I announce plans to publish a follow-up post, and last night my internet was out. The joys of country living …  ;)

A bit too late tonight to finish – 1am now. I’m supposed to be heading to CANTON First Monday Trade Days this weekend again for a little browsing R&R. I don’t need to buy things (though I never get out of there without buying SOMEthing … maybe I’ll find willow trees on sale cheap? I’m coveting some!). We shall see.

(For those who have asked for directions, click on the link above to go to the First Monday’s website – you can get directions from anywhere and lots more good information on their site!)

Photo by Brooke Slezak for Country Living Magazine

First Monday was featured in Country Living magazine if you’d like to read more.

So, I’ll catch up as soon as I can. I haven’t had time to finish the predator/free-range chicken post, and I don’t want to publish it in it’s current poorly-written state.

Homestead happenings – I sold some of the geese today. Playgirl and Pinky will be going to a new home, as well as Josiah, Patience, and a few others. I’m keeping “The Babies” though … they STILL think I am their mama, even though they are about 18 or 19 months old now, and will probably provide me with a new little flock of goslings here in a few months. And one of the Nuggets is setting tight on eggs – in one of the goat-shed feed troughs. Fortunately the feed troughs are not in use by the goats these days, so she is setting undisturbed. I should have chicks soon. Everyone else is starting to think it’s spring, with the new growth from all the rain and slightly warmer temperatures, but I’m betting winter isn’t ready to let go just yet. Tomorrow night will be near-freezing again, so we’re not ready for too many kinds of babies for a while yet, and the garden is still sleeping.

Well that’s my quick update. Will publish that predator post as soon as I can get to it. Goodnight all!

 


Posted on February 2, 2013 by Inspired Ink | Leave a comment

Hunting Easter eggs – free-ranging chickens

Posted on January 31, 2013 by Inspired Ink

I had another post planned, but a reader asked about free range chickens, eggs, and predators. By the time I’d typed half of my answer in a comment reply box, I decided the topic was worthy of its own posts, so I’ll publish them first.

Jakenshake writes:

I have 17 barred rock pullets with coop and run. Would love to free range to save feed but concerned with predators and not finding all the eggs. I live near large area of open woods in Central FL and regularly see racoon, fox, bear, and hawks. How do you deal with those two issues or are you not as rural? Thanks.

As Jakenshake mentions, with free-ranging chickens your main concerns are finding the eggs and keeping the chickens safe from predators.

First, let me deal with finding the eggs. If your pullets are already laying in their nest boxes, that’s great. You’re one step ahead. As long as they like the boxes and you have plenty of them, the chances are good that they will keep using them. If they do, problem solved.

Nest box from http://www.efowl.com

If they don’t, I have found that MOST of the time, wayward hens will choose a favorite spot and lay there. When I lived in Florida, the pampas grass clusters were great favorites. The hens had little passages into the clumps, and openings that they’d trampled down into little nesting rooms. It was easy enough to see the favored location — they held those eggs inside in the morning until I released them and all made a mad dash for the pampas, then squabbled over who got to lay first, with the others lining up to wait their turn.  I had 50 or so hens at the time, so I just dealt with it by checking their favorite laying spots every day to gather eggs.

If I hadn’t wanted to deal with The Great Easter Egg Hunt as we used to affectionately call it, I could have kept the hens penned in the run in the morning. Most eggs are laid early in the day, and that would have solved most of the problem. Although hens are on a cycle and WILL lay a bit later on some days, forcing them to lay in their nests part of the time will go a long way towards discouraging them from getting into the bad habit of laying eggs elsewhere.

On the other hand, you may sometimes have a hen who really REALLY wants to brood chicks.  She may do such a great job of hiding eggs from you that one day she’ll just disappear, and you’ll think something has eaten her, only to have her show up in three weeks or so with a bunch of fluffballs at her side (assuming you have a rooster). I had a barred rock hide in a grassy field that was frequented by skunks and coyotes, then show up with 18 chicks … how she managed to stay hidden that entire time I’ll never know, but she did. I moved her and her chicks into the coop, locked them up in a broody box for about 3 days, and since then she’s caught on to raising chicks in the coop. I sold several of her pullets and netted about $30 or so, had some more young roosters for the pot, and added a few more pullets to my flock (who are willing to raise babies themselves). So all in all, it worked out well for me.

What it boils down to is making sure your girls are trained to lay in the coop. Keeping them locked in until early afternoon will help them learn faster. Making sure you have enough boxes that the hens like is important too.  If they have to wait too long to use a nest or if they really dislike the nests they are more likely to look for alternatives.

Speaking of what chickens like in a nest, it does vary a bit. Some have odd little preferences. If you start with standard boxes or something that has worked for lots of other people, you are less likely to have problems.

For example, many hens don’t like to nest too close to the floor. Most of mine are willing to lay eggs in the bottom row, and a few even prefer it, but the upper row of boxes are the first choice for most of my hens. Some hens don’t like to lay in boxes that are too large or too small. At one time or another, I’ve used standard nest boxes, broody boxes (which are open-fronted wooden boxes about 2-1/2 foot square that accommodate a broody and chicks), various wooden dresser drawers, large rabbit nest boxes, 5 gallon buckets, medium sized garbage cans, milk crates, and probably a few other things for nests. Most of my chickens, both standard sized and bantam, will accept any of those.  I do have a couple of oddballs who prefer really tight spaces. They squeeze behind the broody boxes to lay their eggs. (The broody boxes used to be against the wall, but I had to move them out about 4 or 5 inches to be able to check carefully for snakes back there, and drag them out when I find them. It’s enough space for the girls to squeeze into.) For the most part though, most hens seem fairly accepting of whatever you give them.

(Just another tip, if they haven’t started laying yet, placing dummy eggs in the nest really DOES help most of them get the idea. They tend to like to lay in a place where there are already some eggs.)

I hope that helps. One thing I sometimes see suggested that I would NOT recommend is to clear your property of bushes or other places that might be tempting spots for hens to try to hide their eggs. Since that kind of cover can help protect them from predators (more on that subject next), I would NOT remove it.

And I’ll get back to your question about predators in the next post … it’s already half written, so I’ll finish it up and probably publish it sometime tomorrow. It’s almost 2 am here now, so I need to get some sleep.

Goodnight, all!


Posted in animals, chickens | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Homestead tips – refill air fresheners!

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Inspired Ink

 

My favorite homestead tips are the ones that save money, improve health, or make life more enjoyable. This one does all three, so I was especially pleased to discover how well it works!

Did you know you can refill those electric air-freshener warmers yourself with essential oils, saving  the high costs of refills as well as exposure to potentially dangerous chemicals? And you can choose your own scents, or even mix scents, to create the environment that pleases you most.

And it’s super-easy!

 

First, pull the bottle out of the warmer. This one has already been used so the wick is brown.  In fact I’ve already refilled it once because I wanted to make sure it worked well before I shared it here. The wick gets darker when re-used, but that’s not a problem.

 

 

Decide which oils you want to use. I have a collection, and sniffed them, held the bottles open side by side (know which lid to put back on which bottle if you do this!), and decided on these three. I already knew I’d use lavender as the basis since this warmer is for the bedroom, so it was just a matter of deciding what I wanted to go with it.

From my collection I also considered Rose Absolute, Jasmine, Bergamot, Sandalwood, YlangYlang, and a couple of combinations. For a more “active” room, peppermint and related oils might be nice, and I am considering using one of my Pine oils in the living room for Christmas.  In an area where mosquitoes might be a problem, Citronella might be worth considering.

 

Next, remove the plastic top that holds the wick from the bottle. I found a small file helpful the first time, inserting it under the lip and turning it to create a gap around the bottle, then simply popped it off. After the first refill, the top became easier to remove.

I originally followed someone else’s instructions that said I should remove the wick from the holder. That is NOT necessary. As a matter of fact, the wick broke in two when I tried to do that, and I thought I’d have to buy a new one and start over. But as it turns out, if you DO break the wick, just stick it back in. When the two pieces make contact, they wick the liquid up and it still works just fine.

Rinse the bottle. I also soaked the wick in water for several hours to remove as much of the chemical compounds as possible the first time I refilled it.

 

Begin adding your oil. It’s a good idea to keep up with your “recipe” … you’ll have a good idea next time of changes you want to make, and when you find a mixture you love, you’ll be able to recreate it. (Believe me, that’s important. I once made a WONDERFUL spray freshener for my car, and forgot to write it down. I never have been able to make another one I liked quite as well.)

This time I added 30 drops of lavender, 10 drops of sweet orange, and 6 drops of lime.

 

 

This was the level in the bottle once I’d added that amount.

 

 

Add water to the bottle. You don’t want to fill it completely to the top (the wick is going to have to go back in), but I could have added more water. At this point, I decided it might be a little “thin” and I wanted more essential oil.

 

So I added the same amounts again. In total I now had 60 drops of lavender, 20 drops of sweet orange, and 12 drops of lime.

