Reasons you should NOT become a backyard homesteader… I guess you’re probably wondering what this is all about. I tend to talk about all the virtues of homesteading and backyard farming here on the blog. I love to share all the reasons we need to work on be sustainable, self-sufficient and bring back vintage skills that are dying away. But should everyone really be a homesteader? I am going to share 10 reasons that you need to consider; they might be you should not become a backyard homesteader (at least not right away).
Please don’t be offended. Just read, take it in and really consider if this lifestyle is for you. If you’re not ready to hear some hard truth you might just want to shut this page now; and by all means, feel free to completely ignore me.
10 Reasons You Should NOT Become a Backyard Homesteader
Ok, these 10 reasons to not become a backyard homesteader are in random order. This really is my public service announcement for anyone that might have a skewed idea on this life. If you can get through this list and you still want to be a backyard homesteader then let’s high five and get you going!
I think chickens are so cute and I want fresh eggs.
I’ll be the first person to tell you that I think chickens are cute; I love watching them do their thing while I drink my morning coffee. BUT they can also be little turds who pick on the weaker bird in the flock. They poop everywhere…and I do mean EVERYWHERE. If given the opportunity they’ll take down are garden in a day; they can be worse that horn worms!
Can you deal with mites? Lice? Bumble foot? Or any of the other countless crap that can happen to outdoor livestock?
And here’s the thing…laying hens are only truly productive for about 2 years. Are you going to be able to eat said hen when her laying time is done? Do you have room to keep a hen that isn’t really laying anymore?
I like the idea of raising my own meat.
I am a great believer in raising a sustainable meat source in a backyard; like quail or rabbits. BUT are you really ready to take the life of an animal? It is never easy for me, I don’t like it and if I can get my husband to do it I will. But the fact remains that if you want a small-scale livestock in your yard for meat…you’re going to have to kill it. When you raise large livestock you can have them butchered for a fee (and not a small fee); but most of those facilities do not even butcher chickens, much less quail and rabbits.
And here’s the thing…sometimes babies get hurt are they are ill and you’ll need to cull them. The first time I had to cull a little baby rabbit I cried for an hour. Not only because it was sad to do it but I was pretty sure my daughter would need life-long therapy after.
I just love all the cute pictures I see on blogs.
There are a lot of blogs with super cute and really beautiful pictures of their backyard garden, chickens and other livestock. Most of them either are using stock photography, getting a very good angle so you don’t see the rest of the crap or they have a lot of money to hire people to help them. I am sure there are a few that don’t fall into any of those categories but most do. Because the reality is homesteading is dirty…
And just FYI many homesteading and prepping blogs write about stuff they’ve never actually done. Get to know your bloggers. They are some of the reasons not to become a backyard homesteader.
I’m sure I can find time around my full time job and hobbies.
I am a stay at home mom. I do work on the blog and I homeschool which are pretty much full time jobs but I am at home doing them. I don’t really have ANY hobbies outside of homesteading and homeschooling. I wouldn’t have time for them; something would be left undone on my micro farm, period.
Yes I know people who work full time and homestead; and they spend their entire weekend catching up on farm work they couldn’t get to during the week. It is hard and many get burnt out quickly and quit.
Gardening seems pretty easy and buying organic in the store is so expensive.
Ya’ll…gardening is not easy; I’m always battling something. The last 2 years it has been RATS. Yes folks in my little suburban farm I have had big stinking rodents eating my garden. They wiped out about 1/2 of it last fall. I found out that I have zero compassion for rodents and became quite the hunter. Then you have the bugs, wild birds and your own stinking chickens (if they free range).
Even if you’e composting you will have to buy soil when you first start out…and that isn’t cheap if you want good stuff.
If you live in a hot and dry climate like mine, your water bill is going to be shocking. And let me just say, in the Arizona summer I have to buy shade cloth to keep my garden from burning up.
