Birds of a feather flock together? Well, when your homesteading vision doesn’t exactly line up perfectly with your resources, you make do with what you’ve got. This year we raised two Bourbon Red turkeys with our backyard flock of laying hens and two Khaki Campbell ducks. Here’s how raising turkeys went for Johnson Home: This…
Raising Chickens
The Story Behind how the newsletter “Church Clothes and Chicken Toes” got its name
Recently, I dubbed my email newsletter “Church Clothes and Chicken Toes” based off a series of random Sunday afternoon posts I’d made on social media about me and my chickens. This is the story of where that name originated. Things that rhyme For starters, it kind of rhymes and I thought it was catchy. If…
How to Decide if It’s Worth Raising Your Own Chickens for Meat
When it comes to raising your own meat birds to stock our freezer, I often get asked if it is worth it or not. The answer for my family is a resounding YES but that isn’t the answer for everyone. Read on to find out why we think it is worth raising your own chickens…
Chickcozy Automatic Chicken Coop Door Opener Review
Are you a chicken owner who would love to have something more automatic for your flock’s coop door? Something to protect your birds at night and is reliable too? Consider the Chickcozy Automatic Chicken Coop Door Opener. Here is my honest review of this product, the great and the concerns. This post contains affiliate links,…
How to Build a Chicken Tractor for Your Meat Birds
Raising your own meat birds in your backyard to process in eight weeks means you will need some sort of protection for them. In this post, you will learn how to build the chicken tractor we have decided works best for our backyard meat birds. This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a…
How to Help Warm Up Your Backyard Birds This Winter With a Boujee Bird Breakfast
My backyard birds are spoiled, I admit it. Okay, maybe not as spoiled as some but mine definitely live a good life. In the winter, some mornings the run is covered in frost and the girls are huddled together under the coop and out of the weather. These mornings I like to make them what…
How to Preserve Your Farm Fresh Eggs up to 18 months by Water Glassing
My biggest question before water glassing eggs for the first time was “will they taste good, though?” Then came “am I wasting these fresh eggs right now?” by preserving eggs for when my hens slow down laying eggs. You’ll never know if you don’t try. Read on to find out what I discovered and also…
How to raise Cornish Cross chickens on half an acre backyard
If you’ve ever had even an inkling of a thought about raising meat birds to put on your dinner table, let me encourage you to go for it! Raising Cornish cross chickens in your backyard isn’t hard but it is a commitment. In this post, I’ll share exactly what that looked like for us including…
How to Make Chicken Bone Broth at Home
Learning how to make your own chicken bone broth is not only a great source of nutrition but it gets another meal out of your whole chicken. It’s really simple too. Keep reading to see just how easy it is to make this nutrient-dense super food, chicken bone broth. This post contains affiliate links, which…
How to Turn a Bucket into a Chicken Killing Cone for less than $5
May of 2023 was our family’s first experience with a chicken harvest. We learned a lot but thankfully we didn’t suffer the consequences of losing any edible chickens. We studied, asked seasoned homesteading friends questions and best tips, and DIY-ed as much as we could to help the process and save us money. In this…
