Adventures of an urban homesteader growing greens, preserving the harvest and tending a backyard barnyard
We finally settled on names for the newest additions to the backyard homestead. There were some really good suggestions from comments my earlier post, my Facebook page, plus a few Twitter messages. Several would have been good future kid names, so we reserved those 🙂 But here they are, the newly named ducks: Pepper is our black runner duck and one of the first to
We love having our chickens free-range in our backyard. They eat a wider range of food, which saves us some money on chicken feed and also makes their eggs taste ten times better. But they can be really destructive in the garden beds – trampling seedlings in search for the next great worm. It’s even more important for backyard ducks to have some free-range access,
The ducklings are getting so big so fast! We change their bedding out about 2-3 times a day now. When I come home from school it smells remarkably like a barnyard. Not the most welcoming smell I could imagine coming home too… The other day I thought they looked kind of dirty on their bellies. The yellow duckling was starting to look brown on her
The baby ducklings are blossoming into awkward adolescents. Gosh, it seems like just yesterday they came home in a little box all new and fuzzy. Today they look like lanky teenagers getting their first little bits of scruff (mostly on their tail feathers). Their brooder has been upgraded in size about three times since we initially brought them home. They each had about one square
It has been a great week with our new homestead addition: the darling foursome of runner ducklings. They have grown really fast in such a short time, and it’s high time these ladies had proper names. What better place to go for ideas on names that you guys! I would love your suggestions. Let’s introduce them one at a time. First up is the largest
I am very excited to share the news that I wrote a book that will be released shortly! The book is called Modern Homestead: Grow, Raise, Create. The book is designed to give readers everything they need to know to get their homesteads up and running or expand their current homesteading horizon with new, fun projects. My inspiration for the book came from you guys
Are you ready to see the cutest things ever? Meet our newest family members: four adorable Runner ducklings. We are just head over heels in love with these rubber-beaked beauties. After much searching, I discovered the Urban Farm feed store in SE Portland was carrying a huge assortment of both chicks and ducklings. They somehow managed to get ducklings that were already “sexed”, which is
I need your help! I hinted the other day that our backyard flock of chickens may be getting some new neighbors. We are adding ducks to our modern homestead and we need to decide on a breed. These cute little creatures are becoming increasingly popular as a backyard livestock option. They are docile creatures and light-weight breeds are generally poor flyers with high egg production.
Our backyard flock has been taking it easy this winter. They have been enjoying a mild winter and took a break from laying eggs. Florence, our Rhode Island Red, and Maude, our Brahma, decided there was enough natural light to start laying again. Since then, the two girls have been giving us an egg or two a day. Pearl, on the other hand, is not
