I don’t know if this is the right post to go into depth, but here’s my experience…
For egg layers, you can add light during the winter to try to push for more egg production, but I’ve always been inclined to let the birds follow their natural cycles over the winter. I’ll turn on the heat lamp when the cold gets really severe but generally they don’t require that in NE Kansas. Keep in mind that the birds will molt every year or so once established, and during that time you won’t get production. I’ve evolved to replace my flock every 3rd year as production goes down. I generally get chicks in August when it’s warm outside, and they’re laying in January which continues solid for at least a year. I switch the whole flock vs. individual birds because a partial replacement will lead to a lot of social issues in the group. The pecking order is a real thing. Folks are the farm do some free ranging and they lose birds to owls, hawks, fox, dogs, etc… commensurate with the amount of freedom they have. It just depends what kind of system you want to run.
For meat birds, I run cornish cross that mature over about 8 weeks. If you don’t plan to do a ton, it’s easiest in my opinion to get chicks in August or September and finish those up in the fall as the weather gets easier to bear. The last couple of weeks of a cornish cross chicken are high risk if the weather is extreme. I do batches of 50 and they spend about 3 weeks in a brooder, then 5 weeks on the pasture in a mobile chicken shelter. I can send photos another time, but it’s a 10x10 base that’s higher & I move the shelter to new grass daily. They get sunshine, fresh air and exercise - and the meat quality has been fantastic. It takes some work but in addition to getting great meat, it improves the soil where they’ve been too. I’d never try to do the cornish cross without shelter. Even with shelter you risk raccoons reaching through the wire or digging in underneath & these aren’t the most mobile birds.
Too much to go into bees in a short paragraph. There are a lot of great resources on YouTube and in books, plus your local beekeeping groups. One of the keys here is to make sure you’re managing for varroa mites (plus strong queens and great nutrition). There’s a lot of information about varroa now & while there is good progress being made with breeding mite resistant honeybees, there are also good tools you can use to help reduce that pressure. Without managing varroa, you get weaker bees and introduced diseases that will leave you beeless over the winter. I catch swarms too which is a solid way to start, but they’re going to bring mites with them & you need to treat or they’ll take over that colony and potentially get into other colonies in your apiary. We could nerd out on this for a long time in a different post & there are people a lot better at this than me too.
There are also different philosophies and management practices for cattle. I think the ultimate solution is high density stocking and frequent rotation, but that doesn’t really fit my life right now. So I do low/moderate density stocking and semi-frequent rotation. But using electric fence is key to that because it’s flexible and you can adjust based on your local conditions, schedule, and your herd needs. I chose woven wire for perimeter fencing but possibly even a better option is multi-strand electric wire. With the right equipment you can get a long term, easy to maintain fence that will do very well at keeping your animals in and predators out. Check out Greg Judy on YouTube and again, there are great resources to learn more so we don’t have to learn everything the hard way!
Appreciate your answer. I hate to be a police on this thread but I really hope people keep it to Introduction only. Your valuable answer here may not be appreciated as much as it should because it is hidden in the Introduction thread.
If @Anjeerfarmer could create a new thread in the appropriate category and ask you to move your answer there, it will be a win-win situation.
Hello, Everybody! Thank you Scott for enabling this wonderful forum. I am fairly new to this form, though I have been reading it pretty steady for the last several months. I live in the UP of MI about 5 miles from Lake Superior and have a farm of around 80 acres. My dad and I have been starting to grow all sorts of plants here for the last six years. We are right on the border of zone 4b/5a although the coldest I have seen on our farm is -20 F one night for a hour or so in the last six winters. Growing season,(usally about 2,000- 2,500 gdus), and late frosts here are the main struggles, but we are learning as we go since we moved here from Illinois. We have bought and propagated apples, pears, plums, bush cherries, haskaps, elderberries, apricots, peaches, persimmons, pawpaws, kiwi, chokeberries, ribes, quince, medlar, ect… Some of them are iffy here but so far we are seeing slow but certain progress with almost all these species to some degree. I want to thank everyone who posts information on this forum especially those from more northern climes. I have learned many valuable growing tips from you. As of right now during winter off season, I am working on a kiwi T trellis sourced from our local woodlot. I have about 200 ft of posts in just the crossbars and laterals to install. Keep Planting. Eli
Hello everyone! My name is Daniel, but everyone calls me Danny. I am fairly new to this forum, but have read several threads over the last few months as I fell down the grafting rabbit hole. I am 26 years old, Hispanic, and live in the Rio Grande Valley in Deep South Texas. I have had a love for plants, gardening, and butterflies from the time I could walk and talk. I have a one-acre food forest and grow everything from natives for local pollinators and wildlife, tropical fruit trees, “northern”/deciduous fruit trees, berries, herbs, and more. I am always looking to expand the food forest with other edible plants, especially those that double as host plants for butterflies. I am a huge believer in never giving up, and I am willing to find/create any microclimate necessary (along with adding micorrhizae) to get these fruit to survive as perennials. I look forward to making new friends, learning more, sharing what I know, and trading with everyone. A rough list of what I grow can be found on my page in my bio.
