Animals Archives - Page 2 of 5

DIY: Building a Bigger Better Chicken Run

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We are just weeks (maybe a month) away from our move to our “new to us” farmhouse. We have been quite busy and we have failed miserably at keeping the progress updates flowing. We took a week off from work after Christmas with plans to get a lot accomplished at the new house. Although, we did stay very busy, the excessive rain we received delayed much of our moving and work outside. Although it was still wet Friday, it had dried up enough that we Jon was finally able to make some progress on the outside tasks. A big part of our move is of course moving our chickens which requires constructing a new chicken run.

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Animal Husbandry homestead Skills That Transfer To Survival Skills

Homestead Skills That Transfer Over To Survival Skills

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If you are lucky enough to live on a homestead, there’s no doubt you’ve probably learned some very impressive skills. Homestead life can be tough, it can be challenging, but it can also be highly rewarding, especially when the skills that you’ve learned can be put to good use elsewhere.

It’s interesting to note that there are a lot of homestead skills that can be transferred over to survival skills. This means that if you fancy becoming a bit of a prepper, you should already have a lot of skills and knowledge that will help you to get through a survival situation.
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Easter Egger Mama Hen With New Baby Chicks 1 Day Old

Bertha Our Broody Hen with Her New Baby Chicks

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There has been so much going on that we have been giving many updates these days. Things are all good, but there has jut not been any time to “blog” about what we have been up to. Even this post is a little late, but better late than never. Since we started keeping chickens we had longed for the day that one of our hens would go broody and hatch out her own baby chicks. Several times we even left some eggs to encourage this to take place. It seemed our girls refused to brood just to spite us. So we’ve tried our hand at incubating a few times as well as continuing to buy baby chicks. But alas, Bertha, one of our Easter Egger hens, decided to brood. Continue reading “Bertha Our Broody Hen with Her New Baby Chicks” →

Clarifying Chicken and Egg Labels and Terms

Understanding Egg Terminology

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Organic, All Natural, Free Range, Cageless….What do all of these egg labels mean?

It can be confusing. Most of the confusion is by design. The big companies want you to believe their product is better than it really is. Sorting through all this misinformation can be daunting, but we are here to pass on what we have found in our research about what all of these things mean. Continue reading “Understanding Egg Terminology” →

Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs Chicken - Feed

Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 4 – Feed

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So you are wondering what to feed your chickens? There are a lot of options and misconceptions about chicken feed. Organic, medicated, vegetarian, all natural, scratch and cracked corn just to name a few. I will try to clear up some of the confusion by passing along what I have learned over the years we have been chicken owners.

In order to sort through all of the confusion, first lets start by clearing up industry standard terms (adding some of my own commentary on each).
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Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 3 – The Coop

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Your chickens have grown and thrived in the brooder and it is time for them to go out to their permanent home. By this point they have gotten too big for the brooder box, your spouse is tired of the smell and constant dust from all the flapping, and luckily they can tolerate the outside temps. So its time to move your chickens outside. Continue reading “Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 3 – The Coop” →

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Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 2 – The Brooder

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Before your baby chicks arrive, you need a brooder for them. The brooder is simply a box or blocked off area that will house the baby chicks for the first several weeks of their life. It can be something more permanent if you think you will reuse it often, but if you don’t plan on getting more baby chicks in the near future, a cardboard box works wonderfully.
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Getting Baby Chicks - Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs

Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 1 – Getting Baby Chicks

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Raising backyard chickens to gather your own healthy eggs is rewarding and rather easy. As long as you have a few basics taken care of, the chickens will do the rest. You don’t need to be an expert, and there’s no reason to be afraid. Take care of these basics and you will be gathering healthy, antibiotic and growth hormone free, pastured chicken eggs in no time. Continue reading “Raising Backyard Chickens for Eggs. Part 1 – Getting Baby Chicks” →

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New Nigerian Dwarf Baby Goats

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We have been wanting goats for some time now. We did a lot of research on what breed we wanted for milking. Then there was the question of the age. Do we buy a doe already in milk, a pregnant doe, a doe that has been bread and possibly pregnant, or simply go with doelings and raise them until they are of age? Then there was the question of horns or no horns!

There was so much to consider. Based on our research and personal preferences, we were back and forth between Nubians and Nigerian Dwarfs. We liked the idea of having milk sooner than later, but those in milk or pregnant carried a higher price tag and babies are just so blame adorable! Finally we decided that either breed would be fine and we would simply base our decision on what we found available at a reasonable price in our area. We knew we wanted two because goats are herd animals and do so much better with a friend to keep them out of trouble. So, we decided any combination of two female goats of various maturity (doe or doelings) of the same breed (Nubian or Nigerian Dwarf) with no horns would be acceptable. We would see what we could find in our neck of the woods for a good price.

Finally, back in August we bought three baby Nigerian Dwarf Goats. From back left to front right, Brownie, Blueberry (being bashful), and Strawberry.

3 Month Old Nigerian Dwarf Doelings (Day We Brought Them Home)

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Pallet Chicken Coop | DIY Chicken Coop

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Our first chicken coop was functional, but left a lot to be desired. We learned a lot from our first little coop, and we put what we learned into our second, bigger pallet chicken coop. Things we learned from the first coop, make a coop big enough to walk in, roosters are big, need a bigger door, and always plan you coop to get even more chickens. Chickens are addictive, and you will always want more. With these things in mind, we worked on designing our next chicken coop.

The first step was to acquire some wooden pallets. Wood is getting more and more expensive. We wanted to do this as inexpensively as possible, as we are cheap. I got a truck load of free wooden pallets for our chicken coop by asking around. Continue reading “Pallet Chicken Coop | DIY Chicken Coop” →