge fan. The metal has started to rust in less than a year and it’s very drafty in the winter and BOILING hot in the summer. We normally use it for brooding chicks since it is more secure and stays pretty warm when we’ve got the lamps on.

I would stay away from anything that isn’t made from real wood. There’s a bunch on the internet that are composite and unless it is a good quality like the decking boards. There are also a ton of places that shell really nice shed/ coops. If you can build it, that would probably be a better option because at $8,000? My girls are just find in their metal shed, outside or in a tree.

Buckets, Waterers and Feeders

You can absolutely cut corners here, but remember, the more corners you cut, the more issues you can have. For example, I would not get a tiny seven pound chick feeder for your chicks. The reality is that you are going to be filling that thing twice a day depending on the amount of chicks you have. I would get one like this, that is going last them for at least a day but preferably several days.

The same thing goes for waterers. Don’t get a tiny one. You will be refilling it all the time. We have several of these, and absolutely love them. Chicks are able to drink from them with no problems. And we don’t have to worry as much about them running out of water.

Buckets and pans are as needed but you will eventually need them. Pans for oyster shell or buckets for hauling feed. You will eventually need them.

So How Much Do Chickens Cost?

Let’s start with the coop. A decent middle of the road coop shouldn’t cost you much more than $500. I would recommend getting one with a run attached to it so that on days that they can’t free range, they have a way to get outside.

If you want a bigger run, I would recommend poultry netting. You can get the netting and a solar charger for under $600 for GOOD netting. Don’t try to save money here by getting cheap. Cheap means less protection from predators, chickens getting loose, and more. This is the netting we have and it works great.

Your feeders, waterers, buckets, and feed will all depend on your location but should run you about $100 for good feeders and waterers. Feed should be about $15-35 depending on where you get it. I am able to get Non-GMO feed at my local feed store for about $17/ 50# bag.

Supplements will also depend on your area but for a different reason. If you have high parasite loads on your property, you’re going to want to get something for that. We use Corrid for our chicks. We also give them electrolytes in the summer because it gets so hot and humid here in Georgia.

Grand total you are looking at about $1200 before you even get your chicks. Again, this will depend on which coop and supplies you get.

Brooding Your Chicks

Before you get your chicks, you need to have a brooder that is ready to go. I talk in depth about brooding in this blog post. This could look like a large tub with a heat lamp in your living room, like the picture below. Or a metal shed and a bunch of lights. Everyone will brood their chicks differently. If we only have a few chicks, we will brood in the house in a large tub. If we have a ton of chicks, like when we bring home our meat chickens, we will brood in the metal shed.

Buying the Chicks

I would make sure that you have the coop, brooder, and supplies BEFORE getting your chicks.

Usually, you can get chicks for about $3-7 each. This is going to depend on your breed and if you get straight run. I highly recommend getting sexed chicks. This will help you avoid getting roosters and then figuring out what to do with them.

I also recommend getting from a reputable hatchery. We use McMurray Hatchery and have for years. We love them and will probably always go with them unless we don’t have a choice.

The biggest problem about getting chicks is not falling victim to chicken math. I wrote a whole blog post about chicken math and how to avoid it here. But some quick points that I forgot to mention is making sure that you get a chicken coop that will only fit so many chickens. Then making the decision, and sticking to it, that you will only have THIS many chickens. I wish you the best of luck with it.

At The End Of The Day

I can’t tell you exactly how much chickens cost. There are too many variables. But the biggest thing to remember is that a good coop, feeders and waterers, feed and the chickens themselves are not cheap. You will end up spending at least $1200-$2000 before you ever get that first egg. That’s if you do it “right”. You can go cheaper and you ca go more expensive. But your eggs will never be free.

If you like this post, feel free to share it and follow us below on our social media accounts!

What Is Chicken Math?

November 8, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

Have the chickens taken over your farm? Because I know they have on mine. Chicken math is a legit phenomenon that every single chicken owner deals with. It starts out as a couple of chickens and ends with an unknown number of chickens and you answering, “I have no idea how many chickens I have.” That’s Chicken Math.

If you are looking for an audio version of this post, check out our podcast episode below

Dealing With Chicken Math

Once you get “bitten” by the chicken bug, you are going to end up with a million chickens. While that may seem like an exaggeration, it’s really not.

How You Become A Victim Of Chicken Math

It’s actually pretty simple to fall victim to chicken math. It starts with your first box of chickens. You’ve gone to Tractor Supply or ordered them online (Ps: We use McMurray Hatchery and LOVE them). You brood them inside and fall in love with them.

Then you have some die on you, or maybe all but one. Then you decide that you need a few more to meet your egg needs. So you order another box of chickens.

Then you realize that you can get different colored eggs! You want the blue, green or pink eggs. Or better yet, you decide that you are going to get the Copper Marans that lay deep chocolate colored eggs.

You go to Tractor Supply to get feed and see that they have chicks and you decide you HAVE to have them. Only to realize that 60% of them are all roosters.