 

And pop the top back on. Looks a bit more “substantial” now after swirling the water with the added oil. I could have added a bit more water, and probably should have.

At this point, pop the bottle back in the warmer and it’s ready to use! If your unit has one, dial the strength to suit you. I had to dial mine all the way down with the amount of oil I used.

I have to say the health benefits are most important to me. I like for a home to smell nice, but the chemicals in some of the air freshener refills have been said to cause cancer. All I know for sure is that they give me a headache. And my dear Crystal-Kitty has asthma, and anything can set off an attack, which can be life-threatening for her.

Speaking of which, essential oils can be dangerous to cats, so I was concerned about diffusing them into the air. But both of the cats will approach anything with essential oil on it, take a cautious sniff, and immediately bolt from the room. They don’t react at all to the scent from the air freshener, so it must not be enough to bother them.  And it hasn’t affected Crystal’s asthma at all.

I haven’t calculated the cost, but the refills run almost $5 for a package of two, and I refilled two bottles without putting a noticeable dent in my oils. They run about $6 to $20 a bottle, depending on the oil (sweet orange is very affordable, and I buy large bottles of the lavender which is why it costs so much). I would guess I’m not spending more than 20 cents or so per refill.

And as far as making the place nicer, I have been really enjoying the scent. It’s a nice mix of feminine sweetness and masculine spiciness, and has a sort of clean, bright smell. When I uploaded the photos of the oils, I noticed they said calming (lavender), brightening (sweet orange), and freshening (lime). So I suppose I have a calm, fresh, bright atmosphere in my bedroom now!

What scents will you try in yours?


Posted in better health, Household tips, saving money | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Keepin’ it Real

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Inspired Ink

Well Dear Readers … I’ve come to a decision.

This blog has gone through several stages (in my mind at least). I started off heavily “under the influence” of my professional blogging career. But I’d like to be honest with y’all. I don’t really enjoy “professional blogging”. Creating an image, playing it up, painting a world of rainbows and roses for your readers. Maybe I’ve become just a tad cynical, but reading through two years’ worth of sugary sweet posts on some blogs makes me feel like I’ve eaten an entire chocolate cheesecake on an empty stomach – a little nauseated and hungry for real food.

And then I started thinking. I began this blog with a desire to share my world with my readers. And I don’t live in a world of ONLY rainbows and roses. Don’t get me wrong. There ARE rainbows. And roses. And sweet baby goaties. And rare finds dug out at the flea market, upcycled into I-love-it pieces for my home. Not to mention scrumptious caramel-apple pies (I really MUST share that recipe with y’all!).

But.  There are also animals that die, family members that get sick, layoffs that happen, and well, just general, life’s ups and downs. And along the way, I’ve found myself stepping carefully around mentioning anything negative, as though I was in the hospital room of an ailing relative that no one wants to upset by letting them hear bad news of any kind.

(Speaking of that, I want to tell you something. My marriage was in trouble when my mom was in hospice with cancer, and no one wanted me to let her know, so I pretended like everything was fine. But you know what? She knew … Moms are awesome like that. I sure miss her!)

Anyway, I’ve decided that I’m going to do what none of us “professional” bloggers seem to do. I’m going to try to just “Keep it Real” and so if you stick around, you may hear about (gasp) real life! (Just writing that makes me want to giggle though. I have an urge to insert organ music from a horror film here, just for fun!)

As my first (HUGE) step in that direction, I’m going to tell you why I was absent from my blog for so long over the summer. I disappeared from Facebook and my online forums at the same time. It’s not even something bad, but something I’ve avoided openly talking about online for years.

I had a visitor. One that was so dear to my heart, I didn’t want to miss a single minute of time I could be spending with her, so I abandoned everything else in favor of my guest.

And I’d like for you to meet her …

My daughter. Bet you didn’t know I’m Batman’s mom, huh?

Seriously though, there’s a long backstory here. Very basics, her father and I separated when she was seven, divorced a few years later, and stipulated to shared custody. He starting withholding her, the courts were not helpful, and in the end I went several years without seeing her or even knowing where she was living or going to school. She’s sixteen now, and I was finally contacted, and she spent this past summer with me.

Blogs, Facebook, forums, etc. didn’t even make my radar while she was here. Instead we talked, compared facial features, watched movies, talked, made cookies and banana pudding, talked, played video games, played with the animals, talked, laughed over silly photo manipulation software, talked, went to Six Flags, went to a water park, talked, went shopping, visited family, and talked. Did I mentioned we talked?

There was a lot to talk about. You can probably imagine the situation was tense at times as it can be when there’s a nasty divorce and kids are placed in the middle. But it went much better than I might have expected (you can’t imagine how anxious I was before she came, but how excited at the same time!). And the woman who worked for TSA probably wondered why I was peering through the crowds at the airport, looking for my daughter, not sure if I saw her or not. (They wouldn’t let me go through the gate entrance to meet her, and she had no cell phone for me to call, so I was worried about meeting up at a HUGE international airport!)  I needn’t have worried. When I did see her, I recognized her instantly.

But … THAT is really the reason for my long absence. And to be honest, it’s also why I’ve had a slow start getting back. It was hard letting her go back … and it’s been hard to adjust to my only contact being over the phone. But then again, that is WAY more than I’ve had these past several years.

And … that’s real life around here.


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Rabbit Recipe – Sweet & Tangy Chicken (errr – Rabbit)

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Inspired Ink

A rabbit recipe. I needed one.

 

 

I probably have about 80 to 100 pounds of rabbit in my freezer. Not to mention a couple of dozen ducks. Which means … I need more than a few ways to cook both of them. Up until now I’ve only had a handful of rabbit recipes, so for the past couple of months I’ve been experimenting – mostly with a lot of success.

What I’ve learned, in general, is that most recipes for chicken (so far) will work with rabbit.  My favorite rabbit recipes are barbecue-sauce-type recipes – anything with a similar flavor works well. The one real failure was rabbit enchiladas, chicken enchilada style. Maybe it was all in my mind, but it just didn’t seem RIGHT and I couldn’t enjoy it. So I haven’t done any more Mexican-style rabbit recipes.

Last night I decided to try something new. This recipe is one I found on Pinterest, and have never had chicken like this. I have never even smelled or tasted Russian dressing, so I really had no idea what to expect, but I was looking for something different. And even though it uses a lot of convenience items, I decided to follow the recipe as written, since I had never made it before and didn’t know what to expect at ALL.

It turned out great! I’d like to figure out how to make it totally from scratch, in order to save the cost of the ingredients (I got good prices and the cost of the three added ingredients was about $3 – for me that’s a bit much for what is essentially just sauce/spices for one meal). And also to make it a bit healthier — there were a few things in the ingredient list of the packaged food that I didn’t recognize.

That said, if you WANT something quick, easy, and flavorful, this is worth a try. And when I figure out how to do it from scratch, I’ll post an update.

I’m sure it would be excellent with chicken. If I do it with rabbit again (and I probably will) I would switch to the crock pot and cook it more slowly. It was good, but rabbit is less tender than chicken, so I think a slow cooker would work well.

And now for the recipe. You can click through if you like (the link will also take you to my Pinterest) but it’s SO easy, I hesitate to even call it a “recipe”. Basically, you take an 8 oz. bottle of Russian dressing, a package of dry onion soup mix, and a cup of apricot preserves or jam, and mix it all in a bowl. Put 8 chicken thighs (or whatever parts of rabbit or chicken you like) in a roasting pan just big enough for them, sprinkle a bit of pepper over the top, and pour the liquid over. The recipe says bake at 400 for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, but ok, I DID change it a bit. I lowered the temp to 350 and cooked it longer, because in general I don’t like to cook meat above that. Oh, you’ll want to baste it a few times while cooking.

And that’s it! If I had known how it would taste, I would have made saffron rice to go with it. I think that would have been PERFECT.

My thanks to Syrup and Biscuits for posting the original recipe. One more rabbit recipe for the recipe box!

 

UPDATE: And in the comments section for Syrup and Biscuits I found one person’s recipe for Russian dressing – made from common ingredients, so I’ll try this next time.


Posted in Recipes | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Readers have spoken

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Inspired Ink

Well, I must say, the title of my last post mocks me. It’s been over a month since I actually published a post.

It’s not really procrastination though. I’ve actually WRITTEN a lot of posts, but – mostly due to photo issues – decided not to publish them until I was happy with the look. There’s some good stuff in there though, so I have decided to publish them over the next month or so. It may be nice to have posts in reserve, since the Christmas season is here with all its busy-ness.

