How to start a small farm: 5 Simple Steps to Farming!

  So, you have decided to start a small farm, but not sure where to start. Here are 5 simple steps to get you started.  Along with a little rambling.

      Mr. J. (My Mr.) and I have been raising chickens since August of 2012. We made the decision after Mr. J.'s parents moved here from South Arkansas. One of the first things they did was to build a chicken coop and enclosure. After a time they started giving us fresh eggs, and us still buying store bought, there was a major difference. So we started thinking, eggs were getting more and more expensive, and we could raise a breed that was duel purpose and have meat as well. Maybe we should take a closer look into this idea. This leads me into:

 Step 1: Making a Plan and Setting Goals

     Planning out your small farm is a very important step, and fun too. Here you get to dream, explore new avenues, choose what your overall goal is and how to get there. Yes, you can dream, but also be prepared to be realistic, you may decide after 6 months that farming is not for you. You don't want to spend lots of money and change your mind later. Write it down. Draw it out. Make it a goal. 

   As an example, our farm goals our to raise a garden, chickens, rabbits, goats, hogs, ducks, and maybe one day a milk cow. We also plan on having a small orchard for fruit and berries for jelly, canning, and dehydrating (we also make our own wine). Our overall goal is to produce most of our own meat, milk, cheese, butter, ice cream, can our own veggies, make our own jelly, etc. Be able to sustain ourselves, pay our own way, know the skills of years past, not depend on the newest product on the market. I love learning new skills, include in your list making any new skills you will need to learn, and skills you want to learn.

   As a side note, I am one of those "LIST" makers, so I have already made notes in 3 or 4 different notebooks. I recommend that you get yourself a notebook just for the farm. Include expenses, dates and ideas. Maybe even write your goals on the first page. 

Hard-Knock Homesteading: Our back yard with heavy rains

     Remember to draw out your homestead (even if you are not good at it), include your home, garden, driveway, where your animals will be housed, water source, even your compost pile. Its nice to see it on paper, visualize it. Not sure what skills you are going to need? Or how big of a flock you are going to want in the future? Don't worry, step 2 will help you figure out the answers. 

     Also, placement is a major issue to consider when planning your homestead. Our back yard floods with heavy rains, see picture to the left. Knowing your land is crucial, we can't put animals in our back yard, and our chicken coop is up off the ground in case of really bad flooding. Spend lots of time outside while planning, keep a notebook if you like, it can help you determine where the best place to place your garden, fruit trees, animals, ect. 

  

 

Step 2:  Research   

     We knew we wanted to start with chickens, I did lots of research on raising chickens, chicken illnesses, cost of feed, different breeds, and types of coops. We did a lot of walking around the yard deciding on where to place our coop and enclosure. We took into consideration that we live close to the road and have neighbors close by. We live on a 5 acre plot, all but about an acre is wooded, so we knew that we were going to have to do some land clearing over time. There will also be fence building, animal housing, but I don't want to forget other parts of the farm during this time. Research other parts of your farm as well, for instance, the sooner you put in your fruit trees and berry bushes in the ground, the sooner you can reap the benefits. Be sure to get trees that thrive in your zone. 

     I could go on and on with long detailed information and stories, but I think I am just going to give you a list of several topics to research and give you an idea of what you need to know. 

• Animals desired and the breeds that do well in your area.
• Amount of space inside and outside each animal needs.
• Housing designs and fencing types.
• Best feeds(locally), equipment needed (feeders, watering containers, supplements)
• Cost of building materials for housing and fencing. Call your local hardware store.
• Common illnesses of your chosen animal and treatments.
• How to butcher and process for meat (one of those new skills to add to the list)
• Fruit trees and bushes for your area

Step 3: Saving

     Yes, this is Step 3, however I hope if you are able you have already started putting money back or collecting scrap lumber and materials for your farm. Saving money is not easy when you live on a tight budget anyway, I decided that in order decrease our spending I would start making laundry detergent, dishwasher powder and natural cleaners. I enjoyed doing this, at that time I was a stay at home mom, volunteering at preschool, president of the parent committee, and coaching my daughter's pee wee cheer leading squad.  A little extra work for a large saving sounded good to me. Then I moved onto making cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup (so much better than the canned products on the market). Knowing that I am saving money to improve our future, made me start to think about all the frozen prepared foods we were buying, all for convenience. So that was the next area of savings we tackled. 

     Here are a few other ways that you can go about saving some money on a tight budget.

