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Top Nine Favorite Backyard Farmer Hacks
Nifty gadgets have their place on the homestead but sometimes you just can’t go down that often-pricey path. Don’t get me wrong — I’m a hopeless fan of wonky inventions (think egg flashlights and nut...
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Livestock Guardian Dogs Can Be a Good Farm Choice
Using a livestock guardian dog dates back more than 2,000 years ago. Dogs bred for the purpose of protecting livestock from predators and thieves were necessary when nomadic people roamed thousands of...
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Selecting a Dairy Goat Breed
The fun of having goats starts with choosing which goat breed to get and plenty are available to choose from. More than 200 goat breeds have been developed worldwide, not all of which may be found in...
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Small and Useful Bantam Chickens
By Christine Heinrichs, California – Bantam chickens are the introduction to chickens for a lot of people. They aren’t a breed, but an entire set of chicken breeds. They are just like full-size...
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How to Protect Chickens from Hawks
When I walked out to the chicken coop and looked up, I was horrified to see a red-tailed hawk calmly eating one of my White Leghorns. When the hawk spotted me, it flew off and dropped the Leghorn’s...
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The Importance of Conservation Easements
Story and photos by Karin Deneke – How can we protect our productive land and open space from the never-ending encroachment by urban sprawl, especially prime farmland on the fringes of our great...
View ArticleDIY Fence Installation: Make Your Fence Hog-Tight
When planning your DIY fence installation always remember: A good fence should be horse high, bull strong and hog tight—and for goats, water tight as well, some might say. But describing a good fence...
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16 Fascinating Egg Facts
No matter how you cook them—scrambled, poached, fried or baked—eggs are chock full of healthy nutrients. Even if you eat eggs all the time, there may be some things you don’t know about them. Check out...
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Breed Profile – The Red Wattle Pig
The docile Red Wattle Pig has a mysterious history among heritage pig breeds. Sadly, it’s on the Threatened list of The Livestock Conservancy. When you look at the Red Wattle pig, maybe you’ll decide...
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Coop Inspiration — Hiebert Rural Colorado Coop
Rural Colorado Coop By The Hiebert Family, Colorado Our family — Dan (dad), TJ (mom), Silas (son) and Lydia (daughter) — moved to rural Colorado about one year ago from Minnesota. I have always dreamed...
View ArticlePoultry Talk – Summer E-Edition 2017
Using Apple Cider Vinegar How often do you use vinegar? How much vinegar per gallon of water? Joe Hi Joe, Apple Cider Vinegar can be used in water for chickens to discourage slime build up and help...
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Book Excerpt: The Small-Scale Poultry Flock
The following excerpt is from The Small-Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery (Chelsea Green Publishing, Fall 2011). Our most recent strategy for putting the flock to work has been such a success, I...
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Avoid Plant Sunburn and Summer Garden Disasters
Plant sunburn, floods, heat and hailstorms. Planning now protects your garden from disaster later. When you started your first garden, did anyone tell you that Mother Nature might rake her nasty claws...
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Build a Home Using Alternative Building Materials
By Charmaine R. Taylor — Building a self-sustaining home or structure is a wonderful concept that can be put into practice by anyone looking to create shelter for man or animal. Homesteaders and people...
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How to Make Coconut Oil Soap
Coconut oil is a superhero ingredient in your kitchen metropolis. What is coconut oil good for? Plenty! Sold in several forms, it’s used for cooking, in candies, within lotions and lip balms, and...
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15 Tips for Adding Royal Palm Turkeys to Your Flock
We have considered adding turkeys to our backyard flock for a while now. While researching turkey breeds, we decided if we ever did get turkeys, we wanted a white, medium-sized breed. Recently, a...
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Building Planter Boxes for Strawberries
By Sue Robishaw – It wasn’t that the old chicken wire covers we’d constructed five years ago didn’t work, they did. I had an idea for building planter boxes that would keep the Cedar Waxwings out of...
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A Beginner’s Guide to Keeping Ducks in Suburbia
Ducks can be charming companions in suburban backyards. As someone who never raised so much as a parakeet on her own, the idea that I could look out the window and watch our five full-grown,...
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Best Barns, Chicken Coops and Hutches for Homesteads
Building the best barns, chicken coops, hutches and other shelters adds value to your homesteading land. How do you know what to pick for housing your animals? With so many choices available to the...
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Useful Chicken Accessories for Your Flock
Chicken keeping is becoming increasingly popular across the country. This popularity surge has led to the invention of new chicken accessories for small and large flock keepers alike. Whether you’re...
View ArticleStore Salad Greens for Later Use
By Anne Hart Lieb, Ohio — Storing salad greens has been an issue for many gardeners, because green leafy vegetables normally do not respond well to canning, drying, or freezing. Follow these easy,...
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Treating a Dog Paw Pad Injury
A dog paw pad injury can come from many types of mishaps. Scrapes, cuts, punctures, blisters, and burns are some of the ways a dog paw pad injury can present. A dog’s paw pad is a unique type of tissue...
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Help Your Animals Adjust to New Homesteading Land
You’ve made the successful move to your new homesteading land. The hardest part is behind you, but how are your animals coping? Moving to a new home is hard for people and animals alike. Animals have a...
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Cattle Shed Design for a Small Herd
The lure of the wide open range and the romance of ranching may entice you to search cattle breeds and cattle shed design ideas. You live on the east coast or some other busy area of the world. You...
View ArticleWhat is Your Livestock Guardian Dog’s Bark Trying to Tell You?
