Welcome to the land of self-sufficiency!
Start small, build on your success and grow accordingly. Works well in business, works even better for hobbies!
Bee-keeping is really wonderful. Mother Earth News had a great plan for a 'top bar hive' that you could build yourself to house your bees. Seemed really efficient and not that difficult to build. Here's the link to the article:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Sustainable-Farming/Top-Bar-Beekeeping-Method.aspx . If my husband were not REALLY allergic to bees, we'd have one. Instead, we tap our Red Maple trees every February and make our own syrup and use that instead of honey in recipes. Works just about as well - but don't try and put it on toast!
We order a 1/2 of a 'Henry' (steer) from a local farmer each year. Have most of a 1/2 a cow in the basement freezer. Dinnertime, our youngest son (age 9) asks, "is this Henry the first or Henry the second?" (we're on our second Henry with some leftovers of Henry the first)!
Pretty soon, he's going to be asking, "is this Anna's egg or Tiger's?" I cannot wait! Just 10 more weeks until we're getting eggs! But how to know WHICH of the Black Java's laid which egg?! I'm going to have to fib for a while I think....
Knowing where the food I feed my family comes from makes me appreciate the kid's growth even more! It's GOOD-for-you food.
Last weekend, I saw a miniature Hereford breed cow....got me thinking...it wasn't any bigger than my neighbor's St. Bernard...and I bet the poo smells WAY better than my other neighbor's horse manure heap on the lot line....and then I can get fresh milk too! Hmmmmmm....that would be breaking the ordinance though, even though it's smaller than a St. Bernard. Do I? Not yet. But it's tickling the brain! Gotta keep improving our food sources, because what's available commercially isn't always that great. Oh, and I've got to pull the Bluegill filets out of the freezer for Sunday's dinner too! Yummy!
Enjoy your chicks, they don't stay small long!