BUT I do love that I grow heritage vegetables, organically. I love that I can shop my backyard for a meal, almost year round (when rats aren’t getting it first). And I love when I water it isn’t being wasted on a huge lawn that feeds nothing.
I’d like to have a money making blog about backyard homesteading.
Ok, I feel ya. But let me tell you that it isn’t as easy as it seems. And I spend hundreds every month just to keep my blog running…hundreds (the more followers and traffic the more my expenses go up). The reality is that most blogs fail within the first year and don’t really start making any money for 3 – 4 years.
Please do not become a backyard homesteader because you want to blog about it.
My friend is doing it.
Ok, I am only going to pull out a momism here… would you jump off a cliff because your friend did it? Buy their eggs or veggies and call it a day.
I can have gardens and livestock and still have a place to hang out in my small backyard.
Maybe if you have an acre or more but not if you are truly a backyard homesteader that wants to be as self-sufficient as possible. Every inch of my backyard is dedicated to homesteading. Even my porch is covered in pots growing herbs and veggies; I have a table, chairs and a bbq but we don’t spend much social time out there.
My HOA / neighbors won’t even notice.
Maybe if you’re only gardening. But you are going to have to work to keep a stealth coop. And if you are not diligent about keeping your backyard farm clean, the flies alone are going to give you away. Don’t even get me started on the noise; hens are much quieter than roosters but they love to announce when they are laying an egg. Your best bet for quiet livestock are rabbits (please see above about death).
I don’t deal well with failing but I’m sure it will work out.
Stop. Do not even think about the homestead life if you cannot deal with failure. Gardens die, animals die, canning jars break in the canner…need I go on? Before you even consider backyard homesteading you need to come to terms with failure and a lot of it in the beginning.
If you made it to the end of this list and you think you’re still ready for a backyard homestead then I’m excited for you. This life is full of challenges but they are so worth it in the end. I really didn’t write this to talk you out of homesteading but to really make your think before you leap.
Happy Homesteading my friends!
I love it! Yes, backyard homesteading is all that you say it is: both the good and the bad- but its worth it to me! I have Silkie Bantams, which are far more entertaining than regular chickens, but even they are not silent!
You don’t have to make pets out of ever animal I hope you adleast bate your ownhock when you fish
Yeah. I needed this reality check. I’ve been flirting with the idea of chickens since so many people get so much enjoyment from them. But I really don’t enjoy the harsh reality you so honestly presented. I also thought about quail gree range to eat out ticks and stink bugs, but I really enjoy my garden and would not be happy if they ate it first. Thanks for a real perspective of livestock. Now, horses are a different thing. I had horses and thoroughly enjoyed them, but I’m almost 60 and do you remember the amount of work required, so I decided just to rent a ride occasionally and save myself the grief. Thanks again!
5 years ago i wouldnt of dreamed id be doing all rhat i am today, 30 egg chickens, meat chickens, meat rabbits, 4 goats all started with just 6 chickens and took the rest slowly, good and bad i wouldnt change anything. Still lots more to learn but taking it day by day
We did this for a while. Loved it. But you do give up on keeping everything “looking perfect”. Our milk goats would get out and eat our garden (or the neighbors) when they got a chance. Sometimes they would get out and eat nasty weeds that in turn made their milk equally as nasty so the chickens would get it all. The goats stepped on the baby geese. The mice would get into the feed. The neighbor dog completely plucked our rooster! He lived in the kitchen with bandages till his feathers came back. When I slept in one fine summer day with the door open, the goats got out, came in the house and woke me up to be milked. It was not unusual to have to shoo a chicken or two out of the house daily. The pigs were a bit stinky but cute. The cow was like a giant puppy the kids could not play with except through the fence. All in all I loved it….but…..I never ate my chickens. Loved them too much. One time of having my pigs and steer butchered and I vowed never go do that again. Had one of our geese for thanksgiving dinner. Lots of messy work and not fond of goose. Not worth a goose loosing his life to me. I love living among the animals, gardening, growing, being a part of creation and living so close to the earth. But….you are pretty much glued to hour land unless you have another family sharing the homestead. Now, I’m a gardener, I put up much of our own food, but I am a vegetarian.
