Items for your Homestead
Gardening is usually one of the most important features of a homestead. You will need the right tools to undertake a successful gardening plan. There are essentials that you will need, namely: gardening gloves, wheelbarrow, shovel, rake, handsaw, garden pitchfork, watering wand, and watering can among other tools. As you grow your homestead and gardening projects your number of tools will grow.
Your animals will also demand the necessary tools to flourish. Different animals require different things, and the size of your land is the primary factor in determining which animals you select. Let’s take the example of bees, goats, and chickens.
- Bees would be most suitable for a homestead of five acres and larger, as you don’t want them too close to your main house.
- They would be incredible pollinators and would provide fresh honey. You can also use the leftover beeswax to make candles and other natural cosmetic products.
- The equipments you will need to maintain honeybees are gloves and masks for protection, a hive home for the bees, a smoker, a beekeeping brush, jars for the honey, and honey harvesting supplies.
- Goats would be most suitable for a larger homestead of over five acres as this gives them enough space to range and graze.
- In addition, goats provide dairy and meat products, and fertilizer for your crops, and are easier to feed than their dairy and meat-producing counterparts.
- The equipment for goats includes grains, scoops to measure feed, hay, bedding material, water trough, mineral blocks, pitchfork, milking equipment, and a housing pen with a fence to keep them safe from predators.
- Chickens are suitable for any size homestead. They provide eggs and are even efficient for pest control.
- The equipment you will need for your chickens is a poultry feeder and jug, straw nest box bedding, pullets, and a thermometer for the chicks, and a chicken cook to keep them safe.
- Aside from the land plot’s size, you will be able to decide what animals are best suited for you based on their temperament, their needs, the time commitment required to take care of them, their costs, and what you intend to do with them.
Although different animals require different tools, a set of negotiable aspects is needed for your animals to thrive, regardless of their type. You should ensure that your animals have access to shelter, water, food, and medical care. When you are fencing out the areas for each animal this is a great time to figure out a way to get water to each area, like digging to run hoses or pips.
Finding vets for livestock animals
It can be difficult to find vets for livestock animals. With a single veterinarian covering a large range of the state, especially for farm animals, not every vet will see farm animals. Building a relationship with a vet is very important in case your animal is sick, and you are a two-hour drive away from your vet. In the case that you have maintained a good relationship, the vet would be able to advise you over the phone.
This is the same for cases of an emergency and a vet service is required in the middle of the night. You want to ensure that the practice you go to best suits you and your animals’ needs, so make sure to ask what hours the vet keeps, what their payment term expectations are, what their availability is to assist with animal emergencies, and how you can best contact them when and if an emergency arises.
You want to ask if they take farm animals and what kind of level of knowledge, they have on farm animals. Also, what kind they are willing to and willing not to see? You want to ensure that you have found a suitable vet before obtaining any of your animals because you don’t want to risk being caught in an emergency and not having a vet to assist you.
Fence Everything Out
Fencing is a necessary component of gardening or keeping animals on your homestead; it is even something you can do yourself. Your fencing choice should be based on what type of garden or animal you desire, the terrain of your landscape, the effort it will take to create and maintain your fence, and the lifespan of the fencing you select.
One of the best things you can do is stake everything off and observe your landscape to see if it fits.
- You can move the stakes if they are not to your liking but moving a construction site or the goats from that shaded area will be much harder.
- This will help you avoid selecting areas that are inadequate for your specific goals.
- This will require time and effort, but doesn’t your homestead deserve that? In the case of family, A, you have about an acre or less, so you must be very reasonable about what you bring onto your homestead.
- Cows and goats are probably not on the menu, but you can make space for hens, a vegetable garden, and even rabbits.
- In a place of one or more acres, having ducks, turkeys, geese, and pigs will be doable. A plot larger than five acres can easily accommodate cows, goats, and sheep.
The animals you bring onto your plot will determine your design, and the size of your property determines your design. A general rule of thumb, however, is to keep the things you tend to most as close as possible to your home. This will save walking time on a larger land plot or allow you to be more efficient with your management daily.
It is best to write all these things on paper and lay out exactly where all your sections will be. This makes it easier for your family to navigate the space, and you will eventually reach a point where maintaining your homestead becomes more efficient.
Type of fence
The type of fence you select depends on your goals and what it seeks to enclose. The primary needs of fencing in a homestead are to maintain household safety, pool or water safety, animal safety, and to act as vegetable patch protection.
Your animal fences should be dependent upon what animals you will be keeping. If you plan on keeping any type of animal, ensuring that they are detained in an enclosed space is vital for their safety.
- Keeping some chickens or rabbits will require a wooden post with a chicken wire fence that is big enough to go around their henhouse or rabbit hutch.
- Keep in mind you need to take precautions for animals that will hunt your livestock and could fly over the fence. So, a simple waist-high wire fence may not be enough.
Some people add wire fencing to the top of the enclosed area. If the area is too big, they will run string or rope across the top at all angles. Both help with keeping flying animals from snatching up your livestock that is prey to them. If you have a larger land plot, like families B and C, you will likely want to keep larger animals like goats, cows, and pigs. You could opt for a high-tensile wire fence, a woven wire fence, or a barbed wire fence. Some examples of fences are below.
These fences can stretch over several miles and are highly durable and effective for livestock enclosures. If your landscape is hard or stony, then a high-tensile fence may be best as it requires fewer posts for installation.
A woven wire fence is the hardest to install but is also the most long-lasting and reliable. A barbed wire fence is effective but not adequate for containing goats or sheep, so keep that in mind if these are animals that you would like to raise on your homestead. A garden fence is advised if you want to undertake any gardening projects and want to keep rodents and any other hungry animals away from your produce.