Or, in my case, you decide to start incubating eggs and end up with 20 chicks. Then your kids re-set up the up the incubator while you’re at work…. now you’ve got 40 chicks.

You do a quick head count and realize you have 100 chickens.

Justifying Chicken Math

After doing your head count, you’ll say NO MORE! I’m drowning in eggs! You’ve water glassed a million eggs, you’ve got a bunch in the freezer and you are SO OVER eggs of all kinds. You’ve Googled and Pinterest-ed ALL of the egg recipes.

So you think , “I’ll just sell the eggs!” And after selling a couple dozen to friends and family, you think, “I need more eggs to keep up with this!”

You know it can take up to 8 months to get those first eggs so you go ahead and purchase more chicks….

Now You’re A Victim Of Chicken Math

Your feed bill is now several hundred dollars a month and you’re trying to figure out exactly how that happened. You start to figure out how to reduce your feed bill because you’ve got a ton of people that buy eggs from you!

But your girls aren’t laying in the winter and now, you have to feed these girls through winter with no income from the eggs. You’ve got to start looking for ways to trim the budget because this is ridiculous.

You don’t produce enough kitchen scraps to feed them so you start a collection bucket at work or the local potluck.

Now We Can Deal With Righting The Ship

If any of this sounds familiar, or you are just looking into chickens, keep reading. I can help you right the ship and become a chicken math survivor!

How Many Chickens Do You Need

So the obvious answer is don’t get more chickens than you need. But the reality is that isn’t going to happen, or didn’t happen. Every chicken owner KNOWS that we don’t need this many chickens. But we still buy chickens every spring because….insanity.

When you make the decision that you are going to get chickens, you need to be prepared for the reality that you will end up with more than you need. The goal is to keep that number manageable.

If you are an avid egg eater, and consume 2 eggs per day, you should have 3 chickens. If you’re entire family is an avid egg eater, you should have 3 chickens per person.

The Ultimate Homesteader’s Starter Bundle – Only $47!

Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

Buy Now

If you only eat a couple eggs a week, I wouldn’t even get chickens. I would find someone local and support their chicken habit. The reason is the cost of keeping chickens is so high that it’s not worth it. Because those eggs are not free. While you may think that keeping chickens is a must for a homestead, it’s really not.

What To Do With Your Current Chickens

Really, we only need 12 chickens. That’s it. We currently have approximately 40 chickens and 12 ducks. We will be culling the older hens because they just aren’t laying much anymore. We also plan on selling a bunch of them. Again, we really don’t need that many chickens and they have caused more headache over the years than I really want.

If you have too many chickens, I would recommend really looking at your flock. If you have some that aren’t laying, and haven’t been laying, I would go ahead and put them in the freezer. If you have no need for roosters, make sure to get them in the freezer too.

Just remember that chickens don’t usually lay eggs in the winter! There was a huge hype a couple years ago about chickens not laying in winter and I wanted to scream, “They’re NOT SUPPOSED TO!” But I kept my cool and minded my own business.

Do Those Chickens Serve YOUR Purpose

I know that this sounds harsh and maybe a little cruel, but you have to really think about where your money is going and if you are okay with that. Sometimes that means culling animals.

My chickens are not pets. They have one purpose….Okay, they have several but at the end of the day, their purpose is to give us food. That could be in the form of eggs or meat. If they aren’t doing that, they have to go.

If you got chickens for eggs, and they aren’t laying eggs, you need to figure out if you want to spend the money on feed, shelter and other supplies on a chicken not pulling her weight. If you’re okay with that? Then by all means.

I talked in depth about putting chickens to work on your homestead here. If you’ve got a few favorites that are going to live their life on your farm, look at putting them to work. I’ve got a couple that I do actually like, and they will live their life out on our farm. Mostly, because they won’t make good stew hens either.

Chickens are a lot of work

I will never tell you, at least seriously, that you HAVE to do something. There are things that you SHOULD do, but at the end of the day, it’s your farm, your kitchen, your rules. But livestock (chickens, ducks, goats, cows, etc) are all a lot of work. There’s fencing, shelter, feed, buckets, waterers, medications, and more.

I’m not saying that I would never have chickens again. But dollar for dollar and work hour per work hour, they are absolutely not worth it FOR OUR FARM. So surviving chicken math isn’t too hard for us.

How do you survive chicken math?

If you like this post, feel free to share it and follow us below on our social media accounts!

Building Your Legacy: Leaving Your Mark On YOUR World

October 25, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

When I was in school, there was this hype of “You can be anything you want to be”. I had thoughts of being President of the United States. Or maybe an astronaut. But I never really figured out what I wanted to do. Even now, in my 30’s with a great career, I just want to retire. I want to leave the rat race and homestead full time. Over the last handful of years though, the thought has shifted from what do I want to be when I grow up to asking myself: How are you building your legacy?

The Ultimate Homesteader’s Starter Bundle – Only $47!

Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

Buy Now

Building Your Legacy

I think the first step in building your legacy, is to look at the definition of legacy. I pulled this definition from the Oxford dictionary.

noun

an amount of money or property left to someone in a will. “my grandmother died and unexpectedly left me a small legacy.”
the long-lasting impact of particular events, actions, etc. that took place in the past, or of a person’s life. “he left us a rich legacy of buildings that are both innovative architectural creations and genuine works of art”

For some families, the legacy is being in law enforcement or military. For other families, it’s cycling addiction and abuse. And for me, it’s the dreaded 9-5 and grocery stores.

What Was Passed To Me?

The legacy that was passed to me is the typical American legacy. It was working 40 hours a week in a job that you like just enough to keep going to. Or the feeling of being stuck in a job because you don’t have the time, money or education for something different. It was going grocery shopping at a big box store with labels, directions for cooking, and packaging galore. It was sending your kids to school to get an education that they could take to their 40 hour a week job. It was expected that I get a job at 13 and work as much as possible, or as much as my family could get me to that job.

Beyond the typical legacy, my love of creating came from the women in my life. I learned how to sew from my mom. I learned how to crochet and knit from my grandmother. My love of photography came from my aunt.

But I’ve never been one to do what I’m told. I’ve been accused of not listening or following direction on MANY occasions. And most of the time, it wasn’t in a good way. I am pure frustration for anyone “in charge” of me or any rule follower teaching me how to do something. Being a rebel has a lot of up and downsides. So those skills I picked up from my mother, grandmother and aunt were expanded upon by going further down the rabbit hole on my own.

Wanting Something Different

I’m an observer. I see what other people do, how they do it, and most importantly, how they LIKE it. Then I take that observation and pull it into whatever I’m doing. I saw what the 40 hour work week was like and knew I didn’t want to work 40 hours a week and only see my kids and husband a few hours at night. Being stuck inside 4 walls, without the ability to escape when I need it, causes HUGE amounts of anxiety. There HAD to be something better than packaged food from the grocery store. I wanted something different.

I am a VERY independent 4 year old trapped in a 34 year old body…. with access to the bank cards.

The legacy I want is handed down recipes. I want second and third generation cast iron. I want generational knowledge of gardening, canning, animal husbandry, and working WITH nature. And I KNOW it sounds spoiled but I desperately want to learn these things at my family’s knee instead of the internet.

Buy Now

So we started building our legacy

Building your legacy doesn’t always start with a radical shift. Sometimes, it’s just one thing. It’s prioritizing family over work. Or making family meals every Friday night. Sometimes something small is enough to get you moving in the “right” direction for you to build the legacy you want.

Your Legacy Is In Your Hands

We definitely broke the mold over the years.

Since we were a young family and Jared was in the Army, I stayed home with the kids. My cooking skills grew and I no longer had to buy Bisquik to make pancakes. I got a job where I could work two days a week and bring home a full time paycheck. A job allows me to homestead and homeschool while earning a paycheck.

Jared broke the cycles of addiction.

We are creating a legacy of skills, hard work, and independence that our boys can take to their own families.

Do I expect them to be paramedics? No. In fact, I don’t want them to be paramedics. This job is HARD. But I will support them no matter what they decide to do.

Do I expect them to go into the military? No. Again, I don’t want them to. But if that is what they decide, I will support them.

Do I want them to have a homestead? Yes. Because then I know they will be able to take care of themselves and their families. But if not? That’s okay too.

Do I want them to homeschool their kids? Meh. It’s what worked for us.

Before we get too far into this, I have a great course on the basics of goat care. I call it Goat Crash Course: Goat 101. In this course, I explain things like types of shelter, types of feeds and hays, basic assessments and so much more! Check it out!

Buy Now

So What Is My Legacy?

I don’t know, yet. I know what I want my legacy to be. I want my legacy to be a person who is supportive of not only my family’s endeavors and decisions but my own. I want to raise boys who are good and capable men. I want my family to be able to grow their own food, raise and butcher their own animals, and be good stewards to the resources they have been entrusted with. Whether they do those things or not is irrelevant.

I want my children and grandchildren to know that I will pass down second or third generation cast iron. I will teach them how to cook from the heart and not a book. I will always be willing to teach them the skills that I have learned so they don’t have to learn them from the internet. They will learn how to raise and butcher animals. They will know how to put in a garden.

But most importantly, when I die, I know that I did everything I could do to raise a family that doesn’t roll over when things get hard. I know that I have taught the next generation skills that will help them thrive no matter where they find themselves.

If you like the content I put out, feel free to buy us a coffee! It helps keep this site running, marketing and the goats in grain!

Buy me a coffee

If you like this post, feel free to share it and follow us below on our social media accounts!

The Real Homestead

September 17, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

As the years have progressed, there has been a huge influx of people wanting to homestead. Which I am ALL FOR! I think it’s absolutely fantastic that we have people rushing out of the cities and onto land. Or turning their lawns into food, either for themselves or pollinators. I love the fact that we have people that are wanting to grow their own food, preserve it, and get away from the overprocessed life. But I’ve got a really big problem when I see the content that people are making and it’s these carefully curated posts or reels. It’s not a real homestead!

