Recipe: Hot Chocolate

There are many recipes for homemade hot chocolate. I modified some that I found to my tastes. Here is my recipe:

1-1.5 C Milk

1T baking cocoa (regular or special dark)

2T Sugar

Pinch of cinnamon

Pinch of salt

Pinch of nutmeg, ginger, and/or cloves.

1.     Pour the milk into a sauce pan and scald it (let little bubbles form around the edge)

2.     Add sugar and stir until dissolved

3.     Add baking cocoa and spices, stir

4.     Pour into mug and enjoy.

You can use less sugar; I just like my hot chocolate strong and very sweet.

Winter

Winter can be a hassle for livestock and people. If you live in the north, your zones are lower and you can’t plant some of your favorite foods, like oranges and cinnamon. This cold season also requires you to do some prep on the housing and modify the livestock’s diets.

Water in Winter

Keeping the water in your barn, pasture, and coop is difficult in below freezing weather. You have some options; the first is to get a heated water bowl. These can be expensive and you have to install them in each housing. The upside to this option is that you rarely have to check the water (only twice a day). If you want to install one, you might as well install a constant flowing water system too. The other option is to change/check the water 3-4 times a day as it freezes. To do this in the winter means that you need rubber water bowls and time to check them. If the water frozen in a metal bowl, the bowl will develop a hole. The rubber bowls don’t bust and the ice pops right out of them.

Keeping Chickens in the Cold

When you choose the chicken breeds you are keeping, be sure to pick breeds that are winter hardy. The next step in to winterize the coop. You do this by cleaning the coop and put a thick layer of bedding in the coop. Make sure there are no drafts on the floor. You can not close off all ventilation in the coop because the chickens will suffocate. Keep windows partially open or have vents installed at the top of the coop. Instead of cleaning the litter each week, you will add a layer of bedding. This makes the manure underneath compost and produce heat (again, make sure the coop has ventilation).

After you give the chickens their supper, give them some oats/ oatmeal as a treat. This works best for cold nights and help them keep their body heat. Oats are digested slow and keep the body warm.

Water keeps body temperatures even, so make sure the chickens have plenty of fresh water.

Goats

Goats are winter hardy and don’t start to shiver until 15degrees F. They need a shelter to block the wind and a draft free floor area. It’s also best to keep the litter dry. Goats also huddle together for warmth and sleep.

Like the chickens, goats can have oats as a treat before bed to keep them warm throughout the night. They also need plenty of fresh water.

Vitamins and Minerals

Always research the amounts needed for each species of livestock. Not all feeds have what the animal needs. And some hobby farmers choose to mix their own feed. in this instance, it is important to look into what the livestock needs and be sure that the feed has everything. 

Any vitamin or mineral deficiency in the soil can be supplemented with other sources. Most farmers keep a small amount in places in the barn for the livestock to eat as needed. This is also a good practice for baking soda, which can help settle a goat's upset stomach.

For less of a head ache, you can opt to purchase vitamin and mineral mixes from feed stores. Be sure that the vitamin and mineral mix you choose has the proper amounts of the required vitamins and minerals. Some of these mixes may also include ingredients to help with kidney stones or urinary calculi (a fatal affliction for male goats).  There are also blocks (billy blocks or supplement blocks) that can be placed in the field for the livestock to eat as they need.

Planning a Barn

The first step in planning a barn is to decide what the barn will hold. The animals that you are planning to add to the farm need to have a certain amount of housing space allotted to them. This barn can also be where you milk (the milking room) and where you store the feed and hay.

1. Animals Living in the Barn
1. Each cow/horse needs 10'x10' of housing/ or stall space in a barn.
2. Each goat/sheep needs 5'x5' of housing/ or stall space in a barn.
3. Cattle and goats need a calving/kidding stall in the barn
4. Chickens/ducks can be added to the barn, but usually have a coop instead.
2.  The Milking Room
1. This room holds all the milking supplies. 
2. This can be an area of 5'x5' or 10'x10'
3. Feed/hay
1. This doesn't take much space, but can still have a spot in the barn
2. You can store this near the milk room for quick access 
3. Hay can be stored in a loft, if the roof is high enough

Once you've decided what you want included in the barn, you can make sketches of the barn plan.