• Put $5-$10-$20 back every week
• Save all your change
• Save all your $1.00 or $5.00 bills
• Watch for free material online or in newspapers
• Have a yard sale (clear out the clutter)
• Barter your services to family, friends and neighbors   

      Do everything you can to save as much money as you can, you will need it. 

  

Step 4: Finally, Action - Let's Build 

      It's about time, I know that is what you are thinking. When you have saved and sketched out your design, chosen your location, and gathered your tools, materials, and either your own handy man skills (or that of a close family member or good friends) its time to get started.

Hard-Knock Homesteading: Mr. J. working on our coop

     It took us about a month of weekend and working after work to build our coop and enclosure. We chose a 4'X8'X8' as our coop size, we spent around $500 on materials, we used some leftover roll roofing we had from another project, along with 2 windows Mr. J.'s parents gave us, we also used some leftover exterior paint. We also built our coop on skids in case we ever needed to relocate it. We wanted to make sure th

ere were enough nesting boxes to grow our flock later on, so we made 8 that can be accessed from outside the enclosure for ease of gathering eggs.

Hard-Knock Homesteading

Hard-Knock Homesteading: Nesting boxes

     We decided to build our coop behind our garage (out of site from the road), and use the back and east side of the garage as an existing wall for our enclosure, less money on fencing. Speaking of fencing, we used 1" chicken wire 6 feet tall and metal posts. There are challenges in every place you live, in Arkansas we have ROCKS, lots of rocks. Sometimes you just have to move your post one way or the other, and use the trees when you can. But on a positive side, those rocks came in handy to hold the chicken wire down around trees and rocky areas where we couldn't bury it. *NOTE: It's a good idea to bury the wire to keep digging predators from getting in the enclosure.* With some leftover lumber we built the frame for the gate, the gate, and buried a 4X4 under the gate (again for predators) to finish out our build. Now we just need to get some feed and find some chickens.

Hard-Knock Homesteading: Finished Coop

Hard-Knock Homesteading: Painted

Hard-Knock Homesteading: Chicken Door

     Lessons from our build, as time passed we decided even when we had 40 chickens we did not need 8 nesting boxes, so we closed off 4 of them. We also learned that we could have built a shorter coop, a 4'X4'X8' instead. If you put in windows, take out the screen and put wire up on the inside. We also decided that our next coop will have an expanded metal floor for easy cleaning.

Hard-Knock Homesteading: gate

      Step 5: Start Small

Hard-Knock Homesteading: First Rooster

    We started out with 7 chickens, 1 rooster (Rhode Island Red, about 4 years old) given to us by a guy Mr. J. worked with. Mr. J.'s parents gave us our main flock, 1 Rhode Island Red Rooster about 6 months old, 1 Rhode Island Red hen about a year old, 1 Buff Orpington about 2 years with (2) 3 month old chicks she hatched, both Black Australorp, and 1 Welsummer hen about 6 months old. It took about 2 weeks before we got our first egg, due to the transition to our farm. For about the first 2 or 3 weeks we kept the chickens in the enclosure till they got use to the coop being home. We also kept a light on at night to help the birds find the coop. Then we started letting them out in the yard for an hour or two a day to free range.

        I have a few tips for your first 6 months of raising chickens and a few lessons we learned along the way.  

• Wait 6 months before getting anymore chickens.
• Watch your chickens, they can be quite humorous, but watch what they eat, how full their crop is regularly, who is on the top of the pecking order, watching them will help you identify when there is something wrong.
• Slowly increase the amount of free ranging as they get use to the area, and you are present for security of predators (neighborhood dogs, hawks, raccoons) until you feel they are safe on their own.
• When you have 2 roosters and they begin to fight, its time to make a choice, get more hens or put one in the freezer. 
• When butchering, soak bird in salt water in the refrigerator for a few days before freezing.
• If it is an older bird, split the bird up and mix half of it with a younger bird and slow cook it for 8 hours. Older birds are tougher and have a much stronger flavor.
• If you start getting dirty eggs, clean out your coop.
• Make some 5 gallon bucket watering containers. I'll write a post on that later.
• If you decide you like the raising chickens, look into designs for a brooding coop/chicken sick bay. 

      Now, after you have six months under your belt, still saving, you can start the process again and add to your farm, fence in your garden, build a space for a different animal. 

      So, there you have 5 Simple Steps to starting a farm. I will do a more detailed post on some of the topics mentioned here at a later date. Please check back and follow my blog.

    Do you have any questions or ideas you would like to know about? I will be happy to share any information I might have. Just leave me a comment. Also feel free to share my posts on Facebook and Pinterest. 

   As always Thanks for reading and have a great day.

Tonia