Raising Ducks for Meat and Eggs

If you've raised chickens, you can raise ducks. And you might want to try it! We've talked about niche products as a good way for a small farm to make a business, and duck eggs and meat seem to be a new niche that is taking off rapidly.

Duck eggs are becoming more popular for a few reasons. First, there is more awareness now of duck eggs as an alternative to chicken eggs for those who are allergic. The same is true of duck meat.

Also, chefs and foodies have become more aware of the benefits of duck eggs for cooking. Their yolks are about twice the size of chicken eggs and the egg itself is larger than a chicken egg. The taste is richer and more intense, making them particularly delicious for pasta, mayo, or to serve soft-boiled. They also make baked goods richer and more moist and work particularly well in gluten-free baked goods.

Nutritionally, duck eggs pack more of a punch. Besides being a good choice for those allergic to chicken eggs (which is common), they have higher concentrations of vitamins and minerals, more protein, more fat and more cholesterol (not necessarily a bad thing).

Finally, duck eggs are used in traditional Asian cooking. An enterprising small farmer could sell directly to Asian grocery stores and restaurants.

Duck meat tastes richer than chicken, yet the white meat is slightly less calorie-dense and lower-fat.

While duck eggs and meat may never catch up to chicken, it does seem like the demand is increasing every year. Niche products can be really important for the bottom line of a small farm, and can enhance a homestead or hobby farm as well.

So consider raising ducks alongside your chickens. Ducks do, of course, need access to plenty of fresh water to swim in - a small wading pool will do, you don't need a pond. They do very well being raised on pasture. They also help with pest control, eating snails and slugs.

Just like chickens, there are heritage breeds as well as those that excel more at laying eggs, and others more suited for meat. Heritage breeds typically are dual-purpose, doing a pretty good job at both eggs and meat.

Ducks are hardier than chickens, too: they are more resistant to disease in general, although more prone to leg problems. They are also easier to handle and herd compared to chickens (ever tried to corral a flock of chickens into a coop at night? it's much easier with ducks). Ducks are rarely aggressive and they have easy-going, sunny personalities.

Here's another thing to know about ducks: all that water does not only muddy the ground around their pool, but their poop is moist, smelly and profuse.

Still, it seems like raising ducks is well worth a try for a small farmer already invested in poultry.

How to Plant Hops on the Small Farm

So, you've decided planting hops is the right choice for your small farm, and you've chosen your varieties and ordered your rhizomes. What's next?

You'll need to make sure you plan ahead, choosing and preparing your site carefully, building a trellis to support the hops bines, and preparing your soil for optimal growing results.

Choosing a Site for Growing Hops
When choosing your growing site, you should consider the following requirements of the hops plant.

Sunlight. Hops require lots of sunlight to grow well. Choose a southern exposure if possible, particularly if you're in the northern part of the world. Your planting spot should get at least six to eight hours of full sun daily.
Soil quality and drainage. Hops require a pH of 6.5 to 8.0 to grow well. Soil needs to be full of nurtients and well-amended. Hops need lots of moisture, but soil that is too wet will grow moldy and diseased, so you don't want soggy. Make sure your site has good drainage.
Room to climb. Hops bines grow to a minimum of twelve feet, and up to twenty-five feet or more! Commercial hops plantations in the United States typically use eighteen-foot trellis systems. More on your trellis system below, but it needs to be strong enough to bear the weight of the heavy bines, and to survive in whatever level of wind your site experiences.
Air but not too much wind. You want a spot with good air circulation to prevent mold and diseases and pest infiltration, but if it's too windy your hops will suffer. If needed, construct a windbreak, or choose a site that is not too windy.

Constructing Your Hops Trellis

Since hops are a tall-growing vine-like plant, you will need to construct some means of supporting the bines as they grow. The exact nature of the trellis depends on the specifics of your small farm layout. You may need to build a free-standing trellis. Typical shapes are either a T-shaped pole in the middle with twine coming down and out from the top of it, and a rectangular trellis with two supports on each side and a ladder-like horizontal top portion (like a swingset).

