How to Deal with Cold Weather on the Homestead When the weather outside is frightful and the fire inside is delightful, it’s tempting to stay warm rather than attend to your outdoor chores. Although some outside work can wait for warmer days or can be done before the snow flies,…
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How to Get Eggs All Winter from Laying Hens
How to Get Eggs from Your Laying Hens All Winter With proper conditions, your hens are capable of laying eggs in the winter. There are a few things to take into consideration if you would like fresh eggs year-round. Chickens, like most birds, normally would not lay eggs all…
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How to Raise the Best Turkeys
How to Raise the Best Turkeys Have you ever wondered what it would be like to raise turkeys on your homestead? Maybe you’ve heard that these birds are so stupid that they will drown in the rain or that they are very difficult to raise. Not true! They aren’t difficult…
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Butcher Day with My Dad and Mom
For instructions on processing your birds, check out my post How to Butcher a Chicken. A Helping Hand My husband, son, and I live 600 miles from my parents. We visit them in New York every summer and they visit us in Illinois at least once a year,…
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How to Start a Chicken Co-op
For more information on processing chickens, check out my post How to Butcher a Chicken. What is a Chicken Co-op? A co-op is a group that works together to achieve a common goal. A chicken co-op is a group that either pools their buying power to receive better prices for…
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‘One Too Many’ Pumpkins
Check out my post on Heirloom Pumpkins! ‘One Too Many’ Pumpkins I can never have too many pumpkins in my garden. I love all of the different varieties, colors and shapes of pumpkins one can find in the garden catalogs each spring. Of course, I want to try every kind…
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Can You Keep Cornish X Chickens as Laying Hens?
Cornish X Chickens for Eggs? Cornish X chickens have been hybridized for fast growth and economical meat production, making them unsuitable for keeping as pets or laying hens. They usually grow so big, so fast that their legs and hearts are unable to withstand their bulky size. Normally it isn’t…
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How to Cull Your Old Laying Hens
For detailed instructions, check out my article How to Butcher a Chicken. When to Cull Laying Hens It can be difficult to decide when to cull your older laying hens. Some people like to keep their hens for a few years before culling them from the flock. Other people choose…
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Pre-mixed Chicken Feed vs Mix Your Own
Organic Chicken Feed – An Experiment in Mixing My Own Not too long ago I shared a couple of posts about switching to organic chicken feed and saving money by mixing your own organic chicken feed. When I purchased Nature’s Grown Organic Layer Feed from our local feed store, I…
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Can You Save Seeds from Hybrid Plants?
Saving Seed from Hybrid Plants There is quite a bit of misinformation out there about saving seeds. Again and again I read the pronouncements online that you can’t save seed from hybrid plants. This simply is not true. You can save seed from hybrid plants or from plants that…
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How to Forage for and Use Wild Apples
Can You Forage for and Use Wild Apples? Have you ever seen an abandoned apple tree with fruit and wondered if they are edible? The short answer is yes, they should be safe to eat. I’ve been using wild apples as a food source since I was a kid and…
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Making Applesauce from Wild Apples
How to Make Applesauce with Wild Apples If you have an abundance of wild apples available, check out my post How to Use Wild Apples for more ideas on how to use them. I’ve been busy for the last few days turning a feed bag full of wild apples into…
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How to Butcher a Duck with Complete Instructions
Step by step instructions show you how to butcher a duck. Preparation to plucking - a detailed description with photos to walk you through the process.
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Losing Power in the Barn and Brooder
Barn/ Garage/ Chicken Coop Our ‘barn’ is actually a garage and chicken coop all rolled into one. We keep our lawn mowers, shovels, rakes, and implements of destruction, some hand tools, tarps, chicken feed, hay, and our poultry all in the same building. It’s not an ideal situation, but…
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Atomic Red Carrot
Atomic Red Carrot from Mary’s Heirloom Seeds This post contains affiliate links or advertisements. You won’t pay extra but I may earn a small commission if you purchase products through those links. Thank you for supporting The Self Sufficient HomeAcre! I received free packets of seeds to review. All opinions…
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Are Hatcheries Humane?
Raising Humanely Treated Poultry One of the main reasons I started raising my own poultry for meat and eggs is because I care about the humane treatment of animals. It may seem strange to hear that, as an animal lover, I raise and butcher my own birds. It isn’t an…