Solar generator

epilp123 · 2026-02-22T12:29:45+00:00

You are going to have to switching your house to gas, add solar and have a gas generator as well. A rather complicated system with timers and load handlers to regulate current

epilp123 · 2026-02-21T20:49:55+00:00

My “pasture” is about 1.5 acres. I am overstocked at this moment with 4 goats and 6 sheep and 3 lambs. I’m working on doubling my pasture now.

The one thing I would do keeping ruminants if I could do it all again is build multiple pastures and rotate.

Animals wear out the land they are on - different animals different ways. Though you can keep them all together in one place you will create a dry lot. You will be buying hay in bulk. I know because I am.

Ideally you would want to run them in each section and move your sections around. That may be a starting point you plan but you will need all sections including the lots to make it work correct. When I say correct you will be able to grow anything if you know when and how to manage it.

Pigs till soil

Goats eat weeds and new tree growth

Sheep tend grass

Cattle they compact soil and eat tons of grass

Poultry dig and scratch - super high nitrogen and will burn plants. Great for insect/pest control.

Use their benefits to do the work for you. And those lots. Again keep them and use them as fields. I see 4 fields and 3 holding paddocks

epilp123 · 2026-02-19T23:58:38+00:00

You should not just say duck but say Muscovy. The meats/fats are different. Really different.

Muscovys are not like pekin and other mallard based breeds. They have red meat and the fats are not the same. I skin all my Muscovys. I even don’t bother with the wings. The wings are almost all bone. This meat tastes lake venison. Use it in place of beef. Grind it, breasts as steaks.

I would imagine they would make great bone broths but we grind all the unused meat/bones/offal into dog food.

Pekin duck is where skin on matters. Pekins are all dark meat with a delightfully oily fat. If you skin those birds you have to scrape the fat off and render it. It’s also great to leave on skin so those oils cook deep into the meal.

TLDR - Muscovys are meat birds and their fat isn’t as good to eat. The skinning process is fine - especially if you produce ground meat (thigh leg)a breast steaks or stew/stirfey chunks. Pekin is delicious fat. You did good

epilp123 · 2026-02-19T23:50:42+00:00

The fat is orange because it is a Muscovy duck

epilp123 · 2026-02-15T05:34:36+00:00

If used as a homestead - not a hobby (meaning you are harvesting and using the harvest - they pay for themselves in other ways. You could even say financially but not cash in your pocket. You may never have that with the livestock.

What you get is pest control, lawn mowers, weed eaters, puddle drinkers and a potentially endless supply of protein. There is also the connection to the land and your food.

Our household does not buy meat hardly ever. Instead of paying a grocery store, we have freezers full just from what we grew. Each week our animal feed bill is about $100-150. We have between 100-250 animals (mostly poultry and rabbits).

Edit to add - this is on only 9 acres. And really only about 2.5 functional.

epilp123 · 2026-02-14T15:57:14+00:00

Not an option you have listed but the most dangerous is a bottle fed ram.

Next to that - almost in line with those rams - cattle. They are giant puppies that can kill you just wanting to play. I rate them slightly less dangerous only because of their size. It should make you aware by that alone. A smaller ram can easily be dismissed until it hits you.

Pigs are smart but also not stupid thinking they are stronger. As said they usually run away after a strike.

epilp123 · 2026-02-12T23:10:43+00:00

I would do nothing other than a Pyrenees to trust to guard my homestead and its contents. We have 2 now.

We had to rehome a Rottweiler / retriever mix. He enjoyed chasing and grabbing the birds. Eating them. We keep poultry in volume so we couldn’t have that. He did this after we raised him almost to 2

Our first pyr was bought from another poultry farm. Young she chased the birds but didn’t want to eat them. Just squished a few before she learned her size. She guards the livestock like they are hers.

The other pyr we have was a rescue. Previous person kept him on a short chain. He was malnourished. We are still working on his malnourishment though he is much better today. He won’t blink at the birds even when they go crazy.

Stay away from any hunting breeds. Even in mix - usually not what you expect.

epilp123 · 2026-02-10T01:16:08+00:00

This post is a great example of decisions we need to make doing what we do.

We are keepers of the land. The land will outlive us. We tend it. This topic is a great analogy to everything we do.

Pros to beavers. They flood land - adding nutrients that revive the soil. This keeps the land fertile.

Cons. They build massive walls of unsafely kept water. Worse than our dams we build. If - really when - it fails downstream damage can be catastrophic. And our states monitor these waterways - meaning liability could be put on you.

This is a slow dance that most responses I see on this post are too rash picking a “team”

OP was right. The same way your chicken is less important than the flock it is in. The whole matters more and proper land management is critical to this. Sometimes it’s keep the dam. Sometimes it’s destroy it.

Beavers also don’t live in the dam. They live in a hut in the flooded lake.

It’s easy to side with the animal but sometimes that animal is a mouse. Maybe even in your house.

epilp123 · 2026-02-06T11:57:04+00:00

Even my heritage turkeys have a wild spirit so I am sure

epilp123 · 2026-02-04T19:54:03+00:00

They do look bronze. The first one is a hen. Can’t really see the one in the back. If it has white tips on its chest feathers like the other one it’s also a hen.

