​Goats

​Both goats are doing great. Adi is growing a shiny new coat of hair, presumably for winter already. She is currently giving about 1 1/3 cups of milk per milking; just over one pint per day. I am going to continue milking through the month of August, and then start milking once a day for the first 1-2 weeks in September. After that I'll dry her off until breeding in early/mid October.

​Chickens

I have good news and bad news from the chicken department. The good news is that none of the hens or roosters died. Another good point is that my broody hen finally hatched out her chick. The bad news is that the chick died a few days later. :( We never did figure it out, as the chick didn't drown and wasn't attacked by a predator. Our best guess is that it died of heat or got stepped on by the goat. That was kind of sad, because I thought the broody hen would take better care of her chick without my assistance.

​The chickens are laying between 6-9 eggs per day, and I am feeding the the same $0.66/day in feed. If I weren't selling any of the eggs, my cost per dozen would be $1.06. This month, egg sales paid for feed costs with an additional $7.00 profit. So all of the eggs we ate were free.


Ducks

​I finally got around to butchering my two remaining male ducks. Hubs helped. This was a huge burden off my shoulders! I had forgotten a few key points on how to do it, so the processing took a LOT longer than it should have. I did freeze the body and drumsticks separately because they are best cooked at different temperatures (something I learned from my first duck). I still have two roosters to go, but those are easy enough to do on my own.

My one remaining female duck is recovering from some kind of foot infection (it's not bumble foot/staph) and is currently not laying eggs.


Strawberries

For those who don't know, I put in a 300-plant strawberry patch this spring in order to sell strawberries at a roadside stand next year. This income will hopefully replace the need for farmers markets. Not much is going on with the strawberry patch. We set up a sprinkler system earlier in the month that can be easily moved around to wherever it's needed. Ideally I'd have put in drip irrigation, but for the amount of plants we have I don't think it would make sense financially. Plus the patch is not established yet, and it would be a pain to till/weed around the hoses.

Besides watering once a week or so, I've also been tilling between the rows and weeding between individual plants. Actually, Hubs has been tilling and I have been weeding. We till once every 3-4 weeks (it takes about 30 minutes) and I weed after everything has been tilled. The first weeding sessions didn't take all too long because the plants were smaller. I could use a hoe for most of the weeds, and then just hand weed right up close to the strawberry plants. Now that the plants are bigger and sending out runners, the hoe is counter-productive and almost everything must be done by hand. After the last tilling, it took me between 5-10 hours (a week's worth of afternoons) to weed the whole patch.

​There are a few empty spots in the patch where plants died. I am going to fill in these spots with strawberry plants from my old garden patch, which I'll probably till and reseed with a cover crop this fall.


Other Garden-Related Items

This year I tried to use some of my garden space to save money on hobby farm expenses. I grew a patch of mangel beets for animal fodder, and also grew some new herbs to use in soaps and other products to sell. As far as I can tell, both the herbs and beets were a success. The seed packets (all of which were from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds) only cost a few dollars and paid for themselves in the first year. I am saving seed from the calendula so I won't have to buy it again.


Book of the Month: The Bio-Integrated Farm

I read one farm-related book this month on permaculture; The Bio-Integrated Farm (affiliate link) by Shawn Jadrnicek. I was almost surprised to see it available through the interloan system already, since it was just published in March of last year. Borrowing from the library was a good frugal move because the book costs $25.00- used- on Amazon. Unfortunately I had to return the information-packed book before I finished it, but nonetheless I picked up a few great ideas for my chickens in particular. A lot of the information on ponds and greenhouses was fascinating to read about, but far beyond my budget and mechanical ability to implement.
​

Summer Goals

There are a few more things on my hobby farm to-do list before the summer is over. I'd like to use up all of my freezer fat to make soap and also butcher those two roosters. In the garden department, I'd like to till my old strawberry patch and move some of my old herbs (sage, 2016 lavender plant and thyme) into raised beds. Lastly, I'd like to make some revisions to my farmers market book (affiliate link) and re-release it.


Profit & Loss

Expenses:
Shelled corn- $22.00
Layer mash- $22.00
Total expenses: $44.00

Income: 
Books- $10.80
Eggs- $27.00 
Babysitting- $25.00
Total income: $62.80

Net profit: $18.80
Year-to-date net profit: $137.69

So, I cheated on income this month. Instead of doing a farmers market, I just threw in some babysitting money and pretended that was "farm" income. It was a lot easier than actually doing a farmers market. 

My original plan this year was to do one day of market per month in order to support the hobby farm. Ideally, I would net $40.00 each time and this would more than pay for farm expenses. However, my June market was a complete bust, and I actually lost money after working 10+ hours. It was very discouraging and made me re-think doing any more markets this year. In addition, there are some big changes coming for us in October and I decided it would be wise to spend my free time preparing for those instead of earning a few more dollars for the homestead.

I thought I would be drastically behind this month without the babysitting subsidy, but before the month was over I sold several dozen more eggs than anticipated. In addition, I received some royalties from my farmers market book (which is the one I count toward "farm income"). So in the end, I would have *almost* broke even without the babysitting money. But I left it in there because an $18.00 net profit looks good on the books. :)

That's about it for this month! Hope you guys had a great July.
-Bethany

 Chickens & Ducks

Fail #1 on the farm this month was a raccoon infestation. We had one chicken die of old age, and at least one chicken plus one duck get eaten by raccoons. There was also a good amount of feed wasted/eaten by raccoons. Thankfully the raccoon traps have been doing their job and we have not lost any more animals to critters. I started tying down my trash can lids (I use tin trash cans for feed storage) so there hasn't been more feed wasted, either.

Right now we have 22 birds; three ducks (a female and two males), three roosters and 16 laying hens. I'm feeding four pounds of feed per day ($0.66) and getting about 11 eggs per day. According to the cost of feed, I'm paying about $0.72/dozen for eggs. For the amount of birds we have, I'm impressed that the chickens are still laying as well as they were this Spring. It proves that most of the birds that died over the past few months were NOT laying eggs.

