Homesteading and Hobby Farm/Ranch

BrutulTM · Mar 11, 2023

Foler said:
What’s so hard to figure out about the well? Is that something specific to Texas geography?

In Florida, you go 15 feet down pretty much anywhere and hit water. It's not like that everywhere. Around here you might have to go to 1000 feet if you want good water, which costs like $100k, or you might hit a solid slab of rock and just be shit out of luck. In the county southeast of us they sometimes have to go to 2000+ feet which is crazy expensive and then the water comes out so hot that you need a cooling tower to get it cool enough to drink. My brother used to live in a town where it was solid rock below and everyone had a cistern and either hauled water themselves 300 gallons at a time in the back of a pickup truck or paid to have a water truck deliver weekly. It's not a great way to live but every time there was a vote to increase taxes so they could bring municipal water from the next town over it got voted down.

Foler · Mar 11, 2023

BrutulTM said:
In Florida, you go 15 feet down pretty much anywhere and hit water. It's not like that everywhere. Around here you might have to go to 1000 feet if you want good water, which costs like $100k, or you might hit a solid slab of rock and just be shit out of luck. In the county southeast of us they sometimes have to go to 2000+ feet which is crazy expensive and then the water comes out so hot that you need a cooling tower to get it cool enough to drink. My brother used to live in a town where it was solid rock below and everyone had a cistern and either hauled water themselves 300 gallons at a time in the back of a pickup truck or paid to have a water truck deliver weekly. It's not a great way to live but every time there was a vote to increase taxes so they could bring municipal water from the next town over it got voted down

Wow that’s fucking INSANE. My current well is 45 ft.. Imagine not homesteading in Florida… OOF!

Foler · Mar 12, 2023

I will say my well smells sulfur as fuck. It’s been sitting the last year since I had it “restored”. Gonna use it for irrigation. Just sent out water samples to UF IFAS to test. Curious as to what they find

TomServo · Mar 12, 2023

Foler said:
Wow that’s fucking INSANE. My current well is 45 ft.. Imagine not homesteading in Florida… OOF!

Hopefully you get a brain amoeba.

Foler · Mar 30, 2023

Got my first 4 chickens.. Have a pretty good order with Meyers for October but wanted to get some generic egg layers sooner as a practice run. Fucking tractor supply chicken day man. I walk up to the cage the chicks are in and ask the lady what pullets they had and some Asian man with a little kid gets mad saying he was there first. We both just look at him and we’re like “just asking a question man”. Tractor supply lady even said “they’re just chickens”, lol. Savages.

anyways that TS got in a limited supply so drove to another one. Ended up with a plain Jane white leghorn female, premium leghorn female, red sex-link female and a silkie from straight run.

I know I probably should have waited till next week to see if they got something better but maybe I’m impulsive

. Apparently the leghorns have a shit personality and are flighty but good egg layers. Ok that’s fine. These are my test chickens - raise them, attempt to free range them, see if wildlife murders them etc.

My October order from Meyers are my Gucci chickens - white sultan, silkies, and golden laced polish. You know, fun chickens.. You’d think I bought a class 3 firearm and was waiting for the ATF to approve it with the wait times on these fucking hatcheries!

BrutulTM · Mar 30, 2023

We had Leghorns when I was a kid and we have sex-links now and I'm not sure I didn't prefer the leghorns. These sex-links are so mellow you can't even chase them out of the garden. I'm yelling and flapping my arms at them and they just look at me like "what's wrong with that guy?". Go into the house and they won't even get the fuck out of the way so you can walk through and if you have snow on your boots there's 30 chickens pecking your feet the whole time you're gathering eggs. I kind of miss the days when you could yell "boo" at a chicken and have it run all the way across the yard.

Foler · Mar 31, 2023

BrutulTM said:
We had Leghorns when I was a kid and we have sex-links now and I'm not sure I didn't prefer the leghorns. These sex-links are so mellow you can't even chase them out of the garden. I'm yelling and flapping my arms at them and they just look at me like "what's wrong with that guy?". Go into the house and they won't even get the fuck out of the way so you can walk through and if you have snow on your boots there's 30 chickens pecking your feet the whole time you're gathering eggs. I kind of miss the days when you could yell "boo" at a chicken and have it run all the way across the yard.

