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My goal for my hobby farm is to have it pay for itself. I plan to do this by 1) cutting costs and 2) selling things I make or gather from my animals. This is actually not as hard as it sounds. On average, per month my goats cost less than $3.25 each to keep, and my chickens are free to keep, thanks to egg sales each month. 

Animal Husbandry

Raising a few animals on your own hobby farm can be so rewarding. They can provide you with manure for the garden, high quality meat, milk, and eggs for less money, plus some to sell. You'll have the opportunity to learn skills of feeding, breeding, and possibly butchering livestock. You'll get the chance to learn old skills like cheese or even soap making. 

Each hobby farm is going to be different, and each family has different strengths, needs and interests. Right now we only keep goats and chickens on our farm, but this is enough to provide meat, milk and eggs for the two of us, plus some to sell.

This is where I'll be documenting my search for affordable and sustainable animal husbandry practices.

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On Our Farm

Updates and lessons learned about keeping animals and hobby farming.

​3 Months with Chickens
Saying Goodbye To Our Sheep
Tripling Our Hobby Farm
​
R.I.P. Fiona 
​***
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Frugal Farming

Different things I've tried to lower the cost of keeping animals.

Alternative Goat Feed
Sustainable Chickens
Alternative Chicken Feed
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Farm Finance

Financial analysis... real costs and benefits of the animals on our farm.

September Hobby Farm Update
August Hobby Farm Update
July Hobby Farm Update
June Hobby Farm Update
​May Hobby Farm Update
​April Hobby Farm Update
​March Hobby Farm Update
February Hobby Farm Update

​Can You Save Money With Chickens?

Economics of Raising Dairy Goats

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