The Right Stuff

Having the right stuff - tools, animals, seeds, soil, etc... is the key to successfully running a self-sufficient homestead.

Animals were domesticated for a reason, and each animal had its own particular reason.

Ducks, and chickens, and guinea fowl are all birds - and that is about all that they have in common when it comes to what they bring to your farm.

Guinea hens are not really domesticated.  They will set up shop on your farm, but if you make it uncomfortable for them AT ALL, they will move on.  Yes, you can eat them and their eggs, but chickens were bred for that purpose and accomplish it with less work.  No, Guinea fowl are for bug control.  

When we moved in here we had a monster bug problem. You could not walk in the barn without dozens of fleas jumping you, we had to search one another nightly looking for ticks, and I was even bitten by a brown recluse spider - which made me sick for several weeks.  Now we have a half dozen Guineas roaming the barn and environs - and here it is mid-May, prime tick season (especially with the wet weather we have had) - and not only have we not seen a single tick, our DOG has not seen one either (we used to pick several off of her per day, and that was WITH Frontline).

We have a breeding pair of Muscovy ducks.  The hen is setting on a dozen or so eggs, so only the Drake has been working the place for the past 3 weeks, but we have been told that they are the answer to the slugs - the bane of our garden - and we have not seen a one.

Don't get me wrong, chickens are pretty good bug hunters... but we would have chickens no matter what... and chickens also eat the vegetables while on the vine, like having a fox watch the hen house.  We have the guineas only for bug control.  I have had duck at restaurants in the past and enjoyed it - but I would not raise duck for this purpose alone.  But if they are going to keep bugs from destroying the garden - they will have a home here.

We are entirely organic - no pesticides, no herbicides, no chemical fertilizers.  If "no pesticides" means you gotta have fowl on the property, "no herbicides" means you gotta have goats, and no "chemical fertilizers" means you are going to use manure.  That is, a kitchen compost pile just ain't gonna cut it.

If you have horses or cows - we have both - these guys are "grazers", and that means they eat grass... giving a competitive edge to broad leaf weeds in your pastures.  A couple of years of this, and absent the herbicide D 2,4, your pastures will be NOTHING but weeds.  This is where goats come in.  You need 2 acres of pasture per full sized head of cattle, but if in addition to the 1 head per 2 acres you add 2 goats, meaning a 10 acre spread will support 5 head of cattle and 10 goats comfortably (you will need to supplement hay in winter months), and the goats will level the playing field, so to speak, between the weeds and the grass.  Not that the goats don't eat some grass, too, they do, but they will lay into your broad leaf weeds with gusto, allowing grass to grow in its place.

By the way... for a small homestead I recommend miniature cattle. They aren't really miniature - the cows weigh 700-900 lbs and the bulls about 1,000 lbs - but they are about half the weight of most cattle.  Many of the miniatures are being bred to be "dual purpose" - milk & meat.  Yes, you could milk ANY cow, but those bred for dairy are far more productive for milk than beef, and vice a versa for the beef breeds.

A little fun fact to know... Today's miniature cattle are the same size as the cattle were in the American West in the 19th century.  Over the past 125 years we have bred them into the behemoths that populate American farm's today.  

Miniature cattle gain more weight and produce more milk per pound of feed consumed, and do not destroy your pasture the way the full sized cattle does.

Goats are also excellent dairy animals.  A 90 lbs goat can give you a 1/2, and some a full, gallon of milk per day.  They are easy to handle, and won't break your foot if they step on it.

Driving 1o miles each way to the Farmer's Co-op or Home Depot or Tractor Supply for an O-ring, or a screw, or some other piece of hardware is not really an option.  You need to have a working idea of what you are likely to need in the future, in terms of maintenance and repair as well a equipment and facilities.  Knowing this requires several years of experience running your place. Knowing how to use the tools and gaining the skills to use them properly is also a time consuming affair.

I am working on learning how to use hand tools for fine carpentry and will include pictures of my projects when they are worth looking at.  Right now, I am practicing hand dove tailing, hand planing, etc... with rough cut lumber.

Back soon,

Greg