Another month begins and another examination of our homestead is in order. This year has been a whirlwind so far and the first give months have flown by. In that time, it seems like we’ve had a major milestone each month. Adding goats, fruit trees, honey bees, upping our gardening game, and introducing new pullets -it’s been an exciting year. So, as we begin homestead planning in June, we’re ready to slow our roll a little. But, we also need to keep up this momentum. How will we accomplish this? Read on and see what we have planned!
Our Pullets Are Growing Fast
The latest addition to our homestead, we discussed last week how we purchased six new pullets and introduced the best chicken brooder option on a budget. Another week into it and we’re happy to report things are still going well. We’ve started to turn off the heat lamp each afternoon (since it gets plenty hot outside) and the pullets are all growing well.
While these hens will continue to grow in their brooder throughout June, we do need to start getting ready for their transition to the existing flock. So, this homesteading item is not a “do” so much as a “research” task. And, we think it’s important to highlight this. Sometimes, accomplishing something on your homestead isn’t about adding new livestock or growing some new plant. Instead, it’s sometimes just getting a better understanding and researching new strategies and techniques for homesteading.
What does this mean for us in our June homestead planning? It means we’ll be doing research on how to introduce young pullets to an existing flock of hens. So, if you’re experienced in these matters, please feel free to drop any suggestions or resources in the comments below!
Next Steps for our Garden?
While we are definitely doing better with our garden this year, there’s still some work to be done. First off, we had some pest problems already. Fortunately, it was the mammal kind (or so we suspect) and not the insect kind. Specifically, we had some plants being dug up in the garden. It looks like our only casualty is going to be a zucchini plant, so it could have been worse. But, moving into June, it’s time we step up our garden game some more.
First off, we purchased some solar-power mole repellers. While we don’t suspect it was moles that did the damage, we hope this will keep away rabbits and other similarly-sized critters. Regardless, the next step this month is to get really organized with our seed supply. Right now, we have seeds semi-organized by planting season. But, the reality is that we have some seeds in there that are so old they are well past their effective life. So, one of our big goals this month is to go through and catalog all our seeds.
Once we know what we’re working with, we will directly sow some of the seeds that are in season into our prepared garden rows. From there, we’ll work on getting more organized by listing out what seeds we need to purchase for the rest of the year and into next year. It might take us a couple more seasons to get it in order, but we have high hopes for our vegetable garden.
Time for New Goats?
OK, we aren’t quite ready to expand our herd. But, we can’t talk about homestead planning without mentioning our plans for the goat herd. Ultimately, if we want to grow our own goat herd, we won’t be able to get by with just three does. Instead, we’ll need to add some bucks to the mix. Our plan is to find two, unrelated bucks we can introduce to the property. This way, we can look at breeding both our doelings when they are old enough and plan our herd from there.
While we aren’t ready to introduce these bucks yet, we do need to get an area ready for them. As with most animals, having males and females together is not recommended. So, we are working to build a new fenced in area for the male goats when they arrive. Additionally, we’ll need to provide these new goats a shelter of their own. For the month of June, our main focus is just getting the fencing in place -or at least mostly in place. This way, we’ll at least have a dedicated pasture set aside for them.
Continuing Our Homestead Planning
When it comes to homestead planning, there really is never an end to the season. We make plans, God throws us a curve ball, and we adjust. No matter what happens, we’re always ready to adapt and adjust as time goes forward. Regardless, we know there is plenty more to do around here, but 2022 has been a great success thus far. And, no matter what we add or don’t add the rest of the year, we’re excited to move into the second half of the year.
How is your homesteading planning this year? Is there anything you’re looking to do but not sure of how? Let us know if we can help in the comments below! Until next time, we’ll see you around the homestead.