And for the GOOD NEWS: Broody hens! I have two broody hens right now. One is just a nuisance (she switches nests and makes me fight for all the eggs), but I think the other broody hen will be successful. Both broodies are bantams or bantam cross-breeds. My successful broody hen is actually in with Adi, away from the other chickens (she and one rooster prefer to be with the goats). She is a bantam/barred rock cross and was hen-raised herself. The nuisance broody hen still prefers to be in the chicken coop. This creates a problem because she's not sitting on HER OWN eggs, but on whatever pile she can find. That is, the eggs I want to eat for breakfast every morning. I've tried moving her over with the goats, but she always finds a way to get back in with the others. I'm going to keep trying to separate her.


Goats

The goats are doing well. Adi's milk production has gone down a little, and now she's giving about three cups per day. I'm feeding her about 1.5 pounds of grain per day ($0.21), so my cost for a gallon of goat's milk is about $1.12 per gallon. That's really cheap for specialty milk, but it's technically free for me because I sold those cute little goat kids to pay for mama's feed.

It's important that I keep track of milk production and feed consumption so I know when to stop milking Adi. As long as she's milking, I'm going to feed as much grain as she will eat while she's on the stand. Eventually it will get to the point where I'm feeding 1/2-1 lb. per day, but getting less than a gallon of milk per week. At that point it's not really worth milking her anymore. 

I have a limited budget in 2017 for goat feed (not counting on farmers market to cover costs), so I'll need to be careful about how long I keep milking. When I stop milking I can cut back on grain, eventually stopping it completely until winter. This will obviously help with expenses for a few months. Last year I stopped milking in October I believe, but this year I may quit earlier.

Barry is doing great on his little field adjacent to Adi's. He has been eating primarily pasture since Adi's kids were born at the beginning of April, and he spends his days happily munching away. I'll start feeding him grain in October when I put the two goats back together.


Strawberry Patch

My market strawberry patch is doing pretty well. Except a bunch of deer have been eating my plants!!! My in-laws (brother-in-law has some plants beside mine) put up a fence and some scarecrows in an effort to scare away the deer. I think it's working.

I have been keeping strawberry expenditures separate from hobby farm expenses because it's a separate project. However, it WILL be replacing farmers market income next year, so I thought I should write about it in the hobby farm post. I paid $54.00 for plants, with the expectation that I would pick strawberries for the neighbor lady and earn enough to cover the plants. I ended up earning $60.00, so I put the excess amount into the P & L "income" category.


Farmers Market Fail

My final fail of the month was a Thursday night market that I signed up for. I went through my usual routine, bringing all of my usual items and setting up the booth as usual, but in a different location at a different time. I ended up selling less than half of what I usually sell, even though my costs to attend the market were higher because it was supposed to be a "special" market.

Normally when I do the P&L, I count on baked goods to cover market expenses (booth fee, gas, etc.). Then whatever I make on farm products (eggs, soap, fiber, books, etc.) can go straight into my farm income. This has worked well for every market so far. However, for the Thursday market I actually LOST $4.75 when all was said and done. I wasn't sure how to put this on the P&L. What I ended up doing was listing farm income as usual (I like to know how many bars of soap, etc. that I sell each year) and then listing what costs the baked goods didn't cover as an "expense".

For those of you interested in doing farmers markets, I've started a special playlist on my Youtube channel. If you want to watch me work my tail off to earn $0.00, see the Youtube video below:

Profit & Loss

Income:
Eggs- $24.00
Milk products- $10.00
Strawberry picking- $6.00
Total income: $40.00

Expenses
Layer mash- $22.00
Farmers market costs- $24.48
Goat mineral- $8.99
Boots- $14.84
Total expenses: $68.96

Net profit: ($28.96)
Year-to-date net profit: $118.89

I guess we've started going backward in profit again! Time to start pinching pennies.


Cutting Costs on the Farm

One way I saved money this month was by using a 10% off coupon at TSC for boots and goat mineral. Total savings were only $2.50, but all I had to do was time my purchases with the coupon (which comes out in a mailer every three months). I did this last time when I stocked up on goat feed. 

Some other things I've done are 1) tried my hand at making silage with grass cuttings... we'll see how that turns out this winter! I've also 2) started growing some mangels (large beets) for animal fodder. I am going to do another crop of beets this fall.

I am very happy with the goat costs. Currently, feed is only costing $0.15 per day. It's the chicken expenses that really add up. Right now I'm feeding 20 birds two lbs. of layer mash and two lbs. of corn at a total cost of $0.66 per day. This is actually a little less than conventional wisdom suggests (4 oz. per bird). 

$0.66/day x 30 days= $19.80 per month on chicken feed

Thankfully I can count on $8.00-$12.00 every month from egg sales, but that is still cutting it close when you count "other" farm costs that are bound to come up. Projects for the coming months will include processing a few more chickens/ducks and researching more free chicken feed ideas. 

Til next time,
-Bethany

​May was a great month on our little hobby farm. 

Chickens & Ducks

Ducks: All of my ducks here are doing fine. Right now we have two females and two males. I intend to butcher the male ducks this month (like I say every month...). I think one of the female ducks may have gone broody, so I've set four duck eggs under her to see if they hatch. If not... I'm out four duck eggs.

Speaking of broody... the duck eggs I gave to my brother last month have now hatched!! Our fall hatching experiment was a total bust (half of the 20 eggs were fertilized, and only two eggs hatched out of those). This spring I gave him 22 eggs to hatch. ALL of the eggs were fertilized, and 16 of them hatched!! Two died after hatching, but the rest are still growing and being happy little ducklings. They are the cutest things EVER!!!

​So, moral of the story is to always hatch duck eggs in the spring and not in the fall. Also, I think having a duck pond for my birds to mate in was a factor in getting more fertilized eggs. What I LOVE about this is that the 20 fertilized eggs were produced by only three ducks- my two females and one male. Theoretically, my brother could raise the 14 ducks, sell 11 and keep one male/two females over the winter. Unlike chickens, Pekin ducks are a truly dual-purpose bird. The females are consistent egg layers and both sexes produce a good amount of meat. Ducklings, duck eggs and duck meat are worth more than chicken (if you can find a market for them). So the success of this hatching experiment was a BIG win for both my brother and I!

