Accidentally becoming a homesteader

Linka

Chirping
Jun 23, 2020
43
89
56
I live in the UK, England. Homesteading is really an American concept, and we sort of fell into it. Over time our life choices have slowly led us to homesteading. The last time we moved we wanted land to grow trees, we bought an ex farm. We started to build an arboretum,.
The land was flat, the trees were small, but we laid out an orchard, an American and an Asian area, we sourced seeds from Europe and the USA to grow unusual trees. we got on with our lives doing various other things. My dad came to live with us and we built stables for his pony. The farm had industrial greenhouse and a barn and a packing shed. Over the years most of the trees survived, we built a large pond, and the land around us grew as the trees grew.
Over the years the food we bought has often be scandalised in the newspapers with one scandal after the other. As the trees grew we added fruit bushes. We extended the house. Our kids grew up. we became more interested in our health.
The U.K. has had some horrible scandals over animal care, Turkey farms beating turkeys using them like balls in games, chicken meat bleached or chlorinated in order to make supermarkets more money.Now I sympathise with vegetarians but I always have eaten meat, and am likely to always do so, but it does not mean I do not want to eat them with a clean concience.
We bought three hens and were given a cockeral free, I was told he was weird, in as much as he was a dead ringer for a light Sussex, but she owned now light Sussex...stranger stilll he throws plenty of light Sussex children. I went to pick up what was 3 cream legbar, it was late in the season, and there was one cream legbar but her neck feathers looked as though she had been attacked and had a. And patch, the smaller one I was told was still growing not yet POL (point of lay) that was like she never got bigger and is almost certainly part bantam as we do also get smaller chickens, and the last was definitely not a cream algebra and the woman seeemmd amazed there was not 3, and offered a daisy marsh instead, having gone so far knowing it was late I took the daisy marsh she was actually a nice chicken but in months she stopped eating refused to eat and died - reason unknown, a friend better experienced said it could be anything egg bound being as likely as anything, olive oil did not help, and she slowly weakened and died.
We then succumbed to 3 blue belles (one died on checking afterwards it had a wound on its leg not visible under all the feathers, and 2 rocky Rhodes (this. Are smarter birds and soon ingratiated themselves with the cockers; and ruled the roost literally he would give them any tasty morsel to come his way even strawberries. one of the rocky Rhodes went broody, she managed to hatch 2, but lost both - to ears I think, we should have caged her and them but did not realise how vulnerable they were.
But those little chicks were darling and so we bought a Brinsea 14 and started breeding our own.
My husband also wanted ducks I saw some eggs for sale and were told they weee fertilised, we ended up with ONE duckling, what on earth do you do with ONE duckling well it lived in our bath and our lounge, mystified the dogs, and favoured my husbands beard.My husband so wanted it to not be bullied by the chickens he asked me to find some friends, so I checked and found some similar aged ducklings, but the advert was old and the ducklings were older, and my husband bought 20 ducklings, at a reduced cost for quantity, our one duck was black and now had 20 white friendly who took one look at her/him and tried to eat poor pepper (black pepper}) so we then made a duck home duck pond but poor pepper could not join them until big enough to not end up as atasty morsel
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I live in the UK, England. Homesteading is really an American concept, and we sort of fell into it. Over time our life choices have slowly led us to homesteading. The last time we moved we wanted land to grow trees, we bought an ex farm. We started to build an arboretum,.
The land was flat, the trees were small, but we laid out an orchard, an American and an Asian area, we sourced seeds from Europe and the USA to grow unusual trees. we got on with our lives doing various other things. My dad came to live with us and we built stables for his pony. The farm had industrial greenhouse and a barn and a packing shed. Over the years most of the trees survived, we built a large pond, and the land around us grew as the trees grew.
Over the years the food we bought has often be scandalised in the newspapers with one scandal after the other. As the trees grew we added fruit bushes. We extended the house. Our kids grew up. we became more interested in our health.
The U.K. has had some horrible scandals over animal care, Turkey farms beating turkeys using them like balls in games, chicken meat bleached or chlorinated in order to make supermarkets more money.Now I sympathise with vegetarians but I always have eaten meat, and am likely to always do so, but it does not mean I do not want to eat them with a clean concience.
We bought three hens and were given a cockeral free, I was told he was weird, in as much as he was a dead ringer for a light Sussex, but she owned now light Sussex...stranger stilll he throws plenty of light Sussex children. I went to pick up what was 3 cream legbar, it was late in the season, and there was one cream legbar but her neck feathers looked as though she had been attacked and had a. And patch, the smaller one I was told was still growing not yet POL (point of lay) that was like she never got bigger and is almost certainly part bantam as we do also get smaller chickens, and the last was definitely not a cream algebra and the woman seeemmd amazed there was not 3, and offered a daisy marsh instead, having gone so far knowing it was late I took the daisy marsh she was actually a nice chicken but in months she stopped eating refused to eat and died - reason unknown, a friend better experienced said it could be anything egg bound being as likely as anything, olive oil did not help, and she slowly weakened and died.
We then succumbed to 3 blue belles (one died on checking afterwards it had a wound on its leg not visible under all the feathers, and 2 rocky Rhodes (this. Are smarter birds and soon ingratiated themselves with the cockers; and ruled the roost literally he would give them any tasty morsel to come his way even strawberries. one of the rocky Rhodes went broody, she managed to hatch 2, but lost both - to ears I think, we should have caged her and them but did not realise how vulnerable they were.
But those little chicks were darling and so we bought a Brinsea 14 and started breeding our own.
My husband also wanted ducks I saw some eggs for sale and were told they weee fertilised, we ended up with ONE duckling, what on earth do you do with ONE duckling well it lived in our bath and our lounge, mystified the dogs, and favoured my husbands beard.My husband so wanted it to not be bullied by the chickens he asked me to find some friends, so I checked and found some similar aged ducklings, but the advert was old and the ducklings were older, and my husband bought 20 ducklings, at a reduced cost for quantity, our one duck was black and now had 20 white friendly who took one look at her/him and tried to eat poor pepper (black pepper}) so we then made a duck home duck pond but poor pepper could not join them until big enough to not end up as atasty morsel
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Meantime we were sorting out the chicken home, various improvements as new babies arrived, a fish aquarium was replaced by a rabbit hutch, then a baby run until the adults got used to the instant family Donald our cock was named for his comb over, I admit to admiring Mr Trump, but my sister in law who does not admire him also likes the name LOL
 

