hobbyhomefarm.com is merging with happynurselife.org!

hobbyhomefarm is a much older site that I have been working on with lots of information about farm life and the building of our house from scratch. Please excuse the mess while this site is under construction. The goal is for both websites to live together because both Nursing and sustainable living is what I am about. Future topics will include supporting health through nutrition and our environment as well as an online store for items made by me such as goat milk soaps, tallow lotion, shampoo bars, tinctures, and more!

happynurselife.org + hobbyhomefarm.com

Nursing has given me the freedom and knowledge to choose a healthier lifestyle. I believe in healing through good nutrition and what the good Lord has provided for us on this Earth.

I am a hobby farmer, living a self-sustaining lifestyle combined with modern living.

My goal is to retire from Nursing & live the modern homesteading lifestyle.

We built our home from scratch on bare land.

Allow me to share my journey of being a nurse, farming, and building a house and so much more with you ...

Nursing has given me knowledge & compassion

Sharing my nursing experience, knowledge, and helpful links...

My nursing career spans over 20+ years. I have been a Registered Nurse in the acute hospital setting as a Float Nurse (in the areas of Pediatrics, NICU, Adult MedSurg/Tele, Orthopedics, Postpartum), Expert Nurse Consultant/Witness for the BRN, Home Health, Camp & Conference nursing, Prison nursing, was a founding member of Nurses Just For Kids, a pediatric-specific home care agency, and more.

Happynurselife BLOG

Resources

*For a better experience, please use a computer to view. Some pages do not translate to mobile well at this time.

Hobbyhomefarm.com

Learn about our hybrid homesteading life...

Raising livestock, gardening, cooking, using self-reliant skills to provide for our family, and how we built a house from scratch on 20-acres of timberland.

hobbyhomefarm BLOG

Our Blog includes our experience raising livestock, gardening, building a house on bare land, 4-H experiences (I was a co-community club leader, camp nurse, and adult project leader for 10+ years!), and more...

Farm Gallery

Recipes!

LEARN

Raising livestock, homemade wine, medicinal plants, managing 4-H projects, and more...

hobbyhomefarm GALLERY

so you want to raise livestock...

Raising Poultry & Eggs

Raising chickens for eggs and turkeys for holiday dinners

has taught us so much ...

You do not have to have a rooster to have hens who lay eggs

Hens start laying eggs at approximately 4-6 months of age

Egg color: Look at the hen's ears. If they are white, she will lay WHITE eggs. If they are red, she will lay BROWN eggs. If the hen's legs are blue/green, she will lay blue/green eggs.

Eggs should be stored with pointed end down.

Incubation period of a fertilized chicken egg is approx. 21 days.

Higher protein feed yields more eggs

(increased productivity with layer pellets over scratch feed)

Egg production will decrease as the days get shorter and during periods of stress or molting.

Chickens of different ages should be raised separately.

Newcastle disease is very contagious. Currently (2019), in California, poultry shows are being cancelled to prevent the spread.

There is no cure.

Turkey poults should not be raised with chickens.

Chickens are easily captured in the dark.

Incubating fertilized eggs... Seeing chicks starting to pip out of their shell makes us happy... Eggs must be fertilized to hatch. We use the Hovabator* incubator. There is definitely a learning curve involved and we have gotten best results (approx 75% hatch rate) by adding an egg turner, a humidity sensor, and a thermometer. Incubation is approximately 21 days. Choose an area where the temperature remains constant. The thermometer and humidity sensor should be inside the unit and set up and warmed up to 100 degrees F. prior to putting eggs inside. We collect eggs for a few days, no more than 5 days to ensure they are fresh. Add water to bottom reservoir for humidity. Maintain temp @100'F.

Backyard biosecurity... Biosecurity means practicing safety to keep yourself and your birds free of illness and disease. Always wash hands after handling birds and be careful when introducing new birds to your flock. Signs of a sick bird may be sneezing/coughing, watery or dull eyes, lethargic or limp, not as active as usual, scaly legs, mites, or abnormal vocalizations to name a few. Separate sick birds, treat or cull as needed to protect the rest. For more information click here.

Adding to your flock... When introducing young or new chickens to your existing flock, try introducing them at night. Many times, they don't notice they have new roommates. Observe for fighting. Hen pecking and pecking order are true to life terms. Chickens have to work out who's the boss of who. Quarantine new birds initially, check them for mites, use poultry dust to be sure. If you notice pecking, separate them for the safety of the bird getting pecked.

Let's talk about Sheep & Goats!