Chickens: We had one chicken die this month of natural causes, and one rooster died of natural consequences. About a week ago, one of our barred rock roosters started chasing me around. Last Tuesday, while I was milking my goat, he flew up onto my back and launched a full-on attack. I decided that was going to be his last attack. That very afternoon I boiled some water in a big pot, got out my boning knife and made him supper. No rooster attacks since.

As much as I hate butchering chickens five or six at a time, doing one wasn't too bad. It took about 45 minutes from start to finish (yes, I'm really slow at it). Plus, I felt better knowing that I wouldn't be bothered at milking the next day. By butchering the non-productive rooster, I not only saved on feed, but also extracted an extra $5.00 worth of meat from my farm. This could technically go in the "income" line of my P&L (because it's money I saved on groceries) but I'm going to leave it off for now (see below about my "value" spreadsheet I'm making!).

As for egg production, the chickens are laying an average of 10 eggs per day. I'm giving them $0.66 worth of feed every day, which means my cost for a dozen eggs is $0.79. In order for the poultry to be self-supporting, I need to be selling 11 dozen eggs per month, or just over three dozen per week. In May, the chickens more than paid for themselves because I was able to sell some eggs at the farmers market. In months that I DON'T sell at market, though, I will need to bring in more out-the-door sales.  


Goats

As of May 31st, all of the goat kids are sold and happy with their new owners. I did the castration all by myself (first time ever) and it went great. CDT booster shots went great. The only complaint I have about my goat kids this year is that some of the horns grew back a little. I thought I burned them with the disbudding iron pretty hard, but apparently not hard enough. Next year I am going to do it sooner and maybe hold the iron on just a touch longer.

​Adi and Barry, the mama and papa goats, are doing great. Their pastures are almost getting TOO tall with grass, which is better than not having enough, I suppose. Now that the kids are gone, I've been milking twice a day and getting over a quart of milk per day. Because the goats are self-supporting (thanks to goat kid sales), those two gallons of milk per week are FREE to us, for however long they last.

Right now I'm making a spreadsheet to determine how many dollars worth of food I'm getting from different hobby farm items (eggs, milk, meat, produce, etc.). It's neat because I can punch in my morning "haul" and see exactly how many dollars I saved. I can also punch in how much time I spent, and then see what my hourly wage was. This is helpful because it will show me which products are most worth my time to produce, and which ones aren't.


Profit & Loss

Expenses:
Shelled corn- $20.00

Income:
Eggs- $33.00
Milk products- $25.00
Goat kid sales- $170.00
Baked goods (market)- $13.36
Fiber- $7.00
Total income: $248.36

Net profit: $228.36
Year-to-date profit: $147.85

Yay, we have actually cleared a profit for the year! I have a feeling that the rest of 2017 will not have so much income, so I am working hard to cut costs down to the bare minimum. For June, my goals are to make more goat's milk soap and also butcher the male ducks and two more roosters. I still aim to do one farmers market per month, weather and schedule permitting, and that will give a boost to the income. 


New Sources of Hobby Farm Income

Slowly, I am hoping to shift hobby farm income from farmers market to other things:

1. Soap sales (online and off)- Soap is something I enjoy doing, doesn't cost very much, and I can do a majority of the work when I have extra time. I also believe in the product and know there is a market for it. I will probably try Etsy again, and might do some Christmas or other craft shows, just to see if it's worth my time.

2. Roadside vegetable/fruit sales- for those of you who don't know, I put in 300 strawberry plants this year and next year hope to sell them at a roadside stand. Even though this venture is a lot of work, a majority is work that I can do whenever I want to. It's also family/baby friendly and there is the potential to make several thousand dollars per year doing it, which would MORE than pay for my little hobby farm. Plus, it is outdoor, physical work that will keep me in shape.

3. Online book sales. I know from experience that a well-written, interesting book can bring in at least $10.00/month in royalties, and twice that if you do a little marketing. And that's AFTER the initial launch (my launch months have brought in anywhere from $40.00 to $200.00+). I really enjoy writing/researching/projects, and again, this is something I can do in my spare time. The residual income every month is really nice, because all I have to do after the book is published is watch money come into my bank account. $10.00 per month doesn't sound like a lot, but over the lifetime of the book it really adds up. If you have several books making $10.00 or more per month, it can be a fantastic little side gig. Plus, did I mention that I love writing?

Hopefully these other pursuits will bring in more money per hour than the farmers market. I've more or less enjoyed doing markets thus far, and they are a good backup plan, but at this point I am trying to do some of the prep work and shift gears a little for 2017. I'll do one more market in June, and then after that I am going to change markets and only go weather/schedule permitting. 

Til next time,

-Bethany

What a stellar month for my hobby farm! My goat had her kids (you can read about that here), we sold the goat kids, and I signed up for farmers market. Plus, I didn't spend a whole lot.

Chickens
This month I cleaned up the chicken pasture. It is amazing how much junk ends up out there over the winter- random pieces of wood, debris from the bunny pen, extra water containers, pallets. I cleaned out all of the junk so that there is more room for pasture to grow. I also planted some raspberry plants along the fence in hopes that my birds can benefit from the berries (or I can... whatever!). When the canes start to multiply in a few years, I can let the goats loose in that pasture and they will clean it up. In the meantime, I want to try making this a permanent (permaculture) chicken pasture/garden.

And... I have begun the process of chicken-weeding to determine who is laying eggs and who isn't. To do this, I've been separating one chicken per week and putting it in a dog kennel (with food and water) in where the goats sleep. My first chicken laid an egg on the second day and passed the test with flying colors. I marked her with a yellow piece of string around one leg and put a new chicken in the kennel. Each chicken has one week to lay an egg, and if none appears I will assume that she is ready for the stock pot. That way I will eliminate the non-producing chickens from my flock.

Already I can see the fruits of my "weeding" labors. My chicken feed is lasting longer. The chickens stopped eating all of their feed, so I cut it back from six pounds per day to five pounds. We bought some feed in March, and I expect it to last through May at least.