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And being gluttons for punishment last May/June we also started beekeeping and goats, goats are very sociable and aparantly do not do well alone we order one female and one male neuter/wither as they did not have 2 girls then another girl became available but if we left the boy he was going to emd up as kid curry so we took him too just as well as one of the girls died, she was still young and it nigh on broke our heart considered giving the other two back free but we’re assured sometimes life is cruel,we had to report and get the animal removed legally in a short time and no local university did autopsies so she ended up with the knackers. she had been the friendliest too we were gutted for a few weeks, but finally moved on. as for the bees luckily the guy we bought the queens and hives from acts as a mentor, won’t take cash, and even came out during coronavirus to do a check when we had an issue with swarming, we also caught our first swarm,our mentor was impressed..although I think beginners luck had its place.
 

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If anyone sees or thinks of any improvements, please feel free to post, 1. I can learn, 2. You can confirm what I have learnt so far, 3. It might help others.
I am open to new ideas, and any mistakes or potential mistreated people point out will be heeded.I want healthy happy animals.
 
Welcome to BYC! What makes you say homesteading is an "american concept"? Haven't people been using their small farms to survive since we stopped hunting and gathering? There may have been a recent resurgence in interest in "primitive skills" and self reliance, but it is far from new nor do I think it is an American concept. By the way, I am an American Homesteader.


Again, welcome to the forums. I look forward to learning with you.
 
