Category: Livestock, Feed, & Fencing

Letter Re: Hoof Trimming Piece

Hugh, Please pass my thanks to Charles T. for that. Interestingly, I had just come from the Oklahoma Horseshoeing School, having gotten one of my horses shod, when I opened the website and saw that piece. While waiting for the horse, I visited with a student from Mississippi, one from Wisconsin, and one from Colorado. They were in the 13-week class. After that intense training, they know their craft. A number of students were making horseshoes at the forge. It’s nice to know that ancient art is alive and well. – F.T.


Noisy Cows and Other Animal Noise Issues, by B.O.C.

I will start this by saying my farm experience range from South Florida to Maine and in climates in between. I also have experience from hobby farming to production on a large scale. From rabbits, chickens, pigs to beef and milking animals. My tenure in these areas has encompassed about 30 years of my life in one form or another. A lot of this is some common sense as well, so forgive me if I dumb this down too much. A few days ago I read an article on this site about the farms in Venezuela and their government taking …


Letter: Solar Fence Chargers as Alternate Power Supplies

To HJL and JWR:I’m a dry land crop farmer, cattle rancher, and hog producer in Montana. Through my work I find things that make me think I could use WTSHTF. (Yes, I’ve read your books). One thing I wanted to offer up, if you haven’t tried it, is a solar powered electric fence charger. These charges cost from $170 to $500. But to charge a few small items the PV panels on the smaller $170 to $300 models are plenty large enough. The chargers work by solar powering a gel cell battery. The [battery] terminals can be changed with a …


Letter Re: Some Harsh Lessons of Beekeeping, by Keith K.

Hugh, Regarding the Harsh Lessons of Beekeeping, I began raising bees five years before relocating to the Redoubt from SC. I was stung often back East. One hive came with us in a trailer with the “mountain useless” motorcycles. When I purchased five nuc hives to build out our bee population the following spring, I was stung and had a dramatic trip down the mountain to the ER. The second year, while working the frantic hives in spring (six died and six were near starvation, suffering from bad weather), and I was stung AGAIN and went to the ER again. …


Letter Re: Some Harsh Lessons of Beekeeping, by Keith K.

To the Editor; Keith K. was absolutely correct in that if one is considering keeping bees as a TEOTWAWKI pollinating vector and food supply (honey), there should be an innate interest present before devoting time and effort to the project. I fully realize that there should be more initial motivation than just consideration of a cost/benefit analysis before entering into the hobby of beekeeping. Specifically, the overall homestead health and sustainability must be considered to see whether beekeeping would be a good fit for daily life and upkeep. We will all respond in relation to our own skills and gifts …


Letter Re: Some Harsh Lessons of Beekeeping

HJL, I’d like to respond to Gilpin Guy on his response to Some Harsh Lessons of Beekeeping. The new Honeyflow system is amazing when it comes to collecting honey. I don’t see how it addresses any of the problems from the original post. It wasn’t honey collection that caused the hive failure, it was pests, and the Honeyflow won’t help with those. Here in Florida, colony collapse is close to 40% every year. This incredible number is not due to honey extraction. Also, the letter states that “since you don’t need a bee suit, smoker, or honey extractor. “ I …


Letter Re: Some Harsh Lessons of Beekeeping

Keith K, Thank you for that informative write up on beekeeping. I’m jumping in to beekeeping this spring with an innovative new hive called the Flow Hive. You can check out their product at honeyflow.com. I have no experience with beekeeping, but this seems to be a revolutionary product that might make enough of a difference to you that you’ll give it another try. I think the non-invasive method of collecting the honey may help with your mortality rate and level of effort since you don’t need a bee suit, smoker, or honey extractor. The method also doesn’t remove the …


Some Harsh Lessons of Beekeeping, by Keith K.