The Ultimate Homesteader’s Starter Bundle – Only $47!

Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

Buy Now

Why Is It Not Real?

This blog post has been on my mind a lot over the last couple of months. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how to write it without sounding judgmental and nasty. While that is not my intent, I feel like I am seeing so many more posts about “I can’t do that because… insert reason here” and it absolutely breaks my heart. And I’ve had enough.

While I know it’s not great for my sleep habits, I scroll TikTok and Instagram at night. I have seen a ton of these carefully curated reels of homesteads and gardens. I see women and little girls in these prairie dresses picking vegetables from the gardens or collecting eggs. Men and little boys working a tractor or building a barn in perfectly crisp wranglers and a pearl snap button down shirts.

Or I see designer chicken coops with perfect eggs and chickens that don’t escape their run. A beautiful garden that has not a single pest, bruised leaf or dropped veggie. Perfectly cropped lawns with beautiful houses.

And I want to scream from the roof tops, IT’S NOT REAL!

Go check out my Instagram feed, I’ll wait.

What you see on my profile is the real stuff. Sure, I try not to get the trash pile from clearing the land or burn pit in the pictures because who wants to see my amazon addiction. But I will gladly tour my homestead and show you the REAL homestead. The one where the chickens have pooped on the deck and I’ve not had a chance to get it cleaned off.

Or the real homestead where Jared is building my greenhouse and there is paint EVERYWHERE. There are piles of scrap wood that needs to be close to the greenhouse for some reason or another.

The fallen trees that we won’t take care of in the summer but will work on in the fall or winter. The goat barn or hay shed that is absolutely not designer. It’s REAL!

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy those reels because it’s visually pleasing to watch. It’s amazing to dream. But if THAT reel is why you want to homestead, keep reading.

Why Does It Make Me Mad?

It absolutely infuriates me when I hear new homesteaders that are upset that they can’t start their garden because they think they have to have perfect garden beds. Or they give up hope because they saw a TikTok that showed an obviously manufactured chicken coop and run, and they don’t have enough money to buy one.

Content creators are taking the spirit of homesteading out of it and creating this world where people don’t want to try because they think they can’t afford to homestead the way they see on reels. Or they are making people believe that what they are showing is what homesteading is. And people give up before they even start. And that breaks my heart.

I could spit nails when I see someone say they just popped out to harvest a couple things from the garden in their white linen dress. They are making a from scratch meal with their fresh bread made from their sourdough starter.

Let me tell you this, that is not what homesteading looks like.

Not a single person would be caught dead wearing WHITE LINEN in their garden, at least not to harvest anything.

I can just imagine wearing a white linen dress, dodging the pigs that have found a mud pit on my way to the garden, dogs playing and the chicken poop on the walkways. While in there, I am having to hold my dress up so it doesn’t get caked with Georgia red clay and trying to harvest a couple of tomatoes, squash or melons. All while knowing I should have brought a basket (and I always forget one) because my dress doesn’t have POCKETS! It’s freaking hysterical! Mainly because I don’t even own a dress.

Let’s not mention that my fresh bread rarely looks Insta-worthy, though it’s pretty delicious. And my sourdough starter jar is NEVER clean. In fact, it’s usually caked in starter residue from it overflowing the jar.

But you know what my homestead is? It’s the place that I don’t have to pretend. And I am honored by that.

What Is A Real Homestead?

So if those reels are not entirely accurate, what is a real homestead?

It’s a spirit of self sustainability. A person or family that simply wants better, not just for themselves but for their food, animals, community and the earth. It makes you FEEL every time you step outside.

It’s a perfectly ripe tomato on a hot summer day.

It’s the cry from you and a brand new baby goat that you had to pull from momma.

It’s humanely butchering an animal that has been loved and taken care of from birth.

It’s watching your kids come to you, absolutely filthy, holding a frog, snake or lizard they found.

It’s sitting at the dinner table, talking about your day with those that share what you hold so dear.

It’s creating a legacy were you previously didn’t have one.

It’s slow dancing with your partner in the kitchen while dinner cooks on the stove.

It’s watching your sons learn how to be capable men.

It’s watching your daughters learn to be capable women.

It’s working with nature to bring forth the harvest.

It’s freezing nights in a barn with a momma who is scared.

It’s bringing animals into the house because they are hurt or sick.

It’s NOT asking why there is goat vomit on the ceiling, a duck in the bathtub, or a chicken perched on the shower rod.

It’s syringes by the sink and hay in your hair.

It’s flies in the house, poop on the deck, broken eggs and hearts.

It’s a tearful good bye to a beloved animal.

But most of all, it’s this soul soothing, living and breathing thing that brings us back to nature in a way that a weekly hike or walk through the park just can’t do. It’s something that no content creator can make you feel.

It’s a deep breath and a weight off your shoulders when you realize that more doesn’t equal better.

While I am not a country fan, like at all, because heavy metal is life in this house. I have to appreciate what Zack Bryan said in Fear and Fridays….