Ducks
One of my ducks died this month (he was sick from being pecked on by the other ducks). That was a bummer. Looking back, I should have separated him and his incubated brother from the other ducks when I noticed they were getting pecked on. And looking farther back, I probably introduced them to the flock too early. Perhaps if I had waited longer, they would have incorporated better.

I saved almost two dozen fertilized duck eggs for my brother to incubate (don't worry, I won't be raising them!), and now the two remaining male ducks are slated for the chopping block. But until that happens, they are happily munching grass and making a mess in their water. Speaking of which... I found my much-coveted duck pond! It was a kiddie pool that cost $2.00 at a garage sale. My ducks absolutely love it, and I love it too because I don't have to change their water every day. Only every other day. :/

While I would like to get more ducks, I am going to wait. Eventually I would like to have a 50/50 chicken and duck flock. I like the ducks because they lay big eggs and don't scratch up the grass like chickens do. But for now I need to get rid of some roosters and non-laying hens.

Goats
Kidding and all that follows was 100% easier this year than last year. Dehorning, for one, was much easier. Because all the kids were male, we disbudded (with the iron I already bought) at four days. I wasn't as nervous/newbie as last year, so I got a nice copper ring around the bud with no slipping or other mishaps. So far I've not noticed any horn regrowth, which was a big problem last year with all of the kids.

Training/socializing has also gone 100%  better. I made it a point to hold/cuddle each goat for 3-5 minutes every day until they were two weeks old, with only a few missed days. It was time consuming, yes, but I'd rather do that than bottle feed. At two weeks, I started separating them from Adi at night, so I could milk her in the morning. Before I let them back into the pasture with her, I feed each kid a single raisin. They love the raisins, and they love me. They actually follow me around now! Last year the kids would walk up to me if I sat still for several minutes, but would run away as soon as I reached out for them. This year is totally different.

One new thing for us this year was giving vaccinations. It was my first time ever doing shots, and it went... okay. So far I haven't noticed any lumps, but perhaps I didn't look hard enough. As far as cost, my CD&T from last year was still good (I bought it but didn't use it), and I just had to buy needles and syringes. These were a couple dollars. I decided to do shots because it increases the sell-ability by a lot for only a few dollars per goat. Speaking of sell-ability...

ALL OF THE GOAT BABIES ARE SOLD! They are still at my house, but both buyers have come to the farm and put deposits down for their goats. Last year I waited until the goats were ready to leave the farm before I put them on Craigslist. It took at least a month to sell them, and I didn't get as much money as I had hoped. We had to weed through a lot of potential buyers and no-shows. This year Hubs suggested that I sell them early by just asking for a deposit. It worked like a charm; they sold in a single weekend! What a huge load off my chest. Just goes to show that sometimes husbands know best. :)

Adi is giving less milk than she did last year; about 2.5 - 3 cups per milking at this point (I am milking once a day). This is still enough for Hubs and I, but there won't be much extra, I'm guessing. Adi is five years old now, so probably not in her prime anymore. Still, she is a good little goat and I intend to keep her as long as possible.


Profit & Loss

Income:
Eggs- $37.00
Milk products- $10.00
Goat deposits- $65.00
Total: $112.00

Expenses:
Syringes & needles- $4.43
Duck pond- $2.00
Total: $6.43

Total net profit: $105.57
Year-to-date net profit: ($80.51)

Yay for some income this month! I was able to sell quite a few eggs, some soap, and of course the baby goats, even without any farmers market. Next month I've scheduled two weeks of farmers market, which I hope will bring in enough money to get my year-to-date net profit back to zero.

In June I'll receive the remaining $160.00 on the goats, which will be enough to support my little hobby farm through the summer at least. I don't expect to EARN a ton of money this year from my animals. I would like to make about $500.00 to buy some bees next year, but that money will probably not come from farmers markets.


A New Venture

In the next hobby farm update, I'll be sharing a new venture that I'm starting. There is a lot work involved, but the work is more aligned with my personality (less people, less traveling) and has five to ten times more earning potential than farmers markets. This year it will involve $100.00-$200.00 of monetary investment, but also some paid work/training that I hope will offset a little bit of the investment. We'll see!

Until next time,
Bethany

WE HAVE GOAT BABIES!!!

Goats: A Trio of Boys

Adi finally had her kids! Technically they were born in April (2nd), but I'm putting them in this update anyway. According to my calculations, Adi should have been due no later than March 15th. I waited and waited. Our trip to the DR for my SIL's wedding was fast approaching, and no sign of kids. I started to panic. What if she had the kids while we were gone?!? Who would take care of them? I felt bad asking the neighbors or friends to babysit my pregnant goat, let alone handle labor and delivery on their own.

In the end, I asked my parents to come and do chores, checking on her twice a day and possibly taking care of the kids if they decided to show up. I printed out a list of bare-bones instructions and crossed my fingers that all would go well. And yes, I prayed for my goats. That seems like such a silly thing to bother God with, but it was weighing heavy on my mind and I needed to focus on other things beside worry.

The kids were born a day before we got back, and my parents did a fantastic job keeping them warm and dry and healthy. My mom has dealt with quite a few sheep births (and some bad ones, at that), so I knew she would be the best person to take care of the babies. Plus she loves me... only someone who really loves you is willing to spend the night and check on your goat at 3:00 am. I was so thankful that my parents could step in during my desperate situation.

Adi surprised us with THREE babies! There were actually four, but one was a runt (weighed less than half of the others) and most likely stillborn. That number was a shock for me, because in previous years Adi has only had two kids. All four babies were bucks. I was a little dissappointed at first, but now I don't have to worry about registration, tattooing, keeping them separate from Barry (my buck) or selling them for a high price. 

To be honest, now I'm excited about my little passel of bucks. Three of them means I will get more experience in dehorning, "fixing" and giving shots, without the worry of ruining their sale value. I am going to try and wean them as quickly as possible, then sell them as pets first. If they don't sell as pets, an easy solution will be to raise them as meat goats and butcher in the fall. I won't make as much money this year (probably $50.00/goat max, IF I can sell them), but it will be a nice rest from the registration and hassle that came with girls last year. 


