Turkey Eugenics and How They’re Failing
Hey there everyone! I haven’t posted in a while, because we moved out to 8 acres instead of just 1. So the hobby farm can grow! Yay! But anyway, with Thanksgiving approaching, I thought I’d do a post about Turkeys, specifically about Turkey breeds. Turkey History! There are two species of Turkey. The ones that…
Making Money From Your Farm!
I have a lot of animals. They get… expensive. Especially with feed prices on the rise, it’s good to have a feel of how we can make back some of our money we invest in our farm pets, and sometimes even make a profit! This blog is written for Hobby Farmers by a Hobby Farmer…
Button Quail: Inside or Outside?
One common question of button quail breeders is whether they can and whether they should live outside. They seem so small and delicate they almost seem like they would need a heat lamp! Well they definitely can live outside. The temperatures should not go below freezing, and they shouldn’t walk on snow. These are pretty…
Hemp: Should I Farm It?
Whether it’s because you’re vegetarian or you’re a health enthusiast or want to grow good food for your animals or all of the above, hemp might just be the crop for you. In most states you need a license to grow in any quantity, but it may be worth it! Well, Hemp is not Marijuana.…
Foster Moms
Sometimes, eggs need incubated. Sometimes we just don’t have the equipment, energy, or motive to incubate them… Sometimes we don’t want to brood them. Well, luckily… nature has some birds that will incubate eggs that aren’t theirs or raise chicks of different species. Lets go over some of these foster moms. Bantams Cochins and silkies…
Which Guinea Fowl is For You?
I have done a series on the different types of pheasants, quail, rabbits, ducks, and alternative waterfowl, but today we are going to look at the six species of Guinea Fowl, and a little bit about each. HELMETED GUINEA FOWL This is what we are all used to. The helmeted guinea fowl is the classic…
Which Partridge do you want?
This week, I’d like to show you a couple of the different partridges available for gamebird enthusiasts! Chukar Good for utility (i.e. eggs and meat). Very aggressive. Not good aviary birds. Usually you can get them for less than $10. Come in silver and white varieties. Hungarian Partridge Used for utility and ornamental purposes, the…
Taking A Look At Alternative Poultry
Francolins, Prairie-Chickens and More Sometimes, the bird keeper gets tired of pheasants , quail, and chickens. Even the Great Argus doesn’t have the thrill it used to. But don’t worry. There’s always more. Let’s take a look at some of those alternative poultry birds. Erckel’s Francolin The Erckel’s is the most popular of francolins! They…
5 Things to Remember When Colony Breeding Button Quail
Last week I did a post discussing whether or not you should pair breed. I basically concluded that it depended on various factors. Today, I will give you 5 things to remember in order to make your colony successful and safe. Perhaps colony breeding has got such a bad name as a result of breeders…
Button Quail: Pair-Breeding Vs. Colony Breeding
A large controversy is waging over whether it is better to raise King Quail in colonies or in pairs. Originally, I colony bred out of ignorance, but as nothing bad happened, when I began to encounter the dogmatic position of pair breeding most breeders take, I was naturally skeptical. The truth is, there are several…
COMPOST!!!
Don’t waste your old hay, paper scraps, coffee grinds, uprooted weeds, etc. COMPOST!!! You want a healthy garden, with flourishing plants and happy little sprouts??? COMPOST!!! Sooo… I want to compost… but how?? Building A Compost Bin/Box/Pile Thingie So the gist of a Compost Container is some container that is at least 1 cubic foot…
Taking a Look at Alternative Water Fowl
Cranes, Swans, and More Honestly, one gets tired of ducks and geese eventually, even with the inexhaustible number of breeds. And if you have a nice access to water and a good way to somehow… make an aviary around that water… you may want to take a look at some of my favorite, albeit expensive,…
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY
Just wanted to wish all the 2022 fathers on the farm!