There are several new recipe posts in there. I’ve got a LOT of rabbit in the freezer, and I only had a few ways of cooking it, so I’ve been experimenting a lot. Just last night had tried something new that I called a “Paula-Deen recipe” … it used several “convenience” items, but since I’ve never tasted Russian dressing, I thought I’d try it out. It was another keeper, though I’ll want to find ways to make it more from scratch (translation: cheaper AND healthier). I’ll go ahead and publish that one right after I post this. I’ve also made apple butter, not to mention some really yummy Thanksgiving desserts.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I got to drive over to visit with my family this year. We used to have HUGE family dinners, and then my Grandma passed away and the family seemed to dwindle. Grandma and Grandpa Peevy, Great Grandma Hall, lots of great-aunts and great-uncles, my Mother and my Uncle Terry. But now … my cousins are showing up to dinner with new boyfriends and girlfriends, and in some cases their friends. Second cousins are being born, growing up year by year. The family is growing again, and it’s wonderful to see. I love family gatherings … I wish I could see them more often. Probably one of my deepest sources of nostalgia.

And how could it not be? If you had a brother like mine (he loves to act crazy … see what I mean?)

Brother's Thanksiving mayhem

Thanksgiving mayhem

 

And animal drama (I have a sad stories to tell about Pearl and Romeo, but both clouds have silver linings). I’ve written some new livestock information posts (I knew about lazy buck syndrome but because of circumstances we ended up having it happen here – what ever happened to rabbits breeding like, well, rabbits?).

Emden goose

 

There are also some household tips I’ve picked up recently, and some family stories mixed in there.

But a good many of the posts are about crafts, turning trash to treasure, home decorating, and DIY projects. The readers have spoken … the greatest interest you all show is in these kinds of posts, and I really don’t mind. Those are the “fun” posts for me too, so I’ll be happy to share plenty of them along with the rest.

Stand by for the first held-over post … a yummy rabbit dish!


Posted in animals, crafts, decorating, family, geese, holidays, Recipes, Trash to Treasure | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Procrastination? Maybe not anymore …

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Inspired Ink

My voter’s registration card came in the mail today. I have proof that I am now officially registered to vote.  Nothing like waiting ’till the last minute, is there? As a matter of fact, I turned in my completed form at the county courthouse just 10 minutes before they were due to close, on the last day.

Yes, my name is TrishAnna, and I am a Procrastinator. Not by choice, but I see it as a pattern in my life. It just seems that even though I have a long list of things I need to be doing, there is always something else calling to me, or more accurately, shouting at me, since it’s usually something that can’t wait. So I rush around, doing what is most urgent, putting off everything else, until it also become so urgent it can’t wait. “Putting out fires” is what my Grandma called it, and sometimes it feels that way!

Of course, you can’t help it when there’s laundry to be done, but the goat goes into labor. Laundry has to wait. But I suspect that better planning and time management might improve matters, if I’m going to be honest. You know, prioritize. Do the important stuff. Don’t put more on the list than is humanly possible to accomplish (that last one gets me all the time).

Autumn decoration for the homestead - inspiration - A Homestead Heart

I found this one myself and uploaded it, from the decoist.com

So … flying in the face of all that reasonable-ness is my sudden desire to decorate for fall. I’m not sure if it’s because Autumn is my favorite time of year, or the “Pinspiration” I’ve been getting from Pinterest lately (have you been there? LOL, speaking of time management – that site can whisk away an hour before you know it!). Or maybe I’m feeling inspired because of an online course I just started.

Fascinating Womanhood

 

The course is being taught by an online friend and looked very promising – a course in becoming a “Fascinating Woman” that seems to encompass a lot of areas. I can’t comment too much on it yet, since I just started (and my book hasn’t even arrived – I, uh, put off ordering it). But it HAS made me aware of some changes I’d like to make in myself. No time like the present … Maybe there’s hope for me and I’m not such a procrastinator after all???

 

 

 

OK, just to have SOMETHING in this post on topic for Homesteading, I offer you the following.

Mysti the llama - Organic Homestead Heart

Mysti the llama

In other news today, Mysti the llama escaped through a gate that failed to lock this morning. Fortunately she was easily escorted back to the feed stand — unlike the last time that happened. That escape resulted in me, wearing much boots and swinging a bucket of feed from one arm, running through fields up and down a half-mile of our country road  (a ridiculous sight I’m sure!). Not only ridiculous, but completely useless in catching a long-legged llama who has decided the grass is greener … somewhere … over … there!  I was also glad to discover the Nuggets are all safe this morning.  Apparently the chicken scream I heard during the night was the result of one of them being stepped on by a goat or something minor. None of them are so much as limping this morning.  Everything else is is business as usual.

Fitting in with my desire for a new me … this post means I’m being more diligent about keeping up with my blog (and I promise, I’ll be more on topic from now on), and keeps me accountable to someone (you – my dear readers!), and I’m also going to end it here, and keep it as is, to fill my goal of moving on to other things I need to do. Laundry calls my name, the dog needs his food prepared, it’s almost time to lock up the chickens, I’d like a fresh pitcher of tea with dinner, and so on (and on and on).

If you have the time, visit me at Pinterest. If you don’t have a lot of time, might be better NOT to visit, LOL.

Until next time!!!

 

 


Posted in chickens, decorating, family, Fascinating Womanhood, goats, holidays, llama | 3 Comments

Getting started with meat rabbits – part 2

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Inspired Ink

Our last post covered the first consideration of getting started with meat rabbits – the cages. Your rabbits will also need feeding and watering supplies, kindling boxes, and may need help dealing with the weather.

Rabbits are more sensitive to heat than cold, so living here in the south I have to take that into consideration. I build open wire-on-all-sides rabbit cages with a high roof that keeps off rain, in order to allow maximum air circulation. The cages and placed in deep shade. When the temperature is over 76-78F, I turn on high powered fans. Anytime it gets over 85 or so I usually turn on the misters attached to the fans.

The misters are part of a cooling system I bought at the hardware store. They attach to a regular water hose, and have about 5 feet of tubing with mist nozzles set in the tubing, producing a fine mist when the water is turned on very low pressure. I attach the misters to the front of the fans using cable ties, allowing the mist to be blown on the breeze to the rabbits. I’ve stood in front of the rabbit cages, about 8 feet away from the fan and it feels as cool as standing in front of an air conditioner. The rabbit’s water bottles that are directly in the path of the mister have COLD water in them at the end of the day, even if the temps are near 110 degrees F. They work amazingly well, and I allow the llama to come into the rabbits’ yard so she can take advantage of the coolness as well. At any given time, there are usually a dozen or so chickens stretched out somewhere within the cool zone, chilling out. I’ve measured the water consumption, and our misters use about 2-1/2 gallons of water per hour.  They don’t use any power other than what is already going to the fans, since the mist is produced with very little hose pressure.

While we do sometimes get snow and ice here, and temperatures can drop below freezing, the rabbits are well suited to our winters, since they aren’t that harsh. Further north, rabbits may require more protection, but I keep mine in the same cages year-round. If there is a particularly bitter storm expected, I will temporarily put a tarp and/or heavy wool blankets on the frames to protect the rabbits from having rain blow in on them. But as long as they stay dry and have a way to get out of the wind, their fur coats insulate them perfectly well in the temperatures here.

Another piece of equipment that should be in your rabbit cage is a resting board of some sort. You can buy a plastic board for this, but we usually give them sheets of wood we have on hand. So far none of them has done more than gnaw the corner slightly. The resting boards allow the rabbits a chance to get off the wire and help prevent damage to hocks. Our rabbits are fairly large, and their weight could easily lead to hock sores if they were forced to live on bare wire all the time.

You will also need a water crock and/or bottle. Crocks may work better in the wintertime when water tends to freeze, since you can knock the ice out of them and refill. As a matter of fact, if you live where it freezes for long periods,  you may want 2 crocks per cage, so you will always have an unfrozen one. They should be un-tippable, which may mean you’ll have to wire them to the cage. Some people use large coffee mugs for a crock, since they have a handle, but they don’t hold much water and will require refilling often. At our place, while it may freeze overnight, the daytime temperatures usually melt any ice that forms pretty quickly, so I use the same quart bottle with a ball mechanism that I use in summer.

The amount needed for each rabbit varies a lot. Igor drinks over 1 quart per day right now, while Flower drinks only 1/3 that amount. When the weather gets colder, they will drink even less. If you have many rabbits, you might want to consider an automatic watering system. I’m planning to convert mine to a very simple gravity system with a 5-gallon bucket gravity feed for every pair of cages. I’ll write a post on that when I actually do it.

rabbit water bottle

Home Rig House rabbit water bottle

 

 

Most of my rabbit water bottles are the Home Rig House 32 ounce bottles. Around here, Tractor Supply has the best price on rabbit water bottles at about $4 each. Wal-mart offers a lower quality but still workable bottle for a few cents more. The feed store sells the same bottle as Tractor Supply for about $5-6. I’m sure rabbit water bottles can also be ordered online for probably the best price of all.

