Hey you guys! (Ghoonies) A lot of you are keeping up with my twitter account, I’m trying to cram it full with content from my day to day on the farm. I’ve always wanted to have a venue to post my everyday struggles with the world and it’s really awesome you guys seem to enjoy it. Just bear with me because some of the stuff is raw, and some of my posts aren’t very organized, i’ll get there one day… maybe.
So here is the third issue of the Natural Life, it’s been really fun putting down my thoughts for people to read. Thanks for your support and feedback, please keep it coming.
Today I want to rewind, because I realized the other day I never really went over in detail what all we are doing here on the place.
We believe if you start something for fun and you enjoy it, the money will follow. It’s really hard not to try to force things on the farm. I’ve learned you have to be patient and look at everything as a learning experience. Slowly everything is coming together and in a few years I believe it’s going to pop! It’s eerily similar to crypto world, there is so much to learn but if you take it slow and learn as much as you can, it’s all going to work out. WAGMI
Here is a list of all of the things we are working on here that have been developed over the past 6 years to help us become more self suffecient.
(4) Lamancha Dairy Goats
(4) Hives of Italian Queen Bees
(2) Great Pyrenees - Working Livestock Guardian Dogs
(20Ish?) Laying Hens
Large Backyard Garden
Variety of fruit trees and shrubs
Miss Farmer makes handcrafted soap, lib balm, and other beauty supplies from the goat milk, honey, and wax.
Fresh Jelly, Jams, Preserves, and vegetable canning, like jalapeno peppers and pickles.
Food plots and tree stands for hunting whitetail deer
Pine Tree Timber Farm
Here is a list of projects we want to get started in the next few years:
Hay Equipment to bale our own hay
Finish fencing in the pastures on the adjacent land
Dig a pond for livestock and food source (fish)
Build up a large herd of meat goats (Kiko)
Expand bee hives
Pine Straw baling equipment
Great Pyrenees kennel/breeding
Blueberry Farm
Tree Nursery
Hot Pepper Farm
Worm/Vermicompost Farm
Here is a little background of how we got started:
Goats:
The first thing we did when we moved out here and got settled was fence in a small area. It was the first fence I’ve ever built and it’s actually still holding strong after 6 years. This allowed us to get a few Nigerian Goats. These goats are smaller and they are so funny, the boys are constantly fighting. We learned so much about goats with this small starter heard, that’s the main advice I have for anyone starting out, start small! The good things about these smaller goats is they are tough, they don’t get sick very much, breed young and often (which allows you to grow a herd quicker, more $), and they are just a lot of fun.
I built this small house for them, and they never complained about how it looked! The bad thing(s) about these goats is they are skiddish and won’t let you pet them, the boys stink really bad, and they can be aggressive toward kids. We ended up selling these goats and moved up to Lamancha dairy goats because they produce milk, they resell for a little more money, and Miss Farmer wanted them. As you can see from the list above, we only have 4 goats right now. Lamanchas only breed once a year and they seem to be somewhat hard to get pregnant, we’ve gone 2 years without having any kids, so if your trying to raise a herd, which I am, you want to pick a goat that breeds more than once a year. They say in order to cover the costs of raising goats, you need at least 20-30 goats. We are thinking about switching to Kiko Meat goats which breed more, hardy and less susceptible to parasites, and bring more at the meat market.
Chickens:
The next thing we got was a small chicken coop from tractor supply. I have to start out by saying chickens are probably the easiest animal we own. They put themselves up at night, they eat anything, and they don’t run off. The only problem you will run into with chickens is predators. Unless you keep them in the coop at all times, they will be susceptible to getting eaten by predators. Keeping a dog close by the chickens outside at all times will help tremendously. There are also traps you can buy that are pretty easy to set up that will catch the predators. Let me know if you are interested in learning about trapping, I’ll write up some stuff on it.
We started out buying several chicks and a few baby ducks… DONT GET DUCKS! They are super cute but they are bad, they grow way bigger than the chicks and step on them, they make a huge mess, and they eat all the food. We got rid of the ducks. When you buy chicks if you want to end up with 3 laying hens, then buy 6 chicks because they are hard to keep alive. I suggest just skipping the chicks and buying adult hens, that way you know you’re getting a hen and raising chicks is a lot of work. It takes 6 months or longer to start getting eggs. Buying chicks usually means you don’t know if you’re getting a rooster or a hen unless the chicks are sexed. It’s very disappointing to raise a chick for a few months and find out it’s a rooster. There are what seems like thousands of different breeds, I would suggest buying several different breeds so you can see which one you like. Here is the coop we got, we still have it now so it has lasted 5 years. I put boards on the bottom with wheels so I can roll it around. Its a perfect starter coop and you could raise 6-8 chickens in here with no problems.
After a while the chickens started filling up the small coup and the goats needed a place to get out of the rain. So I built a shed with a roof on one side of the fence for the goats and a roof in the other side of the fence for the chickens. This allowed us to get more chickens and now we always have plenty of eggs to sell or eat. Luckily this was back when lumber was cheap. The goat in the picture below was named slugger because his tail was slimey looking like a slug lol! If anybody needs some rough sketches of what I’ve built just let me know I can help. I can show you how I built most of the stuff I’m talking about too.
Next time, we’ll continue talking about the other ventures we’ve had here and any new plans we want to start. I’ll probably start to cover the layout of your farm and what to look out for with your set up.
I could talk your ear off, but I’ll holler at ya’ll later.
This is fantastic information! I'm living vicariously through you! I have a friend and she and her husband have 20 -30 goats like you said. I believe they are fainting goats. Super cute! Also, my parents had chickens at one point. (we found them a better home) Your coop is so much cleaner and nicer than theirs was. Theirs got full of mud. Excited to read more about your farm life experiences and knowledge.