This Feeds Family of 4 Raise a Year's Worth of Meat | Homestead Morning Schedule

hey guys so this is the first morning we have not had rain pouring down which makes taking care of the livestock and morning chores so much easier so I thought today I would share with you what my morning looks like and what it looks like when you are raising a year's worth of your own meat so we do beef cattle grass-fed organic beef cattle we've got our meat chickens which I'm going to show you their new chicken tractor they have moved out of the brooder pen which was in the back of our horse trailer have you caught that earlier video now they're out in the field on pasture and we also got our five new pigs so we are raising this is the first year we're raising this breed and I am so excited about this breed and it is American guinea hogs but first up you're gonna come to chores with me so we got to get the meat Birds fed so this is the meat Birds we have 24 in here because I've got one with another little hen in another area but this is their chicken tractor so we just move this once a day all across the field so you can see this is where they were at yesterday and then we'll move them later this afternoon but we've got some larger tires so it's a little bit easier to move and because these meat birds will be butchered they are at six weeks so they're gonna get butchered in two more weeks at eight weeks so you can see how big these guys have gotten pretty fast there is no needed here for any type of nesting box because they're obviously not laying eggs yet and they'll be butchered before that time would come so we have the tarp for shelter from the rain and for the Sun if we ever get any it's an extremely unseasonable cool and wet even by Pacific Northwest standards here we're not even getting out of the 50s really for our highs right now but I need to get in here so there we go we're gonna crawl through I got to grab they're hanging feeders and go get those filled I have to say that my way to the pump house to go fill up the chicken feeders is a pretty peaceful walk this morning so this portion of the pasture we had the cattle off of who are about three three to four weeks and we just turned them back on here last night so they are quite happy to be amongst all of the fresh grass and quite a bit of clover so you can see we've got some of the the white clover there and then there's some more behind there so they are thoroughly enjoying that so my day usually begins about 7:00 in the morning coming out and feeding everybody and doing the morning chores first it's a little bit later this morning because I knew I wanted to film this for you guys I don't worse waiting for the rain to stop so it wouldn't mess with my camera too bad but usually morning chores for the pigs and all the chickens including the laying hens this time of year the only thing we have to do is make sure the cows have water so they require really very little care except just transferring between the pastures so generally about 20 to 30 minutes total of tour time in the morning which isn't bad for raising all of your own beef pork and chicken that's the morning chores and then usually come back out move them check everybody's water again in the evening but that usually only takes about 10 minutes so you're in the pump house with me and I keep two bags a 50 pound chicken feed in this metal garbage can so that the mice don't get into it and then fill these up once a day for the meat birds [Music] so everybody's happily going after breakfast and you can see that we hang those feeders so that when I move this later during the day the only thing I have to lift up is one of the waters ice we ran out of hooks and I didn't have it hanging up so only moving one thing out to move it's not too bad but meat birds actually will act very much like regular chickens there's kind of a misconception they definitely do eat more so we have to take their food away at night but right now with the stage that they're at I can fill up both of those feeders to that point and by tonight by about 8 o'clock tonight they will have eat all of that food so then I don't have to take it away because they've ate it all when I don't want it to have any passed that time but they will come up and roost so we actually put barbed wire up here so that they won't roost and poop into their feeders because they have no discretion but they will come up here and roost on these and after they kind of do their little bit of a morning frenzy feed they will eat quite a bit of the grass and the clover if I throw any vegetables in here I had some corn on the cob that they picked over yesterday weren't too crazy about the rest of this stuff yet but they will eat just like regular chickens and pretty much behave like them they just like to eat a little bit more okay so now I got to make my way over to the other shed so I actually get quite a bit of walking across this top pasture it's kind of like we have everything in a triangle in the morning so we're going over to this to get the pigs food for this morning and then I'll go down and give them their feed for first thing now if you're curious about the rest of my daily schedule and what that looks like with home studying and working full time I do work from home now full time but prior to that I've only worked from home for about the past two years prior to that we still raised all of our livestock and had the garden and I commuted to a day job and my husband still works his day job but if you're curious about that I have a podcast did you know it the pioneering today podcast it's one of the oldest farm and garden podcasts been out 2013 how many years is that seven years so I have an episode where I do my full weekly schedule and daily schedule breakdown from morning when I wake up which is coming out here and feeding these guys pre coffee this morning by the way I'm feeling quite perky without having any coffee so far it's so bedtime so if you're curious about that you can check that out I will put a link to it below and let's get in here now and get that pig food out so this is how we buy our pig feed so this is called a super-sized sack it's about 500 pounds and it is organic pig feed this we get from a local granary to us they're about an hour away from a smash about hour and 10 minutes away from s called Conway feed and it's their custom organic pig feed mixture so and I do the same thing for our chicken feed it is an organic chicken either meat bird or layer pellet and so those that's the brand I use and it's a custom blend by a local granary but it is always organic so here's our pig feed and this super-sized sack for the american guinea hogs should take us all the way through and so butcher time we're not anticipating having to buy anymore feed but we'll find out because it's our first year doing the american guinea hog so in the morning right now we're getting ready to move them on a fresh pasture but we're not getting a moved today maybe get a little bit more in there there we go so this is morning feed so if you're not familiar with American getting hog - really pretty awesome the breed was almost extinct like in the 