Lol yeah sex links are supposed to be chill as fuck. Guess I didn’t view that as a bad thing but your anecdote is interesting now that you mention it

Blazin · Mar 31, 2023

Demand for eggs outstripping supply. It's tough to know if I should spend the 20 weeks to grow more out . Just seems to grow quickly as each customer says "my *insert relative* wants eggs too" Get little complaint at $4/doz go to $5/doz and definitely see some decline in demand. I really don't want to be selling individual dozens it's just a PITA, was planning to go to a package deal where people commit to certain # at intervals along with some pounds of chicken as a bundle. This year is more a process beta test as I figure out how I want things to run, but it definitely reinforces for me not wanting to deal with selling a la carte

BrutulTM · Mar 31, 2023

Selling eggs is a volume business. Even if you are selling them at double your cost, you just have to sell so many to make enough money that it's worth the time it takes and having to make deliveries or meet customers for $10 or $15 transactions just kills you. Even selling 100 dozen a week if you're making a dollar or two per dozen is hardly worth the effort if you're putting more than a couple of hours a week into it. We sell 12-15 dozen per week but it's mostly to let my cousin's 9 year old have a business experience. I doubt we even break even on the deal but she gets $.75 a dozen which is a big deal to her and it's a good learning experience. I've looked into doing it on a bigger scale but you have to sell thousands of eggs to make enough that it actually moves the needle.

Blazin · Mar 31, 2023

BrutulTM said:
Selling eggs is a volume business. Even if you are selling them at double your cost, you just have to sell so many to make enough money that it's worth the time it takes and having to make deliveries or meet customers for $10 or $15 transactions just kills you. Even selling 100 dozen a week if you're making a dollar or two per dozen is hardly worth the effort if you're putting more than a couple of hours a week into it. We sell 12-15 dozen per week but it's mostly to let my cousin's 9 year old have a business experience. I doubt we even break even on the deal but she gets $.75 a dozen which is a big deal to her and it's a good learning experience. I've looked into doing it on a bigger scale but you have to sell thousands of eggs to make enough that it actually moves the needle.

My original idea was just supplying food to family and close friends. Things have a way of growing. Even just extended family, friends, neighbors is 10-12 families. Then people start asking to the other side of their family and I suck at saying no. I'll find a balance somewhere between how much work I want to do. Don't tell the IRS but I don't care about making money (financial side note Farms must show a profit 3 years out of five for farm losses to offset other forms of income), but I also want to keep it in the range of not turning into complete drudgery.

Bought 800lb of seed today and was nice to see some better pricing. Still "high" but off a good bit from last years peak. Also put in order for turkey chicks for summer going to just try to grow out six birds for my siblings (and that's it!). WIll be a new experience for me so we'll see how that goes, have quite a bit before worrying about them.

Trying to think of what else I'm working on since I have sucked at posting here as of late. Hoping to have ADGA membership soon, and kids should be arriving in about 6 weeks after they are weaned. Picked up my Kubota L6060 tractor this week which I'm really liking. Better stance than my previous which makes hills more comfortable.

I also got a del morino side mount flail mower with Y blades and did first mowing this week and really going to enjoy this upgrade. This was a tough choice because I still want a disc mower for haying but entire haying operation just needs to wait a few years.

Kind of amazing how quickly go from slow winter to days going by in a flash and never ending list of tasks, but still amazes me how much I prefer doing this than sitting at a desk.

Sludig · Mar 31, 2023

Blazin said:
Demand for eggs outstripping supply. It's tough to know if I should spend the 20 weeks to grow more out . Just seems to grow quickly as each customer says "my *insert relative* wants eggs too" Get little complaint at $4/doz go to $5/doz and definitely see some decline in demand. I really don't want to be selling individual dozens it's just a PITA, was planning to go to a package deal where people commit to certain # at intervals along with some pounds of chicken as a bundle. This year is more a process beta test as I figure out how I want things to run, but it definitely reinforces for me not wanting to deal with selling a la carte

OK at least prices at stores collapsing. I wouldn't add a bunch more. Course of say this right after buying 2 hens. 2 pullets that had one ending up a roo. Then pre-ordered 4 from local place that sells hens they raise up until just shy of laying age.

Foler · Mar 31, 2023

Blazin said:
Demand for eggs outstripping supply. It's tough to know if I should spend the 20 weeks to grow more out . Just seems to grow quickly as each customer says "my *insert relative* wants eggs too" Get little complaint at $4/doz go to $5/doz and definitely see some decline in demand. I really don't want to be selling individual dozens it's just a PITA, was planning to go to a package deal where people commit to certain # at intervals along with some pounds of chicken as a bundle. This year is more a process beta test as I figure out how I want things to run, but it definitely reinforces for me not wanting to deal with selling a la carte

You and

lurkingdirk setup is where I’d like to be in a year. Maybe not as hardcore as the dirk but I’d like to be selling eggs for fun and definitely raising broilers

Foler · Mar 31, 2023

Blazin said:
My original idea was just supplying food to family and close friends. Things have a way of growing. Even just extended family, friends, neighbors is 10-12 families. Then people start asking to the other side of their family and I suck at saying no. I'll find a balance somewhere between how much work I want to do. Don't tell the IRS but I don't care about making money (financial side note Farms must show a profit 3 years out of five for farm losses to offset other forms of income), but I also want to keep it in the range of not turning into complete drudgery.

