Homesteading and Hobby Farm/Ranch

Bandwagon · Jul 31, 2021

I've done that a few times while out doing surveys. Ask the boss if it's ok to drive in the field. "Yea he knows we have to go out there to set targets". 2 hours into field work, get a phone call "Hey Jay called and is pretty pissed about you guys driving in the field...."

BrutulTM · Jul 31, 2021

BTW, keeping pigs in an electric fence is a failure so far. It worked for a couple of months but they just walk through it now. My brother saw the female walk though and he heard it shock her twice but she just kept going. He tested the fence afterwards and it was 6000 volts which should be plenty of shock.

moonarchia · Aug 1, 2021

BrutulTM said:
BTW, keeping pigs in an electric fence is a failure so far. It worked for a couple of months but they just walk through it now. My brother saw the female walk though and he heard it shock her twice but she just kept going. He tested the fence afterwards and it was 6000 volts which should be plenty of shock.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Weekend GIF by Paramount Pictures

Sludig · Aug 1, 2021

Out of the scope of the thread maybe. But I do wonder how much work/ scale of what would be needed to make a small profit on the side with home farming. Idle naval gazing, but if I do end up with 10 acres or so, I wonder if I could pull like 10-20g somehow raising some animals, with the assumption of one person that stays home with that a their pseudo hobby job.

Blazin · Aug 1, 2021

Sludig said:
Out of the scope of the thread maybe. But I do wonder how much work/ scale of what would be needed to make a small profit on the side with home farming. Idle naval gazing, but if I do end up with 10 acres or so, I wonder if I could pull like 10-20g somehow raising some animals, with the assumption of one person that stays home with that a their pseudo hobby job.

Animals maybe, crops no way. Crops its hard to make more then $300-$400/acre per harvest and the equipment necessary would just make it completely not worth it. Dog breeding can be far more profitable than most domesticated animals. Goats you can get around $350 per for show goats. Chickens are easiest but to make 10-20k would be a pretty major operation.

Sludig · Aug 1, 2021

Blazin said:
Animals maybe, crops no way. Crops its hard to make more then $300-$400/acre per harvest and the equipment necessary would just make it completely not worth it. Dog breeding can be far more profitable than most domesticated animals. Goats you can get around $350 per for show goats. Chickens are easiest but to make 10-20k would be a pretty major operation.

Wifes been lamb obsessed. I hear some specialty chickens might be money. But yeah, I bet I could do better with lizards, dogs, or even a big coral operation depending on how weather is and utility reliability.

Prices tanked, but i was making a 100$ or so a month of roaches with a 2x3 bin and scraps when i had lizards.

BrutulTM · Aug 1, 2021

Blazin said:
Crops its hard to make more then $300-$400/acre per harvest and the equipment necessary would just make it completely not worth it.

This is true if you're talking about grain or hay or something, but depending on what part of the country you're in you can raise a shitload of organic vegetables in a few acres. It's a ton of work though. Even an acre garden is practically a full time job.

Animals on 10 acres will also depend on your location. By far the least infrastructure and labor will be chickens though. I'm talking about meat birds. Hatching fancy chickens for people's back yards might be lucrative per bird but I imagine the market is limited. People are willing to pay a large premium for pasture raised chicken though, and you can raise multiple batches per year even up north since they go from chicks to being ready to butcher in 6-8 weeks.

There may not be a chicken processing place near you so you might have to butcher them yourself which isn't hard, but some people wouldn't want to do it. With the right tools and some practice though, you can do it pretty fast.

Here's the Cadillac version. Obviously there are cheaper options for the moveable fence.

lurkingdirk · Aug 7, 2021

Yeah, I only have about 50 chickens at the moment, and I'm selling eggs for $3.50 a dozen. It's paying for feed and for upkeep of the facilities for them, but not much more. Not a lot of work, and I still have kids at home who make some money scooping shit and feeding birds and collecting eggs.

Aldarion · Sep 6, 2021

After raising chickens and gardens for many years we decided to move up to the next level. We're fencing an acre of pasture and raising some Idaho Pasture Pigs.

Currently we're keeping them in the remains of the garden while we have the fence built. I underestimated how cute the little fuckers would be. Its great watching them play their little pig games.

One thing I'll say for sure. They said IPP didnt root, they were strict grazers. WRONG

On the bright side, I probably wont have to till the garden under for the fall this year, holy shit those little bacon bits are rooting machines. Funny thing is apparently they hate onions so they dig up any we missed then neatly push them aside.

Borzak · Sep 6, 2021

Never had goats. Cousin raises them and sells the meat to the arabs in the hill country. Always sounded like a pain in the ass to me. Have had 3 cows at once. That few on large enough area is really not much trouble at all. Then haul them off to the slaughter house after they eat on the grass and the best thing is they kept the grass down adjacent to the pond so I didn't have to mow it with the tractor and get stuck or whatever. But no matter how many little fences you put around shit they will find a fucking way to turn a faucet with their tongue. Like when you aren't watching it grows to 10 feet long.

BrutulTM · Sep 7, 2021

I think goats are pretty lucrative if you have a place to market them. They are hard to keep fenced in though and they've been known to get an idea in their head and take off and go for miles sometimes. They will also get on your car/roof if you let them.

LachiusTZ · Sep 8, 2021

Keep seeing references to a companion model, is this that?

Amazon product ASIN B08YJVDGS1
Apparently my dad paid almost 1000 for this series about 8? years ago.

LachiusTZ · Sep 8, 2021

Here is a similar wood stove.

