Skip to main content

Our animals in 2014

On our farm we have dogs, cattle (the house cows being a special category) and the chickens (also guinea fowl until recently).  They all offer entertainment and learning opportunities.  This is what I wrote about our animals in 2014.


 The dogs - Cheryl and Taz
What I've learnt about puppies

Training our Taz - puppy months and dog years

Dog box update

Happy Birthday Puppy Taz!




The cattle
Cattle fencing tips for small farms
Solar electric fence energiser
How to join electric fence polywire

Branding our cattle - Part 1 - registering a brand
Branding our cattle - Part 2 - how to brand

Animal behaviour and staying safe around cattle

Keeping a bull on a small farm

Lantana poisoning killed our little bull
How to give an injection to livestock




The house cows (special cattle)
How to tell if your house cow is on heat
House cow milking schedule

The story of our house cows
The story of our cows - Part 2

And my ebook "Our experience with house cows", available over at my house cow ebook blog.



The chickens (and the last of the guinea fowl, and some guest posts about ducks)
Keeping multiple roosters
Choosing chooks - which chickens are best for you?
Raising chickens for meat
Why do we have so many chickens?

Guinea Fowl Realities

Getting Started with Ducks - Megan from Purple Dancing Dahlias
Getting Started with Ducks - Kim from Oasis Biodynamic farm
Getting started with ducks - Tracy from Sunny Corner farm

Summaries from previous years....
Everything I wrote about chickens in 2013
Beef and dairy cattle posts in 2013

Cattle for beef and dairy - 2012 Update
Chickens for meat and eggs - 2012 update




By the way, my chicken eBook is now available if you want to know more about backyard chickens and using chicken tractors.  More information over at the chicken tractor ebook blog.  Or you can get it directly from my shop on Etsy (.pdf format), or Amazon Kindle or just send me an email eight.acres.liz {at} gmail.com.




What's the eBook about?
Chickens in a confined coop can end up living in an unpleasant dust-bowl, but allowing chickens to free-range can result in chickens getting into gardens and expose them to predators.

 A movable cage or “chicken tractor” is the best of both options – the chickens are safe, have access to clean grass, fresh air and bugs. Feed costs are reduced, chickens are happier, and egg production increases. 

 But how do you build a chicken tractor? What aspects should be considered in designing and using a chicken tractor effectively? In this eBook I aim to explain how to make a chicken tractor work for you in your environment to meet your goals for keeping chickens. 

I also list what I have learnt over 10 years of keeping chickens in tractors of various designs and sizes, from hatching chicks, through to butchering roosters.


Reviews of the Design and Use a Chicken Tractor




You might also be interested in my series on getting started with homestead dairy
Labels:

Comments

  1. Kev AlvitiDecember 9, 2014 at 8:39 AM

    I've finally finished fencing so I can get some more stock (although I've got 6 gates to hang first!). Some good posts there!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thanks, I appreciate all your comments, suggestions and questions, but I don't always get time to reply right away. If you need me to reply personally to a question, please leave your email address in the comment or in your profile, or email me directly on eight.acres.liz at gmail.com

Popular posts from this blog

The new Eight Acres website is live!

Very soon this blogspot address will automatically redirect to the new Eight Acres site, but in the meantime, you can check it out here .  You will find all my soaps, ebooks and beeswax/honey products there, as well as the blog (needs a tidy up, but its all there!).  I will be gradually updating all my social media links and updating and sharing blog posts over the next few months.  I'm very excited to share this new website with you!
4 comments
Read more

Farm update - August 2017

Its been cold this month, and very nice to have the fire going every night.  Here's a photo of my boy in his cape, great for late night woofing at things.  Most of July we were either preparing for the butcher to come or putting meat away.  Its always a big job, but its only once a year, and its all done now.  My lovely neighbour came over to help, so it was fun to have the company and work together.  Taz was a champion once again as she helped us to move cattle in the yards ready to load for the market.  Gus is not at that level yet and had to stay home (he cries when he gets left behind, but he just gets in the way and scatters the cattle).  We have had a few sprinkles of rain here and there, but also plenty of cold nights, so the grass is mostly dead and dry, waiting for the warmer weather to revive our summer-active pasture. Gus in his cape Taz after she helped to move cattle Food and cooking It was all about beef in July and we are v...
2 comments
Read more

Neem oil for insect control

** Sign up for my weekly email updates here , you will find out more about soap and our farmlife, straight to your inbox, never miss a post!  New soap website and shop opening soon.... I also make neem soap, neem insect repellent and neem salve, all available in my Etsy shop .** A few weeks ago now I was watering the garden just after dark, torch in one hand, hose in the other, when I was attacked by a swarm of mosquitoes (mozzies).  I could feel them biting me, but there wasn’t much I could do with both hands in use and I really needed to finish watering.  When I came inside I found that I had several bites on each leg between the top of my gumboots and the bottom of my shorts.  These proceeded to itch, swell and annoy me for several days. At this time of year, when the mozzies start biting, as I do have such a terrible reaction to the bites, I usually reach for my bottle of conventional insect repellent, typically containing DEET (N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamid...
21 comments
Read more