Eggs

Eggs can come from more than chickens. And different breeds of chickens can give you slightly different eggs. Each bird has an egg that taste different and has different nutritional facts. 

Egg Production by Poultry

• Chickens lay every day, or almost every day, with a 1-2 month break over the winter. The eggs vary in size and shell color depending on the breed. 
• For white eggs that you are use to in the grocery store, raise leghorns.These are hens that are easily spooked and killed. Everyone I know with hens loses their leghorns first.
  
• Red stars/ red sex links (a breed created from breeding New Hampshire and Rhode Island Reds) lay brown eggs. These hens are great layers with great personalities. They can be affectionate and prefer to follow people around. As a bonus, this breed is easy to determine the sex of the chick at a young age. 
• For a variety of color, raise Easter Eggers or Ameraucanas. These hens lay blue, green, and aqua eggs. Some lay pink eggs, but the color is closer to a brown rather than pink. This breed can be a little standoffish, but don't usually cause problems.
• Chicken hens are vocal when they lay eggs. The same sound is also an alarm informing you and the flock of a predator.  If a hen is not in a place to lay an egg and is squawking,  there is most likely a predator.
  

• Ducks lay 150 eggs a year. They can sometimes lay every day, but only some breeds. The eggs are larger than chicken eggs and can also vary in shell color. 
• Duck egg flavor is strong. It is suggested not to eat these as an egg dish, but instead, use them as an ingredient in baking. 
• Ducks are loud, so make sure they will not upset neighbors if you want to raise this fowl. They need water to eat and some water to swim in. But they also need a more protective environment than chickens. While chickens can fly again from a predator, most egg laying duck breeds are too heavy to fly.
   
• Turkeys lay two eggs a week. The eggs are about the size of duck eggs and taste a little more meaty. 
• These birds are a little intimidating. They are typically raised for meat and not eggs. But this would be a good fowl to breed to a continuous supply of meat.
   
• Quail lay one tiny egg per day. Their eggs sell for a lot, because they are a delicacy. 
• While I have not owned quail, many people nearby have enjoyed raising them. Unfortunately, this fowl doesn't seem to survive long. 
  

• Guineas are known to lay around 100 eggs a year. 
• But the main reason to own a guinea is for pest control. Like quail, this fowl eats ticks , effectively controlling the population around your house. 
  

• Geese lay 2-10 eggs each year. 
• Geese are also known to be aggressive. While this can be dangerous for the hobby farmer and kids, the geese can also be used as guards for smaller fowl or for the farm. They also make great alarm systems. This makes up for their low egg production.
   

Eggs are high in protein, the larger the egg the more protein. They are rumored to increase cholesterol with some conflicting reports through the years. However this study indicates that eggs do not increase cholesterol or have drastic health effects. Eggs remain an affordable source of protein with little guilt.

Breeding

Before buying livestock (like cows or goats), you need to consider how to breed them. Chickens need to be breed to add to the flock.

You could get a mating pair of each type of livestock, but that would require more space. Also, larger male animals can be dangerous if not properly trained/ raised. Male livestock also tend to smell worse than females, especially goats (bucks go into rut and can smell foul).

To breed your females, you can contact a neighbor or nearby farms to ask about stud services. These services usually cost less than $50. It's only expensive if the stud is of really good stock, which is rare and most people don't care about. If the stud has papers, (with goats) than the kids can sell for a higher amount ($50-$300, instead of $25-$100). However, it is more difficult to sell kids at this price. If the stud service is too costly at the time of breeding, then try to make a deal. You could offer the offspring, when it is old enough. This is a good solution if you have limited space and funds, the offspring will go onto (usually) a much larger farm and you can get the milk from your cow or goat.
To stud, either bring the stud to your farm for a week. Or, take your female to the stud's farm for a week (this is a better option). You could also do AI, but that costs more and is much more complicated. 

After the cow/goat is bred you need to follow the guidelines on how to take care of them during their pregnancy.  They need special hay and higher amounts of feed. You also need to keep track of when they were bred and the expected due date. Make sure you have contacted your local vet, for around the due date, in case something goes wrong.

