I wrote a book... Please read this post!!!

[ChickenClo]

Hey everybody! Lately I've gotten really into the whole "lets go live the simple life and farm and stuff". I started writing down all my thoughts and information into a little notebook, then I started writing a book on Microsoft Word. It's called Simple Farming. It goes over the basics of taking care of Chickens, Goats, Sheep, and gardening. It is only about thirty pages long, and it is only like a reference book, but I want to personally print it and sell it to friends, family, and BYC & BYH members. That way I cam raise money for my farming things. I had a wild idea! What if, I could mail it to a few willing BYC members and they could take a look at it and tell me their thoughts.... Or even better! I'll just post the whole thing here, you can take a look at it and tell me what you think! Please don't print it out! It is copyright of me, the author!!!  these things are where the pictures would be, I'm sorry that they wouldn't fit! If you want a copy, you can order one for $5. Thank yall!

Simple 
Farming
 
 By. Chloe Elizabeth Caldwell



This book is dedicated to Melonee Wilkins. I love you Aunt Mel!
She helped me with my first simple farm! I want you to come visit my new one!







Table Of Contents

Introduction-

CHICKENS

Basics

Coops

Feed

Eggs

Websites

GOATS

Basics

Housing

Feed

Milk

Websites

SHEEP

Basics

Housing

Feed

Milk?!

Wool

Websites

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Gardening-





Introduction

Hi, welcome to Simple Farming. I wrote this book because I wanted to gather together knowledge about simple farming! It started in January 2010. I moved to Louisiana and lived in my Aunt & Uncles 110 year old house. Around this house was seven acres of land. I wanted to do something with it. So later in the year, we got five ducklings and planted a largish garden. Thus my love for the simple farming life grew. And grew and grew. Soon, I’m headed for Georgia and there I will rebuild my farming life. I wanted at first to collect all my knowledge of Goats, Sheep, and Chickens, into a little “Handy Dandy Farm Book”. That notebook grew into “Simple Farming”. In this book, I’ll teach you all about Chickens, Goats, Sheep, and gardening outside of an old sandbox. I dedicated this book to my Aunt Melonee, who planted the seed that grew into this book.
 
My lovely ducklings! …. And the evil cat Claude
Chickens



Basics
Chickens can seem like nasty birds, but that’s the farmers fault, because chickens need proper care. They’ve been around for centuries and lay protein packed eggs. Different chickens have different purposes. Some are ornamental, and some are egg-layers. Chickens, especially Hens, are VERY vulnerable to attack, so I stress that you get or build a good coop. Also, a aggressive rooster is good for defense of the hens. Generally, hens will lay four to seven eggs per week.



Chickens lay a variety of
Different colored eggs  Roosters will fight other roosters.
Coops
Your chickens will need a good sturdy home a.k.a your coop. If you want good eggs, you need a good coop. The size of your coop depends on the number of chickens you have. A small coop is good for 2-5 chickens, medium for 5-8, large for 8-11, and an extra large coop for 11-16. If you have more (simple farming, remember?) you will have to get or build an extra large coop. Your chickens should have a strong and secure fenced in area for roaming. There, the can eat bugs, weeds, and grass. Remember two things though: One, never let them out at night. Two, the things they eat in the field do not make up for regular food. DON’T OVERCROWD YOUR CHICKENS BECAUSE THEY CAN CANNIBLIZE! Make sure to keep your coop clean because 1. It’s just nasty 2. They can get sick 3. Would you want to live like that? Treat them humanely.


 
Imagine if you had to live like A great example of a
that. Don’t overcrowd. good coop.

Feed
Feed is and isn’t a big issue. Name brand isn’t a big factor at all. Good food is important for good eggs though. I recommend low cholesterol chicken feed with vitamins. You should also throw in some bird seed and oats to mix it up every once in a while. Make sure your birds have plentiful clean water everyday. Remember that there is special food for hens with the purpose of egg-laying. It is called “layer” feed. I remember when we had to feed our ducks. I would go into the kitchen with the feeder in hand and sometimes I would find the dog with his head in the bag. So apparently, other animals enjoy poultry feed as much as the poultry themselves. It’s always a good idea to keep your feed in a sealed container where only you can get to it.


 
Maybe dogs are more like 100% organic chicken feed!
Chickens then we think.