1990s so pretty prolific in the early nineteen hundred's especially during the 1800s but then with big commercial agriculture big farming etc they almost were extinct in fact at one point there was only 26 breathable guinea hogs left and the breed has really started to make a comeback it's a really cool it's a heritage pig and they're a mainly a pasture pigs so the beauty of them is a lot of the times you don't even have to feed them we we just brought them home their piglets we just got them a week ago and so we're still getting a used to being here and getting them used to they're a little bit skittish skid skid äj-- made up a word you guys skittish a little bit skittish still and so I have been every morning working with them to get them tamed down so we'll see if they're camera-shy or not and they'll let me I'll show you kind of what I'm what I'm doing they're waiting for me what I'm doing to get them where we can handle them some good morning little pigs good morning little piggies so here are our five American guinea hogs are they not the cutest little boogers are wet so they're only eight weeks old so they are a young hog and they have short little legs but they're pretty stout and you would be surprised you guys I Huck these bad boys over my shoulders when we brought them home last week to carry them between the back of the truck which we brought them home and a pin into here and they are a solid 20 pound Pig already at just eight weeks but the cool thing about them is is they're not big rooters so they're more of a grazing Pig and we're gonna be getting ready to move them over here and this is not the best pasture or grassland this is down here we've been working on getting this cleared into more pasture but there's a lot of buttercups a lot of weeds not really as much a little bit of clover over in that area but not as much clover over through here so we're gonna be redoing our pastures next year but because our pasture is not really great pasture and we don't have any nuts for them yet they love acorns and we'll forage for those types of things we are feeding them but they're a great thing is they're not big rooters they are more grazers and so you don't have to feed them as much which is awesome and they don't tear up your pasture as much which is actually a good thing you can use pigs to clear land which we've done in the past we usually have raised Hereford pigs in the past but see right there hey they're eating some grass they're like we'll just take some of this so they're grazers but we're supplementing a little bit with feed so we do run one hot wire there along the bottom just because they do root a little bit and that's to keep them in but just one strand and then the hog panels so you can see they're a little bit skittish but they're doing a lot better and we're just feeding them so I we hate to feed on the ground especially when they've been in here and they're pooping so we feed just like this and if I stay right here they will come to the feed and then I can start to pet them they're getting a lot better [Applause] oh look at you you're not even trying to get away this morning oh maybe a little bit maybe a little bit good morning guys come on good eats so when we first brought him home they would not even let me touch him like you couldn't touch them at all so they have come a long way they're known as a very friendly breed and just a few short days and kind of the same thing when we brought them home we had had the setup because we've always done the larger Pig breeds before and so we had this as their shelter so you can see they had a nice little bit in there with straw and could stay nice and warm when it's rainy and cold out and then as well as shade protection in the summer time but we're taking into account how short their legs were so we have to cut that board down and lower that for him so in the meantime we just took this trailer just kind of goes behind usually just by the four-wheeler actually and we just flipped it upside down and stuffed a bunch of straw in there and so now they can get out of the rain they can also get in there they need shade protection they're kind of shaded down here anyways because they've got the big old maple tree shades this area and it we have not had any Sun to speak up since we've brought them home actually because today is the first day it hasn't been pouring down rain but and then there's their watering situation so for reference there's the Pigpen and then we come up here to the top part of the pasture there's the cows again and off the back side of the pump house I actually have two little chickens in here because we got a surprise chick with our meat birds that we order from McMurray hatchery and they sent to us and there it is which I have suspicions that this may be a rooster and I'm very disappointed and I don't want a rooster but I won't be able to fully tell by feather pattern or behavior but that's an awfully large comb right yeah anyways I'm not gonna be able to tell if it's a rooster or a head until it's about yea pro-bender for weeks so we'll find out then but the meat birds were really picking on that when it she he I don't know what you are it was a baby so had to move her I'm still having faith in calling her I had to move her by herself but then she was too lonely so we picked the smallest and most docile of the meat birds and they are now locate mates okay so now got those taken care of they're all fed and watered now it's time to go and feed the laying hens and check their water good morning girls and I'll be moving them we do all of the chicken tractor moving later in the day that's when my husband is home from work I can do it by myself but we usually just get everybody moved all at once and have the four-wheeler out just once so they say good morning and they still have quite a bit of grass but I'll be moving under fresh ground today good morning so now I need to take my bucket which if you watch the 15 items to always keep in your pantry you may recognize this this is what my 10 pounds of sea salt comes in because I always keep 10 pounds of salt on hand and you can see I've went through it so the great thing is when you buy yourself this did you've got lots of little buckets you need for feeding livestock out on the homestead and in the barnyard so I need to go put this back in the pig feed shed so that it's ready to go for their afternoon feeding so thanks for joining me on my morning chores and feeding the livestock if you've got questions or would like to see more things in detail please let me know below in the comment section and now I am heading in for that first blissful cup of coffee

Channel: Melissa K. Norris - Modern Homesteading

Views: 355,717

Keywords: homesteading family, backyard chickens, pig farming, raising chickens, self sufficient, meat chickens, raising chickens for beginners, American Guinea hog, Raising a year's worth of meat, grass fed beef, raising beef cattle, raising chickens in backyard, self sufficient living, homesteading channels, homesteading lifestyle

Id: I-2pSn3WHTo

Length: 16min 26sec (986 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 17 2020