Planning a year's supply of food for each member of your family can seem a daunting task. Want to grow a large garden, have an orchard and vineyard, grow your own crops, and produce your own oil and sugar? How much meat, vegetables, fruit, sugar, oil, flour do we each consume per year? What if …
Category: Poultry
Food Independence on a 1930s Farm
A young man and his family relished the seasonal bounty of their garden and orchard, especially the green chili chow-chow they made each fall. By Harold Oliver, as told to Peter Kohler We braided onions and hung them to dry in the cellar. ROBERT SHETTERLY This account was told to me by my former neighbor, Harold Oliver, …
Mother Hen
A good mother hen is worth her weight in grain; double, triple... decuple (that's 10x) her weight in grain. Her skill-set is invaluable to your homestead. In poultry, hens can be great mothers or just okay mothers or not want anything to do with these highly active, presumably annoying hatchlings. We have a chicken hen …
Buttercup the Chicken
Our homestead experienced the ending of an age; the age of Buttercup the chicken. I love my birds and all the other animals that grace our farm. But Buttercup…. She was a special gal. I teared up at her passing… I found her yesterday hiding under a nest box. I pulled her out and immediately …
Hatching Your Own Chicks
[ reposted from my Cappers Farmer blog: http://www.cappersfarmer.com/blogs/falcos-poultry.aspx ] Hatching out your own chicks using an incubator can initially seem to be a daunting task. My preference is to allow hens to hatch their own chicks, but you may want to use an incubator until you have a few great broody hens willing to do …
Your Baby Ducklings Have Arrived! Now what…
[Repost from my blog on Capper Farmer: http://www.cappersfarmer.com/farm-and-home/poultry/your-baby-ducklings-and-goslings-have-arrived-now-what.aspx ] Ducklings & Gosling from Hatchery Baby ducks and geese are a joy to raise; at least for the first three days. Raising ducklings from the hatchery is a messy business indeed from day four through day twenty-eight. In my experience, ducklings and goslings are more fragile …
Continue reading Your Baby Ducklings Have Arrived! Now what…
Forest Permaculture
Forest Permaculture is an integrated three dimensional design of permanent agricultural layers combining tall trees, small trees and shrubs, vines, perennial and self-seeding ground covers, and livestock to sustainability and permanently provide nutrients. Okay, that sounds so serious and professional. Permaculture is a method of farming management where the environment provides food for your livestock. …
Why You Should Raise Chickens for Eggs?
Nutritionally Superior to Grocery Store Eggs 1/3 less cholesterol • 1/4 less saturated fat • 2/3 more vitamin A • 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids • 3 times more vitamin E • 7 times more beta carotene Benefits Eggs from well-tended backyard chickens are healthier Eggs from backyard chickens are tastier Chicken droppings enrich …
What Eggs-actly Do You Know About Eggs?
[Repost from my Capper Farmer blog: http://www.cappersfarmer.com/blogs/falcos-poultry.aspx%5D What really do you know about eggs other than they make a delicious breakfast? Well, Falco's Heritage Farm and Capper's Farmer are here to answer all your egg-related questions! Production of an egg typically takes about 11 ½ days. Typically, enough hormone is released to develop only one …
Livestock First Aid Kit
1. Colloidal Silver (spray & drops/liquid – an antibiotic) 2. Organic Apple Cider Vinegar with Mother 3. Castile Soap 4. Saline Solution 5. Vet Wrap 6. Neem Oil (natural, safe insecticide for ticks, mosquitoes, mites, fleas, fungus etc., antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal) 7. Calcium Gloconate (egg bound, birthing trouble treatment) 8. Nail Clippers 9. Nitrile …
How to Provide 