“I’ve learned that every waking moment is enough and еxcess never lеads to better things, it only piles and piles atop the things that are already abundantly in front of you like breathing and chasing and slow dancing and love making, fighting and laughing“–Zack Bryan (Fear and Fridays)

My Dearest Homesteader In The Making

I beg you not to look for your life on social media. It doesn’t matter if you are a homesteader or not. The internet is not honest. It’s brief snippets of life, whether real or created. But YOU are real, your dreams are real and you will create YOUR real homestead.

So buy that property, make it YOURS. Make mistakes and learn from it. Dig into the dirt, and feel. Feel every single possibility and make it YOURS.

“Save it with the blame game
I’ve heard it all before
Ain’t nothing holdin’ you down
‘Cept your own feet on the floor
So go on, roll your sleeves up
Put your hands down in the dirt
It’s alright to follow your heart
And take what you deserve” –Charles Wesley Godwin (Here In Eden)

If you like this post, feel free to share it and follow us below on our social media accounts!

10 Things To Start Preparing For Winter

September 17, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

I know, I know! It’s only September. BUT you can never be too prepared, especially when you have lives depending on you. Here in north Georgia, it’s 90*+ and it feels like winter is forever away, but trust me when I tell you, it’s all down hill from here. The leaves are already starting to fall, albeit one at a time. The mornings are cooler and though it’s still hot, it’s not as unbearable. So I figured I would talk about the things we are doing now, to prepare for winter.

The Ultimate Homesteader’s Starter Bundle – Only $47!

Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

Buy Now

Preparing For Winter Is Easy…When You Do It Early

First thing is first, go ahead and make a list of all the things you think you’ll need. Then check it against my list and maybe google some other blogs like Southern Dreams Homestead, The Homesteading RD or The Farmer’s Lamp to help give you a few more ideas. Below is simply part of my list that I think everyone could benefit from.

The List

Firewood!-Seriously, if you haven’t started sourcing, chopping or collecting firewood, stop everything and go do it right now. Like, now. If you haven’t been able to get around to it, make the time. You still have some time to get a few cords chopped and drying if you make it a priority. You can check out our latest eBook Heating With Firewood to help get you started.

Also, check around with neighbors or even different market places. You may find that someone has a tree they need cut and hauled away. Easy firewood. You can find a small electric log splitter less than $300 or even a big gas powered one for less than $1,500

I’m going to throw candles in here too. A small tea light candle can heat a small room for several hours. It can even cook food when placed in terracotta pots. So maybe having a million of these little buggers around would be a good idea too.

Pantry Restock– I go through my canning inventory sheets and check it against my shelves in the basement. I restock our pantry/ food storage room quarterly. That means that I go through and find all the things we have used or are running low on and make a run to the store. This tends to be a big haul for us and has things like toilet paper, laundry detergent, etc. But you don’t want to find out in the middle of a snow storm that you’re out of toilet paper. If you don’t have a place to store it, check out Home Depot for wire shelves or check out my post on our shelves.

Canning– The entire month of September, I am canning the last bit of the summer garden and soups. I will put up about 300qts and 200pts of soup to prepare for winter. The way I see it, if the power goes out, I can still heat soup on my wood stove. If you haven’t already, check out The Canning Diva’s cookbook. She has a ton of amazing soups. This book is my holy grail for soup season.

Coffee– If you are a coffee drinker, go ahead and can several quarts of coffee. I know, it sounds crazy, but when our power went out last year, guess who didn’t have coffee? So yea, can a couple quarts. I waterbath can my quarts for 20 minutes. Now, I can just heat it in a pot on the stove. I’ve also got a great recipe for homemade creamer too.

Extra Blankets– We have a million blankets and every year, I am tempted to throw out half of them. BUT it’s nice having the ability to close off rooms, layer up, or even insulate freezers if necessary. Not to mention if livestock needs to come inside because it’s freezing or they are injured.

Finn had to come inside when he busted his shoulder.

Portable Battery Banks– We have a bunch of these guys around and they are really handy to have. When the power goes out and the boys last device is dead, this thing saves my sanity. Plus, we can hook it up to our kitchen radio and still have news updates and more.

Animal Feed– This isn’t just Fido’s dog food. If you have any kind of livestock, now is the time to make sure you are sourcing enough for winter. For us, that means finding enough hay to get through the winter. It also means sourcing grain, alfalfa pellets, and other miscellaneous food stuffs they need.

The Hay Calculator:

If you aren’t math-y (don’t worry I’m not either), check out our Hay Calculator. It literally does ALL of the math for you and gives you totals based on what you want your goals.

On the second page, you can track where you’ve bought hay, what you spent and how long it lasted.

Buy the Hay Calculator

Animal Bedding– Don’t forget their bedding! While it doesn’t get super cold in Georgia, it does still get cold. And wet. So make sure that you’ve got some form of bedding for them. We use the deep litter method and pine shavings. The deep litter method really helps insulate them in winter and helps keep them off the cold ground. We also spread Diatomaceous Earth between layers to help keep down bugs. Again, it doesn’t get super cold here so winter Lice/Mite infestations happen. The great thing about it is we can use all that bedding as compost in the spring!

