It was 9:00 on a frigid Saturday night in mid-January. The sun had long since passed across the horizon and it was pitch dark outside.…
It’s autumn and Romeo smells like he just peed all over himself... which he has... for the umpteenth time. The usually-white hair of his black-and-white…
The iconic image of a mother hen, clucking gently to a clutch of adorable chicks, following her all around. This is the stuff of homesteading…
The first livestock most new homesteaders bring home to the farm are chickens—and rightly so. Here's how to start raising chickens from scratch. They’re small, relatively…
Lately, I've been watching some of the goings-on as a handful of people have been setting themselves up to live in the country, many for…
Mail order chicks are a great way to start a new flock on your homestead. However, if you have fertile eggs available, why not hatch…
When I moved to this two-acre croft in Iowa, just outside Iowa City, I was pleased to become part of the management of a flock…
Five years ago, my husband and I designed and built our backyard chicken coop. The design was based on photos of a friend's chicken coop and…
It’s late March, and a red fox has been hanging around for the last couple of weeks. That’s a long time for a predator that…
I have learned to accept the gentle smiles and assumptions of others when the subject of chickens is mentioned. It is always assumed that there…
Building a chicken coop, especially from scratch, can be exhilarating and exhausting, fun and frustrating. After all, a good chicken coop is one of the…
Preparing the Homestead for Winter, Part One: The Buildings Preparing the Homestead for Winter, Part Two: The Machinery There’s a passage in the good book…