I like you!
Awesome reality check! I just started growing my own vegetables and have faced alot of unforseen challenges. But I’m not giving up! I love it and look on it as a learning experience. Thanks for the truth about the real “Homesteading” life!
The challenges are worth it but we do need to know we’ll face them. 😉
This made me laugh out loud! No truer words were ever written! Back yard farming is not for the faint at heart! It’s good you took time to give this advice, now that you have, I’m sure you need to go gather the eggs! Those feathered ladies won’t bring them to your back door.
No, but they will hide them in a garden box if I’m not diligent. lol 😉
I’ve been thinking about rabbits. I already have two as pets and I have hunted before.I know how to care for rabbits and have been doing as much reading as I can but I’m twelve and we’re moving so I have to wait. Meanwhile I guess I do more reading so I can be fully prepared.
I have a lot of info here on the blog about meat rabbits. I think it’s great that you’re looking to help your family be more sustainable at 12 years old!
?yes yes all so true! I have a 5 acre home stead that we sold this summer. (Had to move due to vineyard next door spraying pesticides). It turns out there is very little land available to move to so we’re going to spend some time in the burbs till the right property opens up. Irony is we were looking for MORE land not less around 40 to 100 acres, but we have decided to just roll with the punches and live the easy life for a bit in a neighborhood with a pool and homeowners association ?. We are just going to stick to gardening, and I am going to use my extra free time to learn to spin all of the fiber we got from our alpacas. Luckily the guys we sold the cow to has let us keep a “share” of her so we can get raw milk easily ?
My name is also Tiffany and I homeschool and have a backyard homestead…and I blog about it ?? I am so glad I found your blog 🙂
And we’re both red heads! How about that? 😉
I’m just starting to do backyard farming this year. I’ve started with a garden that I have loved doing, but have run into issues with fruit production. It hasn’t stopped me yet and I plan on doing a bigger garden this fall (live in central Texas, so can have 2 gardens s year). I’ve also started making my own lsundry and dish detergents. I’m going slowly and only doing what I feel comfortable doing.
There are times I just shake my head and think where in the world did I get the idea to do this, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I started with the 5 chickens before I retired last year. Now at 66, I have 7 more chickens and I really think next spring will bring a couple goats to the homestead. We have to move the garden next year because we are now, after about 6 years with the garden, getting too much shade and it needs to grow. I’ve been canning this year – didn’t grow enough so now I have to go out and buy veggies. I may not have the perfect garden in Georgia, the perfect chickens or the perfect anything, but I really wish I had done this all at least 25 years ago and the horses someone said was so much work. Granddaughter had better get herself ready, she wants the horses, we’re going to build the barn and she’ll have to start helping with the horses. It’s a good way for her to learn she really does or does not want a farm when she is an adult.
You forgot that it is very hard to go anywhere. Even a long day trip takes planning. A week away? Forget it.
Haha! Even if I had read this post before homesteading, I would still have done it. NOW, once a week or two I question my sanity. I had a meltdown not long ago (I have since recovered haha!) because NOTHING was going right. I failed at growing seedlings this year and even when I bought small plants, some of THEM died due to my neglect. Then getting them in the ground seemed to take me forever. THEN I had difficulty finding time to weed the garden because of all the rain. Then no rain came for a couple of weeks, so I had to water the plants.
I have 35 chickens with the intent to sell farm fresh eggs (who wouldn’t want farm fresh eggs, right!?) Well, apparently, most people around here would rather buy store eggs OR drive to the local farmers market and pay almost twice what I would charge (my charge is $3 per dozen), so I currently have 11 dozen eggs staring at me (my girls lay over 2 dozen per week). And yes, I still have a few of my original girls from when I started this “journey” in 2013. I nursed one through a broken leg, lost hens that I actually gave names to due to their personalities (I don’t normally name my chickens), dealt with sick chickens that ultimately died (one I had to clean maggots off of – she almost made it, nursed her for 2 weeks but she ultimately died.