Our July/August 2017 issue of sheep! is NOW AVAILABLE, featuring stories that answer questions like, what is your livestock guardian dog’s bark trying to tell you? Learn why this magazine is the...
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Safety Precautions: A Vital Soap-Making Resource
When learning how to make soap, attention to safety protocols is crucial. Learn from good soap-making resources before you begin. For millennia, civilizations have known how to make soap; easy and...
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Six Basics for Chicken Coop Design
When thinking about basic chicken coop design, you need to consider six main things. Whether you plan to construct a high-end, stylish coop or something basic, you’ll need to keep your birds safe from...
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Keeping Show Chickens Healthy
Show chickens are hugely entertaining. Fun, as they may be, keeping and exhibiting show chicken breeds can be more involved than keeping run-of-the-mill egg layers. One of the big differences is the...
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Secrets of Raising Katahdin Sheep
By John Kirchhoff – For many people, mentioning hair sheep evokes either “I wouldn’t have anything else” or a “No way would I have them” response. My wife and I feel there’s no “best” breed, but rather...
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Natural Ways to Get Rid of Mice
For the safest, most natural ways to get rid of mice, start with the most minimum impact and work up from there. I have a friend who insists on using only the level of protection necessary in a...
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Exploring Heat Source Options for Canning
Whether your kitchen has all the modern conveniences or you live off the grid, for canning purposes, some heat sources work better than others. When I bought the cooktop I use now, most of the...
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Free Chicken Coop Plan: An Easy 3×7 Coop
Many first-time backyard chicken keepers intend to build their own coop, but the first and most frustrating question usually is: what does a chicken coop need? Information paralysis usually ensues, but...
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Designing Your Ideal Homesteading Land
By Ken Wilson – Homesteading land is neither a farm nor a rural residence; therefore, it presents design challenges that are different from the others. A rural residence is basically nothing more than...
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A Beginner’s Guide to the Best Goats for Milk
There are many good reasons for raising dairy goats, and this article is the best place to start for more information about the best goats for milk. Maybe your children are looking for a 4-H project....
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A Comprehensive Guide to Rooster Spurs
We think about rooster spurs from the moment we get baby chicks. It’s not unusual to watch our unsexed chicks as they grow and see if chicken spurs develop. Although spurs are not an accurate indicator...
View ArticleA Guide to Eye Problems and Eye Infections in Goats
By Cheryl K. Smith The most important part of owning goats is keeping them healthy, and the best way to do this is is to examine them regularly and act fast when you see a problem developing. Look at...
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How to Crochet a Scarf
When you know how to crochet a scarf you have the foundation of skills needed to create blankets and clothing from yarn. Learning how to crochet a scarf or knit or weave increases our personal...
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4 Chicken Runs and Coops Built From Recycled Materials
Have you ever wanted to build a chicken run and coop for your backyard chickens, but had no idea where to start? Take a look at these four inspiring chicken coop projects from chicken keepers around...
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Straw Bale Gardening Instructions and How It Works
I didn’t believe it. Though straw bale gardening instructions sat before me, I was skeptical. I compost. Plant in the ground. Nourish my soil with probiotics. Nobody could convince me it worked until I...
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How to Start a Honey Bee Farm
This year we started our honey bee farming project. I wanted to do this for the last couple of years but for one reason or another, it didn’t work out until this spring. Now we have happy honey bees...
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All About Ankole Watusi Cattle
By Klaire Bruce, Missouri – Ankole Watusi are known as the “Cattle of Kings.” Their unmistakably large horns can spear a lion. The tribes of Africa that rely on them for survival call them sacred. They...
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Raising Elk Provides Something For Everyone
Travis Lowe’s family has been a member of the North American Elk Breeders Association since 1991. Lowe, the executive director for the past two years, says that raising elk provides something for...
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How to Raise Ducks in Your Backyard
By Dave Holderread – If you want an economical and steady supply of homegrown eggs that are nutritious and tasty, you’ll need a flock of backyard chickens, right? Well, not necessarily. You might want...
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Can Chickens and Ducks Live Together?
“Can chickens and ducks live together?” is one of the most common questions I get from readers. Since I’ve been raising my chickens and ducks in the same coop and run for years, my answer is always...
View ArticlePoultry Talk – Late Summer E-Edition 2017
Gardening with Chicken Manure Fresh chicken manure in the garden – let me know if I’ve come up with a technique that is ok, or please warn me if I’m doing something crazy. I double dig vegetable beds...
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Chicken Feather and Skin Development
By Doug Ottinger, Minnesota — Feathers are a very complex part of the bird. While they will eventually stop growing and fall off of the bird (only to be replaced by a new, growing feather), they start...
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Black Australorp Breed Profile
The Black Australorp is one of the heritage chicken breeds we choose to keep. I have found heritage chicken breeds to be hardier than standard breeds. It’s our desire to help preserve them for future...
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Your Guide to Farm Pond Design
By Crow Miller – You can create an effective farm pond design, whether you live on a few acres or 500. The water from a small stream is sufficient. A fraction of the flow from a large stream or river...
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Tips For The Beginner Welder
A beginner welder has a lot to learn, but don’t let it intimidate you by any means. Welding is a useful skill that can save you lots of money and could even open up employment options you wouldn’t have...
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Synergy for The Most Profitable Farming
By Ken Johnson Waupaca, Wisconsin These days, the most profitable farming involves a synergy of economics, land use, and understanding livestock. Maybe there is a gene in us that tells us there is...
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