Help me get my "homestead" started - Chickens, Ducks, and Bees

[lman]

Morning all,

I feel like it's time to go ahead and get started preparing for the spring around here. My family just moved onto about 11 acres over last summer. Moved a house trailer out to live in while waiting to build a house. I'm planning on scaling up my "Freedom Garden" that I had been growing in the neighborhood we moved out of. It was about 24' X 36' with tomatoes, zucchini, squash, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, okra, cucumbers, green beans, and maybe a couple other odds and ends here and there. I am decent with that, although I will have to start the soil from scratch here.... yay... I am going to add a bunch of corn, watermelon and hopefully strawberries, but I don't know anything about strawberries yet.

On to the critters. I want to raise a few chickens for eggs, and maybe to eat? I don't even know if you eat the egg laying chickens? Or if I could, you know pets.. I also want to have some pet ducks for the little pond. In the spring time TSC has the little baby chickens and ducks. I was hoping to start with about a 6 pack of each. I don't know what to build for them to mature in or live in once grown. I assume I need something small to start them in like a little dog house size with a heat lamp? I don't have any outbuildings that I would be able to put it in, so it would have to be stand alone. Or I guess I could go ahead and build a chicken coop to put the little box in but it would probably be too far away from power...

Bees are next. I don't even know why I want bees? I just think it would be fun to watch them and I think they would be good for the garden. I think that just takes buying a hive kit and some tools. I have a friend that raises them so I *think* I should be able to get enough information to get started good with them.

TSC has a goal to get customers to buy their poultry and then you'll come back to buy their overpriced chicken feed. You won't save any money by growing your own chickens/eggs.

 

[Rockbadchild]

As other as pointing out Egg laying chicken are really tuff to eat you could make dog food, we make ''cretons'' with them its a French Canadian thing I doubt you heard about it, we mix it with Pork and process it in the meat grinder add some spice and cook it, its really tasty with toast in the morning...

this is what google has to say about it ( cretons is a forcemeat-style pork spread containing onions and spices. Due to its fatty texture and taste, it resembles French rillettes. )

I am thinking about having bees hives as well it be nice to have honey on tap and guarantied pollinations keep us in the loop with your findings and progress.

Good luck.

 

[Oaktree]

TSC has a goal to get customers to buy their poultry and then you'll come back to buy their overpriced chicken feed. You won't save any money by growing your own chickens/eggs.

In many places, TSC is about the only place to get feed anymore. A lot of the Agways have closed, nearest one to me is better part of an hour away.
Agree on the lack of savings, I'm told the eggs are much better tasting (I don't like them) than store eggs. Obviously fresher.

this is what google has to say about it ( cretons is a forcemeat-style pork spread containing onions and spices. Due to its fatty texture and taste, it resembles French rillettes. )

Is that also called gaton (not sure on the spelling)? Your description sounds like it.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

We set out to get some ducks this weekend. Minimum at TSC is 6 birds and they only had 4 ducklings. So we ended up with 4 ducks and 2 chickens. I figure we will add a bit to both numbers in the next couple weeks. I found out about a weekly swap meet type of thing near me where people bring small farm animals to, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits etc. I will be going there to get some different varieties of fowl but not too many.

Got our garden seed this weekend too. 3 varieties of tomatoes, squash, spaghetti squash, zucchini, 2 types of sweet peppers, jalapenos, bush green beans, cucumbers, okra, sweet corn, watermelon, and cantaloupe.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Oh, I also have a beekeeping class scheduled for early April. They have Nucs and all related equipment and tools in stock. Should be a one stop shop. So I should hopefully have at least 1 functioning colony next month!!

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^
Good luck with your beekeeping. I thought about getting into it a while back but have a commercial blueberry outfit directly in back of me, and am not sure how that would work out with him spraying pesticides every other summer.

I must be fortunate, I have multiple sources for feed and can order my chicks and turkeys through any of several feed stores. I also have been told where I can go to get bulk feed... hopefully they will sell it in 1000 lb lots.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

Ducks and Chickens are a go. We got 4 Pekin ducks and 2 random chickens from TSC last week. There is a 6 bird minimum in Arkansas and there were only 4 ducks. I had them throw in 2 of the cheapest chickens in with intentions of raising them until they are big enough to add to my in-laws flock. But... the wife got attached so we went and got a dozen more hens this weekend.

 

[EddieWalker]

You might want to split up the ducks from the chickens. The ducks will grow a lot faster and bigger, and start to bully the chicks. I tried this with just one baby duck and about two dozen chicks, and the duck was constantly attacking the chicks.

 

[LittleBittyBigJohn]

I am working on a duck house. I hope to have it done this evening. They are starting to bully the chickens a little bit, and they do a number on the water. New water turns to mud in less than an hour.

 

[EddieWalker]

We put two waterers in each area for our babies, and they start out on the bottom, then they are put on a 2x4 and then a 4x4. The higher you can keep the water, the cleaner it will be.

We usually hatch about a hundred chicks a year, and put a dozen in each chick pen. That way they are all about the same size.

This year we are just letting a few hens sit and then we will let them raise their babies. We have more losses this way, but my wife just had knee replacement surgery, so we're not wanting to deal with feeding and cleaning baby chick pens this year.