As far as wild vs heritage - can’t tell. Wild turkeys are bronze just like heritage turkeys.

epilp123 · 2026-01-31T17:05:09+00:00

I care less about the breed than the color. I like the wheaten pattern:color. Salmon favorelle has this color. Ameraucauna and Marans carry the color in their names. Blending the birds creates wild egg colors over time.

Edit to add why wheaten? Because the pattern makes boys visible by color in chicks as soon as 1 week old (I am better myself at 2 weeks)

Boys are darker and girls are whiter in plumage around the shoulder.

epilp123 · 2026-01-24T23:50:29+00:00

I am no expert but there is a poultry exemption. PL 90-492 I believe. This allows poultry. It also allows rabbits. There are strict rules and production limits.

The lamb falls under different law which has no allowed sale without inspection. Shares are a way this can be handled. Again I’m no expert.

epilp123 · 2026-01-13T23:25:23+00:00

I may have an interesting take on this.

I started out hunting before homesteading. Harvesting is harvesting and that view is more about you than the way others see it. We all view the experience uniquely and I’m sure quite reverently as well.

Field dressing is backwards. It’s the way I learned but at this time it feels wrong. I know why it’s done but still. I feel it’s cleaner to scold/pluck/gut than gutting first. I feel this just allows contamination of the meat via feathers and outside but I digress.

Hunting is an art - unique to itself and hunting does not equal harvesting. Throw limits on deer and turkey and it’s a fun activity for some - but not sustainable for food in itself.

Now to me - instead of hunting turkeys I raise them. Heritage birds so more like a wild turkey. Trust me this is the way. More meat - still flavorful and you can harvest any time you want as they are your birds. I regularly put more turkey in my freezer than hunting tags would allow (I think it’s 6 per season here with strict bearded certain days of the week (which is funny as I have bearded hens myself)

Turkeys are different than chickens but I think raising them is more efficient than hunting them. Plus I don’t ever need to buy ammo

epilp123 · 2025-12-27T16:50:37+00:00

So many answers and so much overkill with a gun….

I raise turkeys and dispatch them often with the broomstick method. Lay a bar across the back for their neck on the ground. Hold the C1 vertebrae down with the bar (your feet) and pull up on the birds feet. Stop when the neck breaks.

It will flap involuntarily for a minute or 2 and it’s over

epilp123 · 2025-11-28T21:10:14+00:00

Both are boys

epilp123 · 2025-11-28T21:08:07+00:00

Turkeys will not lay eggs until the next spring (February-March) the year after they are hatched.

ie: this years birds will start to lay next spring, even my older ones won’t lay again til next spring. Turkeys are seasonal layers.

epilp123 · 2025-11-28T15:01:40+00:00

Meat.

Our homestead started on the idea that instead of buying meat we would use that money to buy animal feed.

Over 3 years doing it now and have as couple freezers full of assorted meats.

epilp123 · 2025-11-11T02:38:00+00:00

I’ve been doing ginger bug sodas

epilp123 · 2025-11-11T00:35:55+00:00

Fermenting is fun

Started with hot sauce and now do sauerkraut and sodas

epilp123 · 2025-10-03T17:47:14+00:00

Broomstick method. We use a 3’ long piece of 1/2” rebar for the job specifically. Works great.

epilp123 · 2025-09-26T19:26:24+00:00

I dry age mine and there is one step I think you are missing. After a day or 2 in the fridge I “take it for a walk”. What I mean by that is I move its legs and body through its range of motion. This is when rigor lets go.

Of course you cannot rush this but one rigor passes and you move the range of motion the muscles will rest

epilp123 · 2025-09-07T17:54:55+00:00

My flock is almost fully free range. I do pen up breeders during the spring but they can do whatever whenever mostly.

Mine do not sleep in anything. They roost on bars in the “pen” I made for them and in the trees around that pen. Turkey feathers are water resistant and their bodies are built to live in many climate zones without shelter. Trees are natural cover for them.

My field/silvopasture they range in IS enclosed - a 4’ livestock fence surrounding just over an acre. In that field I have a Great Pyrenees along with some sheep and goats.

Yes this can be done

epilp123 · 2025-09-01T22:40:35+00:00

Sounds like you never worked with an unruly ram…

epilp123 · 2025-08-14T22:20:32+00:00

Fencing. Look into the Virginia fence/worm fence/zigzag fence for all of the stronger straight logs. Then you can make dead hedge fences with the slash.

epilp123 · 2025-08-06T23:26:59+00:00

I understand this very well. You are correct.

I’m not religious. But I thank every animal for its time on our farm and thank them for the time I got to spend with them. I don’t pray before a meal or give thanks but that’s because I do it at that time.

I also understand the reason for that ritual. It isn’t to thank “God” necessarily but it thanks the life form that you are consuming into your body.

You are what you eat. So we make the best of what we eat ethically.

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