Amidst the hustle and bustle of the city slicker’s life and the constant advancements in technology and the digital world, living on a farm is a very special way to live.

You are one with nature, plants, vegetables, animals, fresh air and less distractions than the city life. Choosing the farming life is not for everybody and there are some cons but the pros far outweigh them.

So I have put together four great reason why I love being a farmer, you can read them below:

1. There’s no commute!

You don’t have a journey to get to your work place! None. You can simply stroll out the front or indeed back door and you are in work, as simple as that!

Although the farming life is focused outdoors, some of your paperwork and management can be done from the house so you don’t actually really leave the house for some of your farm work.

This has its disadvantages. But on the contrary, you’ll never have grapple with traffic during peak times, sit in your vehicle endlessly in motorway traffic or stand, wedged onto a tube, pressing up against someone.

2. Bartering

There is a lot more bartering and trading this and that in the farming life than in in your typical town or city. Maybe you want or have a few bales of straw and need to swap something with someone to put food on your table.

Or maybe you agree to offer your tractor or labour in exchange for that new suckler calf that your neighbor has just gotten. Daily deals are done in the farming community more than deals done on Dragons Den!

3. A great lack of the office politics

Most of your meetings will happen at a local pub, small shop or post office. There is no time nor place for business managerial talk. Clock-in machines don’t exist in the farming life, well not really.

You are the boss and need to be disciplined with your own time, unless you work for your father or work for another farmer but you probably still have more freedom and independence.

The beauty of this is that you can take some time off whenever you need to or want to, such as for family events or to watch sporting events. Work to get the job done. Be productive and effective!

4. There’s no dress code

One other great thing about the country farming life is the freedom to wear whatever the hell you like! No pin stripe suits or blue colour shirts. No sweaty jumpers and tight trousers.

All you have to think about is if the weather is fine then dress for it, whereas if it’s going to rain then dress for rain! Farming people don’t care if you’re wearing a Tommy Hilfiger jumper to the fields or a pair of Nike trainers.

So in a nutshell

The farming life gives you more freedom, less time wasting exercises that you would find in an office, a commonly understood method of trading things and no rustling and bustling that will stress you out on your way to work!

The post 4 Great Reasons For Being A Farmer appeared first on Blue Yurt Farms.

Fairy eggs have a number of different names gathered over the years, also known as a “witch”, “cock” or “wind” egg. All they are is basically an inconsistency in the hen’s laying cycle.

This is pretty common among flocks of chickens in the back yard. Fairy eggs are usually smaller than the regular eggs hatched, and are also much rounder without containing any yolk. Typically, these eggs tend to occur at two points in a hen’s life.

Firstly, quite early in the hen’s life just before any hormones and/or her reproductive cycle have been fully formed and ready for production. Secondly, often very late in the hen’s life as the hormones start winding down, reducing chances of production.

It’s important to note though, that these eggs can also actually be a stress resultant or caused by a disruption in the hen’s routine.

Why do they happen?

They occur when the hen starts to produce an egg, but before the yolk is released from the oviduct of the hen. Therefore, only the white part of the egg (known as albumen) is shelled. Young laying hens are known for having a lot of them!

Even if you have had many hens, many pullets will start laying their regular sized eggs from the beginning, rather than starting out with tiny eggs, gradually working up to bigger ones from there.

But don’t be alarmed!

In any event, some fairy eggs here and there are nothing to be too concerned with. They are merely a blip in your hen’s production, early in their life. One way to look at them, is that they are some kind of “prototype”.

What is interesting is that, some hens just won’t lay miniature versions of eggs, while others will give you a taster by laying a few fairy eggs early on in their “career”, just to test the nest I guess!

Are they edible?

Although they have no yolk, fairy eggs are in fact perfectly fine for humans to eat! But since a lot of the nutrition is actually found in the egg yolk, couple with the fact that the eggs are so tiny anyway, instead of eating them, maybe you can just rinse off your fairy eggs to get rid of any bloom (which acts as an insulator from air).

You can then let them dry until the inside white has dried up and you can notice it rattling inside if you pick it up and give it a little shake. You can then make use of them as lovely decor for the kitchen!

Farming folklore

According to farming folklore, it is believed that to protect them against a cock egg, you should throw the fairy egg over your house’s roof allowing it to hit the ground.

Up to you! But I would simply suggest that you display them as decor in a little basket on your counter top!

The post A Fairy Chicken Egg. What Is It And Why? appeared first on Blue Yurt Farms.

Or better still would you say chickens could recognize you?  Besides the good old treats, are they actually happy to see your face in the evening after work?