Be sure your supports are dug well into the ground, three feet deep at a minimum, and that they are in the ground in such a way that they won't fall over with the weight of your plants. Pour concrete around them if you can.

You will need to have your trellis constructed by the time your plants are six inches high, as they must be trained to grow up the trellis, so do not delay this part of your project! Have it done before you plant your rhizomes, ideally.

Each plant will weigh at least twenty or twenty-five pounds at maturity, so be sure your trellis can support this amount of weight (times the number of plants you will grow).

Sisal twine works well for hops plants; really anything that is strong and light will work.

Consider existing structures to grow hops on, such as along fences, garages, outbuildings or property lines.

Preparing Your Soil for Planting

Add lots of compost or well-rotted manure to your planting site. Check the pH of your soil and make sure it is in the 6 to 8 range.

Work the soil at least two feet deep and mix in any amendments well. Raise the surface of the bed above the ground level, making one hill per plant.

Planting Your Hops Rhizomes

Plant in early spring once the threat of frost has passed. Do not plant later than May. If you are in a zone that has late frosts, you may start your rhizomes in pots indoors and transplant in June.

You will want to space your hops plants about three feet apart. If you are growing different varieties, they should be at least five feet apart.

Plant each rhizome vertically, bud end up, or horizontally if you can't tell which side is the bud end. Cover with one inch of loose soil.

After planting, mulch thickly to keep in moisture and keep out pests and weeds.

Happy New Year

Merry Christmas

Raising Guinea Fowl !

Many people have never seen, much less heard of, guinea fowl. Visitors, on spying their first guinea, invariably ask "What is that—a turkey?" Nope, but not a bad guess. Like turkeys, guineas are Galliformes, a group encompassing all chicken-like birds. But while chickens are members of the pheasant family, turkeys and guineas each have a family of their own. Native to Africa, they are known for traveling in large, gregarious flocks. Guinea fowl were introduced into Europe by 15th century Portuguese explorers, and then arrived in North America with the early settlers. There are seven species of guinea fowl, of which the "helmeted pearl" is by far the most common, and certainly the weirdest looking, with its oddly shaped helmet, white, featherless face, bright red wattles, and gray polka-dotted feathers.

Ask those who keep guineas why they have them and you'll get a different answer every time. Chicken and turkey farmers keep them to ward off poultry-eating predators. Ranchers turn them loose to discourage rattlers and copperheads. Country dwellers like the way they gobble down disease-carrying ticks. Orchardists use them to drive off marauding birds. Farmers put them to work patrolling for row crop pests. Guineas do all this without damaging crops. Sure, they'll take the occasional peck at a cultivated plant, but they much prefer insects, weeds, and seeds.

Free-ranging guineas spend most of their days foraging. They work as a team, marching chest to chest and devouring anything they startle as they move through the grass. When they discover a special treat—a rodent, for example, or a small snake—they close ranks, circle their prey, and move in for the feast. All the while, they keep up a steady stream of whistles, chirps, and clicks, a sort of running commentary on the day's hunt.

But these little foragers have their faults. Like chickens, guineas are natural-born scratchers—I once watched a week-old guinea scratch vigorously in a saucer of starter mash while others stood by trying to catch bits of mash sailing through the air. Nevertheless, a guinea doesn't scratch as enthusiastically or as persistently as a chicken, and is far less likely to dig up garden seedlings, although they are attracted to freshly worked soil and will spend hours digging holes for luxurious dustbaths. Once I acquired a whole flock of guineas simply by arriving on the scene moments after they had devastated a friend's blossoming snap beans.

In addition to the minor inconveniences caused by dusting and occasional scratching, guineas have other characteristics that some people find somewhat less than endearing. For one thing, the hens lay only seasonally, and the young are quite delicate. Guineas are also a noisy bunch, making them a poor choice where high-strung neighbors live nearby. Because of their continuous conversations, guineas cannot be snuck into housing developments as chickens often are. It's probably best because guineas don't take kindly to confinement; they much prefer the freedom to prowl their home base. In this respect, a guinea has the same independence as a barn-born cat—it'll eat your food and tolerate your presence, but a guinea will never be your best friend.