 

 

 

 

I started out using metal J-feeders. Tractor Supply sells a good enough metal J-feeder for the best price I’ve found locally, and the feed store sells one that costs several dollars more, but theirs is a slightly better quality with a flap on top (helps keep chickens from stealing rabbit food, but wouldn’t prevent the llama or goats, so I have a home-made solution). If you’re going to be buying a quantity of them, it’s best to shop around. I actually don’t use many J-feeders anymore. Eventually the rabbits pull the wire screening out of the bottom and then food will be wasted. I debated repairing them or replacing them, but in the end I did neither. I use my old tupperware-style bowls permanently attached to large ceramic tiles. I was afraid I’d be scrubbing them constantly, but they actually stay very clean, and are easy to wash. My rabbits either eat the fines or they blow away, but there are never any in the bowl (and I don’t see ants or any other insects getting them). My bowls also don’t tip. Most importantly, none of the other animals can get the rabbits’ food, though they are slightly less convenient since I have to open each cage to feed them. But it gives me a chance to check them over daily and give them some attention (especially Buddy, who won’t eat until he’s been thoroughly petted).

Of course when you get ready to breed your rabbits, you’ll need the kindling boxes. I don’t worry about having a particular box for each doe as they don’t seem to mind getting a different one next time. Mine are made of plywood according to dimensions I found online, and are starting to loosen after 2 or 3 years’ use. I’ll have to replace them soon. I’m considering replacing them with boxes made of the 1/2×1 wire. I talked to one breeder who uses wire boxes because air circulation is better, and places only a cardboard in the bottom under the nesting hay. I’m not sure about that, since many does will use the box as a bathroom before they kindle, and the kits will as well. When the box is stuffed with hay and fur, there is probably not much air circulation anyway. But I can’t really comment on them, since I haven’t tried them yet. I’m still weighing the pros and cons, but I don’t want to breed too late in spring anyway, so air circulation is less a concern for me.

rabbit wire hayrack

a wire hayrack for rabbits

Another thing you may want to outfit your rabbit cages with is a hayrack. This can be as simple as a section of wire bent in the shape of a long “V” with one arm attached to the side of the cage. When you fill it with hay from the open top, the rabbit can pull the hay through the openings in the other side. This keeps most of the hay off the bottom of the rabbit cage, making it less likely for them to poop on it, dirtying the hay and clogging the wire of the floor.

 

Before you get your rabbits, you’ll want to have feed on hand. It’s a good idea to get some feed from the seller if you’ll be using a different kind, so that you can switch them over gradually by mixing the feeds. If you’re going to be raising rabbits, go ahead and buy your feed in 50 pound bags from a feed store, if you’re going to feed commercial rabbit pellets. Most pelleted feeds are based heavily on alfalfa, so when you get hay you should consider timothy or some other type, if you’ll be feeding alfalfa pellets. Otherwise you will probably get too much alfalfa in the diet.

My word-counter is telling me that my post is far too long, but everything here is essential, so I can’t cut it down. I hope this helps any of you looking to get started with meat rabbits!


Posted in animals, chickens, feeding, housing/cages, llama, rabbits | 1 Comment

Getting started with meat rabbits part 1 – rabbit cages

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Inspired Ink

Rabbit cages -

When we found that a single round of rabbit breeding here on the homestead was producing about 80-90 pounds of meat, we decided to reduce our herd. As tasty and healthful as rabbit meat is, that’s just more meat than we need to harvest every few months. Not to mention it takes about 70-ish pounds of feed per week during the growth spurts to feed all those kits.

California Bunnies

But I was faced with a dilemma. Buddy (my original buck) has become a pet. Every day when I feed him, he rushes to the front of the cage and begs to be petted, and won’t touch his food until he has had a thorough scratching. When children come to visit, he will gladly come up and stand very still as long as they will pet him, his eyes half-closed with a dreamy expression. The young man I bought him from raised show rabbits (and Buddy was on his way to earning a championship) and made a pet of him. And since he was my breeding buck and destined to be here for his lifetime, I continued to spoil him.

Buddy - as always, looking for attention

In order to slightly diversify my genetics, I kept one of the sons of Marshmallow, a New Zealand doe, as a backup breeder buck. Now, the dilemma is that my FAVORITE doe prefers Igor (the other buck) instead of Buddy. So … unless I want to sell Buddy, I have to sell my favorite doe.

Because she was my favorite, I called Louis. His family lives down the road and they are friends, and had talked about getting started with meat rabbits. I offered him my favorite doe, another very good doe, and Igor the buck for a greatly discounted price. He wanted to buy them, so set about building rabbit cages and getting ready.

They keep chickens, and are planning to get various livestock. Louis never asked about rabbit cages, so I figured he already knew what he needed or was researching it. Then a few days ago when he showed up to pick up his rabbits, he asked whether they would be unhappy being moved into much smaller cages. After a quick discussion, he realized the rabbit cages he had built would not be suitable, and he’d have to build more.

I felt really badly. I try not to give advice where no one is asking for it (unfortunately I don’t always succeed there – much of the time I’m alone with the animals so when I get around other people I tend to talk).  But in trying to be polite, I guess I never told him how to build his rabbit cages.

What I should have told him about rabbit cages …

The basic question was cage size, and I told him that he did NOT need to build rabbit cages as large as ours. Most of my newer cages are about 28×60. They give the doe space to get away from her kits, and the kits room to run laps if they want. I wean later than some breeders, so I like to have a lot of space in the doe cages. But the standard recommended size for Californian or New Zealand rabbit cages is usually 24×30 inches for does, and as small as 24×24 for bucks, with an 18″ height. You can get by with cages of that size, but if your does have litters of 7 or more, I really like to see them in larger cages. A dozen growing bunnies take up a lot of space.

I still use the first rabbit cages I built, which are 30×36, and that’s a good compromise for a large doe who kindles large litters.  (Incidentally, I built the height on those to 24″ because I thought the bottoms might wear out faster, and I could just cut the cages down along with the bottom 2″ or so and attach new bottoms for longer wear. That turned out to be pointless, since the walls ended up needing patching as much as the cage floors, but that was partially because of my choice of wire).

Speaking of wire, that was my first real mistake in building my cages. I listened to the salesperson at the hardware store who told me that the 19 gauge 1/2″ galvanized (before welding) wire was what I needed. I’ve learned that this wire is not strong enough for large meat rabbits. Bucks especially tend to pop the welds and pull the wire off in long strands, and can quickly open large holes. This wire is also harsh on their feet, and easily causes sore hocks.

This 19 ga GBW 1/2" wire is not suitable for rabbit cages - notice the tendency to bend, the sharp points, and the overall weakness of the wire

 (Just a quick note about galvanizing … you want galvanized AFTER welded wire. These are welded together, then the whole thing is galvanized, sealing and strengthening the entire wire mesh. The wire that is galvanized and then welded is not as smooth and thegalvanizing process can’t protect the whole thing, so it is much less durable.)

The 1/2 x 1″ 16 gauge galvanized after welded wire is much better for rabbit cages, and will hold up much longer. It is also kinder to the feet, and the holes are small enough to keep even newborn kits inside. I now use only this wire when making floors, and it’s also the best wire for cage walls, though not the most economical option.

This 1/2 x 1 GAW 16 gauge mesh wire is much stronger and more durable

For the sake of saving money, I built a number of rabbit cage walls from a strong 2×3 opening wire I had on hand. It’s fine for the bucks and grow out cages (as long as the kits are not too small when I wean them), but younger kits can easily slip through. So if I put a doe in a cage made of that wire, I line the outside with the otherwise-worthless 1/2″ galvanized. I have to put the galvanized pretty much all around though – you’d be amazed how high tiny kits manage to climb!

As far as rabbit cage measurements, one more thing you want to be careful of is the door opening. It needs to be large enough to let you put the nest box in. Also, I like for the buck’s cage to have a large opening as well just in case there is any kind of disagreement when you bring the doe to him for breeding. A doe can injure a buck if she really does not want to breed with him, and you want to be able to intervene quickly. As a matter of fact, I put two large doors on my 60″ long cages so I can reach all parts of it easily.

Next time I’ll finish up on weather considerations, where to put your rabbit cages, and other equipment you might need. And the next time I sell rabbits to a new breeder, I’ll have all this to point them to, in case I forget anything. I hope it helps some of my readers too!

Until next time, Happy Homesteading!

 


Posted in animals, housing/cages, rabbits | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Permissions, photos, copying text, guest blogging, and link Xchange

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Inspired Ink

Hello friends!

In going through my comments, I’ve found a lot of requests to share information, copy posts, exchange links, and those kinds of things. Instead of answering each one individually, I’ll just point everyone to this post regarding our policies for now.

Do you see information that’s helpful that you want to share? Information is freely shared online, and anything I share here is meant to help others, so if you want to talk about anything I write, as long as you put it in your own words, please feel free to pass it along.

As far as copying blocks of text, I would ask that you not do that. The main reason for this is that, while the policies change, right now it seems the search engines may penalize websites that copy other websites. My web gets crawled pretty much constantly, so if you copy anything from my site, the search engine is going to “know” that mine is the original and yours is a copy, and you can lose rankings. But it really isn’t good for either of us, and isn’t the right thing to do, so please don’t copy blocks of text. If you want to share a sentence or two as a quote with a link to my article (just so nothing gets taken out of context) that’s fine and you don’t need to ask further permission.