Well, it just so happens to be the case that not only do chickens recognize you, their owner but chickens also recognize up to one hundred members of their flock! Crazy! I know.

Chickens eyes

Surprisingly, chickens actually do have eyesight similar to that of us humans (technically, they have better eyesight) and could recognize up to one hundred members of their flock, just by sight! It’s believed that they recognize the shape of both the head and comb of their fellow flock mates.

Chickens also accept other chickens although they may be of a different breed. (Though it’s not clear to me which features or characteristics chickens use to spot their familiar human friends, as people features may change from time to time, such as new hairstyles, different clothes or facial hair etc.

Other animals

From personal experience, I know that they also recognize different types of animals as being either on their side or a rival – even down to a specific dog or cat, as their friend or enemy! For example, if your dog comes racing around the corner and on past the chicken run, then your chickens probably won’t even flinch.

But on the odd occasion that one of your neighbor’s or friend’s dog visits your yard, then the chickens suddenly freeze and raise the alarm bells.

Which brings me to my next point, chickens are shockingly able to make around thirty different noises, all with their own unique meaning, which the other flock members will recognize.

Newly hatched little chicks

The newly hatched little chicks do actually recognize their mother hen, by sound and sight.

Research has been done to suggest that when a hen sitting on her eggs was taken away under a dark environment from her own little chicks to be replaced by another broody hen, the little chicks were still able to find their mother, although they couldn’t even see her.

Also, when their mother hen was put in disguise by various ways, the chicks recognized their mother hen and came to her immediately.

Watch them interact with each other

Knowing that chicks and mother hens do all recognize one another from sight, and also that they can differentiate between the different members of their flock, it is fascinating watching their interactions.

Do you have chickens? Watch your own chickens. You might notice that they don’t necessarily choose to hang around with those flock members who appear to be the same breed as them or of the same color.

However, the chickens do tend to pick a buddy during the free range time, which they generally stick with for life. So the next time you are out on your far or in any chicken farm, have a look at how the chickens react and see do you notice and obvious patterns!

The post Can Chickens Recognize Each Other? appeared first on Blue Yurt Farms.

My husband, teenaged daughter and I rent a house in a suburb of Los Angeles County, CA. Our homestead lot is 7,086 Square feet, or .16 of an acre. We as a family have always talked about doing more for ourselves and depending less and less on the quick and easy amenities of city living. I have always loved to cook from scratch meals for my family and to garden. I have recently started baking our breads from scratch, which is no easy task as it takes plenty of forethought and preplanning but is so worth the added effort. We have planted a decent sized vegetable and herb garden in raised planter beds, pallets and containers.

We added a small flock of laying hens this past summer. I have been meal planning and learning how to get the most out of our food and what we have. As a primarily single income family of 3, it is vital that we stretch our dollars as far as we can.

We would love to raise a pig and maybe some goats, ducks, turkey and meat chickens but there just isn’t space or proper zoning to allow us to do that where we are. So for now, we enjoy what produce we do gather from the garden, like my head sized crowns of broccoli or the fresh kale, Swiss chard and lettuces. I may not be able to put things up for the fall and winter months but we are able to enjoy plenty of fresh produce during the growing months. We also have fresh eggs from our hens with enough excess to sell a dozen or 2 a week to friends and family.

Living in the city on a small lot most certainly limits the amount of homesteading we can accomplish, but it in no way prohibits us from at least enjoying a little here and there. We dream of one day moving out of state and finding a piece of land to call our own where we can fully engulf ourselves in the homesteading life. Until that time comes we look at where we are now as a great opportunity to practice and hone some vital homesteading skills before we finally are able to head out and plant ourselves on some acreage.

By the time we are on land, I will have mastered that elusive sourdough bread, collected enough mason jars to fill a proper root cellar and maybe even brushed up on my sewing skills. I even plan to find some husbandry classes at the local community college to expand my knowledge of the animals we hope to one day raise.

A big thanks to these lovely ladies for sharing their urban homestead experiences. I hope it was inspiring to you! I’m definitely a huge believer in doing what you can with what you have when you have it. Even if you have no acreage at all, you can practice making your own bread from scratch or buy some bulk fruit from a farmer to practice your canning mojo.

Having a lot of land, animals and endless possibilities? It can be downright exhausting…to the point where the fun gets taken RIGHT OUT. Somedays I wish I was back in my cozy urban rental apartment — flipping through homestead books, making butter from cream I bought at Whole Foods and baking hamburger buns from scratch (which impressed our friends to no end). Which is why we’ve cut back a bit around here. Sometimes things look better on paper than they do in reality, and figuring out your happy reality is just part of the life + homestead journey!

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