Chickens: Roosters are Not a Good Deal

Well, we finally did it: butchered some roosters! We actually ended up doing four roosters and a spent hen. After doing a little bit of math on the cost of poultry, I discovered that I have been losing major money on my non-laying birds. $1.24 per month does not sound like a lot, but when you have ten birds that aren't laying eggs, it adds up over the course of a year. More birds create more work in addition to more expense.

One discovery I made is that roosters are a terrible deal. About half of the ones we butcher have less meat than a stewing hen, even though they cost the same amount to raise. If you get a free rooster and butcher it right away, it might be a good deal. But if you keep them around like I do, they are just a giant money pit. In addition, when you have too many roosters they just pick on the hens, make noise and become a general nuisance. I figured out that if we factor in a meat/bones value of $5.00 per bird, I would be loosing $2.48 on every rooster that I raise to butcher at 6 months (and let's be realistic- most laying breeds would not be ready to butcher in that time). That being said, it's TOTALLY not worth my money to be raising roosters for meat. They are also more difficult to butcher because of small hips, and with no meat on them anyway, even a free adult rooster is a toss-up if you value your time.

Over winter, the chickens really dug up their pasture. My goal this year is to get their numbers down enough (and possibly reseed the pasture) so my chicken grass can be sustainable. I want them as free range as possible, not just in a "run" of dirt yard. According to my spreadsheet, I only need five young (1-3 years) laying hens per person in order to get free eggs by selling 50% of all that I collect. So my goal this year is to get as close to that ideal as possible without spending a lot of money or wasting the birds I already have. I am hoping to butcher several birds per month over the summer in order to meet this goal. Another pasture-conserving idea I had was to slowly replace 50% of my chicken flock with ducks. Ducks seem to be more consistent layers, plus they don't scratch up the grass like my chickens do. If I have to replace the water every day for two ducks, I might as well do it for five ducks. They only eat a little more than a chicken, plus the eggs are much larger and male pekin ducks (the kind we have) actually store enough meat and fat to be worth butchering. However, I have not done the exact math on raising male ducks; maybe that is a project for next month.


Profit & Loss

Income:
Eggs- $14.00
Books- $6.64 
Total Income: $20.64

Expenses:
Layer Mash- $44.00
Corn- $20.00
Goat feed- $21.03
Total expenses- $85.03

Net profit: -$121.69

Year-to-date Net Profit: -$186.08

​
Looking Forward

I am very excited about the month of April. I have more energy now to put into my hobby farm (read why in my next newsletter!) as far as cutting costs and increasing value are concerned. I'll be able to start milking Adi in a few weeks, which means fresh milk for us, plus the weather is getting warmer with more foraging and gardening opportunities. Now that our poultry flock has been cut significantly, feed consumption will be lower even though egg production will remain the same. It's also time to start signing up for farmers markets, which is super exciting!

Next month I expect to double income and have very few feed expenses, if any. That means I can work on getting my year-to-date net profit back to zero. Yay!!

Til next time,
-Bethany

February was an interesting month here. Things are starting to pick up a little bit.

Chickens

During the thaw, my chickens (actually, half I was just chicken-sitting for) really started to lay eggs. I got big eggs, small eggs, blue eggs, and even duck eggs again! This made me very happy. At one point I was getting 15 eggs per day. At this point I am watching to see how much egg production goes down. Depending on how many eggs I get from my own chickens, I may begin selling eggs to out-the-door customers soon.

One problem I ran into this month was leg infections. The chickens I was babysitting had been marked with spiral leg bands. Toward the end of the month, I noticed one of the roosters limping. Upon further inspection, the leg band was somehow causing infection in that leg. It was almost like the leg had grown over the band! I removed the band (which was pretty well lodged) and then fed the roo some garlic for a few days to help with the infection. After about two days, he was walking fine again.

About a week later, I noticed one of the hens limping. Sure enough, the leg with the band was hot and a little swelled up. This band had not lodged into the leg as much, so it came out easier and I just let the hen go. I decided to look for any more limping chickens, and sure enough I found another rooster hopping around on one leg.

The second rooster's swollen leg was HUGE, and a big black scab had formed OVER the back of his leg where the spiral band was. I didn't feel prepared to tackle this one on my own, so I took it up to the shop and Hubs helped me with it. He used some pliers to pry part of the band away from the leg, and then he used wire cutters to cut a piece of the band off. Then, pulling on one end with the pliers, he was able to pull the remaining band through the scab to get it off. We were both surprised at how well the rooster handled such a procedure.

I think the spiral bands worked okay for the smaller-legged chickens, but for the older hens and in particular the roosters, perhaps they were just too tight or constricting. I don't know.


Goats

Adi is fast approaching her due date, so I'm keeping an eye on her. On the last day of February I noticed a bit of mucus/discharge coming out the back. In 2016, this happened a couple weeks before the kidding. Her udder is starting to fill up, but it's nowhere near the size it needs to be. So I am going to sit tight for a couple more weeks and see what happens.


Profit & Loss

Note here: I've decided to count any farm-related book sales/royalties as hobby farm income. This is part of my transition away from farmers markets and toward easier streams of income such as online sales. I still plan on going to markets this year, but only once a month. In future years, I'm hoping that book sales will give a year-round income (however small). It is one more thing I can use to pay for the hobby farm.

Income:
Books- $3.32

Expenses:
Layer mash: $66.00
Corn: $30.00
Total expenses: $96.00

Net profit: $(92.68)
Year-to-date net profit: $(121.68)

Note: In January I just tacked on my (negative) net profit to 2016's positive net profit. However, after looking over my records, I think it would be more informative to start the year at $0.00 and see how everything progresses from there. Otherwise I might get to the end of the year and think, "Wow, I made $200.00!" when that money was actually made in 2016, and 2017 was a negative year.

So far, then, my hobby farm is $121.68 in the hole. $35.00 of that went toward goat hay, and the rest was spent solely on chicken feed. In January and February, the chickens were eating $1.70 worth of feed every day. And toward the end of February that wasn't terrible, considering the fact that they were laying over a dozen eggs every day (bringing the price per dozen to $1.57). But it's still not that great of a deal. When the weather warms up, I'll be able to sell some eggs to offset the cost of feed.