Emergency Medicines/ First Aid– This looks different from homestead to homestead, but having the ability to treat various illnesses or injuries is extremely important. I talked about the basics needed to care for goats but you also need to include yourself here. Sometimes band aids just aren’t going to cut it. You may need sutures, super glue, etc to close lacerations. Or when you’re animal suddenly develops pneumonia, having the ability to treat that without calling for a vet is a huge time and money saver.

Something to alleviate boredom– It’s true. The hustle and bustle of summer makes way for a slower winter. Maybe not 100% of the time, but more often than not, the weather keeps us inside. Extreme weather could keep us inside for days. I am a bookworm and have at least twenty books on standby waiting to be read. But my boys and Jared are not so lucky. We have games, puzzles, cards and more. They still refuse to let me read, but at least they have something to do.

Preparing For Winter

I hope this helps you start preparing for winter at least a little bit. This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but it is a start. Only you know what you are going to need to get through the winter. And while this may be your first winter on a homestead, it’s not your first winter. So get a list going and start stocking up!

If you like this post, feel free to share it and follow us below on our social media accounts!

Animals For New Homesteaders

August 28, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

Welcome to the homestead family! It doesn’t matter if you are on less than an acre or have 200+, you are welcome here. At some point, you will want to get some animals for your homestead, whether that is a couple chickens, a cow or two, or maybe just a good farm dog, it doesn’t matter. I wanted to give you my picks for animals for new homesteaders and why.

The Ultimate Homesteader’s Starter Bundle – Only $47!

Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

Buy Now

Setting Yourself Up For Success

Before we can get too far down the rabbit hole of what animals you should get, I think we need to first start with what your goals are for your homestead. If you go through my posts on this website, you will find that I am extremely goal oriented and tend to be pretty obsessive about it. I have good reason for it.

If you don’t know what a successful homestead looks like to you, you are going to spend years chasing your tail before you ever hit the first goal. When we start adding animals to our homestead, we are adding more financial strain to the budget. While a bag of feed here and there may not seem like a lot, it adds up really quick. Especially in winter. So be aware that what seems like not a big deal now, could end up being a big financial and emotional deal later.

Which Animals For New Homesteaders?

Now that we have cleared up the fact that you should WAIT before adding animals to your homestead, even though we all know you’re not going to. Let’s start looking at some different animals to bring to the homestead and their uses/ purposes. PS, this list is going to include some things that are not livestock, but bear with me you will see what I’m talking about in a minute.

I want to add a disclaimer here. You and your homestead are YOURS. I practice the your kitchen, your house, your land, your rules. These are my thoughts and feelings. You may not agree with what I am saying and that is absolutely ok. I am not saying you HAVE to get these animals or feel/think/do what I say. So please keep that in mind as you read through this blog post.

Dogs

To be clear and transparent, on a homestead, a small dog is usually a vulnerability because of predators, risk of injury from livestock, and costs associated with caring for a pet vs a working dog. It’s the reality. I’m not saying you can’t have a small dog, but you do need to be prepared for predation.

There is a difference when dealing with dogs on a homestead. You’ve got your farm dog, your working dog, and your livestock guardian dog (LGD). These are 3 completely different dogs and should be used accordingly.

All 4 of my dogs are farm dogs. Their job is to raise the alarm if a predator is close, keep the pigs off the porch, and to hang out with the family. Bear’s only job is to make me happy, which he does perfectly because he’s the best boy.

I believe that with enough training, any dog can be a farm dog. Yes, that is a blanket statement, but it is something I truly believe. Bear is a typical pound special that we rescued 9 years ago from the animal shelter in Texas. He was never, ever raised around livestock or allowed to roam off leash/out of a fence. But he has taken to farm life like he’s been living it forever. A lot of his patience and lack of drive to chase could be because he’s an old man but a lot of it is the work I have done with him over the last 9 years.

A working dog is going to be your active dogs that have a job, think heelers, shepherds, etc. These are dogs that you need to be aware of their breeding and genetics before bringing them onto your farm. If you have a heeler, there is a very good chance that they could hurt or kill your goats or chickens. This is were training is going to be the most important thing you could do for this dog. I would not recommend these dogs unless you have training on lock.

An LGD is a great addition to any farm that has smaller livestock. BUT, and it’s a big one, make sure you are getting an LGD from a working line, that is being trained with livestock, before bringing one to the homestead. While in search for an LGD for the farm, we found a TON of LGD’s that were not bred to or actively protecting animals. That is going to cause a problem for you. An LGD is going to be a whole post on it’s own because their training is so important that it won’t fit into a couple paragraphs.

Cats

If you are going to have livestock, you are going to have issues with rodents. Period. When you start bringing hay, feed, or installing pasture, you are going to start having a rodent problem. While I’m NOT saying get one despite being allergic to cats, I am saying that you need to weigh your allergy against having mouse droppings in your house.

