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Backyard Farming: Raise Poultry and Small Farm Animals With Intention

Everything you need to keep healthy birds and small livestock, from day-old chicks to a full-grown flock. Taught by people who have done it for decades, not read about it.

Get the Free Poultry Starter Guide

Or start with the basics below.

Backyard farming flock of hens scratching in a fenced chicken run

What is backyard farming?

Backyard farming means raising your own food animals at home, whether that’s three hens on a suburban lot or goats and pigs on a few acres. Most people start with chickens, then add ducks, rabbits, or larger livestock over time. Every animal needs secure housing, clean water, the right feed, and protection from predators.

Raise Healthy, Hardworking Animals Wherever You Live

The first time a hen carried a mouse across the yard with the whole flock chasing her, it settled an argument. Farm animals are not decoration. They are working animals. Hens earn their feed in eggs and bug control, rabbits in meat and manure you can put straight on the garden, and goats in milk and cleared brush.

That is what this part of The Farmer’s Lamp is for: practical, field-tested guidance on raising poultry, small farm animals, and livestock well. Breed comparisons that tell you what an animal actually does, not just what it looks like. Feed and health guidance that works on a real budget. Housing, fencing, and predator protection that hold up. Whether you keep six hens in a suburban backyard or goats and pigs on a few acres, the basics are the same: shelter, water, feed, and paying attention. Only the scale changes.

hens foraging together in a backyard poultry run
Backyard Poultry

Chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, guineas, and quail. Breed selection, feed, housing, health, egg handling, and keeping a flock safe from what wants to eat it.

Start with poultry
Meat rabbits resting in a wooden backyard hutch
Small Farm Animals

Rabbits and the smaller animals that fit a backyard or a small lot. Housing, feed, daily care, and what it really takes to raise your own meat.

Start with small animals
Small donkey standing in a homestead pasture
Livestock

Goats, pigs, and cattle for the homestead. Fencing, shelter, feed, health, and choosing animals suited to your land and your climate.

Start with livestock

Where does The Farmer’s Lamp (TFL) library come from?

In a world of rapidly changing technology, we like to see the dirt under the nails on our contributors, scratch the ears of friendly critters living happy on their homesteads, and sip coffee on the porch next to their potted treasures as their chooks scratch nearby.

Rhonda, founder

The poultry knowledge here starts with Rhonda Crank, who founded The Farmer’s Lamp in 2013 and has kept chickens for more than 30 years. She learned it from her grandmother, on a farm where Rhode Island Reds, Dominiques, Black Australorps, and assorted mutts ran the yard alongside ducks, geese, guineas, and turkeys. She also served as Chief Editor of Homesteading Today Magazine and has contributed to Backyard Poultry Magazine, Countryside Magazine, Grit Magazine, and the Homestead Livestock Summit.

Friends of The Farmer’s Lamp

While Rhonda is now retired from writing. TFL is cared for by Dee, the head cat herder, and by the growers, keepers, and elders interviewed for the work published here. They are Friends of The Farmer’s Lamp, who choose to share their experience in hopes that it helps others on their journey.

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What does it take to raise backyard poultry?

Backyard poultry means keeping chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, or guineas at home for eggs, meat, pest control, and fertilizer. Most beginners start with three to six hens. You need secure housing, clean water, the right feed for their age, and protection from predators. Everything else is learned by watching your birds.

Find What You Need to Raise Healthy, Happy Flocks

The first time a hen carried a mouse across the yard with the whole flock chasing her, it settled an argument. Chickens are not decoration. They are working animals, and they earn their feed in eggs, meat, bug control, and the manure that feeds next year’s garden.

That is what this part of The Farmer’s Lamp is for. Practical, field-tested guidance on keeping poultry and small livestock well. Breed comparisons that tell you what a bird actually does, not just what it looks like. Feed and health guidance that works on a real budget. Housing and predator protection that holds up. Whether you have six hens in a suburban backyard or a working flock on acreage, the skills are the same. Only the scale changes.

