I suppose that most people who are working towards a goal, research and follow other people who are achieving that same goal. Both Philip and I follow several homesteading groups online. Cornish Cross Broilers are a frequent topic on these forums. We were quite intrigued by the fast growth of these birds. When Philip and…
The Peking Duck, our honored guest, must have felt like he arrived in Heaven! The creek was an amazing haven to explore and relax. We tried to tether him, but no matter how we tied the rope to his foot, he untied it. Rather than keep him cooped up, we let him explore during the…
We are slowly looking at downsizing the Florida House to prepare it for sale, which means that the number of animals we keep needs to be reduced. The number of turkeys we have is much higher than it needs to be. I remember the day we bought the first turkeys and they told us they…
We had given my daughter, Kaitlyn Soroka a baby turkey to go with her new laying hens chicks. Snowflake, their Royal Palm hen was really getting the hang of her wings. She was getting braver by the day to explore her territory, including the roof of their house. Time to do a little wing trimming…
The spring is an exciting time at the Florida House. Of course in Florida, we get a head start on spring! While the rest of the world is dreaming about warm days, we are well into the tasks of spring time on the homestead. Our granddaughter, Addison, spent some time helping me with chores. It…
We celebrated Thanksgiving early with Eric Kowalski and Jess Tidwell, Philip’s son and daughter-in-law as well as our neighbors the Duvalls. We brought a very special Thanksgiving guest. Westin wasn’t sure of what to think of the turkey. he liked him much better in the cage rather than when Philip held the bird. The whole…
Butchering day finally arrived for our parent’s pigs. We told them what we were up to so they would be prepared to put a pig in their freezers and they wanted to help with butchering. We worked together to load the pigs nto the trailer to give these piggies a wagon ride to the butchering…
The thing about incubators full of fuzzy chicks is they don’t stay that way long! See them hatching here. Our laying hens and turkeys are growing so fast, they left us scrambling to provide larger runs to house so many birds. The young poults outgrew the brooder quite quickly and began the transition to living…
One of the perks of living a homesteading lifestyle is that you often get calls to rehome unwanted farm animals. Roosters are probably the most frequently rehomed animal, sometimes we take them, as Philip rarely passes up a free meal. We have had a few animals that were quite a bargain. A turkey who kept…
The animals on our farm all need a purpose, some are breeding stock and will enjoy a long life on the homestead. Others are raised specifically for food. The faster they mature and reach the desired size, the better, to reduce the costs in raising those animals. Part of the process we are learning at…