Eggs
Hens will lay about 4-12 eggs per week. Have you ever heard the joke: A rooster lays an egg in the middle of a roof. Which way will it fall? Left or right? We all know that the answer is neither, because hens lay eggs. Eggs and egg quality depend on a few things. #1 is your coop. If your chickens can see outside of their coop at night, they may see wild animals and become anxious and frightened. This will cause poor egg quality. If your coop is dirty or overcrowded, they can become sick and lay poor quality or even no eggs. #2 is chicken breed. Some breeds are good for egg-laying and some for ornamental purposes. Andalusiuans, for example, are good for egg production, and Silkies are more ornamental. Some breeds will lay blue and green eggs, some plain white, and others brown.
#3 is feed. If you’ve heard “you are what you eat”, this applies to chickens as well. They’re eggs are what they eat. Low cholesteral and vitamin rich food is great.
To get chicks, your hen must mate with a rooster and she will lay fertilized eggs. Normal eggs will not hatch into chicks.



Just Hatched Chick!
Websites


www.backyardchickens.com


www.eggcartonstore.com


www.surehatch.com


www.chickensforbackyards.com


www.horizonstructures.com





Goats


Basics
Goats aren’t as well known as cows, but they do produce milk like cows. Taste is different among all humans, but goat milk is generally sweet and very cow-like. Goats will eat small trees and bushes, but they aren’t interested in tin cans. Anyway, there are many breeds of goats, some small and some large. Males are called bucks and females are does. The term “kidding” is referring to the birth of goat offspring. I know I was confused when I first heard it, so I thought it would be convenient to add that in.




 
Goat cheese is pretty good. This isn’t cheese. It’s
Goats milk soap which
Is very good for skin!




Housing
Goats, like chickens and humans, need good housing. While goats did originate in the wilderness, they need shelter from wind, rain, snow, and wild animals. A goat that’s wet will get sick 90% of the time. A sturdy wooden shed type of building is good, and some straw bedding for comfort. They also need a fenced in area for grazing. They will generally get along with other farm animals like sheep, cows, and pigs. Though bucks can be aggressive. You should keep bucks and does separate except for mating.



 
A good goat house Not simple but if you
for a few goats. think a little smaller,
It’s perfect.






Feed
Alright folks, it’s feeding time. You should feed your goats store bought feed with vitamins. You can also throw in some alfalfa, because they like it and it makes milk taste sweet. At all costs, keep your goats far away from sheep food, it will malnourish them. Also, if you plan to milk your goats, keep them away from wild garlic and onions that may grow in your field. When your goats are let out in the field, they’ll eat small trees and bushes. Make sure that there aren’t any poisonous plants in the field, because it will kill your goats.



 
These are wild garlic and onions, Alfalfa hay
They’ll make goats milk nasty.





Milk
Goats are mammals, so they produce milk for their young. We as humans, take advantage of this and drink they’re milk. Does can be milked eighteen months after kidding, two times per day. That’s about 1080 times to milk, so leave room in your fridge. Alright, for kidding, you obviously need a buck. You have two options. The first is to raise your own buck. The downside to this is rut. Rut is mating season, in which they smell terrible. It lasts only a few months out of the year, but it’s pretty nasty. Your second is to take the doe to another farm for mating. When she is about to give birth, her udder will be huge and red. In the website section under goats, you can find websites with more information. To milk a goat you must wash her udder with a warm cloth to remove dirt. Then wrap your thumb and forefinger around the base of the teat tightly enough to trap the milk inside the teat. Squeeze with your middle finger, then your ring finger, and then your pinky, in one smooth, successive motion. Remember to keep your grip tight on the base of the teat, or else instead of going into the bucket, the milk will slip right back up into the udder. (NOTE: Milk going back up into the udder might cause infection.) Also, be sure to direct the first squeeze from each teat (which may contain dirt and bacteria) outside the bucket--either on the ground or at a waiting, eager cat (or cat dish...). another note: dont pull on the teat! This will hurt the goat, causing her to try to pull her head out and probably step in the pail.
Relax your grip on the base of the teat to allow milk to refill the teat.Stop when you see that there isn't much milk left. The teats will be flaccid, with almost a "deflated" appearance. Massage the udder to release the remaining milk. You should get another 4-8 ounces. Then use iodine solution on her teats to get rid of bacteria. Cheese and soap making is a different story, perhaps in the sequel.

And tada! Goat milk!






















Websites

www.backyardherds.com
























Sheep

Basics
Sheep are wooly creatures that make cute noises! They produce okay tasting milk, and wool that can be made into yarn, clothing, and blankets. However, sheep, like any farm animal, need to have good care. Sheep are a lot like goats, except they eat grass and a few other things. So, off into a fuzzy wonderland we go.



 
Wooliness! Yarn made from the wool.


Blankets made from wool.


Housing.
Everything (except for things specifically related to goats) that a goat needs for housing is the same for sheep. Flip back to page . Y’know, just a quirky thing to add in, but wool sounds funny when you say it over and over… wool wool wool wool wool wool wool….























