Paradise in Disguise Hobby Farm Blog

Recently, I came across Hough Family Homestead on Instagram, then visited their newly launched blog, where I found this post: "What is Modern Homesteading?" Even though I haven't thought of ourselves as a homestead, I've always loved the "Little House on the Prairie" series, ever since I read it the first time as a young girl. Therefore, I didn't think that today, with all the "modern" conveniences, we'd be called a "homestead". Well, after reading Hough Family Homestead's view of what "modern homesteading" is and answering some questions that were asked me regarding homesteading, it caused me to reconsider the idea. While I've thought of a "homesteader" as one who built their own home (or at least part of it), often is off-grid & in a "wilderness" location, that's not necessarily the definition of a modern homesteader. For us, we breed, hatch & grow our own chickens...

When someone recently sent me an e-mail & asked what type of birds l have, and thought they were expensive for straight-run chicks. This is what I originally wrote, but then shortened it for their sake. But, I'm sharing the long version with you all:  I'm breeding the "Catskill Homesteader" to be a dual-purpose flock with the additional qualities of being very cold hardy, extremely colorful feathers on both hens & roosters, plus laying a wide range of colorful eggs. I love how the Landrace "breeds" of chickens, the Swedish Flower Hens and Icelandics, are "a box of chocolates", and you never know what the chicks or adults look like until they hatch & have grown up. While those two Landraces have some wonderful qualities, I'm breeding for larger sized hens & roosters, a more colorful array of eggs, and small combs that don't have the tendency to get frostbite in the winter. Currently, the parent stock have both regular si...

Here's what I wrote to a friend when she asked how everything was going with the hobby farm, and what my plans were for hatching chicks, etc. Be warned - it's a "book"! I'd like to hatch chicks for BackYardChicken's 6th Annual Easter Hatch-A-Long, which sets eggs March 14th. I don't have a set number right now, except that I usually operate a full incubator, which holds 42 eggs; though last year one of the hatched, I added a "few" extra to allow for non-fertile, quitters, etc. Like last year, I plan on doing several consecutive hatches, and if I get orders, then I will increase accordingly. That's the reason why I'm starting the website, to get "pre-orders" and so I know how many people are interested in, so I know how many hatches to have. Part of what I'm planning to do is build a hatch-er out of an old cooler, so that I can move the eggs on day 18 of incubation out of the incubator, so I can set more! (Hatching r...