Improving My Flock

One of my hens had some kind of ailment (I think it was an injury) that made her sick. She hardly ate, didn't walk right and just didn't move a whole lot. After a month of nursing in her own separate dog kennel/cage, she is back up on her feet and eating. One thing I haven't seen, though, is any eggs. So I have fed this chicken for the last month, and got nothing in return. I did the math, and for that one month it cost about $1.20 to feed her. That doesn't sound like much, but multiply it by eight or 10, and it's a lot to pay for the privilege of having a bunch of non-productive pets. 

One of my ideas to try in March (or whenever most of the chickens are laying) is to isolate one older chicken every week and see if she lays eggs or not. One egg and she is allowed to stay- no eggs and we might have chicken dinner. Who knows, I might be able to do a rooster every time I process a chicken, and then we can have twice as many chicken dinners and cut even more non-productive animals out of the flock. 

Chicken-sitting helped me realize how many more eggs are laid by a young bird than an old bird. I only bothered to get three or four new (young) birds last year, and the rest of my flock is older hens and roosters. Apart from processing the roosters (a task I love to put off until later), one way to have a more efficient flock would be to cull the older hens and then replace them with young hens. My brother has an incubator, so it would be very possible to selectively breed, and then incubate my own eggs in order to save money on new birds. That being said, I am currently doing a little research on what breeds would make the best dual-purpose meat birds and egg layers.

Til next time,
Bethany

Hi everyone! I know it's early to be doing a farm update. If you think this is early, I should tell you when I actually wrote this post- a week or so ago. Anyhow, the month is almost over so I will tell you how it is going so far.

Goats

The goats are happy and healthy. At the beginning of January I bought them some more hay. They've been happily munching and mulling around the pasture. I've also been giving them a little bit of my homemade tree hay for treats. 

Chickens & Ducks

The chickens and ducks are likewise doing great. I had two unfortunate chicken deaths this month. Otherwise, the hens have been basking in the recent winter thaw. I've been giving them kitchen scraps (like normal). Today I gave them a handful of biscuits that had gone bad. It was so fun to watch them chase each other around the yard with mouthfuls of biscuit.

Chicken-Sitting

During the month of January, I have been babysitting some chickens. Normally for me, farm-sitting involves traveling to the farm in question, but the family was going to be gone for more than a month. It would obviously be a pain for me to drive over there every day, so they put bands on the chickens' legs (to tell them apart from my hens) and brought them to my house. So far, my chickens and the others have been playing well together. 

December was another relatively quiet month on our hobby farm.

Goats
I continued feeding the goats a small amount of grain (half corn, half "sweet mix") and hay. 

Chickens
In the middle of December, it got very, very cold. I did have two chicken fatalities this month; both were older birds. I figured that some of my birds would die over the winter due to old age. One of my favorite hens, a little white bantam that I had named "Princess", was one of the chickens who died. So, that was a bummer. 

Ducks
My "baby" ducks grew up into adults. I've determined that the two ducks I hatched in September are drakes- male ducks. I was kind of hoping for girl ducks so I could hatch more ducklings this spring from their eggs. But I'll just have to be happy with boy ducks.

We cooked one of my ducks for Christmas Eve. The duck meat itself was pretty good; it tasted a lot like chicken, but all of the meat was dark instead of just the drumsticks. The breast meat turned out nice and tender, but the drumsticks were dry. I am going to try cooking the breasts and drumsticks separately the next time.

One thing I loved about cooking my duck? The FAT! There was so much of it. Unfortunately my bowl of fat tipped over and most of it ran down the top of the oven. But what little I did salvage smelled like potato chips. I can't wait to try cooking with it.

Rabbits
In the middle of December, my brother-in-law was in a car accident and hospitalized with broken ribs, a punctured lung and other minor injuries. Though he is now at home, he hasn't been able to take care of his bunnies. So I am the new bunny caretaker.

To make chores easier, Hubs and I moved the four bunnies into the feed room of my chicken coop. They each have their own "cubicle" that Hubs built out of scrap lumber. Right now, the rabbits are pretty low-maintenence and only need corn, water, and hay every day. BIL breeds and sells the baby rabbits as pets (I think they are Holland Lops), so like all of the other animals, the bunnies are non-producing this time of year.

Profit & Loss for December

Expenses:
Layer Mash- $93.60
Corn- $20.00
Oats- $3.00
Total Expenses: $116.60

Income:
Eggs- $6.00

Net Profit: -$114.60

Year-to-Date Net Profit: $318.62

We used more grain this month than I estimated. I was not as strict with the amounts due to the accident, extremely cold weather and Christmas, etc. Plus I used some corn for the bunnies. Next month I am going to re-calculate the amounts and also experiment with fodder. This will hopefully bring the cost down a little.

Another forthcoming expense is hay. At the time of this writing we still have two bales left, but will need to purchase 10-15 bales for 2017. This will set me back $50.00-$75.00. That expense, plus $80.00 per month for feed, will probably drain my little farm wallet dry just as money starts rolling in from eggs, baby animals and farmers market.

Overall Budget Report for 2016

Regardless of upcoming expenses, for my 2016 Overall Budget Report, I am going to call net profits for this year:

$318.62

Here are some other interesting tidbits for 2016:

Total recorded income for the year: $1166.37
This is "recorded" income. I was not consistent in how I recorded net vs. gross income in the blog posts, which is unfortunate. However, I know that I sold at least $1166.37 worth of goods at farmers markets and in out-the-door sales. Some of the things I sold were baked goods, soap, and eggs. I also sold some other things hit-or-miss from home. One big moneymaker was the two goat kids I sold in August for over $300.00.