I currently have 7 ducks. Why? Good question. Because I LOVE watching them. I don’t have a pond, but I do give them water to wash and “swim” in. They are all producing eggs right now, which is kind of a shame because I can’t find anyone to buy them and I don’t actually like duck eggs.
I have 4 adult guineas, mainly for tick control. THEY are worth their weight in gold. The only real problem with guineas is that they go off the property into wooded areas and end up a meal for foxes and other predators, so you have to “replenish” them. I currently am raising 11 keets for just that reason. I figure, by the time the year is out, the 4 adults will be gone. The good thing is that my dogs don’t have to be on tick medication.
Oh, and I have 2 goats. One is a wether and one is a doe. When my daughter in law was living with us, she wanted goats (so did I) but I don’t like goat milk and I didn’t have the time to milk them. A month after we got the goats, my DIL left for good. So, now I have 2 Nigerian Dwarf goats that are pretty much useless, but I adore them, so I’m not selling them.
And I have 2 cats (indoor-outdoor) and 2 dogs. And oh, so many projects started but not completed. I guess I thought I was superwoman!
I work a full-time job as a 911 dispatcher with just over 4 years left till retirement, thank GOD. AND, I’m doing this all by myself. Some days I need my head examined.
Love it! I wouldn’t give it up for the world but I think some people get into this Instagram idea of backyard homesteading, and that’s dangerous. Happy homesteading my friend and keep up the good work. 😀
Tell it like it is Sister! I’ve been backyard homesteading and blogging for over 4 years and it’s HARD. But I wouldn’t change it for the world. By the way, Every word you wrote up there….TRUE! Nice to know I’m not alone. I’m sharing this with my followers.
<3
The broken canning jars hit me where it hurts! I am a full time working mom and would never be able to handle a full backyard homestead. We usually grow one crop a year, if it fails that sucks, but oh well. We recently acquired a pair of rabbits with the intent of raising some meat, no the majority of our protein, but if that doesn’t go well they will turn into pets. I can’t imagine the time needed to do everything!
Hahaha this is great. One of my husbands coworkers recently was telling me a she was inspired by my backyard homestead because she just KNEW she was going to love raising dairy goats soon… AFTER she mentioned she could never have rabbits like me because she could never handle anything as horrible as culling. I asked her what she planned on doing with all the extra kids, and sick kids, and does that needed help kidding, etc. And she said “well all that’s a hassle, I don’t want to BREED them! I just want them for milk.
I was actually speechless.
Beth, I have had some very similar situations with raising meat rabbits.
Oh lawd you said all the right things in this article. First, I work full time. My commute is two hours a day and my work day is nine hours. My first hour every morning is spent feeding and watering the chickens, cleaning their poop (it’s extra work on the daily but long term is worth it to add a droppings board. You’ll never have a smell coop again!), and during dry parts of gardening season I gotta water the garden before leaving for work. When I come home I tend the garden in the summer, typically on a hungry empty belly because I don’t get home til 7, and then I make dinner, clean up, go to bed, rinse and repeat. Weekends are an absolute scramble to catch up on work, and then more rinsing and repeating. It’s a HUGE commitment. Sometimes I’d rather shoot myself in the foot than do my chores, but when you choose to house a living creature, or dozens of them, you gotta take care of them.
Also, two of my hens are LOUD. They squawk and make a fuss so much that I used to think they were getting attacked. My roo is a mute compared to those two. After having them, I could never fathom trying to have stealth chickens in a suburb. Once again, you’re taking on another life form and if you get caught, you have to get rid of them way or another.
It all had to be said, right? <3