Ducks VS Chickens
Chickens are a general favorite. People have raised chickens for hundreds of years, and there is something to that, but it seems unfair not to look at both sides. In these days of Khaki Campbell ducks, laying 300+ eggs, they are certainly worth considering as utility birds. Today we are going to look at some…
Quail VS Chickens
Quail, particularly the coturnix, are slowly increasing in the livestock industry. Particularly in urban and suburban settings, people are actually choosing quail over chickens to be their utility birds! In this post, we are gonna see the advantages quail have over chickens, and the advantages chickens have over quail. Quail Quail need only two square…
Pros and Cons of the Rhode Island Blue Crossbreed
Alternatively known as the Production Blue, the Rhode Island Blue is a crossbreed chicken that seems to be becoming more popular. Primarily kept for eggs, this breed is a cross between two of our best egg layers: The Rhode Island Red and the Australorp. Pros They are Good Layers Seeing as they are bred for…
Pros and Cons of the Leghorn Chicken
Once again, here is a chicken review done by yours truly, Hiram Means. The Leghorn chicken is one of the most common chicken, with a good deal of reasons to love it, and a couple of reasons that make it not so great. Pros White Eggs While I personally am not a huge fan of…
Pros and Cons of the Ameraucana!
A very fluffy chicken, with cute ear-muffs, the Ameraucana is an all-time favorite chicken, but it’s not the only chicken. Here’s why: Pros Blue Eggs! Here is their main appeal! They lay beautiful bluish eggs! The Ameraucana is very beloved due to this factor. Who doesn’t want some variation! 2. They are nice to humans…
The Pros and Cons of Old English Game
The Old English Game is my favorite breed of chicken. Perhaps its appeal lies in its closeness to the OG chicken, the Red Jungle Fowl. Perhaps I just love the colors. I’m not actually sure why I love this chicken, but the Bantam Version has really delighted me so far! Here are the pros and…
Pros and Cons of the Favarolles!
Second only to the Old English Game, the Favarolles is the breed I have had the most fun with. They are cuddly and insanely cute. Yes, this post is about the fluffy, fluffy French Favarolles. Pros They are adorable and fluffy As shown above the Favarolles are a very cute breed of chicken. Many people…
The Pros and Cons of the Sussex Chicken
Very similar to the Australorp we went over last week, the Sussex is a beautiful breed that is very popular for a couple of reasons. But it’s also not the perfect chicken for a couple of reasons. Thus, I am preparing yet another article profiling a chicken breed and this week is the Sussex. Pros…
Pros and Cons of the Australorp
As a third chicken to my series on various chicken breeds, their pros, and their cons, the Australorp was my third choice of chicken, because I have grown quite attached to Marmee. Yes, all ye Little Women fans may clap if you want. Marmee has earned her title for her wonderful mother hood, which happens…
Hybrids, Crossbreeds, and Mixed breeds?
What’s the difference? When we breed animals, be it chickens, dogs, fish, or pheasants, we’re bound to run into terms like Hybrid, Crossbreed, and Mix-breed. Unfortunately, clarity is oft forsook for convenience and one such occasion took place in the realm of these 3 terms. Barely anyone knows what they mean! To add to the…
The Pros and Cons of the Rhode Island Red
The Rhode Island Red is one of the most famous breeds of chickens, popular for making hybrids like the Amberlink. They are great chickens, being rather pretty, but like every breed they aren’t perfect. Here’s a look at the ups and downs of these pretty chickens. Pros They lay lots of eggs 250-300 is average.…
The Pros and Cons of the Amberlink Chicken
A new chicken breed is reaching more and more popularity as the egg per chicken average goes higher, but are these chickens perfect, or are there some draw backs we need to know about? Here are the pros and cons of these beautiful egg layers. Pros Eggs, and more eggs Estimations of how much eggs…
Snakeys in the Garden
With Special Guest Writer Ezekiel Means Don’t be too quick to kill a snake in your garden, because some snakes just want to help you out. If you have problems with bugs, or slugs, or hugs… wait never mind… if you have bug or slug problems a little snakey might just be the cure! The…
Waterfowl + Garden = ?
I’m sure you’ve heard that ducks and geese make great additions to your garden without any drawbacks! Let’s take a look into the truth of all that. Pros Ducks will eat bugs! That is of course the main pro. In fact just this year as my cabbage what being annihilated by cabbage worms, I let…
Predator Proof: Pheasants
Pheasants aren’t nearly as big of predator targets as, say, quail for instance. They are aggressive usually killing any snakes that try something fishy, maybe even slaying a weasel or attacking a racoon. But if you are me, then you don’t like risks, so you’ll do anything to guarantee these beautiful birds’ safety. From the…
Which Duck Do You Want?
