If you live in an area with harsh winters, keeping your chickens happy year round can be a challenge. Being prepared for winter weather will help your flock stay healthy & warm all winter long. Check out my top 7 tips for keeping your chickens happy this winter! Winterize your coop & run Right around …
This is one of my favorite recipes from childhood, and the very first thing I canned once I learned how! It’s still the one thing I have to can every year. The bright summery taste of fresh peaches and fresh pears is amazing on toast, bagels, or biscuits on a snowy January morning (and all …
When we bought our house, one of the things that we loved was the beautiful antique New England barn. The 13 modular stalls over the years have housed a large variety of animals from horses to pigs to chickens to llamas and goats. But you don’t need a massive barn to build your own bunny …
Anytime you can practice gardening without harmful chemicals and synthetic fertilizers your garden will thank you for it. The most successful gardens are the ones that follow the cues of nature rather than trying to fight against it. Once you start to introduce non-natural elements you often times end up struggling in other areas (like …
I get a lot of questions every day about raising ducks. One of the most frequent duck topics I hear about has to do with dealing with drakes and their behavior. Many of those questions concern mating issues – so I’ll try to keep this post as PG as possible, but fair warning – ducks …
It is an unfortunate fact of life that if you keep animals in your backyard you are going to attract rodents. It doesn’t mean your farm is dirty or that you are messy, rodents are just everywhere and if you provide things like shelter, food, & water they are going to gratefully accept your hospitality. …
You got your first fluffy chicks or ducklings – congratulations! While those fuzzy little ones are busy growing and you are daydreaming about all the fresh eggs that will be coming your way soon, it’s the perfect time to build some cozy nests for all those eggs. Your birds will instinctively seek out a comfortable, …
The best time to start a backyard orchard is a couple years ago. But since we don’t have time travel, let’s say the best time to start is today! Most fruit trees will take a couple years to get established and start producing fruit. It can be a few years beyond that before they are …
This simple question has dozens of answers. When a mother chicken hatches out her brood, she will usually take her chicks out for their first adventure in the new world by day 2. Clearly, chicks can handle being outside right from the beginning. But that mother hen is a portable source of heat & security …
During WWI and WWII Americans (and residents of many other countries) banded together to help supplement the food supply chain amid food rationing and shortages among agricultural workers. During WWII, 1/3 of the vegetables produced in America came from the over 18 million Victory Gardens. Growing a Victory Garden not only helped to feed your …
