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The biggest mistake I see beginners make when starting their homesteading journey is biting off more than they can chew. Don’t get me wrong, I know how exciting it is and all the things you want to do. But just breath one minute with me.
Start slow. That doesn’t mean only one thing per year, but one or two things at a time. The problem when you start a huge garden, get the chickens, milking goat, sheep, pig, and maybe a calf is you are easily overwhelmed and can get lost. When this happens, you don’t do anything well.
Start with a garden of manageable size, but have space planned to expand. Start with common veggies and herbs your family uses. Plan for growing for your own consumption and some canning. Maybe not a full year’s worth, but a start. Once you feel like you have a good handle on those plants, add more.
Start with one animal. Especially if you don’t have much previous animal experience. Barn cats and a dog is easy and universal care, as far as town vs country care. Chickens/ducks are also fairly easy as far as care and learning goes. Once you feel comfortable with the first animal, then add the next. That can be a couple months after the first animal.
Animals are one that is easy to add multiple per year, depending on the kind and how much self-repopulating you want to do. Birds have a short cycle from birth to reproduction, thus easy to start with. Goats is another popular homesteading animal as they can provide milk, and meat. They do require more care and much better fence. But are easy to add into a homestead.
The biggest take away is don’t get everything right away. Space it out, allowing yourself to adjust to the increase in chores and care. Giving yourself time to learn about each. This will help you to avoid burn out.
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When looking through the Encyclopedia of Country Living, I found guidelines for making your own chick feed. I decided to try my hand at making my own feed since we have an old grain grinder in the garage. The basics to a chick diet are finely ground corn, oats, and wheat, a protein source, and greens. Their diet needs to be 20% protein. Protein can come from fish meal, meat meal, small portion of canned cat food, chopped hard-boiled or scrambled eggs, clabbered milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, or bugs, or a combination of. The more variety the better. Greens, such as alfalfa meal or leaves, clover lettuce, dandelion, cress, chives, grass, spinach, finely chopped weeds, supply many of their vitamins like Vitamin A. Young chicks need ground eggshells or oyster shells for calcium, unless there is another source of calcium. Chicks can become picky about what they eat so keep it changing if you can.
Basics: 2 parts grain, 1 part protein, 1 part greens.
I picked up a bag of oats when we picked out the chicks. We had plenty of corn for the cows, and we had left over milk replacer from calves and lambs. For the first batch, I chose the milk replacer to fill the calcium and vitamin source. There weren't a whole bunch of chicks the first time, so I wanted something easy. I ground the oats and corn as fine as I could. I ground in large batches and measured out what I needed. I then did 2 parts grain to 1 part milk replacer. I would then bring in some weeds and shred them into the feed tray. As soon as the days were warm enough and the chicks moving good, I opened the chick door to the outdoor pen. I also started only refilling their feed at night to train them to come in at dusk.
As the chicks became about a month old, I coarsely ground the grain, and mixed in fine ground eggshells for calcium, reducing the milk replacer to ½ part. They were also out eating bugs and weeds at that point, so I did not feed as much protein.
Around a month and a half I started giving them the scraps of fruit and veggies the kids didn’t finish, or left over peels from the kitchen. They also come to the call of “here Chick-Chick” because food is usually coming! As they grow into layers I will continue with about the same ration. They will be free ranging most of the day, so the grain is mostly a treat to get them to come in at night and lay eggs in the coop.
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Now where to get the chicks? I talked to another friend and they got their chicks from Cackle Hatchery. They shipped to you as well! I looked it up, at this point I was back to I don’t really know what I want for the price I could afford. She recommended a Surprise Box, if you’re not picky about what you want. Remember my primary goal? Bug control. As long as they were eating bugs, the eggs are a side bonus. She was also willing to let me buy some of her guinea chicks she was getting at the end of June.
I hopped on the sight and found the earliest I could get a Surprise Box was JULY! I finally had my coop, I didn’t want to wait until June/July to fill it. So I got 10 chicken chicks from Orschlens to start and experiment with on May 22nd. The kids enjoyed picking them out and I can barely keep my daughter out of the coop.
We lost one of the little chicks at the end of May, and we had a dog mishap middle of June, all others look healthy and are eating quite well. They have some of their adult feathers, are enjoying their outside pen and eating kitchen scraps. The dogs are the next question as the older one is obsessive over the chickens.
The guineas should be arriving next week. The chicks will be in the pen by then, and possibly starting into the yard. The Surprise Box will arrive at the end of July and the guineas should be transitioning to the pen by then, and the chickens in the yard. I’m excited for the staggering of the chicks coming in to give me a chance to figure it out. Stay tuned for updates!
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Early this year I had this crazy idea to get birds to help with bug control around our house. The fly predators help with the stable flies, but none of the other bugs. I shared the idea with my husband and he was very supportive, telling me to figure out what birds I wanted. After researching I found the best bug control to be guineas. And a bonus they are low maintenance. That was my kind of bird! Low maintenance, bug control, and a side bonus of eggs! The next step was figuring out what they needed and how to care for them.
Turns out guineas like to nest on the ground, feeling hidden, and don’t want their eggs found (don’t let them see you take them). I know we have predator issues, but as long as the birds stay in the yard (once the dogs are trained to them) predators should be minimal. I still plan on locking them up at night in a coop.
I also liked the idea of having ducks. But after consulting with friends, I discovered they were messy and I’m not sure I want to deal with that. So I decided I’d get a couple and see. If I can’t stand the mess, I would just not hatch any of the eggs. My dad gave me an awesome resource for Christmas this year. The Homestead Encyclopedia is loaded with everything from gardening to birds, to processing, and preserving. It even had recipes for making your own chick food!
I designed a coop that could house multiple types of birds and have room to grow, in January. I tend to design buildings by how big can I make it, in the space available. Nothing is more frustrating than getting going and wishing you had more space. It was a 16’ X 16’ simple building, below. I ran the idea past my husband and he was on board. I then let everything sit for months while I waited for the building to start. I wasn’t going to get birds until I had a building.
In May I happened to be scrolling Facebook and saw a coop for sale. I ran the idea around my husband again. He loved it, especially since there was no post in the ground yet for the coop we were going to build. And it was at about the same cost of what we were looking at to build it, even if it was slightly smaller. We picked up the coop. My husband (bless him) replaced a few of the rotten floor joists and moved it into the tight space. I then started working on the fence, for the young chicks, made some repairs, and added the roosts and boxes. The small pen will give the dogs time to adjust to the chicks, and me a chance to train them to come in at night.
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