Farming, Gardening & Homesteading

Discussion in 'Survival and Wilderness Skills' started by Delkancott, Dec 1, 2016.

  1. RocketmanDane

    RocketmanDane Member

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    So starting this year we are hoping to be a little more self sufficient..

    So far:
    9 Egg Laying chickens (chicks)
    3 Ducks (unknown currently)
    9 Guinea fowl for Pest Control.

    2x IBC tanks for Raised Garden pots. We will split them in half to make a total of four 18 inch deep raised beds.

    Potentially we have a 3 IBC tank coming our way.. (Fingers crossed)

    # Potential additions #

    We are hoping to add maybe 5 more egg laying birds if they become available.

    We are looking to start a small berry patch and adding a few fruit trees. We are having problems with our thick clay soil so we are really going to need to work on conditioning any spot we choose for them. ( Reason we are going with raised beds)
     
  2. anomad

    anomad Member

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    Where did you get the totes? I would like some of those for firewood.
     
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  3. RocketmanDane

    RocketmanDane Member

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    @anomad
    I found them on F@cebook Market place.
    The ones I bought only had “organic molasses “ in them so they are still food safe.
     
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  4. RocketmanDane

    RocketmanDane Member

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    Found out that our neighbor had close to 30 chickens and ducks killed in her coop in the 2 days she was out of town…. Only 2-3 free ranging escapees survived.

    So today we added more ducklings to our brooder to help replace hers.

    We now have 27 chicks chirping back and forth to each other across our kitchen from brooder to brooder.

    We also got a 3rd IBC tank today. Nobody wanted to buy it as it was already split in half. I told the guy I was going to split them anyways. So he gave It to me for free to get it out of his warehouse. :)
     
  5. RocketmanDane

    RocketmanDane Member

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    About finished up my coop. I’ve been building it over the last 3 months on my trailer so I could move it around when needed.

    These are the most recent photos I could find. You can even see some progress in the photos. We installed the side door, installed the 2nd window and painted and sealed the inside since these were taken.

    We still need to install the roosting bars inside and cut and fit the floor mat. But once that’s done we should be able to put down our cinder block foundation and slide the coop on with the neighbors tractor.

    It is 5 by 8 and has over 6 feet of head room in the front.

    The steep roof is for snow and to keep the birds from trying to sit on it.



    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]

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    [​IMG]
     
  6. ASH

    ASH Member

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    I have been waiting for it to warm up a little more and I am getting an incubator. We are getting about 15 eggs a day but I want to let some free range.
     
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  7. RocketmanDane

    RocketmanDane Member

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    We thought about getting a incubator but the price of chicks was pretty good this year..

    “Tractor supply” and “Southern States” had Guaranteed Female chicks for under $5 a piece.

    We were able to get 8 different breeds to try out and see what we wanted to get more of eventually.
     
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  8. ASH

    ASH Member

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    We are getting so many eggs, I want to start hatching some for meat chickens. We have sold a few eggs, but we mostly give them away. We had a hen that hatched out 5 chicks last year, but something got her.
     
  9. RocketmanDane

    RocketmanDane Member

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    We realized we needed some extra room for all our birds who won’t want to spend the night in the coop. So instead of building a single layer foundation (8 inches and no opening). We decided to build a 4 layer foundation which gives us 32 inches tall of space under the coop for the birds to sleep at night.

    Now hopefully we can get the Coop placed on the foundation tomorrow or the next day. :)

    [​IMG]
     
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  10. Delkancott

    Delkancott Member

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    is that in a protected area? I’ve had great horned owls go right under a high coop and kill 7 in a night.
     
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  11. RocketmanDane

    RocketmanDane Member

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    Yes it will be in a fenced in and netted area. Pictures to follow momentarily but now that the coop is stacked on top we are looking at possibly installing a lift up style chicken wire door to close them in at night.
     
  12. RocketmanDane

    RocketmanDane Member

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    Got the coop stacked on its foundation today.

    I still need to shim a few spots and likely will need to add some additional support front center before use. But If all goes according to plan I should have some birds in it tomorrow.

    I am also super happy now because my trailer has been out of commission for about 3 months while I was building on it. Now I can go pick up the rest of the supplies I need to finish the run and start building my raised gardens :)

    Yes I know the foundation looks crooked and leaning. This is only due to the angle of my camera. I made sure to level and straighten the wall as I built it and on install.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2022
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  13. RocketmanDane

    RocketmanDane Member

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    3 yards of Rock and 6 yards of soil later we have the fence mostly set up.

    We managed to salvage a old dog kennel and add a new one we purchased to make the run approximately a 20ish by 10-15 ish

    You can see the extra soil for our raised beds piled up in the center other then that things are proceeding ahead of schedule.

    [​IMG]
     
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  14. ASH

    ASH Member

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    Looks good, we are using a similar dog kennel. Biddies were able to get through so we wrapped it with chicken wire, then one of the biddies cut his head open on the wire and died. It is always something with chickens. They are easy once they are mature, unless you have predators.
     
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  15. ASH

    ASH Member

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    I started some veggie seeds in a water trough this weekend and I bought some grape, blackberry, and strawberry plants today for wine making. I finally picked out a spot to put them. Her ex had a 6 foot chain linked fenced area for his dog training. That will make a good trellis for the grapes and we have water nearby for the back horse pasture.
     
  16. ASH

    ASH Member

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    I have six apple seeds sprouted and potted. I have a few more sprouting that I need to pot. We have a friend that is the local produce manager so we get cheap horse and chicken treats. These are seeds that I got out of some of the apples she gave us.
     
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  17. OKcherokee

    OKcherokee Member

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    Beware, fruit trees are by in large grafted.

    So the apples you will get from seed wont necessarily be the same as the tree they came from.

    You will get trees, and you will get apples.
    But you wont get a Gala or a Red Delicious, etc.

    That’s not to say they will be bad, but they are grafted to keep consistency because you get somewhat unpredictable results growing fruit from seeds.
     
  18. RocketmanDane

    RocketmanDane Member

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    We Have a few more steps to go. But the next 2-3 will be the chicken wire wrap, installing the net over the run and getting some grass seed In the ground before we allow them full time access to the run.

    The neighbor down the road had a total of 30+ chickens and ducks get attacked - throats ripped out and killed by something in the night. So we are taking our time and making sure there aren’t any spots a blood drinking pest might sneak in…
     
  19. ASH

    ASH Member

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    I'm curious what kind of fruit they will grow. If they grow something I can make wine out of and feed the animals.
     
  20. OKcherokee

    OKcherokee Member

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    I mean, you will have apples.

    Just don’t expect if the seed came from a Gala that a Gala will be what you get.

    You won’t know until you have one to taste.

    It is still a worthwhile endeavor.
    All the varieties we have now were selected from trees grown from seed.
     
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