MILK?!
You heard me right, milk. Sheep are mammals so of course they produce milk. But is it any good? I’ve never had it, but I hear it’s pretty good. Just a tad bit sweeter than cows milk. It’s your choice if you want to milk your sheep or not. The same rule applies to sheep as with all mammals, they must give birth first.



It looks the same to me.












Wool
Wool is like sheep hair. BUT there are two types of sheep. Hair and wool. Wool are for wool and hair breeds for pets and sometimes milk. When a sheep’s wool is fully grown, it will be like a fluffy cloud, and can be sheared off with electric or non-electric shearers. Shearing is a simple process best learned through careful self teaching. Wool can be made into (as said) clothing, yarn, and blankets. Wool wool wool wool wool wool….. J




See the resemblance? No? Well… they’re both fluffy!









Websites


www.backyardherds.com























Important Information
Before attempting to raise livestock, always consult more than one source. Make sure that you have everything you need to take care of your livestock. Make a commitment to always take the best care of your animals everyday of their lives. Do not attempt to raise livestock if you know you can not commit to it. EVER.














Gardening
Ah, finally a place where you can relax away from the BOCK, BOCK ,BAAA , BAAA and the… whatever sound goats make. Gardening can be as big or small as you like, and doesn’t require as much attention as live animals. First off, you need a tractor. If you don’t own one, there are places to rent them. First you need to plow the land. Plow over the land two to four times. Once you have the desired land, you need to make your rows. Rows are where you plant the seeds and baby plants. Make them about a foot wide and they should go nearly to the end of your plot. My garden in LA was 10x15 I believe. Then, buy your plants and seeds and plant them in the rows. Water them according to the amount needed for the type of plants you have and the climate you live in. Weed daily, this may seem silly, but it is quite necessary because weeds grow fast. Your plants should be space about three to six inches apart, if they start to grow into each other, dig up one of the plants carefully and re plant it separate from the rest. To keep bugs away, you can use pesticides. Everyone knows those are bad for you and animals around you, so I highly suggest you don’t. Use eugenol oils instead. They are oils from plants and trees that kill bugs, but are otherwise harmless. When picking out plants, be aware of what grows well in your area and what doesn’t. Just like you wouldn’t put milk in the sun, you shouldn’t grow watermelon in the desert.

Garden rows



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Thank you for reading this sample of simple farming. Tell me whatcha think! P.S. I'm sorry it looks so weird!

 

[chubbydog811]

You should read through to recheck for grammar issues and sentence structure.
An (not a) goes before a vowel. Also saw one of two incomplete sentences in there.

For the goat section: You should research a little more on your information. Not all goats will bag up with a huge/red udder. Typically, right before they kid, the udder will look very full and shiny. Possibly red, but not all goats do. Some goats don't bag up at all until right before, or after they kid (or possibly not at all in some cases)
Also in the goat section - sheep feed is not necessarily bad for them (they will not become malnourished from eating it). Actually, that is what a lot of people will either feed, or supplement with male goats. Male goats are more likely to have urinary issues, so the ammonium chloride in the sheep feed is a good way to help prevent it. I actually feed sheep feed to my bucks and dry does (though if cheaper, I will just feed my milker's grain to the dry does), and they are all quite healthy. Also, they don't necessarily need grain either - it depends on the animal, and breed as well. I have a few dry dairy does that aren't getting grain at all, just a good quality hay.

"Wool is like sheep hair". Wool IS the sheep's hair.

"They're eggs are what the eat". Use "their" instead of "they're". It is THEIR eggs, not THEY ARE eggs.

I would avoid using the work "like" (unless specifically comparing something), and other slang-type words. Would also avoid using phrases like "pretty good".


Over all, you have the right idea. I would just research a little more to make sure your facts are correct, as well as your sentence structure/wording. Personally, if I wasn't critiquing, I would have put it down and moved on.

As a note: I'm not trying to be mean or bash you by saying any of this, I just think some of your information is flawed.
If you are going to put something out that will most likely be directed at new animal owners, you want to make sure your information is accurate.

Good job otherwise!

 

[ThinkingChickens]

I'm a writer so I speak from experience when I say; keep at it. Keep writing, researching, editing and modifying. Don't give up. Keep working at it until you really feel like you have something special. Then work on self publishing and selling on a website like Etsy.com or submit query letters to publishers of magazines where smaller articles might really fit in. Write what you know. Be personable. Talk about your personal experiences raising animals. Others can learn through your frustrations, your mistakes and your victories. Information can be given two ways. You can tell a person what to do in a list format or you can show them by letting them get a glimpse of your life. Good luck to you!