How to buy your first sheep without getting shorn
By Anita Evangelista
Issue #32 • March/April, 1995
Multimillionaire J. Paul Getty was once asked the secret of becoming rich. He's reported to have said, "I buy when everyone is selling, and sell when everyone is...
Raising quail — A home grown delicacy
By Allen Easterly
Issue #101 • September/October, 2006
Raising quail is inexpensive, easy, provides very healthy low-fat white meat, and supplies the fertilizer you need for your home garden. The moderate start-up costs for raising quail...
Finding the best dog for the country life
By Anita Evangelista
Issue #63 • May/June, 2000
When you're looking for a dog to fit into your country life, there are few other topics as liable to get you into a fistfight. People get very...
Cheaper than Store-Bought Eggs
By Kristina Seleshanko
Issue #177 • July/August/September, 2019
Something we heard a lot when we first started raising chickens in the suburbs was, “For the cost of raising those birds, you could buy an awful lot...
Where our farm animals come from
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Where our farm animals come from
By John Silveira
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Issue #105 • May/June, 2007
We don't know how far back the domestication of animals goes. But we do know it is a process, rather than a single...
Redworm farming
By Charles Sanders
Issue #112 • July/August, 2008
If you are looking for a way to earn extra income, a retirement job, or even a new livelihood, then raising earthworms might just be the thing. This...
Goat birthing and raising kids
By Jackie Clay
Issue #112 • July/August, 2008
Dairy goats form one of the cornerstones of our homestead. Not only do they provide milk, cheese, ice cream, cottage cheese, and meat, but they also give us...
Animal disease traceability
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #137 • September/October, 2012
In 2009, small farmers and ranchers breathed a sigh of relief. So did people worried about another curtailment of individual liberty and those whose religious principles oppose microchipping.
They...
Brooder in a box
By Sylvia Gist
Issue #80 • March/April, 2003
It's spring and the farm store has a tempting variety of baby chicks begging for you to take them home. Or the breed you've always wanted has been...
A contrary guide to feeding animals
By Beth Greenwood
Issue #135 • May/June, 2012
The Purinas, Cargills, and Con-Agras of the world would have you believe that they and they alone have the correct recipe for feeding your animals. I find that...
Raising cattle on your own place
By Charles Sanders
Issue #85 • January/February, 2004
Winter won't last forever. It won't be long before spring will arrive and pastures will start to green up. This may be the year for you to consider...
Khaki Campbell ducks — The other egg layer
By Amanda J. Kemp
Issue #126 • November/December, 2010
Spring brings the pitter-patter of little feet in the mud, games of tag, and raucous quacks. While traditional advice would have you with a yard full of...
Hog butchering — Using everything but the squeal
By Charles Sanders
Issue #142 • July/August, 2013
A 450-pound hog will provide a lot of delicious meat.
Hogs are raised throughout our neighboring Amish community for many of the same reasons old American homesteads raised them....
Slaughtering and Butchering
By Dynah Geissal
Issue #23 • September/October, 1993
Fall is butchering time, a period of joy in the harvest of the year's work and of sadness that the lives of your beautiful, healthy animals have come...
Once a day milking
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #99 • May/June, 2006
It sounds bucolic, doesn't it? The simple joys of milking your own cow. Fresh milk, fresh cream, homemade cheese, butter, yogurt. What can get better than that?
But when...
Broody biddies make sense on the homestead
By James Kash
Issue #139 • January/February, 2013
Broodiness is an avian behavior that is frowned upon in the world of agriculture. All industrial agriculturalists cull broody birds because the behavior inhibits production. But to frugal...






