Regarding photos, please ask before sharing. Most of them are my own, and I wouldn’t mind most of them being used. A few of them don’t belong to me, and I always ask for permission to share, but I can’t grant that permission to anyone else, you’d have to ask the original owner. The Resurrection Sunday craft picture is the only exception, it was sent to me by a friend but when I tried to trace it back, I couldn’t find the person who took the photo. A few of the photos cannot be shared. Just check with me first, and if I can give you permission, I’ll be happy to.

And finally, regarding link exchanges. I don’t intend to have a “links” page on this site, as I used to do with some of my websites in the past. If you have a relevant site, drop me a comment and I’ll see what we can work out. Maybe I can look at your site and mention you in a post, or maybe we can swap guest posts.

Speaking of guest posts, I’ve had a few requests about that. Again, if your site is relevant, drop me a comment and I’d most likely be able to publish something on topic for you. If you’d like me to guest post, send me your site’s URL, but I’ll have to get a bit caught up here first. :)

And this site is a family-friendly, homesteading site. There are certain things I don’t think my readers would respond to, and I don’t want the search engines associating me with. So if your site is about or has a connection to pharmacy, dating sites, adult sites of any kind, or gambling, please don’t ask, since I won’t be publishing any articles or links from sites in these categories. I’ve also had a lot of requests from Zune and hotel websites, and to be honest, while there’s nothing wrong with those, they just aren’t relevant and you’d be better putting your efforts somewhere else and I won’t be hosting those either.

I realize this is totally off-topic for most of my readers, except those that have related blogs of their own. I hope you won’t mind this “administrative” bit — it saves me a lot of time over replying in detail to each person who asks and will get me back to homesteading topics all the sooner. :)

Happy Homesteading!


Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Tips for bloggers

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Inspired Ink

In going through my comments (still trying to catch up) I see a lot of folks asking for tips for new bloggers. First, let me say that I’m flattered to be asked, but I don’t consider myself an expert. But if what I have learned can help, I’m happy to share.

First, I’d say write about what you’re passionate about. Unless you’re trying to write a particular niche for profit (which I’ve done on other blogs for years, so I am familiar with that), ask yourself what YOU want to write about. That’s the theme that will have you brimming over with ideas and words instead of staring at a blank screen trying to draw out words with the effort it normally takes to pull teeth.

Be yourself. It can take a while to discover your “voice” — and to be honest, I think I’m not there yet. I keep getting interrupted by having to write paid pieces, so my voice switches a lot. I’m have blogger multiple-personality-disorder, LOL. (Just kidding!) But seriously,  just relax and be yourself, and you’ll probably find people responding to that.

Post often. But not TOO often. This is where I fail, since LIFE keeps getting in the way (along with computer glitches and more). I write a post every day in my head, I just don’t always manage to get it here. If your topic covers a lot of breadth, you might want to post as often as once a day. Two to three times a week is probably good to keep folks interested and boost your ratings. Twice a month is probably a minimum, but can cost you followers.

Pictures are king! They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, so whatever you do, DON’T write a thousand-word post with no picture! Most people have short attention spans online and need to be drawn in quickly, and photos help set the tone.

Speaking of which, don’t make your posts too long! (Or too short.) Fewer than 200 words probably won’t get any point across, most of the time. And more than 1,000 words takes too long to read. I try to aim for 300-500 (and usually run far over, LOL). I am trying to break long posts into a series of related posts instead.

Visit other blogs related to yours. Read their posts, leave comments, ask questions. This is a great way to make friends online, and find out what other people in your niche are interested in.

Beyond that, try to make it easy to navigate and have a way for readers to find what they are looking for, don’t make it visually hard to read (check your site in several browsers), and watch spelling and grammar. I usually bend the grammar rules and write a little more like I might actually talk, but don’t go so crazy that it’s hard to understand.

That’s about all I’ve got … and I really, REALLY need to be more consistent in following my own advice, LOL. So … I’m going to hit “publish” on this one, and try to find a way to upload pics into this computer so I can get back on track to talking about homesteading in my next post!

Until next time …


Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Calling all commenters …

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Inspired Ink

I’m trying to catch up on my comments here. After being unable to log in for a while, they have really piled up. (Somehow I’ve attracted the attention of a LOT of spammers, LOL.)

In fact, after spending most of the evening sifting through them and deleting spam, I STILL have 1,200 showing on the top of my dashboard. All of that makes it difficult to find and reply to legitimate comments.

Please know that I really, really appreciate every one of my readers, whether you leave a comment or not. And that I do read all the comments, although I can’t reply to all of them. I do try to reply to everyone who asks a question.

As for the common questions, if you see something here you want to share, please feel free to tell others about it or talk about it, and you can share a link to any post or to my blog in general with anyone you like. Please do ask and get permission to share my photos (and a few of them here are not mine, though I get permission before sharing except that I couldn’t track down the owner of the Resurrection day craft I posted). Please do not copy blocks of text … a sentence or two is ok, but the search engines may penalize for copying too much (and most likely it is your site that will be penalized, but it’s just not a good thing to do).

I don’t have twitter or anything else to follow at this time, except that I did set up a Facebook page for the homestead at https://www.facebook.com/Homestead.Heart although so far I haven’t done anything with it. I may add twitter, since I keep getting asked, but I need to catch up on this site itself first.

I would be happy to let you publish a guest post, if you have something you’d like to share on any of the topics I cover or anything related to homesteading. I’m more than happy to let you share a link to your own site or blog in return. Leave a comment to this post and I’ll reply asap.

My site is hosted with HostGator. I’ve had a number of websites and blogs over the past ten years or so, and used a handful of webhosts, but I’ve usually been very pleased with HostGator. In the past I switched a couple of times, but I always ended up coming back.

As far as blogging tips, I don’t really have any. I built my websites back when it was done with mostly html, so I’m behind the times in pagebuilding. I know a bit about SEO, but that changes a bit over time too. There are excellent plugins to help with that. My best advice for blogging — and I don’t always follow it myself — is to post regularly, don’t make posts too long, and generally people seem to like pictures.

If your question doesn’t fit under those categories, I’ll answer it as a reply to your comment. I just want to apologize to you all that it may take a while for me to FIND your comment, but I am working through them. There’s an awful lot of hotel and pharmacy websites (and a few worse ones I won’t mention) that seem to want to get a comment posted — and it’s taking me time to go through them all.

Thanks for your patience!


Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Cooler temperatures – and a deep sigh of contentment

Posted on September 25, 2012 by Inspired Ink

Ahhhhhh ... Fall ... Autumn ... Harvest - my favorite time of year!

Well, I’m very satisfied, on so many counts! One is that I finally got logged into my account using this Mac computer. My poor laptop has just about had it, and while the Mac is great in a lot of ways, I’m not used to one and for some reason it wouldn’t let me log in to post here.

About those cooler temperatures … last summer (2011) was HORRIBLE here as far as weather. I’ve only been here a few years, so I don’t have a lot to compare it with, but according to the news, it really was a terrible year. We had something like 40+ days over 100 degrees (many of them at or near 110), no rain for the better part of a year, making for one hot, long summer. The spring winds never died down, and it felt like standing in front of an open furnace every time I went outside. With all the dryness, everything died, leaving bare ground, which was picked up by those constantly gusting winds and carried a LOT of dust … right into your eyes if you weren’t careful. I’m sure I looked ridiculous, but I did most of my outdoor chores wearing safety glasses, just to keep the dust from my eyes. Add to that the grasshopper invasion that ate everything the drought didn’t kill …

Yes, summer 2011 was miserable here.  One day I went outside to do chores, and as I walked across the yard, I disturbed so many grasshoppers, they all leaped into the air. And being that what goes up must come down (since they can’t fly far on their own) … they rained down all around me. Literally. Rained down. It was like standing in a grasshopper downpour. Now, I’m not a person who really likes insects of any kind. I was afraid of bugs growing up, and I’ve struggled to get over that. I’ve done pretty well. But I’m sorry, standing in a downpour of grasshoppers, all that buzzing and all those scratchy legs sliding across my skin — was too much for this girl! I set out to find something to eat the grasshoppers, and soon brought home 16 ducklings … ten runner/khaki/rouen mixes and a half dozen young muscovies. They gobbled down grasshoppers, grew fat, and saved me from having six-legged beasties raining down on my head.

The grasshopper hordes made the news, as did all the fires that broke out across the state, and the dried up lakes that revealed underwater ghost towns and other long-forgotten curiosities that hadn’t been seen in a century or more. So summer of 2011 really WAS miserable, even by local standards.

Summer 2012 has been kinder. MUCH kinder. Without the previous year to compare it to, it might have seemed hot. But by comparison, it wasn’t bad at all. We had an unexpected heavy storm in July that actually made the air feel cool. I took my daughter to Six Flags in August and didn’t have a heat stroke … in fact, we did several all-day outdoor summer events and other than getting sweaty and wanting a cool drink sometimes, I was perfectly fine.  (The last time I took her to Six Flags was in July of 2002 or so, and I DID actually almost have a heat stroke, and spent the entire day in the park’s infirmary without riding a single ride. I’m ten years older now too, but also probably more used to working in the heat, so I’m getting stronger with age, LOL. At least that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it!)