Smaller and made in fucking China, but this is essentially the design I wanted.

Just longer and wider. Made in America. Vintage preferred etc.

Amazon product ASIN B0864VTJ3K
Might have to scour Facebook marketplace to find one

Aldarion · Sep 8, 2021

BrutulTM said:
I think goats are pretty lucrative if you have a place to market them. They are hard to keep fenced in though and they've been known to get an idea in their head and take off and go for miles sometimes. They will also get on your car/roof if you let them.

Lived on a goat farm as a child. From what I remember they spend more time outside their fences than in.

These pigs, my kids accidentally left the gate open the other day so they escaped. But they only went about 10 feet, and came running as soon as they saw us, ran right back into the pen. Fuck chasing animals.

Foler · Sep 22, 2021

Gonna give chickens a shot. Someone convinced me yesterday.

Doing research and putting the pieces together for a run and coop design. Heard mint plants are good for keeping rodents away. For building the run maybe go with wood + heavy duty chain link fencing then behind the fencing line it with cloth wire for rodents. To keep rodents from digging under maybe bury cloth wire under it and run a cement line maybe 8” deep or so around the entire thing.

I have a lot of property but I’d like to place the run near the house. The house is on a little bit of an incline and water just flows down it in heavy rains. I’m concerned my chicken run floor will get super wet and sand/wood chippings washed away - a complete mess…

Any ideas? Can I do French gutters around it or is that overkill? Maybe raise the part of the land that the run is on (but how do I keep it raised without washing away)?

roofing the run - should it be covered or let sun in? Could do chain link my only concern is bears climbing on top. Something with wood may be more durable. I don’t know much about fencing but I imagine there’s different grades of strength for chain link? Maybe corrugated steel for roof?

lurkingdirk or anyone ideas?

LachiusTZ · Sep 22, 2021

Make one of the moveable ones, and every few days move it

Aldarion · Sep 22, 2021

Good lord man that sounds like a lot of work.

Our chicken run is just chicken wire on a wood frame. No wooden roof needed, its covered with chicken wire on top. We do put a shade cloth on top, for shade.

The chicken house I built is about 8x8, raised off the ground. That made a big difference, nothing can burrow in if its not on the ground. We havent lost many chickens since I built this. Only issue we had was a fox, those little fuckers are smart, but after trapping that we havent had any more.

We've kept 10-20 chickens this way for years in an area with plenty of smaller predators. We don't have bears on my property so I can't speak to that.

My little brother in VA just had a bear eat a bunch of his chickens, so I guess that is a thing. Hard to imagine bear proofing a chicken run though.

Rime · Sep 22, 2021

If a bear wants to get into your chicken coop, it is getting in. Hell, they can break into houses if they are so inclined.

I keep mine (10 Hens, 1 Rooster) in a fenced in area - I repurposed an old 30 x 30 dog kennel/run, then did two different sizes of chicken wire - one inside, one outside. I also excavated four inches down and buried wire mesh before covering it with soil again - to keep out mice/fishers.

The coop itself is raised on eight inches legs and is enclosed inside of the fenced area itself.

During the warmer months, I have a portable run that is wire-mesh roofed, 12 feet long (2 feet of it has a solid roof to provide shade) and 10 feet wide. Every week or so, I move it to another spot in one of the fields. The chickens are pretty good about following me to it, as it is where I feed them and they return to the coop of their own accord without much prodding at the end of the afternoon.

BrutulTM · Sep 22, 2021

Raising it off the ground is a good idea. You don't need to keep wood shavings down for them. They sleep on roosts, not on the floor so it doesn't matter if there's crap on the floor. I've even seen coops where they put chicken wire for the floor under the roosts so the shit just falls out on the ground. In the winter we put straw in to help them stay warm but that won't be an issue for you.

Do make sure that the coop has good ventilation but the windows can be closed during storms/high winds/etc. Also think about how you're going to shovel it out periodically. You don't want to be crawling around on your hands and knees in chicken shit to clean it. One of our coops has a 5' 8" ceiling and it's fucking torture for me at 6' 2" to shovel that thing out hunched over all the time.

Chain link is probably overkill compared to what most people do for a run but it will certainly get the job done. You don't need a roof over the whole run but do put something out there that they can get under for shade.

Goatface · Sep 22, 2021

we have a recycle center, which is just 10 big dumpsters for house trash. bears were getting into it all the time. to keep them out, they built 10' tall chain link fence with electrified strands starting near the ground and every foot up to 6'. fence also has a bar at the bottom has big steels U's driven into the ground to hold it into place.
and that is for just little black bears that look like big dogs. other smaller animals, like foxes figured out can through cracks around the gates.

guy down the road, has 2 coops in his yard that are those 10'x12' wood storage buildings like get a lowe/home depot. certainly the nicest looking coops i have ever seen (at least on the outside). seems like it would take a very very long time to get a return on that.

one of my friends lives in a nice neighborhood, saw a couple putting one of the big one of these together

thought it was some odd kids play house at 1st, as they put it in their front yard. if not seen them, they are like $700-800 with room for like 8.

Homesteading and Hobby Farm/Ranch

Kolohe

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.

The Scientific Shitlord

Potato del Grande

Creative Title

Potato del Grande

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.

AssHat Taint

Egg Nazi

Bronze Baron of the Realm

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.

Rogue Deathwalker Box

Rogue Deathwalker Box

Egg Nazi

Asshat Foler

2024 FoH Asshat

Rogue Deathwalker Box

Egg Nazi

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.

Avatar of War Slayer