There is a lot of opinions on how cats should work on a homestead. Some people say not to feed the cats because it will make them lazy. Others feed their cats. I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer as long as the cat is fed (either by hunting or you) and healthy. I’m going to leave the rest of that alone.

Snakes

While I have a pet snake, I am not talking about that. I am talking about having several king or racer snakes that live on your property. I live in the south and a walk in the woods or through the garden can easily lead to an ER visit from a snake bite. A king snake will eat rattlers, moccasins, and copperheads while also keeping your rodent population down.

I totally understand that you may not want snakes on your property, but I would highly recommend having a few. We have several king snakes on the property and Frank is my favorite. He hangs out in the hay barn and keeps the rodents out of my hay. Frank lives here rent free until he doesn’t want to because he does such a good job keeping unwanted creatures out of my hay barn. But he will scare the crap out of you if you’re not expecting him.

If you don’t have a king snake on your property or you’re not sure, a good option is to contact your local exterminator or pest control person and see if they will bring one that they catch. Yes, this is a thing and most of the time it’s free.

Chickens And Ducks

Now for the livestock! Chickens are a great way to enter into the farm scene without having a TON of expense, depending on how you set them up. You can absolutely break the bank bringing these animals to the property, but you don’t have to. You can free range your chickens with a small coop and be done. You can throw a kiddie pool down for your ducks.

But be warned of 2 things: 1) chickens are the gateway animal and 2) they are easy targets for predators.

Before you know it, you will have 60 chickens and not really sure how it happened. You will also lose some to predators or sickness. Or in my case, they just wonder off. The ducks stick around better and don’t cause as much issues in the garden but they are messy creatures.

After having chickens and ducks for several years, I am only buying/ breeding ducks from here on out. We will raise meat chickens every year for the freezer, but I am not interested in chickens. The reason is that while ducks are messy, they don’t get in my garden unless it’s not secured. They don’t get on my decks and poop everywhere. They don’t get attacked by predators as often if ever. They produce eggs year round. They are freaking adorable with their quacks and cheese feet. Yea, those chickens got to go.

Other Fowl/ Poultry

I would highly recommend staying away from other feathered creatures until you have a lock on chickens or ducks. Quail would be the exception. Turkey’s are hard to raise. Emu’s are huge. Peacocks are weird. That being said, I would also have a plan for what exactly you are going to use other feathered beasts for. If you like the way they look, ok but if you are trying to set up a working farm? Try not to get a bunch of unprofitable creatures.

Rabbits

While we were researching, planning and learning, the plans were to use rabbits as a meat source…. That never happened. Not because they are cute and cuddly and would be hard to send to freezer camp but because we just don’t have a good place to put them. It gets HOT here in the south and most of the time rabbits don’t do amazing if they are not kept shaded with good air flow. Our options for their space was limited and we just couldn’t do it.

But rabbits can yield a LOT of meat very quickly and pretty cheap. A batch of meat chickens can run you about $1500+ in 8-16 weeks, after everything is all said and done. A trio of rabbits can crank out the same amount of meat for less money. Plus they are much quieter.

Pigs

Despite Bacon eating one of my brand new doeling from our favorite milk goat, pigs have to be one of my favorite animals on the homestead. They eliminate food waste, break up the soil, and taste delicious. They are truly one of the few multi-purpose animals, just by existing. But they have some draw backs.

Pigs are incredibly smart. Bacon and Delilah learned how to sit for their feed within a few days. They also learned how to break out of the electric fencing. So now we have porch pigs until they are big enough for butchering.

The work they do on the homestead has been invaluable for us. We got them after going to the HOA conference and listening to multiple speakers talk about using pigs to help break up the soil and heal the land. When we got home, we bough 2 American Guinea Hogs. Since then they have helped us reclaim a lot of areas that the goats cleared but left us with hard rocky soil. They have tilled the soil and we have the starts of some amazing pasture.

Goats/ Sheep

I added these two small ruminants together because they are pretty similar but also vastly different. Sheep are grazers and need to have mostly grasses to eat. Goats are browsers and need mostly woody plants to eat. If you have a ton of brush, get goats. If you have a ton of grass but not space, get sheep. Goats will do okay on pasture but they really prefer brush.

Goats are incredibly smart and require waterproof fencing unless you plan to free range them.

Sheep are not incredibly smart but will stay put for the most part. But beyond that, I can’t really talk about sheep because I don’t have any. But I can tell you all about goats.

Buy Now

If you are looking to increase self sufficiency I would suggest getting full size dairy does and a meat buck. The reason for this is because you can have high production, high butter fat milk produced by the dairy doe and the meaty body of a meat goat. While the babies will be mixed, you can easily fill your freezer with quality meat and milk with just a few goats.

Cows

I would LOVE to have a milk cow! I want one so badly but it just not in the cards for us right now. We have the land but not the grass. The pigs are working on it for us but it takes time to build established pastures. But cows are the ultimate machine when it comes to filling a freezer and you don’t need to worry about having a bull on stand by!