The peppers still managed to languish in the summer heat, but no rabbits died, and the llama made it through in spite of being unshorn. I did have some interesting things happen with chicken eggs. My ornamental plants all look great (except the torenia and the Joseph’s coat, as it turns out chickens love to eat them, so it wasn’t the heat). We even enjoyed a drive-in movie one evening without having to run the air conditioner the whole time. All things considered, it really wasn’t a bad summer.

Still, fall has always been my favorite season. There are lots of things I love about each season, but the crisp air, the golden quality of the sunshine, the cooling temperatures — all beckon me outdoors. Fall festivals are the perfect reason to get out and about too. I’ve always loved browsing arts and crafts and seeing what other folks are making to get inspiration for my own crafty creations. Flowers are winding down, but chrysanthemums come in such cheerful colors, and pansies, violets, and petunias start showing up en masses – three of my favorites.

There is much more to be satisfied about, and maybe I’ll share some of that next time. For now, I just wanted to POST since it’s been so long, and I almost can’t believe I’m actually IN with this computer. There will be more homesteading updates later … for now just wanted to say “hello” once again!


Posted in chickens, crafts, ducks, llama, muscovies, Ornamentals & house plants, rabbits, vegetable garden | 1 Comment

Homestead chickens – goals of breeding the homestead flock

Posted on June 27, 2012 by Inspired Ink
homestead chickens - mixed flock

homestead chickens - healthy and productive mixed flock

Homestead chickens – what are your flock goals?

My first flock of chickens started with browsing through a Murray McMurray catalog and marking all the breeds that seemed to have good characteristics for my situation (like laying during hot weather) … as well as the ones that looked pretty. I ordered 2 or 3 of each breed to make the 25-chick minimum, and ended up with a colorful assortment of Rhode Island Reds, Silver Laced Wyandottes, Black Australorps, Black Sex-links, Red stars, Barred Rocks, a few partridge rock bantams and silver penciled bantams, a Japanese bantam, and a rosecomb bantam. The Buff Orpingtons were not available, so I got them at a local feed store, along with some Brahmas they had at the same time. A speckled Sussex came along as the “free rare chick.” And  friend gave me some silky eggs to incubate which hatched into four sweet little fuzzballs that followed me like puppies. My goal was to have lots of eggs to sell, and a bunch of colorful assorted chickens wandering around to look at. I didn’t intend to raise any chicks at that time. (Though as it turns out my rosecomb bantam hen had other ideas, and presented me with MANY chicks!)

homestead chickens - first flock assorted

homestead chickens - my first flock of assorted chickens

From that flock, I learned a lot. I found that “flighty” breeds such as the speckled sussex were NOT for me. That crazy hen used to sit on top of the clothesline or coop door, would never go in with the others, and when startled was just as likely to fly straight at my head. She was actually the only one I lost … maybe a predator scared her one day and she probably flew right at it. Or there was a noise and she flew away startled, never to find her way home again. She was pretty, but it was almost a relief not to have to deal with her. And she only laid a few eggs for me.

Fast forward to now, when my homestead chickens are not pets, but part of a dynamic combination that makes up my homestead. What I want from them are enough eggs to eat, extra chicks to sell, and an extra rooster here and there for meat, as well as double duty of turning over the compost and helping control insects. What I’m willing to give them is a secure night coop, plenty of fresh water, but as little extra feed as possible. Foraging ability is a plus. To accomplish those goals, I’ve started with a similar group of chickens – I have more Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orpingtons, Barred Rocks, Black Australorps, Silver-laced Wyandottes, and silkies. The standards are all good laying breeds, all but the RIR are heavy bodied and good for meat, and the silkies I had hoped to be broodies for me.

I discovered to my delight that two of my silkies were not only wonderful broody hens, but are also good layers. Their eggs are smaller than standard hens, but not by very much. The yolks are of similar size, making their eggs a bit richer than typical eggs.  So Pearl and Fidget became a foundation of my breeding stock, from the six silkies I started with. Both are white. Fidget took a bit longer to get started and usually raises smaller batches than Pearl, but Pearl was setting on eggs before she was 5 months old.

Pearl was crossed with my Rhode Island Red rooster, producing Rosie. Rosie is just as good of a mama as Pearl, and has already raised several batches of babies. She is more protective than Pearl, and just as good a forager. That’s another benefit … my silkies teach their babies to forage well and so they consume very little feed as adults, except in the coldest months. (As an added benefit — I often give the silkies eggs from the other hens to hatch and raise, so they will raise my new generations of standard hens, teaching them to forage as well as they do.)

Because of that success, I raised a lot of silky crosses the first year. I found the Barred Rock x Silky to make a nice-sized bird, so I saved a barred rock x silky rooster, and am working on breeding barred rocks with just enough silky to be a reliable broody. So far I am having success with 25% silky 75% barred rock.

As a summary – here is what I found to be the best traits of my flock to work with:

  • Silkies – great broodies, great foragers, fairly good layers, large yolks. Not good for meat
  • Rhode Island Reds – great layers, good mothers when crossed with silky. Not good for meat
  • Barred Rock – good layers, some broodiness, great meat birds
  • Buff Orpingtons – good layers, some broodiness, great meat birds
  • Silver-laced Wyandotte – fairly good layers, more consistent layers in hot weather
  • Black Australorp – good layers

A further advantage of barred rock hens x Rhode Island red roosters is the possibility of creating black sex-linked chickens (though since I grow out roosters for meat, it’s not such a big deal for me – I usually sell chicks when a bit older and I can usually tell the pullets fairly well).

I cull all extra roosters to help control breeding, since my flock is mostly free-range. I have caged roosters before to control breeding, but I’ve found that my three roosters work well with my size flock. Rowdy (barred rock x silky) takes “his girls” to the front area, and breeds almost exclusively with them. Red (RIR) is the flock “boss” and breeds most of the other hens, while Sgt. Rock (Barred rock) is his back-up man, and only sneaks in a breeding when he can. I’d actually prefer more barred rock in my chicks, since Red is a tall but lean rooster, and the barred rock produces a larger body. But meat is a secondary consideration for me right now, and the RIR genes are producing better layers for me. (Not to mention my barred rock hen that showed up with 17 chicks apparently prefers Sgt. Rock, so I have a nice batch of pure barred rocks coming into the flock.)

Homestead chickens are about producing what is needed (in my case eggs, chicks, meat – in that order) as sustainably as possible (meaning mine forage well and reproduce reliably). Health is of course important too, but I’ve had almost zero problems since I started the flock, so no need to cull any of them.

I did start with chicks from a breeder this time, instead of hatchery stock, except for the silver-laced wyandottes, which came from a feed store. I think this gave me larger-bodied birds, perhaps a bit slower on egg-laying, but very healthy and better able to survive free-ranging. As a group, their instincts seem to be much better than my first flock of hatchery birds. In fact, they sometimes insist on doing things their own way (my nicest barred rock hen disappeared for weeks while she set a nest somewhere in the fields or woods, only to return with 17 chicks!).

But I think homestead chickens should be hardy, healthy, and survive well on their own, since they free-range and forage all day. The eggs come at a satisfactory rate, and are large or medium and many have larger yolks, which suit me just fine. Since I’m not pouring bag after bag of layer feed into them, a slight reduction in eggs is no cost to me. And right now I have so many chicks I’m not even sure how many chickens I have, and very few are ever lost to any predator. Soon I will probably have many more, since now 5 are broody.

Of course, many of my chicks are not 100% purebred, which can limit the market if people are interested only in purebred chickens. But to be honest, I find these to be much more useful birds, so that’s what I’m breeding. And I do have a good many purebred chicks as well, so I’m not out of that market. But if I were buying, I’d be looking at usefulness rather than blood, and would WANT the silky mixes. Also, it turns out that a flock of mixed-breed chickens are very attractive – every one is pretty and so many are unique! (I haven’t found this to be true of mixing duck breeds, which sometimes “muddies” their appearance.)

So ask yourself what are your goals for your flock of homestead chickens? If you want to sell purebred chicks, you’re probably better off staying with one breed unless you want to house and pen them separately (which cuts out free ranging). If you want to raise chicks, it’s much easier with a hen that goes broody – several breeds are suited for this, but bantams are some of the best (and silkies can be the best of the best). However, I do have a reliable purebred Buff Orp and Barred Rock that each raise chicks for me. Foraging ability was a must for me, but I have found that it is a skill that can be taught by the mother hen, so choose your broodies well! And health is an important consideration no matter what kind of livestock you are raising … any animal that has any tendency to problems should be culled from breeding. It costs just as much, or more, to raise sickly animals as healthy ones, and healthy ones produce better. If you plan to sell chicks, research your market first to make sure the breed(s) you plan to offer sell well locally.

