Mountain lions β Attacks are still rare, but just in case…
By Gene Sheley
Issue #50 β’ March/April, 1998
Near the top of North America's wildlife food chain is the mountain lion, a close second to bears in various forms in ferocity, strength, and killing ability. In...
Animal disease traceability
By Patrice Lewis
Issue #137 β’ 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...
Bottle-raise a calf
By Jackie Clay
Issue #120 β’ November/December, 2009
If you think milk and beef are expensive in the grocery store, then you should think about raising a baby calf or two. Because corn and milk replacer...
Switch your family to goat’s milk
By Tanya Kelley
Issue #128 β’ March/April, 2011
If you milk goats, there's no doubt you've heard itΒ"Eww! Goat's milk! Gross!" To be perfectly honest, goat milk does taste different than cow milk. So? Different doesn't...
Keeping homestead animals healthy
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #169 β’ January/February, 2018
As a veterinary field technician for more than 20 years, I saw firsthand the frustration and heartbreak when animal owners called the veterinarian (or started treatment) too late...
Llamas guarding sheep? β Not such a far-fetched idea
By Karen McGeorge Sanders
Issue #19 β’ January/February, 1993
It seems that farmers always need an extra pair of hands, but finding the money to pay the extra help is often impossible. You need the help...
Slaughtering and Butchering
By Dynah Geissal
Issue #23 β’ 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...
Raising your own beef
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
Issue #175 β’ January/February/March, 2019
Every time I sit down to enjoy a wonderful beef roast or perfectly grilled steak, I am so thankful we began raising our own beef. The flavor of...
Are aliens stealing our honeybees?
By John Silveira
Issue #106 β’ July/August, 2007
What would happen if all the honeybees disappeared? According to some pundits we'd see a collapse in much of our food base followed by shortages, turmoil, and, depending...
Broody biddies make sense on the homestead
By James Kash
Issue #139 β’ 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...
The homestead cat
By Jackie Clay-Atkinson
We have had at least one cat in our home ever since I was a young child. So itβs no wonder we truly value our feline friends. Not only do they provide...
Raising rabbits for profit
By Carrie Peterson
Issue #106 β’ July/August, 2007
Whether or not you are fond of rabbit stew, raising rabbits for meat can be a great experience and can even help swell your pocketbook a little. The...
Home Dairying
By Marcella Shaffer
Issue #64 β’ July/August, 2000
There is a big difference between home dairying to produce food for your family and dairying to sell milk or milk byproducts to others. Since milk and dairy...
Brooder in a box
By Sylvia Gist
Issue #80 β’ 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...
Is that a good pig?
By Kim Dieter
Issue #129 β’ May/June, 2011
Lean ham, roasts, chops, savory sausage, and thick slices of bacon are the reason pigs are raised at home. A typical meat pig weighs 200 to 270 pounds...
Cheaper than Store-Bought Eggs
By Kristina Seleshanko
Issue #177 β’ July/August/September, 2019
Something we heard a lot when we first started raising chickens in the suburbs was, βFor the cost of raising those birds, you could buy an awful lot...