Danny
Hello all. I am long time lurker, finally turned member here and figured I should introduce myself.
I started planting fruit trees at our place in northern Maine roughly 3 years ago and now have around a hundred trees in total. Most of the trees are heirloom apples, but there are also a handful of pears, stone fruit, and nuts with more sure to come. We also grow quite a few ribes, grapes, and about 20 varieties of garlic.
I enjoy growing apples from seed, trying things that folks around here say can’t be grown in our climate, and showing off the weird stuff that does just fine in 3b/4a that our neighbors have never heard of.
Thank you Scott for the space, it has been very informative and I look forward to trying my hand at being more than just a lurker.
Camden is a pretty area - I used to go to summer camp there when I was a kid.
Luckily for my trees, but maybe not for hunters, deer are not as prevalent up here in Aroostook as they are in south/central Maine.
I do worry about moose as we usually have one or two pass through our yard each year. Luckily they head straight to our pond and have left the trees and garden alone so far!
Hi everyone! I’m Jenn, I live in Montreal, Qc, zone 5/6. I’m very new at gardening, but dream of starting a mini orchard in my suburban backyard. Last year I planted 2 apple trees (pink pearl and cripps pink), strawberries (archer, audrey and charlotte), rhubarb, blueberries (reka and northland), raspberries (royalty, joan j, prelude) and a pink champagne currant. This year I have ordered pear trees (harrow gold, dewdrop and considering adding magness), peaches (contender and one called early blush which I’m actually hoping is vee blush), pluots (dapple dandy and flavor supreme, I realize these are very risky in my zone) and more berries. I read Ann Ralph’s book, Growing a little fruit tree, and I’m planning on using her methods to fit all these trees in my small space. Looking forward to learning a bunch from all of you!
Hi, Great to find you-all. Thank you for the forum.
I’m Elizabeth in zone 7 in the Southeastern US. I grow fruit for the family to eat and give lots away as the harvest permits.
Because of the humidity, pest and disease pressure, I favor native and low-care fruits. Current favorites include: blight-resistant European pears and some hybrids like Kieffer, figs, berries, jujube, persimmons (native, Asian and hybrids), pawpaw, and muscadines.
I look forward to learning, contributing and generally wallowing in all things fruit!
Hi Jenn S.
Im about 3 hours or so below you in the Lake George area. Just zone 5 here , and I swear sometimes its really zone 4. I do several plums and the best for me seem to be Superior and Alderman, as they havent gotten Blackknot like many of the others I had. Have a Reliance Peach now but still too small to bear, and and a Blushingstar Peach as well. Putting in a Crimson Rocket Peach this spring, along with a Summer Crisp Pear for something different. I do have several pears as well, Bartlett, Moonglow. Also putting in several different Mulberry cultivars this year. Sending positive energy north to your place and welcome to the forum. It can be very helpful to hear from others experience .
Hi everyone,
Jerry here. Been lurking off-and-on for a long while, joined a while back, and finally now have the time to introduce myself. I live in Napa, California and grow wine grapes for a living. My house came with a number of mature citrus, apple, pluot, and cherry trees that I am slowly renovating.
My plant interests range from fruits (of course) to carnivorous plants, orchids, and vegetables. We get more winter chill here than anywhere else I have lived, so I’ve been going a little crazy planting things like sour cherries and peonies that I couldn’t grow before. This forum has been invaluable for learning more about growing and propagating fruit trees. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about grapes.
Thanks, Jerry!
Point Reyes is such a cool place.
I’ve lived in California all my life, and it still fascinates me how we can go from 110 degrees and sunny to 55 and foggy in an hour’s drive.
Keep Planting. Eli