Good luck with your flock of homestead chickens! I hope you enjoy yours as much as I do mine!


Posted in animals, chickens | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Homestead finances – making money on a small farm – animal housing

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Inspired Ink

The first topic I’m going to talk about is animal housing, and try to share some ways to save money on building housing, pens, cages, and fencing. For many people this will be one of the major expenses of setting up a homestead, and MUST be in place (at least in some form) before you get your livestock. Please don’t buy animals if you don’t have a place to properly house them, even temporarily. The animals lives and health can suffer, they can be exposed to predators, poison forages, theft, or even just wandering away, and you will create a lot more work and headaches for yourself. Instead, make sure you have an adequate way to keep the animals contained, safe, and protected before you bring them home.

I spent very little on my animal housing. I know how to build pens, coops, and cages, and I learned about fencing. I checked out books from the library and surfed the ‘net looking for more ideas, and in some cases changed what I had planned.

There was a good bit of material here when I moved in. Most of the perimeter fenceposts were already up, though someone had removed most of the fencing. Still, the posts are the hard part!  There was also a standing barn and a couple of falling-down outbuildings. I took down the outbuildings and part of the barn so I could re-use the materials (wood, sheets of tin, and even nails).  There were a few partial rolls of wire and fencing out in the barn, and some ramshackle rooster cages. All of these provided materials, and I kept some of the rooster cages as temporary holding cages.

Much material was available for free as well. I got some concrete block from tear-downs, and was given a load of free pallets and several loads of old privacy fence panels from craigslist. I even asked for a non-working refrigerator and was given one, and it awaits being turned into an incubator (though I may not need one, since I have so many broody hens).  I cut some bamboo from vacant lots.

Some things I had to buy. My main expenses were some lumber for framing, several large boxes of screws, fencing wire, and caging wire.  And one large panel gate, although I built all the rest of my own gates (and at last count, I had about ten). I couldn’t find a way to save much money on the lumber and screws, other than to buy the screws in large quantity. I did find there was a huge difference in the cost of fencing wire – a farm supply store about an hour away was in competition with a newly-opened farm store, and had cut their prices, so I was glad I could take advantage of the sale when it happened. Caging wire can be bought in 100 foot rolls at a good savings, if you can avoid shipping costs. Check with your local farm supply or feed store, and if they get regular deliveries from a supplier, you might be able to get a good deal on these. Make SURE of what you are getting before you buy though — if it turns out to be too flimsy for your needs, you will have to replace it soon and you’ve wasted your money and your time.

Planning is key to controlling costs as well.

I wanted to divide my pasture, so I took a look at the treeline. It was easy to follow the trees in dividing my buck pen from my grazing pasture, and separating my goats from my chicken and rabbit yard, and even for dividing my baby poultry pen from my front yard. By using the already-growing trees, I didn’t have to buy nearly as many fence posts. And in placing pens that worked adjacent to each other, one fence row did double-duty. Though in some cases I had to reinforce fencing with large openings with a smaller mesh to keep smaller animals in. For this I found a black plastic mesh fencing meant to keep deer out to be very economical, and it has held up for years, even where exposed to the sun, and isn’t very noticeable visually. It does break, but can be mended, and overall I’ve been very pleased with it.

The climate here is fairly mild, and waterfowl need minimal shelter here. My coops for them consist of a frame of 2 x 4 lumber, with a relatively inexpensive garden rabbit wire stapled to the outside, and a recycled tin roof. They are protected from north winds by placement of the coop – other buildings block the worst wind.  They make enough noise that if a predator DID try to get them, I’d hear and come outside, so the light wire is sufficient to protect them.

Rabbits are also very hardy where cold is concerned. They are more endangered by heat, so I built their cages in the coolest, deepest shade where air circulation was still good. Instead of hutches, I built a lumber frame and added a tin roof, then stretched a “bed” of  pasture fencing made from scraps, similar to the spring frame on a daybed. Their cages are made completely of wire, with nothing to block air flow, and placed on these frames. The roof is high enough not to trap heat, and they get maximum cooling this way. On very stormy nights in winter, I attach a tarp or heavy blanket to the frame where the wind blows in so they don’t end up cold, wet, and exposed to wind, and they are fine.

Choosing livestock (and crops) suited to your location as much as possible will do much to keep your expenses down. The less you have to build to keep them healthy, the lower your costs.

Predators are another major reason for animal housing and fencing. In some cases, electric fencing may be the most effective and cheapest way to keep your livestock safe. For others, a guard dog or other guard animal may be best. Locating the night pens closer to your home may be sufficient, or letting the dog have access outside may keep your animals safe. A floodlight, perhaps motion-activated, may be your best choice. Or you may have to rely on securely built housing. It depends on the local predators, what sort of animals you have, and what your setup is like. In my case, cats are the main predators for my smaller poultry, and the geese do a great job of watching for them and chasing them away. The llama watches for larger predators for the goats, and I keep them just outside the house at night. Hawks don’t get very many of my small animals, because they are usually under tree cover and hidden from the sky. So snakes are now my main problem, and there is no way to protect from them except to make secure coops for vulnerable animals and check each night to make sure no snakes got in during the day. So my coops had to be built to be perfectly sealed from snakes (or weasels). If predators really are no concern at all, you can get away with only a roof for poultry, and even chicken-wire walls, but in my chicken yard that would result in snakes eating small chicks and raccoons ripping up the wire to kill chickens at night.

That about covers how I’ve cut costs on housing and fencing, and a few ideas you might be able to use that I wasn’t able to do (such as electric fencing).

Until next time …

 

 

 


Posted in animals, chickens, ducks, geese, llama, money, predators, rabbits, saving money | Tagged , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Homestead finances – making money on a small farm

Posted on June 26, 2012 by Inspired Ink

A reader recently asked if I was making money on the farm yet, and was considering a small farm to supplement his own income. I promised that I’d write a post on making money on a small farm.

This isn’t an easy topic, because there are SO many variables. You have to figure in your costs of producing whatever it is you want to sell, how much of it you can produce, how much money you can sell it for, who your target market is, how much it’s going to cost you to sell it, how you’re going to reach your market. You also have to consider things that can cut into your income, or even cause a total loss. Farming isn’t the same as manufacturing – illness or predators or drought can wipe out everything, and often there is nothing you can do to prepare, plan for, or prevent it.

I will say that I didn’t get into this to make money. No one should, in my opinion. That’s not to say that you can’t make money at it, but … if money is your only goal, I really believe you’d probably be happier, more satisfied, less stressed, and wealthier if you just get a job.

I love what I do, but if I didn’t enjoy it, I’d have a much harder time getting up every two hours through the night to check on a first-time expectant mother, or to feed an orphaned baby. I would resent having to be home most of the time to make sure the animals are cool enough in the summer heat, or milked on time. And believe me, it’s not glamorous … there is a lot of sweat, blood, and manure involved.

But. I do love it. There is a great satisfaction in seeing an animal thrive that you pulled through an illness. Watching the herd grow, with babies capering around and coming to be scratched and patted. Listening to the contented trilling of the poultry as you lock them in for the night. And the work is fairly routine, giving me a lot of time with my thoughts as I go about my chores. The animals are an endless source of amusement as well, with their own personalities and quirks.

Now, with that out of the way … this subject could still be a book.

First, there are costs involved. Housing, stock, feed, and equipment will be the main expenses, and possibly medicines/veterinary services.

Because this is so long, I’ll address these topics in a  series out of this.  Immediately following will be housing and fencing, but I have to get back to work, LOL. Always more to do around here!


Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

I’m back … :)

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Inspired Ink

Actually, I’ve been here (on the homestead) the whole time, but have had a lot going on.

A severely infected abscessed  tooth put me almost out of commission for a month. I’ve had abscesses before, but this was a doozy! Never had almost my entire face swell. A friend of mine commented that I looked like something out of a Twilight Zone episode, and I’m afraid he was right! I took photos just to document it (I don’t think I’m brave enough to post them here!) and I didn’t realize until I studied the photos that my eyelids WERE swelling shut, which with some extensive reading was one of the signs I was going to the emergency room for. I still can’t figure out how I studied my face in the mirror and missed what the photo clearly shows. Then again, my eyes were swelling shut – maybe that’s how I missed it!

I did clear up the infection, though a gum boil persisted for some time. Goldenseal and grapefruit seed extract are my friends! Normally I can clear a tooth abscess in a few days, but … I don’t know. Maybe I was too worn down. Maybe it was an especially severe infection. It seems there have been a lot of trials all of a sudden.

Speaking of which, I lost my buck goat. Frodo went down a few days after I came down with the abscess. I propped him up, wrapped him in a blanket, gave him injections of Pen-G and liquid vitamin B. He rallied for a day and a half, but eventually weakened and died. I did a lot of research on goat polio and listerosis, and I have a draft in here, which I will probably finish editing and go back and publish.

