My project to achieve a self-sufficient "farm-garden"

yorkieorchid

I think i may have misunderstood. Are you aiming to become completely self sufficient, in that you will be growing food to feed yourself and your livestock or just food for your livestock?

LilacPixie

op - how much land do you have?? do you have land or is this all just thoughts and aims for the future?

I have a small amount.. 120 sqm growing space plus containers and baskets and believe me watering does take time. this recent dry spell meant it was a twice a day water from the watering can, i can't run a hose from water butts
. then you have the time checking for pests or disease and removing affected plants turning the compost heap is bad enough with a couple of daleks and some pallets. I estimate i spend around 10 hours a week on things related to growing with my small space (not including tending to garden as normal) and thats without livestock.

My advice would be start with compost heap, you need decent soil to grow, what type of soil do you have?? is it acidic or alkaline?

valk_scot

simmed wrote: »

You're either exaggerating or overestimating the scale of this. If I just had some corn growing, it would not take hours a day to water them (more like 30 seconds). There are one-off things which can be a time sink, such as planting, but as stated, they are one-offs.

I grow a small patch of sweetcorn every year in a bed 4' x 15'. In that I grow around 50 sweetcorn plants, which give me 50 full cobs and some more scruffier ones. 70 in total? One cob yields about two ounces/50g of dried corn at the end. So that's 3.5kg of dried maize grain from my patch, if it was a good summer and I got full yield.

Now, how many chickens are you going to feed and how much grain will they need per day per head averaged out over the year? I don't know these figures but you're going to have to. I expect they'll need a lot more in winter when nothing is growing and they won't even come out their coop because of snow, very little in the summer months. so go for an average.

Then go back and calculate how many sweetcorn plants you'll need to feed X chickens for a year, plus at least 10% to cover emergencies and spoilage. Work out the area you'll need to plant then work out how long they'll take to water. My tiny plot takes five minutes to water thoroughly and I'll do this about three times per week in high season.

Then add in the time it will take to weed them...mine takes about 20 minutes once per week to do properly.

And at the end add in harvest time, drying time (you'll have to have a covered storage area, room to spread them out well and perhaps a heat source if the weather is poor) when you'll have to turn them all once per day to dry properly and then shucking time, when you strip the kernels off. This last is pretty hard on the wrists I can tell you! I would probably need two to three hours to shuck 70 cobs.

Then you need to sort the kernels (pick out damaged kernels for use straight away), do the final dry on the rest and bag them up. Then you need to keep them in a cool, ventilated and above all dry storage area that is rat proof.

So that's your corn sorted to keep the chickens. What else are you intending to grow? I can probably do you a projected breakdown for most common garden crop plants.

valk_scot

LilacPixie wrote: »

I estimate i spend around 10 hours a week on things related to growing with my small space (not including tending to garden as normal) and thats without livestock.

When I took on my half plot allotment (20' x 80') I was told I would need to put in an average of 10 hours a week in summer on it to keep it nicely. I rolled my eyes but it's true...I've got a full plot now and even with every labour saving trick I know, I'm down there 15-plus hours per week. If I wanted top productivity it would be at least 20 hours, especially at harvest time. If I was going self sufficient with say x2 or x3 that size of plot plus animal space it would be a near full time job, and that would be buying in animal feed rather than growing it.

LilacPixie

valk_scot wrote: »

When I took on my half plot allotment (20' x 80') I was told I would need to put in an average of 10 hours a week in summer on it to keep it nicely. I rolled my eyes but it's true...I've got a full plot now and even with every labour saving trick I know, I'm down there 15-plus hours per week. If I wanted top productivity it would be at least 20 hours, especially at harvest time. If I was going self sufficient with say x2 or x3 that size of plot plus animal space it would be a near full time job, and that would be buying in animal feed rather than growing it.

That is pretty much my thought too. We wanted the growing space but we totally underestimated the work required. if only it was as simple as planting a few bits, giving it a water.