Total recorded expenses: $1039.21
Wowza! I spent a lot of money on animal stuff in 2016. Recurring costs were things like goat mineral and feed/"sweet mix", shelled corn, layer mash, and/or hay.  Non-feed items I bought were:

Flea and lice powder- $6.49
Fiber processing- $65.00
ADGA Registration fees- $50.00
ADGA transfer fees: $12.00
Tattoo kit and dehormer- $122.90
Cattle panels- $60.07
Vet visit- $94.88
Bottle nipples $10.90
The Goatkeeper's Veterinary Book- $4.71
CDT vaccine: $6.99
Needles: $2.25
Syringes: $2.90
Green tattoo ink: $6.50
Goat collars: $9.00 ($3.00 each)
Trash cans to store feed: $40.00
Chicken watering nipples: $6.40
Herbal dewormer-: $28.17
Chick grower: $6.30
New chicks- $11.00
Light bulb for heat lamp: $2.99
Heat lamp- $8.99
Poultry watering cups- $5.99
Duck incubation- $20.00
Chick starter- $7.41
Gardening For Goats ebook- $1.99

If you are thinking about starting a hobby farm, that is a partial list of the things you will have to buy. It is not easy to break even with so many purchases!

Successful projects in 2016:

Owning Ducks
I bought two ducks at our county fair this year, and got a third duck from the owner of the first two. I loved having ducks around. They were pretty consistent egg layers and laid big, fat eggs. The butchering process was not too complex and rewarded me with gourmet meat and beautiful golden fat. Ducks are a nice addition to chickens, if you are willing to meet their water needs. The water cannot be kept inside the chicken coop, because ducks fling water all over the place. They also dirty the water, so it must be changed frequently. I have to change their water every day.

Farmers Market, Year 2
I made major improvements this year in the farmers market department. I made more money with less time involved. You can read about my second season here.

Selling Eggs
This was my first year with a sizeable amount of egg-laying chickens. I priced my eggs at $2.00 out-the-door and $3.00 farmers market, and had NO trouble selling them. I could have sold more eggs, if I had more. $2.00 per dozen was a break-even point for the chickens (that is, they paid for themselves at that price), and at $3.00 I could actually make extra money with the extra eggs (I did keep a dozen or more per week for us). I would highly reccommend egg selling for those of you who are trying to make the hobby farm pay for itself.


Failed projects:

Incubating Ducks
In August I tried incubating ducks, with a 10% hatch rate. Out of 20 hatching eggs, we hatched out two ducklings. The time spent hatching and nurturing two ducks was not worth it, especially when they turned out to be male ducks.

Fiber Goats
I tried keeping fiber goats in 2016. Ultimately, we did not have enough pasture to support the 5-6 goats, and I could not sell the fiber fast enough to pay for the herd. There were some breeding problems as well. I did send some of the fiber in to be processed, and it turned out great- but including the cost of shipping TO the fiber mill and gas to pick it up, processing was just under $100.00. 

If I had been able to sell the fiber for what it was worth ($8.00/oz.), minus the cost of processing I would have come out ahead $150.00+. Selling the kids from each doe (there were three) would have paid for the goats' upkeep. However, my goats had issues with breeding. Two out of three did get bred, but one died before she kidded. The last goat gave birth to one kid, but had a deformed udder. After having the vet out, I discovered that mama goat would not have any extra milk for me, plus it would be unwise to breed her in the future because of the udder defect.

So there I was, left with five goats (plus one kid) that I didn't have enough pasture for, couldn't breed, couldn't milk, and didn't want to butcher. Plus, I had a pile of luxury fiber that I couldn't sell and wasn't skilled enough to spin into a sellable product. In the end, I chose to sell the goats. It was a project that could work for someone else, but in my case it didn't.

Alternative Poultry Waterers
During the last year I also tried using chicken nipple waterers, and individual "cup" waterers. Not only did the chickens completely ignore these waterers, but the small parts froze during the winter. I needed an open water container for the ducks anyway, so it was a waste of time and money to make the alternative waterers.

Til next year,
-Bethany

November was a sleepy month for my little hobby farm.

Goats

Both of the goats are fat and happy. I was able to avoid feeing hay for most of the month because it was SO, so nice out and the grass just kept growing. Now I am feeding them hay leftover from last year, plus "treats" that I grew/harvested myself like overripe summer squash and sumac.

Chickens & Ducks

Egg production was up and down last month, depending on the weather. During the last few days it finally got cold and egg production went down to 2-4 eggs per day. The good news is that I consistently get one duck egg every day! That is pretty decent coming from two laying ducks. Especially when I realize that I have 20+ hens producing between 1-3 eggs every day.

My one new learning moment this month was: our first hawk attack.

One morning I went out to do chores, and saw that one of the roosters was out. That was kind of funny, because only the smallest of my hens can escape the pasture. As I got closer to the coop, I saw a large bird swooping about. I knew right away that it was a bird of prey. Fear struck my heart for my precious chickens!! I hurried to the gate, got inside, and sure enough, a big white hen was collapsed near the fence. The hawk was at it's side, but flew off when it saw me start to run over. I noticed, thankfully, that most of the other chickens were in the coop at this point even though it was a gorgeous, 70+ degree day.

The hen was dead, unfortunately. However, she was still warm and not stiff at all. I suspected that she had just been killed. I took her up to where Hubs was working, still scared for the rest of my chickens. We decided to do an emergency butcher session to see if the meat was salvagable. In the meantime, I locked the chickens inside the coop until I figured out what else to do.

We ended up eating the breast meat of our salvaged bird, but nothing else. The legs were very tough. The bird was older, and extremely fatty on the inside. She was probably too fat and old to run away from the hawk. In the future, I don't think we will try to salvage any more birds. It was a lot of work for a little bit of breast meat. I wouldn't recommend it, as most birds die more questionable deaths via sickness or attacks by dogs or raccoons, which are more likely to carry disease. In our case, the bird was killed by suffocation and it was a fresh kill, which is why we attempted the emergency processing. However, like I said before, the small amount of salvageable meat was not worth it.

For the rest of the day, I decided to let the goats in with the chickens. When it got colder (and I hadn't seen the hawk in a few days) I separated the chickens and goats again, and we haven't had a similar occurrence since... that I'm aware of, anyway.

Garden

Since there's not much to write about in the way of animals, I thought I'd write about my new garden pest discovery: grey aphids. These little bugs were all over my broccoli. Apparently they make their appearance during late summer or fall, which explains why I didn't notice them early in the year. Organic methods of control include insecticidal sprays (dish soap + water, etc.) and possibly row covers.

Profit & Loss

Expenses:
Goat mineral block- $4.04 (I used a 10% off coupon... be proud!)