I almost lost the doeling Nikki too. She was the only doe kid born this year, so that would have been devastating. Her mother AND grandmother have been at death’s door too. Basically ALL my breeding goats and hopes for my herd were almost dashed. They are all on the mend though. Today was the first day I saw really good signs of recovery, though they have been steadily improving (except for Sassy, she’s up and down).

Good things have been happening too. We have had an absolute EXPLOSION of chicks and ducklings hatching. Just a couple of geese too. One of them has an interesting story – Peepers had to be pulled from his mother(s) and is being hand-raised. He imprinted strongly on me and just can’t understand why I want him to spend time with those feathered creatures outside when he’s ever bit as human as I am. I’ve written parts of his story and will cobble them together and post them as well.

Have had some wonderful family breakthroughs this week. I found out my father is still alive and received an address for him, and on the same day got a phone call about another family member that has been missing from my life for several years.

The garden has been coming along. I started my new mulch project the day before the tooth abscess hit, so it was stalled for a while, but it has done wonders for my tomatoes now that it’s finished. I started the season with a lot of blossom end rot (never had to deal with much of that before, but it looked like the whole crop would be ruined!) and now I have healthy tomatoes producing about twenty pounds a day and I haven’t even had to water them in over a week, in spite of no rain.

And I tried some new methods of planting seed. I’ll have to do it again, because I didn’t take pictures and between a thunderstorm and a raid by the duck patrol – there is not much left to photograph.

The worm bin hasn’t fared too well. It doesn’t take a lot of upkeep, so I don’t think it was my illness. It may have been the heat.

I even got some pretty flowers put in, which are below everything else on the priority list, so I don’t always get them.

And have a few nice upcycling projects going on – I plan to finish the posts on them too.

So, while I have a lot going on, I’ll try to start working through all of these drafts and play catch-up, and at the same time keep my readers informed of the new events happening.  Just wanted to check in and say — I AM still here, and I’ve missed writing to you all and hearing your comments!

(Speaking of comments, I logged in to a terrible backlog — I’ll be working on getting those moderated and posted as well! If you’ve tried to contact us, rest assured that I will eventually read all comments, but feel free to leave a new one if you like as I’ll be reading newly posted ones each day first.)


Posted in animals, chickens, ducks, family, gardening, geese, goats, hearth and home, muscovies, Ornamentals & house plants, Trash to Treasure, vegetable garden, vermi-composting | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Upcycled wool sweater planter

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Inspired Ink

An upcycled wool sweater planter … how cool is that???

upcycled wool sweater planter

Upcycled wool sweater planter - too cute!!!

This one popped up on Facebook, and I had to do some detective work but I found out that is was published in a book called Stash Happy: Felt by Amanda Carestio, and she generously shared the tutorial for this project on her blog. I’m going to have to look around for that book if this project is any indication of the wonderful stuff to be found there!

Basically, it’s just what it looks like, a pouch made from a wool sweater or skirt. The wool should be felted first, since it will do a better job of holding in the soil and the water won’t run out as fast. Another great tip is that she “measures” the inside of the pouch by placing the plant and soil (in a plastic bag) into the felted wool pouch to check for sizing before inserting it into the planter.

Among my facebook friends there were various concerns and a lot of discussion, so let me share their accumulated wisdom with you here. Many folks use felted wool as a moisture retainer in potted plants. In a very hot/dry climate, you will want to check the plants to make sure they are moist enough, since the water will wick away faster than it would in a plastic pot. But as for concerns about the wool breaking down too fast — it WILL break down but should take more than a long growing season to do so, and possibly as long as 3-4 years. My sheep farmer friends assure me that sheep’s wool does not compost very quickly. I find that to be true with other wools as well, so I can believe them.

One friend makes felted purses and sells them, and thought this upcycled wool sweater planter would be an excellent use for mistakes and “boo-boos” and I couldn’t agree more!

Right now I’m still in the midst of “practical” garden tasks, getting seedlings set out, keeping new beds weed-free, planting vegetable seeds, and so on, but I couldn’t resist this cute craft project featuring the prettier side of gardening. Enjoy!


Posted in crafts, gardening, Ornamentals & house plants, Trash to Treasure, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 18 Comments

Where have the missing bees gone???

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Inspired Ink

Are missing bees the cause of crop failures?

Today I made a startling, and unhappy discovery while checking on the homestead fruit trees. The only surviving peach tree after last year’s drought is doing very well! Take a look …

homestead peach tree - missing bees

Beautiful healthy peach tree, coming along very well. Notice anything missing?

What about the PEACHES?!?!?!?!

Last year’s crop was undersized, and not particularly sweet, but I got a basket of peaches off the small tree, even in horrible drought conditions. The tree was covered in blossoms a few weeks ago … so what happened?

 

single peach - missing bees?

This is the single peach developing on the tree. One peach. ONE.

I must admit that I’m terribly disappointed. This tree is two years old. It’s first year, the harvest was only a few handfuls, but those were the absolute best peaches I had ever tasted in my life. The second year, the drought took over, and no matter how much care the tree was given, it still produced undersized fruit. Spring has been good to us so far though, and I was pleased to see that the tree made it through the last difficult year which killed everything else (our other peach tree is reduced to a few suckers sprouting from the base this year). With the profusion of peach blossoms, I had hoped for a decent harvest this year. I looked forward to tasting those super-sweet delicious peaches once again that I’ve waited two years for.

Now it looks as though I’ll only get a taste if I’m lucky. Hopefully nothing will get this single peach, but there aren’t going to be any more this year. What happened? Is it because of the missing bees I’ve been hearing about for years? I must admit, I only remember seeing one bee this year. If there is no pollination, there is no fruit. No tomatoes. No nothing from many kinds of plants.

Incidentally, there are no fruit on any of the other trees either, but they are newly planted so that doesn’t surprise me too much.

Well … if that’s the problem, at least I have a heads-up. I suppose I’ll be out there as soon as the tomatoes blossom, artist brush in hand, transferring pollen. I don’t mind the extra work if it’s necessary. I just hope I can do a good enough job. The one bright spot is that it should be easy to keep my heritage varieties pure.

I’d trade that for the missing bees though. They are absolutely essential, for a lot more than just honey.

As a matter of fact … I may look into keeping bees. It’s something I’d thought about a few times, but put it so far down on my list of “maybes” that I probably wouldn’t have gotten to it for a long time. Instead I relied on planting food for bees, and flowers that would attract them. But this may make a difference in my plans. I’ll look into it a bit more, but it may just be that I need to get my own beehives. Hopefully they will survive, and hopefully it will help make a tiny dent in this problem of missing bees.

In the meantime, this is a very worrisome development.

 


Posted in fruit, gardening | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Inspired Ink

Happy Resurrection Sunday – the name I prefer to use for Easter Sunday.

When I was a child, Easter was one of the times the family got together. The WHOLE family. My great-grandmother had seven surviving daughters (one of them was my Grandma, of course), and they would all gather at her little house in the country along with their husbands, children, grand-children, and great-grandchildren. It was a BIG get-together, with cousins galore!

My mother always tried to make sure we had new clothes for Easter, and we’d get to hunt for colored Easter eggs around my Great-grandma’s homestead. There was always a huge spread laid out for dinner (I always especially looked forward to my Aunt Sharon’s coconut cake!). The grownups would sit around and talk and we kids would play in the yard – maybe sneaking off to try to catch feral kittens to pet (and get scratched up in the process!) or drop stones into the well and listen to them “plop” hollowly as they hit the water. It was one of my favorite holidays as a child.

Now as an adult, understanding the meaning of Resurrection Sunday, it remains my favorite. If ever there was a cause for joy, it is that our Savior is risen!

I hope your day was filled with wonder, joy, and blessings. I’m afraid mine didn’t start as I planned it. I was especially looking forward to going to church, since after a very long search I think I have finally found a church home, though I’ve only been there twice now. I had missed a couple of weeks though, which seemed like an eternity, so that made me look forward to going even more. All the animals were fed and taken care of, I was ready, and on my way to the car … when I saw them. Two of the goat kids had escaped the pasture and were running around the unfenced land on the other side. Vulnerable to passing dogs and anything else.

I let out a very deep sigh. The weeds back there are waist-high, and I had to change and put on my boots to go after them. Of course, they didn’t want to be caught. By the time they were safely back in the pasture, it was too late, and I had missed church. Again.

But you know what? Church isn’t necessarily just the building you go to on Sunday mornings. There is more to it than that. I got online and had some fellowship with Christian friends across the country (even if not face-to-face, I still enjoy talking to them and always come away refreshed and encouraged).

One of them shared this photo, which I’d seen before, but I was glad to be reminded of it. Isn’t this awesome work?

Resurrection Sunday - sand sculpture

And for the first time ever, I remembered a song I’ve always wanted to listen to on Resurrection Sunday. The first time I heard it, I was so moved, and I thought it would make a perfect musical selection in church, yet I’ve never heard it played in church or even on the radio for the holiday. So finally, I remembered and played it myself.


Was it a morning like this?

May you be blessed on this wonderful Resurrection Sunday.


Posted in family, goats, hearth and home, holidays | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments