For more than a dozen years every animal on the farm had a practical purpose for being here. For example, goats give milk and barn cats kill rodents. Many animals are multi-purpose. Heritage chickens give us meat and eggs. Shetland … Read More
by Linda Matthews You may have heard the loud chatter of guinea fowl or maybe you’ve seen the strange-looking, chicken-like creature with a tiny head and big body. Some people think that guineas are small turkeys, while others think they … Read More
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Did you know that the top five causes of mortality in chickens can be mostly prevented by management? That’s good news for those of us with chickens. At the Livestock Conservancy … Read More
One of the biggest challenges for anyone raising livestock is preventing predator attacks. This is true whether you have 300 head of sheep in Wyoming or 3 hens in Chicago. Predators are not simply big scary animals like lions and … Read More
I’ve been intrigued by the idea of gardening with chickens for a while so was excited to attend a presentation about this at The Livestock Conservancy conference by Jim Edrington. Though Jim has worked at The Seed Savers Exchange for … Read More
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. To continue “Chicken Week” on the blog, I wanted to write about Hatching & Brooding Your Own Chicks by Gail Damerow. I read this book last spring as part of a … Read More
Raising chickens, turkey, and other poultry to sell as meat is a little more complicated that just finding out what you can legally do in terms of slaughter. Liability is also an important consideration. Meat sold across state lines falls … Read More
“I think few things would be as gratifying as seeing neighborhoods all over the country run a chicken pen in their yard to mow it, fertilize it, and produce their own chickens. How exciting.” – Joel Salatin Pastured Poultry Profit$ … Read More
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Whether you are just getting started with chickens or have had them for awhile, Harvey Ussery’s The Small-Scale Poultry Flock provides an informative and entertaining read. I originally purchased the book … Read More
Thrifty Homesteader was created in 2012 after the publication of my second book, Ecothrifty. The name was coined by one of my followers because I said that I didn’t want anyone to think that they had to be rich to homestead or live a greener life....
