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How to Safely Use a Pressure Canner
Low-acid foods must be processed at a temperature that is hotter than boiling water. Compared to water bath canning or steam canning, which processes jars at 212ºF, a pressure canner processes at...
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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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Why and When Do Chickens Molt?
By Jen Pitino – Many people wonder when do chickens molt? Molting, the chicken pundits tell us, is supposed to happen in either spring or at the end of summer as we slip in to fall weather and shorter...
View ArticleWhat to Feed Chickens During the Molting Season
If you’ve been wondering when do chickens molt, then you should know you’ll see molting chickens throughout the year, but generally a full molt takes place in late summer or fall. During this time, you...
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Self-Watering Planters: DIY Containers to Combat Drought
What holds five gallons of soil, uses 80% less water and costs less than a dollar? Self-watering planters! DIY instructions are simple and most materials can be recycled. Finding the right place to...
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How to Start Raising Pigs on Pasture
The latest project here on our farm is raising pigs on pasture. In the last year and a half, seven litters of piglets have arrived, showed off how cute they can be, were weaned, and fed for a few weeks...
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Easy Soap Recipes for Beginners
A well-made, handcrafted bar of soap is a small luxury. But can you make soap without lye? And where do you find easy soap recipes for beginners and soap making resources? If you’ve compared...
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You Don’t Need a Rooster Rescue, Set Up a Bachelor Pad Instead
Unless you buy sexed day-old chicks, chances are you’ve got extra roosters this spring! Finding a rooster rescue can be difficult, especially during the spring when extra, unwanted roosters start to...
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Which Post Hole Digger Is Best For You?
Every homesteader has need of a post hole digger at some point, but not all post hole diggers are created equal. There are many ways to dig a post hole, but the best choice for you will likely depend...
View ArticleRaising Sheep: Buying and Caring for Your First Flock
By Marvin R. Gray – So you’ve moved to the country and have been thinking about raising sheep on your five or 10 acres. Perhaps you have only limited livestock experience, but raising sheep is...
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Muscovy Duck Breed Spotlight
By Dr. Dennis P. Smith – During the more than 40 years that we have been in business, I must confess that we have hatched and raised several duck breeds. However, absolutely none can compare with the...
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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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Quick Tips For Fixing Metal and Wooden Gates
By Heather Thomas Smith – Keeping metal and wooden gates in good repair can sometimes be a challenge, but is an important part of homesteading today. A sagging or broken gate can be a chore to open and...
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Selling Eggs in the Retail Market
Whether you are a backyard chicken keeper looking to expand your flock for selling eggs as a business or a total newbie to chickens hoping to create a livestock business, there are a lot of factors to...
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6 Uses For Your Watermelon Plant’s Bounty
The beginning of the summer is when you read about watermelon planting tips, but this is the time of year when you start to think: What do I do with all the fruits from my watermelon plant? If you are...
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Why Chicken Grower Feed is Good for Older Hens
Just because your chickens aren’t laying any longer doesn’t mean that they still aren’t hugely beneficial. It just means you may switch back to chicken grower feed and do things a little different....
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Giving Back to the Community – 4-H Style
By Mandi Becker Return on investment. Profits. Two terms that a college student in the Business field learn practically right off the bat. The thing is, both these terms mean things that the farmer or...
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The Many Uses of the Chicory Plant
It’s getting to be that time of year when wildflowers appear a-plenty along roadsides everywhere. As I drive along, I like seeing the colors appear and trying to figure out what all those plants are....
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Olandsk Dwarf Chicken: August Breed of the Month
Breed of the Month: Olandsk Dwarf chicken Origin: Öland, off the southeastern coast of Sweden. It’s the second largest island in Sweden. Descended from British garden hens. Standard Description: A...
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How to Raise Crickets for Food
My first exposure to edible crickets was innocent enough. We took our son to a local natural history museum for their bug festival, and one of their guest speakers had written several cookbooks about...
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How to Raise Edible Crickets
My first exposure to edible crickets was innocent enough. We took our son to a local natural history museum for their bug festival, and one of their guest speakers had written several cookbooks about...
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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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All About Ancona Ducks
Breed: Ancona duck Origin: The Ancona duck was developed in Great Britain during the early 20th century. It is similar to a Magpie duck and considered to be a descendant of the Indian Runner Duck and...
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Best Dairy Sheep Breeds for a Farm
There are a few dairy sheep breeds you could add to your farm. The East Friesian sheep is considered the best breed of dairy sheep by researchers. The milk yield per lactation ranges from 1000 to 1500...
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5 Homestead Fencing Mistakes to Avoid
No matter what project my husband and I decide to tackle, it nearly always comes down to the same thing: homestead fencing. Garden fencing to keep groundhogs and cottontails away from our vegetables....
View ArticleWays to Conserve Water in Agriculture
By Anita B. Stone There are many ways to conserve water in agriculture. If you farm or homestead, your success depends on it. The U.S. Geological Survey reports that farmers use 138.92 billion gallons...