Have a calving/kidding stall ready for the delivery. This is where the cow/doe and her calf/kid will live for a few days. The stall should be in the barn and draft-free. Some farmers take the calf/kid away from the mother and bottle feed them. I leave the kids with my goats, it helps them connect with the herd and their mother.

After the calf/kid is weaned, they can be sold, traded, or kept. Keep documentation of everything from the breeding date and stud to the weaning date of the offspring.


With chickens, it would be easiest to contact someone nearby with a rooster. If your contact already breeds their own chickens, then you can purchase fertilized eggs from them at a reasonable price. Roosters can be dangerous, and if you can avoid owning one, it may make your hobby farm life simpler. I do want to add, however, if you raise the rooster it can become a great pet and then you can breed your own chickens.

Easy Chicken Breeding

1. Have a separate coop and fence set up for the mating hens and rooster. 
2. Leave two hens and the rooster in the breeding area for a few weeks (choose your hens by breed OR choose a broody hen). Do not collect eggs, you need the nest to fill( 10-14 eggs).
3. You can remove the rooster once the nest is full and a hen is brooding (laying on the nest constantly). You have two hens to fill the nest faster and so they can take turns laying on the eggs.
4. After 21 days, the eggs should hatch. Leave the hens in with the chicks for a few weeks to keep them warm. Or, take the chicks and place in a draft free area with fresh bedding and a heat lamp. 

With Fertilized Eggs

1.  The easiest way is to take them under a broody hen, but if you don't have one...
2. You need an egg incubator, they cost between $15-50, for small farm ones. You need to check if the incubator turns the eggs or if you have to do it manually.  
3. Follow the instruction that came with the incubator and watch for the eggs to hatch. Leave the newly hatched chicks in the incubator for 1-3 days.
4. Place chicks in a draft-free area with fresh bedding. Have a heat lamp on the right setting and height (if it's too hot the chicks will be spread far apart and out of the light, too cold and they will be huddled under it).
5. Add these chicks when they are 12-16 weeks old (larger enough to defend themselves) at night to the coop. There may be some fighting, but they will calm down after a week. 

Chickens don't need to be bred to produce eggs. But you're flock will dwindle down from various factors over the years and you will need to build it back up.  Ducks are bred the same way, but don't need to be to produce eggs. All poultry reproduce the same way. So if you own quail or turkeys, this would also work. Turkeys would be bred often, because they are mostly used for meat, not eggs (you can eat turkey eggs, they just are a little different from chicken eggs).

Sheep, Horses, etc:

These animals don't need to be bred to function as a beast of burden. They can just be owned and enjoyed as parts of the farm.  Sheep are bred the same as goats and cows, you need to find a stud or own a ram. You would breed them to increase your flock or sell the lambs.
Horses are bred to continue a line. They cost a lot to stud and AI, but they can make a lot of money from the foal. Also, if the horse is a show horse or racing horse, their foal can be worth a lot of money.
Pigs are bred for meat. You have a sow and she will give you a litter of 10+ piglets twice a year. The piglets sell for $75-$100 each. You need to find a farmer who owns a boar to use as a stud. This costs $25-$50, but is necessary. Boars are dangerous , all pigs are dangerous, so you need to avoid owning one. You can sell all the piglets, or raise them and sell the adults, or sell most of the piglets and raise 2-3 to send to the butcher. 

Goat Care

There is a lot to learn about taking care of goats. But I've neared done most of it to a month by month to do list in the above video.
Things like trimming hooves is important and needs to be done multiple times a year. It's easier to schedule it and get use to it. If you are breeding, set the hoof trimming around the breeding schedule.
I've also shown "Milking season" in the video. Most people unfamiliar with goats (and cows) don't know that this is a set time in the year that you milk.
Clean the barn every 1-2 weeks. This is just a quick cleaning to remove manure and wasted food/hay. The barn needs to be deep cleaned in the fall and spring. Deep cleaning includes scrubbing and peroxiding the floors and walls. Also, soak all food and water containers in vinegar for a few hours.
I will add more details later, this is get a quick reference to goat care.