Dealing with no-show customers

A lot of us who have larger gardens, small farms, or otherwise consider themselves part of the ‘homesteader’-group, have probably dealt with customers who don’t show up for their purchase. In the past I’ve sold rabbits, chickens, ducks and garden seeds. Usually customers find me through listings on sites devoted to poultry and small livestock…

New additions!

Last week I went shopping for some new Belgian hare breeding does. I couldn’t find any private sellers who had mature does available, so I went to the ‘konijnenmarkt’ in Mol, which is a small town on the Belgian/Dutch border. The market is over 100 years old and sells all sorts of small livestock; rabbits,…

Keeping animals hydrated in winter

Last week, we finally saw our first snow. It seems as if winter has been arriving consistently later and later than it used to. I hope that trend isn’t real or at least reverses soon, because I don’t want the spring season to be any shorter than it already is. I’m looking forward to starting…

Plans for small livestock 2019

2018 was a great year for duck nests and raising chickens. The drought took a toll on the terrain, most of the grass hasn’t been able to regrow. I will need to make sure there are less animals to put pressure on the terrain. I have been slowly but surely butchering ducks and chickens since…

Raising rabbits: developing breeding stock

Rabbits are perhaps the cheapest, easiest and cleanest source of protein on a homestead, in an urban garden or on a small farm. Getting started with them isn’t always as easy as you’d want it. The importance of good breeding stock is impossible to overstate. In this post I’ll confess to some of the issues…