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Heritage & Rare Breed Poultry
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- About Our Cows: Why Miniature Jersey?
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- About Our Sheep: Why Babydoll Sheep?
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About
Heritage & Rare Breed Poultry
Livestock Guardian Dogs
Once a Day Family Milk Cow
- About Our Cows: Why Miniature Jersey?
Miniature Babydoll Sheep
- About Our Sheep: Why Babydoll Sheep?
- Lamb Waitlist
The Holistic Homestead Course
Essential Oils
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Our Heritage & Rare Breed Poultry

Ameraucana ~ Bresse ~ Cream Legbar ~ Splash and French Black Copper Marans ~ Lavender Orpington ~ Silkie ~ Silverudd’s Blue

Recent Reviews

The Holistic Homestead Course
Rated 5 out of 5
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The Holistic Homestead Course
Rated 5 out of 5
by Alina
Silkie Hatching Eggs
Rated 5 out of 5
by Tiffany
Bresse Chicks
Rated 5 out of 5
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Bresse Hatching Eggs
Rated 5 out of 5
by Annette G.
Silkie Hatching Eggs
Rated 5 out of 5
by Amanda

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Located in Shepherdstown, WV

Phone: (240) 805-3618

Email: send us an email

Hours: by appointment only

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I realized it would be way too time consuming to m

I realized it would be way too time consuming to message all the people who entered the giveaway a coupon so the course is half price for everyone, no coupon code needed!

The course includes everything you need to know to

The course includes everything you need to know to get started raising milk, meat and/or eggs holistically! Learn about chickens, ducks, turkeys and miniature pigs, sheep and dairy cows plus guardian dogs to keep them all safe from predators! You get lifetime access to all the content and anything we add in the future plus personal answers to your questions.

Don’t forget to go look for my previous reel for details on how to enter! ❤️

Edited to add: The giveaway is closed! The winners

Edited to add: The giveaway is closed! The winners are @hubbards.athome
@1919farm
@kaaitwhitney
@over_the_rail_farm
@willsey_farmstead

Ask us anything about the course in the comments or send us a message! We’re so excited to share everything we have learned about raising milk, meat and eggs holistically!

To enter the giveaway 1️⃣ make sure you’re following @betterwiththyme on Instagram, 2️⃣ share this reel to your Instagram stories (and tag us in the story so we see it!). You can share once a day through Friday, November 25th for up to 5 entries!

We’ll announce the winners and send out the coupons on Saturday morning for Small Business Saturday!

What’s on your wishlist this week? I love Young

What’s on your wishlist this week? I love Young Living’s clean, natural, oil-infused supplements, skincare, personal care, cleaning products etc. Everything you need for a toxin free home shipped to your door (or gate if you’re like us and have a locked gate and LGDs roaming your property 😂).

Shop at youngliving.com and if you’re a first time customer search for Better with Thyme as your enroller when you checkout. Message me as soon as you order and I have a special gift for you! ❤️

This has been a rough transition for us from upper

This has been a rough transition for us from upper seventies well into November to 20s every night during the last week. Today barely went above freezing and tonight is going down to the teens.

We have started moving these pasture pens toward where the chickens will be set up for the winter but we’re not quite there yet, so we collect the waterers on our wagon and wheel them into the garage for the night to prevent them from freezing and breaking.

PS Can you guess why there is a brick on top of each pen?

The last week I’ve been chatting with a friend o

The last week I’ve been chatting with a friend off and on about her first family milk cow and am soo happy to see them make progress each day with their routine! Every animal has their own unique personality and preferences but there are many commonalities and rules of thumb for different types of animals to help us succeed. One very important thing to keep in mind with all livestock is that it takes time to bond and get into a routine! Your presence and patience will go a long way!

I’m continuing to add more info to the Holistic Homestead Course every day and I’m including FAQs and requests from everyone that has started the course so far.

❓What is your number one family milk cow question?❓

Chickens especially like to sneak in and make off

Chickens especially like to sneak in and make off with small pieces of meat but I started being more vigilant after our first ram stole a chicken wing from Bella and ate it! Chickens are omnivores but sheep are not. 🙈

The first time I saw Guineas in person they were i

The first time I saw Guineas in person they were in cages in a barn at a fair. There must have been 50 of them and now I realize they were super stressed. It was so so loud and made me think I would never ever want Guineas even though I kept hearing how good they are at eating ticks.

Years later my frustration with having to be so constantly vigilant with our dogs and kids and then even finding a tick on one of our cows made me change my mind.

The noise in the video is made by just 5 Guineas, though they are very close behind me. The majority of the time they make a sweet peeping noise like in my other reels of them. This loud noise is rare - this is the first time I caught a recording of it in the 2(ish?) months they’ve been grown and free ranging.

PS What I meant to record was showing that even though we’ve needed to give our cows a significant amount of hay starting this month (November), our babydoll sheep are still 100% grazing since they need so much less to eat!

Growing up we often asked grandparents for life ad

Growing up we often asked grandparents for life advice on their birthdays. This isn’t an answer we ever got but I like it! What’s the best advice you ever got from an elder? I’ll share one in the comments too. ☺️

Your top two Guinea questions answered. Ask me any

Your top two Guinea questions answered. Ask me any others in the comments and I’ll do my best to help!

1️⃣ Differences between Guineas and Chickens? Do you have to put them up at night?

🪶Guineas eggs are slightly smaller but yolks are same size.

🪶Guinea meat is darker and leaner (some friends have told me they love the meat, we haven’t tried it yet).

🪶Guineas range far but always stick together in a group, they don’t separate like chickens do (ours stay in our perimeter fence, if you don’t have one consider neighbors).

🪶Guineas can fly better than chickens, though they stick to the ground in general.

🪶Guineas prefer to sleep up high in the open air vs. most chickens prefer to sleep inside a coop. If you want guineas protected in a coop at night you’ll have to teach them to go in. For eg, feed them inside the coop at sunset. They do go to the same place every night so I don’t think you’d have to do this indefinitely, just until they learn.

🪶Guinea babies (keets) don’t know what to eat and not eat. The brooder should be all feed on the bottom, no bedding.

🪶Guineas have the potential to be much louder than chickens! We raised ours indoors for a month and in a rabbit tractor near our house for another month. They are very comfortable and friendly with us and the loud noise they can make has been extremely rare in our experience.

2️⃣ Pros and cons? I’m wondering if we should consider getting some for tick control.

🪶 Besides considering the differences above, I’ll keep this short to the one most important pro: if you have ticks in your area and have at least some space for guineas to range, I don’t think you’ll regret it. We have had up to 300 chickens at a time ranging throughout our property and they never put a dent in the ticks. We have 5 guineas and they’ve wiped out the tick population!

Bria is very good at finding the eggs from any of

Bria is very good at finding the eggs from any of our birds that don’t lay where they’re supposed to - if she’s not hungry she often buries them for later. We don’t mind because they are good for her and she works hard protecting all the birds!

Started a new project with our littlest helper!

Started a new project with our littlest helper!

We’ve got 5 weeks to build 5 new shelters for lambing (giving ourselves the week before Christmas off and making sure we have time to spare before lambs should start arriving around the new year.)

We tested out my planned design and I think it’s going to be perfect! Each ewe will get a 5x7 space and they’ll all be connected under one roof with wire between to keep them separate but allow them to share body heat - and maybe heat lamp heat too if we get a cold snap like last year when we had puppies born in 7 degrees. 🥶

It’s hard to imagine that kind of weather could be around the corner since it’s been in the upper 70s here the last few days! 😮

Are you doing any projects before winter sets in?

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