Andy Marion

I'm in southern VT zone 5b, I do have electricity.  I was thinking of getting the ducklings in May so overnight is 40'sF average.  Middle of the summer it might stay in the 60'sF overnight so I could wait for warmer temps if needed.

I don't have the coops made yet, I'm also open to building something exclusively for brooding.  Might make sense anyway since I'll be getting new birds somewhat regularly.

Hi all! I'm looking to get ducks and ideally chickens as well this spring but need some suggestions for brooding options.  I'd like to get 20-30 ducklings and the same number of chickens but live in a 20ft yurt and don't have any predator proof outbuildings.  Is there any way to safely brood them outside?  

I'm going to be building mobile coops so I could move those right next to my yurt and use that but I'm not sure how to safely keep it warm enough or if it will be too stressful.  

Would it be better to only get 3 or so at a time so I can brood them inside?  Any other ideas? Thanks!!

Thanks for all the info!!  I'm a fiber artist and plan to process the majority of the fiber myself and sell full fleeces of what I can't.  I don't have a huge customer base by any stretch but still some available sales outlets already.   I think it makes the most sense to get animals first after everyone's comments.  They'll be a big driving force in my landscape so planning my food forest around their habits seems easier than trying to integrate them into a system after the fact and have it not be designed well for them!  Plus the fact that they'll make their own pasture is a huge plus!  I'm not planning on doing any breeding or milking so looking at getting 3-5 pygora or nigora does and/or wethers this spring. Can't wait!!

If anyone knows of good farms in the Northeast US to get kids from please let me know!

I know this is a big ol' "it depends" question BUT would like some advice anyways.  I just recently purchased 12.5a of mostly wooded property in southern Vermont zone 5b.  About 1/3 of the property is very young forest with lots of brush and saplings and the plan is to start a food forest in that area and do more understory forest gardening withing the existing trees in the back of the property with the more mature stand.  I'm camped out on the property and should have my yurt up in a few weeks so minimal infrastructure at the moment.  I know I want fiber goats and ducks but the question is when?  The earliest I could have shelter up for animals and get prepared is this spring so I could get animals then OR wait a few years until my farm is more established and I have better pasture.  It would be great to have their help upfront with land clearing etc but I want to make sure that its still a healthy and safe environment for them!

This will be a production farm and my main source of income so my main considerations/questions are:

- How well will having goats for fiber and ducks for eggs help fill the income gap while I'm waiting for my food forest to mature?

- Will living in a mostly forested area (at least short term) be healthy for the animals? (I'm thinking pygora or nigora goats and runner ducks)

- How hard is it generally to find animal care if I want to go away for a few days?

There's a lot more questions floating around in my noggin but thats the gist of it!

Hi Lina!
I'm not currently set up enough to take any goats this year but I hopefully will be in the spring if you have any wethers then!  I want goats for fiber and brush clearing/land maintenance so I've been looking at pygoras but haven't done much research on nigoras yet.  How cold hardy are they?  I'm up in southern VT zone 5b.  Thanks!

Thanks so much for the replies!  To answer a few questions:
- I'm in zone 5b, southern Vermont USA.  I already have land, currently forested with mixed hardwood and softwood stands in different areas. The area closest to the road was maintained as a sugarbush in the past so mainly very young deciduous trees with some larger nurse trees.  It transitions to a mature hemlock stand with a perennial spring (such a lucky find!!) and then mixed deciduous trees with slate ledge and outcroppings.
- I'll be working full time with potential for volunteer labor and csa u-pick for some harvest work
- I plan on doing the majority of the maintenance by hand and using my goats to "mow" pathways but will consider a skidsteer mower if it feels necessary
-

My ideal setup (still very much a work in progress planning wise!) would be to clear the saplings wile leaving the larger trees for shade in the area closest to the road.  That area will be the most intensively managed with a silvopasture/alley cropping style food forest focusing on nuts, berries, and medicinal perennial herbs with goats and ducks rotating through the alleys for pasture.  Farther back will be woodlot as well as some more experimental and lightly/unmanaged wild-simulated forest gardening with things like lowbush blueberry (already present just encouraging), ramps, fiddleheads, etc.  All of the areas will be open as a csa style u-pick.  It only needs to be tidy enough for good production and for csa customers to find the crops, personally I love the chaos and "weedy" look!

Hi all!
First some context: I'm an experienced farmer (mostly organic veggies but also experience in permaculture orchard and animal care) I'm in the process of designing an market production scale food forest.  I'm planning on having goats and ducks to help with mowing etc. and, once enough crops are established, will have a u-pick CSA for a good portion of the crops.  I'll be working full time but likely won't have any hired help.

This question is mostly for planning purposes, both in terms of business (expected cash flows and all that) and landscape planning.  I'm going to be starting really small and building up depending on what I'm able to maintain no matter what.  My best guess at this point in the process is around 3 acres, does that sound about right to folks? Thanks!!

Hey all, earthworks newbie here hoping folks could take a look at my driveway plan to see if it makes sense!  The idea is to have a simple gravel driveway that also collects any water moving downhill from my food forest along with whatever collects from the driveway and directs it to my collection/irrigation pond.  I'm aware I'll loose gravel to erosion but the slopes are pretty minimal so hoping it wont be too bad.  12ft wide driveway at a 2% cross slope made of 3/4 minus crushed gravel with a simple rock wall on the downhill but higher side of the driveway and drainage ditch (eventually with riprap or whatever smaller rocks I dig up) on the uphill/lower side.  I've added a sketch to help make that clearer lol.  The driveway slopes down from the road at enough of a angle that water will move down the side ditch but I'm not sure the actual slope.  At the end of the drive it'll turn uphill slightly to a small parking area and I'll run a drainage culvert under the driveway to connect to drainage ditch to the irrigation pond (IP in sketch) The uphill side leads to what will be the food forest, downhill is mixed hardwood forest about 50ft to edge of property.  Southern Vermont zone 5b for context.  Any thoughts would be great, thanks folks!