Goat Towers : An Idea Whose Time Has Come

A set of towers, spread across the globe, have given goats the opportunity to make good on their evolutionary heritage and farmers a chance to leave an unforgettable impression on visitors. And don't worry -- there hasn't been a single report of the goats falling.

While we might be used to seeing goats grazing on a mostly two-dimensional pasture, the animals are not strangers to heights. Moroccan goats have been seen climbing trees and the internet has gone gaga over photos of wild goats in precarious places.

Sometime in the 19th century, Fernando Guedes da Silva da Fonseca decided to give his livestock a place to make good on their heritage. He tucked his Torres das Cabras into a leafy enclave at Aveleda, a famed winery in the Vinho Verde region of Portugal.

No one recognized the brilliance of his idea for about a century, when Charles Back decided to build a goat tower of his own at Fairview Wine and Cheese in South Africa in 1981. The tower now serves as a playground for the 750 Saanen milk goats at and has also become of the most identifiable aspect of the Fairview brand.

A number of farmers worldwide have copied the idea since. David Johnson built the 31-foot “The Tower of Baa” at his farm in Findlay, Illinois. Ekeby farm brought a tower of their own to Norway and made it the central pillar of most of their marketing materials. Endres Manufacturing Company in Waunakee, Wisconsin built the first steel goat tower when they had some extra time at the machine shop because, why not?

Last but not least, Silky O’Sullivan’s bar in Memphis, Tennessee has also jumped on the goat tower band wagon for the amusement of both their patrons and their goats. The goats there might be having a bit having a bit too much fun. One blog post at Atlas Obscura reports that customers let the goats have a sip or two of their beers before the animals climb the tower.

You can go ahead and call them follies (apparently, that’s what you actually call this sort of European garden structure). But regardless of human opinions, the goats seems to love the vertical elements.

Feeding Horses that are Hard Keepers

Much like teenage boys, some horses seem to be able to devour every bit of feed in sight, and still not gain weight. Unlike the teenage boys, however, and unfortunately for the owners of these hard keepers, this generally isn’t just a stage that the horse is going through. So, what is the best way to feed a horse to increase weight gain to the desired level, and then maintain it there?

First, start by taking a Body Condition Score and determining the current weight of the horse, and tracking those two elements over time, so you can know for sure if you are making progress or not. It’s easy to fall in to the trap of trying to remember what the horse was like a couple months ago, so a tracking program will help give a fact basis to your feeding program.

Second, weigh both the hay and any grain you are feeding your horse. A bathroom scale can do the trick, or especially handy is a fish or luggage scale that you can hang a bucket from. Every barn has a different scoop, from the old reliable coffee can to a plastic scoop purchased at the feed store. Weighing the scoop, then weighing it with the feed in it, allows you to mark your scoop so you can see where to fill it to for various feeds & weights of that feed. Note that not all feeds weigh the same, either, so measure each one independently.

Third, ensure that the horse is receiving enough forage in the diet. This is the base of any feeding program, and a good target is to be feeding 1.5% of body weight in forages. For a 1000 lb horse, that means at least 15 lbs of hay. Weigh a few flakes of hay and see just what a flake is from your supplier. Not all small square bales are created equally!

Fourth is the grain portion of the diet. A key thing to look at in evaluating feeds for hard keepers is the “Crude Fat” content of a feed. A basic corn/oats/mineral sweet feed mix will likely run around 2.5-3.0% fat, since that is what is naturally present in a lot of grains. These are fine for easier keepers, but many active horses need more – there are a variety of horse feeds on the market today that are in the 6-7% fat range, and a few horse feeds even reach up to the 12% fat range. Remember to feed within the guidelines printed on the tag, so that you get the nutrition portion of the diet correct. Start your horse on a higher fat diet slowly to allow them to adjust to the increased fat, and work up to a level where the weight starts to come on. Once you’ve reached a desirable weight and body condition, you can begin to back off the amount fed until you determine the amount of feed that will help maintain your horse for the long haul.