Latest Updates

Old Time Wisdom For Modern Living

Some of the best poultry advice was never written down. It was handed over a fence line, or debated over a warm beverage.

“A warm, well-fed hen is a happy hen, and a happy hen lays happy eggs.”
– Rhonda’s grandmother, on why you toss a little grain at dusk

All Chicken Breeds Chickens Other Poultry

Start Here

Where should a beginner chicken keeper start?

We learn together at TFL. Let’s get you started in a new skill, new breed, or with the basics so you can build your homesteading skills, no matter where you live today. Sustainable living is a process, the learning keeps going and that is what makes it so fun! Let’s take step together today. Read on.

What does it cost to start a flock of six?

Less than most people fear, and more than the feed store implies. The birds are the cheap part. Housing is where the money goes, and feed is where it keeps going. What you spend in year one depends almost entirely on whether you build or buy your coop, and how much of the feed bill you are willing to offset yourself.

The True Cost of Egg Production on a Homestead, for what a dozen eggs actually costs you

What You Should Know Before Building a Chicken Coop, the largest line item in year one

How to Feed Chickens Without Buying Chicken Feed, for cutting the recurring cost

How to Grow Mealworms for Chickens, free protein you can raise yourself

What happens in the first ninety days?

Day-old chicks need heat, and they need it to come down on a schedule as they feather out. That is the whole job for the first month. Somewhere around six to eight weeks, depending on your weather and how well they are feathered, they move from the brooder to the coop. Feed changes as they grow. Get the heat and the feed right and most of the rest takes care of itself.

Brooding Chicks: A Comprehensive Guide for Success, the temperature schedule week by week

Your Complete Guide to Feeding Chickens, starter through layer feed and when to switch

Letting a Broody Hen Hatch Chicks, if you would rather a hen did the work

How to Introduce New Chickens to a Flock, for when the young birds meet the old ones

What do most new chicken keepers get wrong?

The same handful of things, year after year. None of them are complicated, and all of them are cheaper to prevent than to fix.

01.

Building the coop for the birds you have, not the flock you will have.

See What You Should Know Before Building a Chicken Coop.

02.


Waiting for a predator to take a bird before securing the run.

See How to Protect Chickens From Predators.

03.

Feeding scraps that should never go in a feeder.

See What Should I Not Feed Chickens.

04.

Building the coop for Missing the early signs of a sick bird. birds you have, not the flock you will have.

See Common Poultry Diseases Backyard Keepers Face.

05.



Treating a problem behavior as a personality instead of a cause.

See Why Chickens Eat Their Eggs.

06.

Have Different question? Send us a note!

We all learn together here at The Farmer’s Lamp. See Contact Us.

What does poultry keeping look like across the year?

Chickens run on daylight, not on the calendar, so the work shifts with the season no matter where you live. Spring brings chicks and the return of steady laying. Summer is about water and shade. Fall means molt, and a drop in eggs that alarms every first-year keeper. Winter is housing, water that will not freeze, and deciding how much you are willing to intervene.

How to Prepare Chickens for Winter

Should You Have a Chicken Coop Heater?, an honest answer to a contested question

How to Care for Molting Chickens, why the eggs stopped in autumn

Egg Laying and Common Egg Abnormalities, what normal looks like through the year

Common questions about raising backyard poultry

Where does poultry connect to the rest of the homestead?

  • Chicken manure is the cheapest soil amendment you will ever have. See GROW for composting it safely.
  • Once the eggs start coming, you need something to do with them. See COOK.
  • Processing birds, preserving meat, and putting up the harvest live in MODERN HOMESTEADING.

Raise your flock with confidence

Five guides covering chickens, ducks, turkeys, geese, and guineas. Written from decades of keeping them, not from a textbook.

Get the Poultry Bundle

Prefer to browse first? Start with the poultry archive.

Raise Poultry With Confidence eBook bundle with guides to keeping chickens, ducks, geese, guineas, and turkeys

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