Bought 800lb of seed today and was nice to see some better pricing. Still "high" but off a good bit from last years peak. Also put in order for turkey chicks for summer going to just try to grow out six birds for my siblings (and that's it!). WIll be a new experience for me so we'll see how that goes, have quite a bit before worrying about them.

Trying to think of what else I'm working on since I have sucked at posting here as of late. Hoping to have ADGA membership soon, and kids should be arriving in about 6 weeks after they are weaned. Picked up my Kubota L6060 tractor this week which I'm really liking. Better stance than my previous which makes hills more comfortable.

I also got a del morino side mount flail mower with Y blades and did first mowing this week and really going to enjoy this upgrade. This was a tough choice because I still want a disc mower for haying but entire haying operation just needs to wait a few years.

Kind of amazing how quickly go from slow winter to days going by in a flash and never ending list of tasks, but still amazes me how much I prefer doing this than sitting at a desk.

Flail mowers are legit. The only one I could find to my taste that was UTV compatible was out of like Norway or Ireland or some shit. Very happy with my Kunz engineering mower (which I have sent blazin a picture of).

what are your plans for turkey housing? What hatchery did you order from??

Blazin · Apr 1, 2023

Turkeys will be outside, shelter kind of looks like bleachers with a roof. Will use electrical fence to keep predators out.

just ordered from a small local hatchery I still haven’t tried ordering from the bigger ones and having them shipped in

Foler · Apr 1, 2023

Blazin said:
Turkeys will be outside, shelter kind of looks like bleachers with a roof. Will use electrical fence to keep predators out.

just ordered from a small local hatchery I still haven’t tried ordering from the bigger ones and having them shipped in

Nice. I want to try them. I have wild turkeys that roam my property daily.. super dumb birds.

Gotta try not to be impulsive… Get these chickens up and running first and then look at turkeys and maybe a goose.

Then livestock.. Goats could be nice but I think they may be a lot of work and I can’t overextend myself on time so it’s kinda limited. Llamas are apparently rather easy and you can get one to use as a guard llama for alpacas.

Not sure what actual use they will have though.. I mean sure alpaca wool is top notch and I could probably YouTube how to shave them but fuck me if I’m gonna spend time making clothing or finding someone to sell raw alpaca wool to.

Foler · Apr 1, 2023

lurkingdirk and anyone else raising broilers. Do you process them yourself or have a local butcher do it?

Aldarion · Apr 1, 2023

Process yourself. If you pay to have chickens processed you pay more than it would cost to just go buy a chicken from the grocery store by the time its all done.

Plucking is much, much less work than advertised IMO. The hardest part is removing the intestines without breaking them.

I highly recommend a bone chopper style knife / axe for the head removal part. That was a game changer for us. Not a fan at all of the "let them slowly bleed to death" approach that seems to be popular on youtube.

BrutulTM · Apr 1, 2023

Nobody around here processes chickens so there's not an option to take them somewhere. I disagree on the head chopping. We did it that way for years and you tend to get broken wings and torn skin from them flopping around. When you cut their throat with a razor it's much calmer and from looking at them I don't think they even know they've been cut. We do all the butchering outdoors but we learned that you want to get a counter height table to do it on. Standing at a 3 foot tall table for a few hours is just brutal on your back.

Aldarion · Apr 1, 2023

Amen on the table part. I'm setting up a taller table next time.

We cut off the head then immediately hold the flapping carcass by the legs in a 5 gallon bucket. It does its nonsense for a minute, then I hang it to drain the rest of the way. No real problems this way, as long as I don't fumble it. It took some figuring out but after the first couple birds we had it down to a science (once I had the right chopper -- that part was key).

Lots of ways to do it but I really dislike slow deaths, I prefer instant head removal / broken neck / bullet to the head, depending on the animal, whenever possible.

Kiroy · Apr 1, 2023

kill cone plus slit and drain is the way

they are too dumb to know theyve been cut, but if you are chopping, a cone + sharp loppers is still the way to go. May have to rig up a system to keep the body in the cone though

and the only money in non-industrial chickens is free range meat

Homesteading and Hobby Farm/Ranch

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