Self Sufficiency - Small Steps

[Tororider]

2012 Year in Review - Update

Wow, this older thread popped back up and I realized how I had almost forgotten about. Time for an update or two.

Since I last posted, 6 acres became available a mile up the road. Two acres of hardwoods, and across the road, two acres of over grown Christmas tree stock and two acres of gorgeous pasture land. Long story short, we jumped on them. Both pieces were being sold in a "panic" sale, but there is only so cheap that land comes.

<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=289923"/>

We had the propane company come pick up the 400 gallon pig out of the yard. We've installed a wood stove as our primary heat source, and it has warmed us much better. We spent perhaps a week's total time cutting and stacking fire wood this year and we've an abundant supply of oak and ash. Since they were standing dead or downed trees, the wood is superb. Just another small step in the self sufficient lifestyle.

<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=289927"/>

The chicken flock grows as well as the egg biz. I've expanded into some heritage birds with the nation's very best blood lines. I've got a rather long waiting list of folks wanting to buy offspring next year.

<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=289926"/><img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=289928"/>

We keep expanding the gardens and sales have been better each year. We put up more food than ever before, all we can possibly eat, but the freaky weather last spring wiped out the state's fruit crops. No cherries, no peaches, no apples. Really a bummer on that score.

Also got the driven well, with manual pitcher pump in this year. The water is pure, cold and plentiful. Grateful to have finished that project.

<img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=289924"/>

So, I guess on this Thanksgiving Day, I pause and give thanks for a great year. We survived the bizarre spring heat, followed by killing frost, followed by the worst heat and drought in memory. Still? Through hard work and endurance, you make it through. LOL. Thankful to live here. Thankful each and every day.

I have to say, your birds are beautiful. The barring is so crisp. When I get some property I may be calling looking for hatching eggs.

 

[Redneck in training]

eWhen we spent summer on our lake house we used to buy milk and eggs from people in the near village. One time we had visitors from the city and told them about the difference between the eggs from free range chicken versus the chicken from concentration camp. Before the friends left we gave them about a dozen of eggs to take home. Some time later my wife asked them how they liked the eggs. After some silence the friend said: I don't know how to tell you that but they were all bad. When I cracked them the yolk was almost red. I had throw all of them away. She never saw an egg from a chicken running free behind the house eating bugs, worms, seeds, grass etc. They were used to store eggs that had yolk whitish yellow.

 

[bp fick]

Saving seeds gives a kind of completeness to the cycle, I guess. You begin with a seed, perhaps start it in cell trays, grow out the set plants, anticipate the warmer weather, work the soil, plant the set plant, tend it, harvest the fruit, enjoy the produce, store the produce. Saving the seed then begins the cycle again.

Choosing the best tomatoes, leaving a couple dozen sweet corn ears to "finish", shucking dry pea and bean pods, scooping out a pepper, then drying the seed. All very enjoyable.

I'll also be making up "gift packs" for some of my family and friends, who garden, for Christmas gifts.

View attachment 290035

 

[Duffster]

Can you reccomend a OP sweet corn.

Any I have tried so far were not worth saving the seed from.

 

[bp fick]

Can you reccomend a OP sweet corn.

Any I have tried so far were not worth saving the seed from.

Duffster, Yes, this is an issue. I'll let you know this year. I planted a Golden Bantam, Open Pollinated last year. Saved virtually all the seed. Saving seed from most of the bi-color hybrids has proven a failure, as was quite expected. I will likely plant 3 or 4 experimental rows of sweet corn, from saved seeds this year. What works will be used purely as a seed crop, what fails, fails.

 

[bp fick]

"R. H. Shumway has some open pollinated sweet corn. Golden Bantam, Country Gentleman, Stowell's Evergreen, etc."

This is a quote from another site. Worth checking out.

 

[forgeblast]

Where do you get your hatching eggs from?

 

[Duffster]

"R. H. Shumway has some open pollinated sweet corn. Golden Bantam, Country Gentleman, Stowell's Evergreen, etc."

This is a quote from another site. Worth checking out.

I've tried 2 of those. I ain't holding my breath on the third.


I might have to learn how to hybrid my own sweet corn.

 

[OldMcDonald]

Problem I see with our chickens is the feed cost. I just paid $15 per bag for laying mash. I get $4 per doz eggs. I am not making money at that, and I really don't see a market much higher.

Your post at #52. Prior to moving to Portugal I had a commercial free range set-up as part of the farm business in the far North of Scotland. Winter temperatures never get as low as many parts of the US, 0ºF being a rarity, but the summers are almost always wet and cold, so not good conditions for maximum production. On a long term basis each laying hen would eat 1kg (say two and a quarter pounds) of feed in a week. I do not know the size of your $15 bag so cannot do the maths for posters to work out the feed costs for a week, but I am sure you can do it yourself. You have other costs too of course. The following is an extract from my book that gives a few more details and info on feed costs against egg sales:-

Production from the batches at Hazza Farm was a long term average in the region of 200 to 220 eggs for each pullet originally housed, and over a period of lay of about 11 months.

Although better than in times past this is a very long way short of the claims of all breeders of hens, and much less than you would get from a hen in a cage, but a realistic output that is achievable by anyone whose hens have to rough it conditions wise, but are properly fed. My suggestion is therefore that if planning a commercial enterprise, you should budget on this sort of output. A rough budgeting guide too is that you use the price received for an egg in the weight range of about 55g to 60 g, say 2 ounces, when calculating your income. The descriptive name for this size of egg varies from time to time and around the world, but it is about the average weight of the 18 dozen or so eggs that your hen will lay in its first production cycle. If you keep them longer, then the size will be bigger in the second and any subsequent cycles, but the numbers and quality will be much reduced. On this point, I have found that in more equable climates than the northern half of Britain, e.g. Portugal, the hens will lay better and for a longer time span before quantity and quality diminishes. My first purchase was three pullets that I culled after 37 months in lay without a break. By this time, although they were still laying at about 50% production and therefore keeping my wife and I supplied, the internal and external quality of the eggs was poor.

 

[Grumpy Old Man]

37 months ? i think that is about a year longer than you should have kept feeding them ,from what I understand at about 2 years is max egg production and it starts dropping from there .i know there are different percentages in different climates but when the feed costs more than the eggs time for the bird to be in the pot !