Can chickens be fed only maize corn?? I have no idea as never kept them. my parents neighbours have 6 hens and they eat pelleted food plus a handful of dried corn as a treat a day. I would say 2oz was a handful so your looking at 365 full cobs just for treat for 6 chooks :eek: for a year. I have accepted the pellet delivery before and its 25kg bags and roughly is delivered monthly.

celerity

When people refer to the "corn" that chickens eat it is almost always wheat, eg:

You can buy "mixed corn" in poultry supply shops, which do have the odd bit of maize corn (looks like squashed sweetcorn) in, but it only makes up a small fraction of the mix.

However, you can't just feed them wheat or maize and expect egg production to be optimal. To do it the self-sufficient way you'd need to mix your own poultry feed, including enough calcium so your birds can produce shells. There are plenty of tried and trusted "recipes" for this available on the web.

Note: if your birds are free-ranging then they will scratch out food from the ground and you can also feed them suitable table scraps.

Personally I just buy "layers pellets" and everything else they get is "treats" - which is what every other person I know that keeps chickens does!

I'm still unsure about this thread by the way - I can't help but think we are either helping someone's school project or simply getting trolled. Have the OP said how much land they have yet? I've only skimmed the thread but couldn't see this vital piece of information.

Accepted "wisdom" that I've seen cited a few times is that a typical family would need a 4 acre smallholding to be reasonably self-sufficient. John Seymour has plans for a 1 acre smallholding in his excellent book "The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency" but at no point does he suggest it is easy! If you did even a fraction of the things he details in his book I would say it would be pretty much a full time job.

/\dam

rhosynbach

hi I was you a few years back thought it was easy and did not realise how time consuming it would be it is possible but a lot of hard work. and fun
we do not grow food for the hens as was inpractical but sell surplus eggs and a few chicks and they pay for themselves and in fact make some profit..
we grow enough potatoes for a year but this takes a lot of time planting weeding watering digging up cleaning and storing.
we have a lot of fruit trees and bushes and preserve a years worth in the summer plus some extra for gifts
have a large veggie plot, poly tunnel and greenhouse so i have a long growing season we have fresh veg and salad most of the year but i still buy some stuff not totally self sufficient yet.
there is 6 of us so even though i am the only one at home full time the others do muck in when work/college/school allows. and it is a lot of work and you need a lot of room i think i use about an acre for growing fruit and veg and the chickens we are going to get a dexter cow this year as small as a goat but more milk and less hastle so if you are going for goats you need more room and very good fences and you would need to make hay if you do not want to buy it, which needs a lot of space and the equipment.
it is a good idea to start small a few hens and veggie patch fruit trees and bushes then expand each year
good luck hope it goes well

celerity

If you want to produce your own meat, pig keeping is supposed to be one of the most efficient uses of land. Pigs grow ridiculously quickly and are relatively easy to manage (not that I have any experience I should point out!)

You would still need to pay vets bills and abattoir fees, but could in theory cover this by selling homemade sausages, cured hams etc.

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adouglasmhor

simmed wrote: »

I love people who answer questions with questions, so helpful

They were pointing out that you need to make more information available before you can get the answers you need. But you chose to be snide instead.

Here's some info on Maize (what corn is called in this country).

adouglasmhor

valk_scot wrote: »

When I took on my half plot allotment (20' x 80') I was told I would need to put in an average of 10 hours a week in summer on it to keep it nicely. I rolled my eyes but it's true...I've got a full plot now and even with every labour saving trick I know, I'm down there 15-plus hours per week. If I wanted top productivity it would be at least 20 hours, especially at harvest time. If I was going self sufficient with say x2 or x3 that size of plot plus animal space it would be a near full time job, and that would be buying in animal feed rather than growing it.

When I was unemployed I used to look after my allotment, a neighbours because she was pregnant, another double plot because the owner was elderly, I would often put in a 35 hour week (including general work on the site which would be repaid by seeds, cuttings, tools and materials etc. from other plotholders). I would sleep in my shed sometimes so I could get a full day in when there was good weather.