All these ducks besides muscovies, mandarins, and wood ducks, are bred from mallards, but to many beautiful colors! Care is very similar for all, but prices range from very cheap to extremely expensive. So lets take a look at all these ducks. Mixbreed Usually only $15 each depending on the mix, they come as mullards…
A Care Guide to Nigerian Dwarf Goats: Their Breeding, Feeding, and More
Nigerian dwarf goats are the kind of goats I personally have. They are small but good for milking, and their babies are really cute. There are of course other kinds of pygmy goats and stuff, but when it comes to having actual profit, Nigerians are your best bet. Water Our goats are just content with…
Which Pheasant is for You: The Obscure Pheasants
That Most Pheasant Raisers Have Never Heard of: Koklass As of my great search, I have yet to find a Koklass seller besides Allandoo Pheasantry in UK. It has them listed at £160. They do pop up every once in a while. I have seen two live at the house of the breeder who I…
Which Pheasant Is For You: Peacock Pheasants
Not peacocks, the peacock pheasant are very similar to the peafowl, but different colors and much smaller. Perhaps instead of the utility or standard ornamentals, these are more your style. Care varies from that of a normal pheasant seeing that peacock pheasants require fruit and live insects as supplements to their normal food, and lay…
Which Pheasant is For You: Ornamental Part 2
Still not satisfied. Gosh, these folks are hard to please. Okay got $600 to spare for a really exotic pheasant? Eared Pheasants Beautiful pheasant, but so exotic that a pair is usually at $600-1100 dollars, the white ears most and blue eared least. The white eared are endangered. There is also a non-captive Tibetan Eared…
Which Pheasant is For You: Ornamentals Part 1
Silver Pheasant Usually only 150.00 an adult pair, the silver pheasant is perhaps for some people the best, cheapest ornamental option. In the Gallopheasant genus. Reeves Pheasant A duller bird, but still beautiful in its own way, the Reeves is another pheasant, at the price of a silver. Very rarely, it is used as a…
Predator Proof: Quail
Quail are little plump creatures and unfortunately for that reason the target of many predator attacks, from crows, to weasels, to dogs, to rats! So how the hey are we suppose to stop them? From the Air Crows, hawks, falcons, and eagles would all snack on a quail. So a roof is very necessary, made…
Should I Help My Chick Hatch?
Very often, if you are a bird breeder, you run into this question time and time again. Should you hatch your chick, or let it die in its egg? Fortunately for us that is a false dichotomy, but we’ll get to that in a second. The answer is sometimes yes, sometimes no. You see when…
Compatibility of the Various Small Hobby Farm Animals
Often there are animals we wonder if they can live together. I have compiled this chart and a guide to compatibility. ✔ means yes, ✖ means no, and ❔ means yes given correct conditions. Chickens Chickens are best housed with other chickens, ducks, doves, pigeons, sheep, alpacas, rabbits, emus, or donkeys. It is possible to…
Which Dove Do You Want?
So you want the calming cooing dove or pigeon, they are so easy to breed regardless of type, but which breed is for you? Ringneck By far the most common, the Ring-neck usually are ten to fifteen dollars for normal but more for color mutations. They are the best for beginners as they are cheap,…
A Care Guide to *Drumroll* Alpacas: Their Breeding, Feeding, and More
Alpacas are more loveable than a dog, more cuddly than a rabbit, and more fluffy than pure fluff! When trained well, an alpaca really joins the family. So how hard are they to care for? Water As the most important thing for an animal’s life, Alpacas are notorious drinkers, sometimes going through two entire buckets…
Now I’m All Alone: How To Deal With A Chick That Hatched Alone
Sometimes, as a hobbyist, instead of a full time farmer, we’ll pop two- three eggs in the incubator to see what happens. Sometimes the results are less than pleasing. Sometimes it’s nothing, but sometimes, maybe even worse, it’s a lonely chick. Well, luckily for you, it’s all right. The chick might not be alone Several…
A Beekeeper’s Guide Part Two: Starting the Bees
So last post I talked about making your beehive. Now we’re going to talk about actually getting the bees. Installing Bees In order to do the things in this post you’ll need to have your beehive, bee suit, your trusty tools, and some sugar water. Put the sugar feeder in and put the jar with…
Which Pheasant is for You: The Utility Pheasants
Pheasants are some of the most spectacular creatures in the bird world. So which one’s for you? Practical Pheasants Nobody ever said they were going to eat their Lady Amherst, or dine on their Tragopan Pheasant’s eggs! That’s a terrible idea financially! So when you want pheasant meat or eggs what do you get? Pheasant…
Buttonquail: Male vs. Female
Of course, when dealing with button quail, some of the more common varieties are perfectly easy to tell apart, but for some varieties its not so easy. Method 1: Bib For some varieties the first thing that develops to show you the gender of a chick is the bib on the males. The bib is…
Which Rabbit is For You?
