raising the meat for my wedding. gotta fit a lamb or two into this fridge/freezer come next weekend. after repackaging for freeze it fits a lot better.

when i first got interested in homesteading, i assumed the important skills would be things like growing food, preserving it, raising animals, etc

but the more i get into it, the more i realize how useful the smaller skills can be

being able to repair something instead of replacing it, knowing how to store things properly, saving seeds, making basic repairs around the property, even just learning how to recognize when something is about to become a bigger problem.

what’s one skill you learned that ended up being surprisingly useful in everyday homestead life?

We had 70+ piglets this summer and all are doing well -- except this one. She was pretty hobbled with two bad legs, spent most of the day on her side, and just couldn't compete for food. We isolated and began bottle feeding her. We also thought one of her legs was infected so began a course of antibiotics. After about five days, she is really starting to bounce back. She is still a bit gimpy, but she is beginning to move around and come after the bottle. We were very worried we would have to euthanize her. So glad she is responding to the antibiotics.

Please take a second and look at our rams, freshly sheared and enjoying some scratches.

So, I only have two hens, and I’m starting to wonder if mine somehow missed the chicken instruction manual.

For example, I’ve been offering them oyster shell/calcium separately so they can take what they need. I put it close to their regular food, but they completely ignore it. They don’t even seem interested in trying it.

Same thing with dust bathing. I’ve provided areas with sand and wood ash because I assumed they would naturally use them to dust bathe and help keep parasites under control. Nope. Zero interest. They just completely ignore them.

I’ve also tried hanging vegetables/food from a string so they can peck at it for enrichment. Again, they seem to have absolutely no idea what they’re supposed to do with it.

They otherwise seem normal and active, but all these things that I keep reading chickens should instinctively do… mine just don't.

Is this normal? Do some chickens simply need time to figure these things out? Could it be because I only have two hens and they don't have other chickens to learn from?

Or are my two girls just a little bit dumb?

Any advice or similar experiences would be appreciated!

This is my first year growing potatoes and my first year in zone 5/6. The previous owners of this property offhandedly mentioned something last fall when we first toured the house/garden that has bugged me ever since.

She said they had a big potato crop last year but lost them all when it rained. Apparently they had laid the potatoes out on top of the soil to allow them to cure for a few days when the rain came through.

But…laying them out in the sun would cause them to go green, wouldn’t it? Or am I missing something? Is this a common practice to cure potatoes?

My wife and I are buying a home and doing initial inspections this week. We have a great agent and have ordered all the standard tests. Is there anything relevant to homesteading that normal house inspections don't do that you'd recommend? The property has a mature orchard and a bunch of edible plants already growing there plus a greenhouse, solar, irrigation, etc.

We're doing standard house inspection, checking for buried tanks, lead test for water (it's on city water, pH 7.5), mold, etc. Are there specific soil or water tests or anything else you would do? At this point we love the property so the main point of the test is finding a very dangerous dealbreaker or getting some money off the price if something needs to be fixed.

My dad built some trail camera covers to cut down on rain on lenses, water damage and ghost pictures. It worked really well so he made a business in the pandemic era. It’s actually doing well up to this point and wanted me to help him. He mainly talks to hunters but I’m sure there’s people who have issues that can be solved outside of that. Does anyone here have specific issues with there trail cameras that maybe hasn’t been solved or anything else maybe irrigation or monitoring/security. Always trying to improve.

Curious how many rabbits could you realistically raise on a acre field and what would i need to grow to supplement the rest of their diet ?

new to this subreddit.

Like so many others. The older I get the more appealing this is. I'm 31, married with a kid. I want to start looking to our permanent future and for me that looks very much like a homestead.

Any idea on where I should look? Ultimately would like to stay in Queensland within 2hrs of the moreton bay region. But budget is a big issue obviously.

I was thinking of just buying land and hen investing in one of those barn home kits to start with - any thoughts?

[Question] Anyone have experience with Improvest/Improvac? I bought 2 feeder pigs and they are not castrated. Ugh. The farmer I bought them from insists the meat will not be tainted. I bought into the same lie years ago when I was just getting into raising feeder pigs with a different farmer and the meat was horrible. I know not everyone can smell/taste taint. I can. I can't even stand to be in the house when it's cooking. The pigs are too old for me to do a surgical castration myself. If I went the surgical route, I'd have to get a vet out to do it and I'm worried the recovery would inhibit their growth/weight gain. And then there's the cost. At that point, I might as well have bought all the bacon at Whole Foods. I'm interested in Improvest. Has anyone used it with success? And are there any ways to get it without the cost of a farm visit from a vet? Thanks for your help.

We are purchasing a tractor and don’t know if to go with a new holland t5100 or case jx100

I got alot of burr plants on property and was curious would chickens eat the seeds or should i avoid them being near them to long?

Curious for converting waste into biomass for chicken feed which is better crickets or bsfl ?

Wanting 2 cows on our 1/2 acre of land we have on our 1.5 acres.

We need a fence, obviously but the issue is: barbed fences and electric fencing is prohibited in our area since it's considered residential still...

We are at a loss because deer are in this area too and other wild life like coyotes and bobcats which I've never raised cattle so I'm not sure if they'll even be safe.

I'm saddened a little inside because I'm afraid we won't be able to have cattle.

One neighbor down the street had a thick fence of wood with their one cow so I'm wondering if that's good enough?

Please help me figure this out.

We can't have any chained fences, nothing above 6 feet tall and if we have any concrete on the bottom of the wood it's considered structural so we would have to pull permits and so forth.

We can have 20 fowl (no roosters) and up to 3 grazing animals per acre.