Your homestead cow operation would look something like this: milk breed cow + AI meat breed bull semen= meat in the freezer and 1-3 gallons of milk or more per day.

That extra milk can feed your chickens, pigs, dogs, cats, etc. It also freezes well once the cream has been skimmed off. That cream can make heavy whipping cream, butter, creamers, and so much more. Let’s not mention the cheeses, ice creams, sour creams, etc.

Yall, I want a cow!!!!

What Are Your Favorite Homestead Animals?

If you like this post, feel free to share it and follow us below on our social media accounts!

Putting Chickens To Work In Your Garden

August 21, 2023 by Leigh Leave a Comment

Chickens are the gateway animal for new homesteaders. After getting a few, there is usually a period of “I could get more” or “I’m not a fan”. I am definitely the latter of the two. I don’t love my chickens. But I do value the work they can do, so they stick around. Besides giving us eggs, we can put chickens to work in the gardens and compost piles for them to earn their keep.

The Ultimate Homesteader’s Starter Bundle – Only $47!

Get the tools you need to stay organized, track profits, and manage your homestead with ease!

$99 value – now just $47! Start your homesteading journey today!

Buy Now

How To Put Chickens To Work

Chickens are pretty cool little creatures. While I may not be a fan of the chickens themselves, the reality is that they can do a lot of work, just by being chickens. A chicken’s natural behavior is to scratch, peck and make babies. Obviously, some are better at it than others, but they are all pretty good at their jobs. Chickens don’t need to be confined to a run 24/7. If that’s your philosophy, then by all means. But they can do so much more than just hang out.

Putting chickens to work is also great when you have WAY too many chickens and you’re not really sure what to do with them.

Chickens In The Empty Garden

One of the ways we put chickens to work is by putting them in empty garden spaces. They are great tillers and pest control. But when they get into empty gardens, they also get to eat any left over greens that are still there.

To get the most out of the beds and chickens, we usually put them in an empty garden from January to March. It gives us about 3-4 months for the manure to compost before the next planting. When it comes to plant again, I usually add a couple inches of soil or compost to keep their manure from burning plants.

But that doesn’t mean that January through March is the only time they get put in the gardens. In fact, we put the chickens to work in our green bean bed a couple of months ago. They turned the soil as well as added PLENTY of manure to it. All I had to do was dump a couple bags of top soil in the beds because they kicked some dirt out and the beds weren’t super full to begin with.

Free Range In The Empty Gardens

If you don’t have raised beds, or don’t want them, another option is to have them free range within the empty garden. In winter of 2024/2025, we plan to put the chickens to work by letting them have free access to the big garden from December to March, or whenever the fall garden is done. We want them to get in there and dig up any bugs they can find as well as till the soil.

Chickens In The Compost

Another good option is to put chickens in your compost piles. This is going to look different for every one. But having chickens spread compost is probably the easiest way to move that compost. The biggest problem is that they will spread that compost everywhere so getting it back into one spot may be hard. Or you can put the compost pile where you want it and then let them do the work of spreading it around.

Putting Chickens To Work In Active Gardens

I’ve given plenty of examples of putting chickens to work in inactive gardens, but what about gardens that are actively growing? We don’t want to chickens to ruin the work WE are doing.

Chicken tractors are a great option for getting them in the garden without them killing plants or eating fruits or vegetables.

This tractor is 4ft x 8ft and fits perfectly between our rows in the big garden. It also sits perfectly on our raised beds in the kitchen garden. This allows us to put them over a bed where they will scratch, peck and poop. When the chickens work the bed, it increases aeration, kills bugs, and deposits animal waste into the bed.

When a bed is done being harvested, we will place the tractor over the bed. We place 5-10 chickens, depending on the amount of greens/ bugs available and size of the chickens. Then they get to work. Usually, they get a scoop of feed in the morning and we make sure to refill their water.

In our big garden, we run the tractors up and down the rows. When we laid out our rows, we made each walkway 5 feet wide to account for the tractors. We wanted to make sure there was plenty of space not only for us to move through the rows but also to make sure the chickens couldn’t get into the harvests.

Using this method has significantly cut down on pests and weeds without having to spray anything on the gardens.

Putting Chickens To Work When You Have Predators

While we are a big advocate for free ranging our birds, we have lost some to predators. If you are opposed to free ranging but still want your chickens to have access to your garden, runs or tunnels are a great option.

When you put your fencing up for your garden, you can easily add chicken wire or hardware cloth tunnels to allow them to run around the edges of the garden without risking them to predators. You can absolutely make these much cheaper than the link but it’s the idea I wanted you to see.

Another option is to build tractors if you haven’t already. I am trying to get Jared to create plans for you guys but he is in the middle of building my greenhouse. So it’ll take some time.

Putting Chickens To Work

It can look like just about anything. So don’t think that you have to keep your chickens confined to a run. You can put them to work and reap the benefits of having tiny dinosaurs around the homestead.