In this post I hope to give you a good idea of all the cute little (or big) rabbit varieties and which one is right for you! California Meat Rabbit Despite the fact that I have never farmed any animal for meat, this rabbit still wins as one of my favorites! The California Meat Rabbits…
Herbert & Friends
Mobile Petting Zoo Introducing Herbert & Friends: the mobile petting zoo. We’d love to bring our best, nicest, most cuddly animals to your house! This extends to the Greenville, Anderson, and Spartanburg area of upstate South Carolina. Your child’s birthday can be enhanced with at least an hour of hands-on cuddling and feeding! This will…
All You Need To Know About Button Quail
King quail, also known as button quail*, are the smallest type of true quail, and thus the smallest game bird. Their lifespan is 3-6 years but some folk have kept them up to 13. They are way too small for meat, and despite their plentiful egg production, their eggs are really small and really only…
Which Quail Do You Want?
This post is designed to help you decide on which type of quail for your farm. Coturnix quail You can get a mixed egg or chick shipment to have a beautiful (if Coturnix quail are ever beautiful) mixed flock. They are the cheapest kind of quail, usually about $2. These are also the best egg…
A Bee-keeper’s Guide Part One: Setting up Your Hive
This post is going to be different than my normal ones, as the animals we’ll discuss are very different. This will be a three part series going through the basics of beekeeping. In this first part we’ll discuss making the hive. The Brood and Honey Boxes There are three main boxes. The brooding box, for…
A Care Guide to Guinea Pigs
First of all, these aren’t pigs. Second, yes I have them but I don’t keep them outside in my farm, however they can make a good addition. After all, inside, they’re loud and chew everything to shreds! Water A rabbit water bottle works best. Food Rabbit pellets work, that’s what I do because I have…
A Care Guide to Pigs
Pigs are great and the reason I write about them is because of their little space requirements. They can easily be in your small farm. Water A pig’s water is not too hard. A bucket’s fine but it’s better to have a pool that they can climb into. Food Don’t let your pig get fat!…
A Care Guide to Ducks, Housing, Compatibility, Breeding, Incubation and more
Ducks are great, friendly poultry. They’re pretty easy to care for so I’ll go ahead and tell you about their basic needs. Water Ducks have different water situations than all the animals I’ve yet wrote about. A duck needs a pool. Now the pool simply only needs to be a kiddy pool, but you should…
A Care Guide to Rabbits: Housing, Compatibility, Breeding, and more
Rabbits are a great addition to your small farm and can live happily with quite a few other farm animals. Water Rabbits can drink out of two main things, rabbit water bottles and buckets. Keep their water nice and clean. Food Rabbit food should be put in a rabbit feeder or bowl, rabbit feeders are…
A Care Guide to Ring Necked Doves: Housing, Compatibility, Breeding and more
Doves are beautiful and awesome pets, they can be easily tamed and will sit often on your arm or shoulder. Turns out care is quite simple! Water Doves usually can use any type of waterer as long as they can reach into it. I like to use chicken waterers for my sizeable flock but for…
A Care Guide To Chickens: Housing, Compatibility, Breeding, Incubation, and more
Chickens are probably the most common type of poultry. These animals are good egg layers and easy to maintain. This article applies to our staple chicken and you must realize special care may be required for exotic breeds like onagadori and featherless. Water Chickens have been documented doing some pretty… er… stupid things, so don’t…
How to tell the gender of a chicken
In the picture above it is easy to tell the gender of each chicken, but for a young pullet or cockerel you may not be able to tell so easily. No one wants two young roosters together in a small cage. And you may live in in a non-rooster-friendly neighborhood, you don’t want to figure…
A Care Guide To Chrysolophus Pheasants: Housing, Compatibility, Breeding, Incubation, and more
Pheasants tend to be docile, pretty animals (at least the males) and I’ll give you a basic idea of them and their care. There are two main different types of pheasants: practical (ringneck and mutations thereof) used for meat, and ornamental (like Argus, Lady Amherst, or Goldens). his focused mostly on the Chrysolophus pheasants: Golden…
A Care Guide to Quail: Housing, Compatibility, Breeding, and More
My first post here on this blog will be about quail and their basic needs. I am known among my family for being obsessed with quail so be prepared for a lot of future quail blog posts. This post does not apply to the miniature button quail (here is a link to my article about…
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Where The Chickens Roost 