Income:
Eggs- $8.00

Total Net Profit: $3.96

Year-to-date Net Profit: $429.22

Looking Forward: Bees or No Bees?

If all goes well, I'll end the year with a tidy $400.00 profit for my hobby farm. Of course, I'll spend $100.00-$200.00 in January and February for chicken feed and goat hay, with little or no income. I am still trying to decide if 2017 is the year for bees or not. I really want bees. The problem is that a bee setup cost around $500.00. I'm not sure if I am ready to invest that much of my hobby farm money for something that will not give an immediate return.

Cons of Getting Bees in 2017:
1. Less time to prepare and learn about bees. If I wait until 2018, I will have a whole year (and plenty of hobby farm money) to buy/read books about bees, visit bee farms and possibly attend a class or two.

2. Less time to shop around for deals and/or DIY some of the equipment. I know that Hubs could build some of the boxes, which would save money. I'm sure there are other ways to save on individual supplies as opposed to buying a kit. If I got bees this year, I would just buy a kit.

3. More cushion in the budget. At the end of 2017, I will have a larger chunk of "investment money". This means that I could use 100% "farm money" to pay for the bees (and still have extra left) instead of subsidizing the bees with our personal money*.

Pros of Getting Bees in 2017:
1. The earlier I get bees, the faster I will get honey... for a long time. After the initial investment of equipment, the bees will support themselves and not require more money (unless they die, but replacement bees are nowhere near $500.00).

2. I don't plan on getting more animals this year. That means I'll have more time to dedicate toward the bees. Who knows what could happen if I waited that might prevent me from having the time to do bees?

3. I just really want bees. Sometimes the best way to learn something is to jump in and do it. If you keep making excuses, "educating yourself" and whining about lack of funds, you end up never doing it.

*Note: money is not tight for us, so I could easily afford to get the bees. It's just the principles of frugality and a hobby farm supporting itself that I like to uphold.

What do you think? What would you do if you were in my shoes? 

It's deer season here in Michigan. Hubs is an on-again, off-again hunter, and I've shot exactly one deer in the last six years. "I like hunting when I get something," says Hubs. Otherwise we are not crazy about sitting in the stand waiting for the right doe or buck to come into our sights.

Today I'm going to do a little exposé of how frugal (or not) hunting really is. I'm going to use actual numbers from our actual hunting experience this year. Then at the end, I'll go over some things you can do to save even more money on hunting.


Tallying the Cost

First, we'll add up all of our financial investment into this little project.

Gun: $0.00 (Hubs borrowed my dad's shotgun)
License: $23.00 ($11.00 base license + $12 antlerless tag)
Slugs: $1.82 (2 shots at $0.91 per shot)

Total cost: $24.82


How Much We Actually Saved

Hubs and I would normally pay about $2.00/lb. for red meat (ground beef in a 20 lb. roll). This is the price I will use to calculate our savings.

Savings: $82.00 (41 pounds x $2.00)
Savings minus $24.82 = $57.18


Hourly Wage & ROI

This is where things get fun. Our return on financial investment was 130%.

To calculate the hourly wage, we must divide the savings ($57.18) by the number of hours spent hunting (3) and processing (6.5). 

$57.18 divided by 9.5 = $6.02 per hour


How to Make Hunting More Frugal

There are a few things you can do to improve your return on investment and hourly wage here.

1. Shoot two deer instead of one. While a tag must be purchased for every deer you shoot, the base license only needs to be purchased once. For every deer you shoot, the cost will go down. 

First deer: $24.82 ($0.61/lb.)
Second deer: $19.32 ($0.47/lb.)
Third deer: $13.48 ($0.33/lb.)

2. Be a better shot. Someone who shoots and kills the deer with one shot is getting a better deal than the guy who shoots all over the place and only gets one deer, or worse- doesn't bring home anything at all. Plus, shooting a deer in multiple or incorrect locations (like the butt, for example) will just make it harder to butcher and ruin good meat, to say nothing of making the deer miserable.


3. Be faster at processing. Hubs and I are not the fastest butchers ever. For every hour of processing time that is eliminated, your hourly wage goes up.

10 hours processing: $5.72 per hour
8 hours processing: $7.15 per hour
6 hours processing: $9.53 per hour

Note: Hubs pointed out to me that some people actually enjoy hours spent in the deer stand. Not every hour is equal in value. If you hunt on the weekends, for example, it might be worth $5.72 per hour when you would otherwise just be sleeping or watching TV. If you have to give up a morning of work, though, it is probably not worth the time to hunt.

Note #2: If you pay someone to do the butchering, you might as well buy your meat from the store. In our area, butchering facilities charge between $70.00 and $80.00 for a single deer. This would easily drive our cost over $2.00 per pound.


Is Hunting Worth It?

For us, it is still worth it. In November Hubs' business has started to slow down, so his time is worth less than it would be in April or September. I value my time at $4.00 per hour, so the processing was an improvement on my average hourly wage.

Lastly, venison is probably a healthier choice than run-of-the-mill ground beef from the store. That is because deer are free range and/or grass fed, although they like munching on GMO corn and other non-organic foodstuffs. The health factor alone may be enough to convince some families to hunt, regardless of savings, ROI or hourly wage involved. 


Thoughts About Killing Animals

Some of the worst feedback from Frugal Food has been about butchering. I guess not many people are willing to do it. "You would kill an animal with your own bare hands, just to save money?" Susie Homemaker looks at me with wide eyes as if I were involved in prostitution or drug dealing. She would keel over at the thought of killing an animal. But let's admit it- it's almost impossible to include red meat in a very tight budget. I have never seen red meat on sale for $0.40 per pound, ever. The skill of animal processing- whether that be something as small as a chicken or large as a cow- can provide families with good quality, affordable meat. I don't think it is anything to be scared of or freaked out at. I don't think it is anything to be ashamed of.

People who butcher animals are not weird or evil. It's not like we take delight in the process- it's just a part of producing your own food. I believe every meat eater should butcher at least once in her life, just to realize where her food actually comes from... and HOW it comes. Then if she wants to be a vegetarian, she can call it cruel.

Are you part of a hunting family? Would you consider doing it to save money?