Well you might be right, the UK has a term small holder, usually someone not quite big enough for a full size tractor, the previous owner was on the borderline smallholder/farmer, but he had a lot of greenhouse glass So could also be termed a hortaculturist, other names apply.
I do not know how you see this from your perspective but we are on the self sufficiency route.
1. Water we have no well and no flowing water, but plenty of roof space for collecting. So no chemical water available for the birds.
2. We lost a home in the 90s to the bank, but came back and now avoid all debts luckily saved a big enough deposit and got back into a mortgage which we over paid, so now have no mortgage. friends would say our home could benefit from a make over but once the mortgage was paid we could do that without being scared of losing our home again
3. We built an arboretum on the farm land we bought,with fruit and nut trees, and some medicinal,and some fast growing willows and poplars etc which provide firewood. So we can run our own wood burning stove. The orchard is now home to our birds.
4. We invested in a load of solar panels and got sone government payments for 20 years, we have yet to do battery Back up, as we are hoping an EV - electric vehicle might do that soon. but we have plenty of day time solar for looking after the birds and breeding, in fact it drastically reduced our winter costs too we dropped lpg gas and now use oil radiators which other wise would be silly expensive.
5. We got into keeping our chickens because we were fed up with horror stories over animals in the food chain, and felt we would do better doing ourselves. Plus we get the fertiliser, plus they have seriously cleaned up the orchard and we no longer need to mow that area saving us fuel,wear and tear and time, although time is now spent on them, but we get eggs, and the enjoyment of the birds. we keep egg laying birds not meat birds so far.
6.We went mad and added ducks, goats, and bees.
7. We also grow our own Vegetable and fruit food, although the chickens are good at undoing it given the chance, most people have issues with Houdini goats, our chickens fly over and want the worms when I am digging but also knock up the new plants. we have invested in a poly tunnel to keep the little devils out but thanks to coronavirus it is a self build and may take us some time. we feed sone of the produce to the chickens, although treats like spinach need to be treated cautiously.
8. We have room, and I am trialing some wheat for the birds, but I have no idea if it is winter or spring wheat, and no idea if it will manage a long enough season, but just used sone of the bird food to test bed the idea, mostly because we get free manure, and it was popping up corn all by itself.
We are basically willing to trial anything, we should separate the different breeds, we should sell our eggs, and pols but so far we are enjoying the ride and the mix of hens that arrive a Myriad of colours pop up.The only shame is inevitably we have to cull males, that was a Hard lesson, we feed them to our dogs, as we are too soft to eat them Ourselves.Friends say remove them as soon as you know for certain, but meantime they have a good life running around in the orchard, ducking the buzzards, and so far no foxes have taken any, fingers crossed.
We had one female stop eating and just die, one fell over and turned out had a wound on its leg,3 disappeared and 3 were left killed, probably a ferret, and a couple just disappeared, they could be feral in the trees, but more likely a crow or something else got them. Plus the bird incubator you need the egg turn to stop in time or birds can’t get out properly and die.There just seems to be a new lesson all the time.
9. Plus broody hens also try to increase the numbers, this one did ok although needed some help
omg this post is longer than war and peace I’ll sign off now...I’ll be back ;)
 

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The term "homestead" definitely came from America, from the 1800s when the government gave people land for free in "new" territories (which weren't actually new, just new to European settlers after the Native people had been kicked off their land.) If the settlers could build a house and raise crops or livestock in two years, they would receive permanent ownership of the land.

Today, the term "homesteader" can mean lots of different ways of life, but the commonality is that they live self-sufficiently, with all or at least most of their needs met by what they can grow, raise or create from the resources on their land. Most of the time, it involves off-grid power from solar, windmills, or a hydro system from a nearby river or creek.

Often it's a "work-in-progress" where at times someone in the family has to work for an outside employer to pay the taxes, doctor, or vet. But as long as they're developing more skills and things to sell or barter in order to get away from the need for outside employment, or at least employment outside of their local community, it counts as "homesteading."

It sounds like what you're doing definitely qualifies!

What breed of goats are you raising? Are they for milk, meat, or selling babies?
 
Today, the term "homesteader" can mean lots of different ways of life, but the commonality is that they live self-sufficiently, with all or at least most of their needs met by what they can grow, raise or create from the resources on their land. Most of the time, it involves off-grid power from solar, windmills, or a hydro system from a nearby river or creek.

Often it's a "work-in-progress" where at times someone in the family has to work for an outside employer to pay the taxes, doctor, or vet. But as long as they're developing more skills and things to sell or barter in order to get away from the need for outside employment, or at least employment outside of their local community, it counts as "homesteading."

It sounds like what you're doing definitely qualifies!

What breed of goats are you raising? Are they for milk, meat, or selling babies?
Nailed it!!!!

omg this post is longer than war and peace I’ll sign off now...I’ll be back ;)
Sounds like you guys have taken some huge leaps! I believe homesteaders/diyers are Modern Day Heroes. Saving the world from capitalism and blatant consumerism. Excited to take the journey with you!
 

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