How did I get into sheep & goats? ...4-H! 4-H is a wonderful and enriching program for kids aged 7-19 that teaches about life skills, interpersonal skills, animals, science, and so much more. I started when I saw a flyer for our local 4-H at my son's elementary school. I had never heard of 4-H while I lived in Hawaii before. I later found out that 4-H was alive there, just not in my area. In California, 4-H is thriving and it is one of the best findings for our whole family. My 3 children grew up 4-H and I wouldn't change it for anything. My son was ambitious and wanted to join so many projects. We started Horse (this was more for me!) and Sheep. he learned how to raise a market animal. As a family, we learned about feed, care, housing, breeding, and the circle of life for sheep. We have 2 fairs in our county that we were eligible to participate in and we did both each year. My other 2 children followed in his footsteps when they became of age. Raising sheep was a daily chore, a constant learning experience, and a 'business' for my kids. They learned to keep track of their expenses, provide good care, and then realized profits when they sold their animal at the fair.

Raising sheep is both easy and hard. They require clean water, shelter, and good food. Pastureland with good grass is what sheep eat in the wild, but to raise quaity competitive lambs for fair requires grain and high-quality feed. They do not tolerate too much copper in their diet so they must not get into other types of livestock feed that may contain copper. Sheep should be vaccinated with CDT (prevents overeating disease and tetanus) vaccine each year.

4-H market lambs are anywhere from grade quality to top show quality. For learning purposes, it's best to get the best that you can comfortably afford for your market. The goal is to break even or profit, not to lose money. Winning is always rewarding but comes best when you earned it with hard work and practicing your showmanship. Click Here for a book that I recommend to to my project kids to help with showmanship:

Click HERE for a link to 'How much does it costs to raise a market lamb' to give you an idea of costs.

We raised sheep and goats for over 15 years. At first, we bought lambs from a local breeder before each fair. Check your fair rules for minimum ownership time. Then as my younger kids started getting closer to showing sheep themselves, we started breeding our own because eventually we would need 3 lambs for each fair. It just seemed to make sense. We started with California Red sheep. They were docile, easy to handle, and looked pretty cool with their red wool. However, in our area, this breed was not very competitive. My son worked with them the same, fed them the same, they just did not have the preferred body type to be competitive. In our area, the preferred meat sheep breeds were Suffolk, Hampshire, or Dorset. We purchased a Suffolk ram and bred him with our CA Red ewes. We did this for a few years and slowly started adding more sheep to our farm and eventually got rid of our CA Reds. It took us a decade to breed competitive lambs. By the end of our 4-H run, we had nice blue Suffolk genetics that sold well. For anyone starting new, I would recommend starting with good stock if you plan to breed for show.

Did you know?... Sheep are from the OVINE Species. Sheep are ruminants, meaning they have 4 stomachs. Sheep don't have teeth on the top front gums. Sheep are raised for meat and/or wool. Wool breeds tend to have white faces. Meat breeds tend to have black faces.

Sheep By-Products... Wool/fleece, lamb meat (meat less than 1 year old at time of slaughter), mutton (meat greater than 14 months old at time of slaughter), milk, cheese, hides/skins, lanolin...

Is it a Sheep or a Goat? Goat tails go up, Sheep tails goes down

Learn more about Sheep... Raising meat sheep... Meat sheep must be fed well to grow optimally. Once babies are born, it is very important that the newborn lamb drinks colostrum, mother's first milk. The babies usually are able to stand within 15 minutes, most times sooner. They must be kept warm. If it is cold out, allow mom to lick her baby, but if it seems like it is cooling down too fast, it is OK to intervene by helping the drying process using clean towels, especially if she has twins and the 2nd one is about to be born. There are commercial colostrum powders on the market, but ideally, they get colostrum from their mother. The next best thing would be fresh goat milk. Many times, babies who do not get that 1st colostrum and end up being bottle fed do not grow the same way. I keep a heat lamp in the barn so that babies can move toward the heat as needed. Newborns should have their umbilical cord dipped or painted with iodine to prevent navel ill disease which is incurable. Mommies should have gotten their CDT vaccine close to delivery. If they have not, newborns should receive their CDT vaccine soon after birth and then repeated 3 weeks later as a booster shot. CDT vaccine and syringe and needles can be purchased from your feed store. It is a subcutaneous shot. Once they have their booster shot, you may band their tails and castrate males. Lambs growing up should always have access to mom. They will start to explore foods like the soft parts of hay and grains within a couple of weeks and are usually able to be weaned by 3 months old. Lamb gestation is +/- 150 days. You will want to time your breeding so that lambs born will grow to be the right weight by fair time. For our area, market lambs must be a minimum of 100 lbs. There is no minimum age and maximum age is 1 years old with all milk teeth intact at time of fair. Ideally, you want them to be 6-9 months in age. Less than 6 months may make weight, but may lack the 'finish' to be competitive and too close to 1 year old and you are risking their milk teeth falling out - which is a disqualifier in our area since that is the only way to tell age. All lambs should have scrapie tags. Scrapie tags identify (1) state of origin (2) flock ID and (3) Individual animal ID. Click HERE to learn about scrapie disease. (Page under construction...keep checking back for updates! There is so much I have learned about sheep and would love to share with you...

Search hobbyhomefarm blogs for more in depth information

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hobbyhomefarm@gmail.com

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