I would like to share my experience with beekeeping to help others decide if it might be for them. My initial interest in beekeeping began before I moved to the Redoubt. My wife and I attended a beekeeping night at a local library and later took a four-day (four Saturdays) beekeeping course. We learned a lot. We found that beekeeping hobbyists were very enthusiastic and touted the many benefits of beekeeping along with the fun of it. It was very easy to be influenced by all of the positive and energetic people. Ultimately, we decided that beekeeping would be part …


Raising Angora Rabbits as Part of a Well-Prepared Homestead, by J.R.

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Previous Survivalblog articles have focused on raising meat rabbits as part of a well-prepped homestead. Raising multi-purpose angora rabbits takes this aspect of preparedness to the next level. I’ll start with a quick review of the benefits of raising meat rabbits and then transition into the advantages of raising angora rabbits. Rabbits are indeed the most efficient of domestic livestock in converting feed to growth, meaning that it takes less feed per pound of mass produced to grow them out than it does for other animals. They are manageable in an urban situation, even an apartment, where other livestock are …


The Harsh Truth About Bugging Out of Cities, by Patrice Lewis

A common concern among rural people in a grid-down situation is the concept of marauding urbanites swarming through the countryside looting and pillaging — the so-called Golden Horde. I addressed this issue on my blog a few months ago when a reader noted, “You can hide yourself, but not your garden. Are you going to take your beef herd into your house with you? In any long-term crisis situation, your cattle and garden will be indefensible and therefore gone in a matter of months. You cannot protect them from a determined large, armed group.” This reader respectfully listed what he …


Letter: Buying Land Inside a National Forest

Hugh and Jim, I have been reading SurvivalBlog for several years now. I’m retiring next year and am currently looking for our retirement “farm”. I never refer to it as my survival retreat. I have seen several properties for sale, apparently, inside national forests. Some have even been working farms. We have several national forests here in Michigan and many people live and apparently own land inside of these forests. My questions are: What are the ramifications of owning land within a National Forest? Do I own the trees on the land, do I own the ponds, streams, etc.? What …


Reality Checks for a Grid Down Scenario, By Blueleader

I sometimes hear misguided individuals who repeat the statement going around that if the grid goes down we will be thrown back to the days before electricity: The 1880s. The prevalent thought is that folks back then did fine so it wouldn’t be so bad for us to simply revert to that level of technology. Well, what if we examine your day in a post grid failure scenario? Here is a reality check for you to consider: Let us say you get up ‘the day after’ and you’re cold. Bummer. Well, in the 1880s if you got up and you …


Letter Re: Egg Rationing

HJL, I am one of THOSE who do not yet have their own chickens but hopefully within a couple of months though. You may have seen this already. I haven’t experienced the rationing, but I bought eggs in April at $1.97 a dozen and went back yesterday to discover they were $2.97 a dozen at my local Walmart. Wow! – C.P. HJL Replies: We have had chickens for a number of years now and have enjoyed the fresh eggs tremendously. The price of eggs have always been a bit of a sore point with me though. I cannot produce eggs …


Letter Re: Livestock Guardian Dogs

Hugh, In regard to your letters about livestock guardian dogs, I would add that we have an Akbash, which is a Turkish livestock guardian dog. This breed is similar in build and appearance to a Pyrenees (white) though less heavily built and shorter (less mess) hair. This is a different breed of cat… if you will!… I am not an expert, but I will say that by and large you do not train these dogs… they do their thing… My wife and I raise various breeds of domestic animals, and we no longer have a predator problem; our farm/ranch is …


Three Letters Re: Livestock Guardian Dogs

Dear Editor, We are ranchers in northern Maine and have owned and bred livestock guardian dogs for many years. Our particular breed is the Russian Ovcharka, but we also have a Great Pyranees, along with a Border Collie, who is not a guardian dogs but is used to scout ahead on trails to flush dangerous animals and round up or move livestock. There are many things to consider when purchasing a livestock guardian dog: What is their mission. Our dogs have a dual purpose. First, it is to patrol the inner farm perimeter and keep out two- and four-legged predators, …