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Chicken Chat — Late Summer e-edition
Chicken Chat! Q: What’s the weirdest question you’ve ever been asked about raising chickens? • Why do you need so many chickens? — AnnaMarie Seward • Are the brown eggs dirty? — Bonny...
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The Scoop on Using Prebiotics and Probiotics for Chickens
When chicken keepers get their birds, they often wonder what to feed chickens. It’s probably the first question most newcomers ask. They naturally concentrate on commercial feed rations, fresh water,...
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Raising Pekin Ducks
My husband and I decided to start raising Pekin ducks kind of on a whim. We were picking out the birds for our chicken flock and saw the ducklings on the hatchery’s site. Our farm has a lovely pond,...
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How to Repel Rats, Mice, Skunks and Other Interlopers
By Cheryl K. Smith – We’re not the only ones that want to spend our time indoors. Rats, mice, skunks and other furry interlopers are busy finding their way into houses across the country and setting up...
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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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Speckled Sussex Chicken: A Favorite Backyard Breed
I guess every chicken keeper has a favorite backyard chicken breed. While visiting our farm, a young homesteader asked me which of the breeds I currently have do I like the best. That was an easy...
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How Long Does it Take Tomatoes to Grow?
It’s fun to grow your own tomatoes. There’s pure joy in biting into a sun-ripened tomato that you grew yourself. And therein lies the question how long does it take tomatoes to grow? That depends upon...
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The Most Unique Chicken Breeds in the World
Featured in our early spring e-edition. Subscribe for more great stories like this! Every chicken breed has a unique set of attributes, but a few breeds have the distinction of being the only one of...
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Soap Making Techniques: Which is Right for You?
Soap making is an old art with a changing history. And it’s not all made the same way. Different ingredients, temperatures, and curing times come into play. If you want to learn how to make soap, first...
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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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Breeding Top Dairy Sheep for America
By Alan Harman – A generations-long trek from the romantic sun-baked mountains of northern Greece to the New World has led to a pioneering American dairy sheep business that is creating a new frontier...
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Pigeon Facts: An Introduction and History
Pigeons are remarkable for so many reasons. A true cosmopolitan, long after humans have left this Earth, only cockroaches, rats, and pigeons will remain. Humans and pigeons have been sharing living...
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The 6 Best Houseplants for Clean Air Indoors
We’re all aware of the rising health risks from indoor air pollution. It can be frightening and we may feel helpless to protect ourselves. I have great news. Botanists have a list of plants they...
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Starting a Dairy Goat Farming Business Plan
Adding a dairy goat farming business plan to your homestead goals takes careful thought and preparation. In addition to purchasing the necessary livestock, dairy goat supplies must be purchased and the...
View ArticleBrain Training for Happy Goats
By Tamsin Cooper Domestication has worked over the goat from its wild ancestor, the bezoar ibex, into the farmyard friend we know today. Selective breeding brings about obvious changes in size,...
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20 Easy Zucchini Recipes For Your Surplus
If you’re new to gardening, you’ve probably researched when to plant squash, how to grow zucchini and which zucchini varieties to choose, only to hear jokes about locking your car doors while at...
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Proper Fence Post Depth to Build Strong Fences
Fence post depth, size, and anchoring systems can make or break your fence line. Despite what some people believe, making a long-lasting fence is not always as simple as sinking a post in the ground...
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What Does Blood in Chicken Eggs Mean?
When you raise your own flock of backyard chickens long enough, you will likely encounter all kinds of odd eggs, including blood in chicken eggs. From tiny fairy (or wind) eggs to oversized eggs,...
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Chicken Fences: Chicken Wire Vs. Hardware Cloth
If it’s called chicken wire, it must be for chickens, right? Chicken wire is widely recognized as the hexagon shaped welded wire, commonly used on farms for various fencing needs, including for...
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Controlling Japanese Beetles with Chickens
By Gene Krebs, Ohio – Need an idea for controlling Japanese beetles? Got backyard chickens? For the vast majority of us, our strengths are also our weaknesses. The key to success in life is to...
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Raising Piglets – Off to a Successful Start
Your first time raising piglets is about to start. The sow you cared for is ready to farrow. When the sow begins to ready for farrowing pigs, she will stay more to herself. This is an early sign that...
View ArticleExtract Natural Dye for Wool from Goldenrod Plants
By Christine Lundsten McKahan – Five years ago, as my husband and I wandered around our two acres of newly purchased homesteading land, surrounded by rolling hills, grazing Holsteins and Wisconsin...
View ArticleThe Shocking Truth About Electric Fencing for Sheep
By John Kirchhoff – People have mixed feelings about the use of electric fencing for sheep and other livestock. For people unfamiliar with them, the word “electric fence” conjures up images of a...
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Protein-Packed Smoothies for Molting Chickens
The shorter days heading into fall will usually find the backyard chicken keeper with a flock of molting chickens. Less daylight signals your chicken’s bodies that it’s time to molt, that is, to drop...
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