Determining Usable Space:
How much space do you have that you can use creatively to start your own Miniature Farm? Lets start by determining how much usable space you have. If your yard is square, you will be able easily figure out the square footage. Take a measuring tape and get the length and the width and then multiply them together. My back yard is approximately 70 feet long by 30 feet wide and then I have a spot along the side of the house that is approximately 25 feet long by 10 feet wide. Here's the math (70X30=2100 & 25X10= 250) I have almost 2400 square feet of yard. Most of my yard was put into kentucky blue grass last year and so I have a little pasture for my chickens, ducks and guinea pigs.
I eventually want to get a pot bellied pig, a pigmy goat, a miniature pony and a miniature milk cow, but that would entail making space for self cleaning pens and food. As you consider the space you have, don't limit your thinking to one level. There are dairy farms in Japan several stories high because they are forced to build up with the limited space. If the Japanese can do it, why can't anyone else willing to put forth the effort?
I am not recommending you turn your back yard into a two story menagerie, but I am inviting you to think creatively when it comes to the space at your disposal. Instead of building that 700 square foot chicken coop, build the coop so it has 300 square feet of floor space, but build it twice as tall so your birds have plenty of room to roost and lay their precious eggs.
What if the treehouse you built for your kids that have long since moved away, became the coop and roost for your chickens? I am more than willing to share my ideas with you, but our tastes are different as are our preferences to building materials, yard themes and Miniature Farming. Maybe you just want to have a few laying hens. Perfect! If you've determined your usable space and are ready to start, lets do a little research for some fresh inventive ideas.
Researching New & Old Ideas:
This is the most enjoyable part of the planning process. Researching isn't about how much money you have to spend. As you search for ideas, you will come across practical solutions that will beg you to follow and then you'll find some outlandish ideas that will inspire you to think again.
Forget about how much money you have or don't have and imagine your yard as it is right now, and then imagine how you want it to be. If your vision is vague, then it's time to research ideas. Open a web browser and go to your favorite search engine. I want you to search the following list of keywords. Make sure you are searching the keywords for images. A picture is worth a thousand words and we want to think visually right now. As you go through the searches, pay attention to what draws your eye and copy and paste the image to your photo library. These images will serve as your blue prints for building your Miniature Farm.
If you can think of any other keywords to search for, go for it. Like I said, our tastes are different and what you might want to include in your miniature farm will differ from what I want. As you sift through the images you find of interest, pay attention to what's in the back ground of the pictures more often than what is front and center. The internet isn't the only place to find good ideas. Next time you are at the book store, the super market or the home improvement center, visit the magazine and how to book sections. You will find books and magazines chalked full of great visually inspiring concepts you might be able to incorporate into the planning and design of your Miniature Farm.
At the top of this page, the picture you see is of an actual subdivision or community who planned three large organic garden plots to be available to the families living in the homes to participate in organic farming or gardening. Imagine what it would be like if your efforts to begin a Miniature Farm inspired your neighbors to support one another in accomplishing something as wonderful as this.
Keywords:
Miniature Cows
Miniature Horses
Hobby Farming
Tiny Farms
Chicken Coops
Farm Animals
Organic Farming
Free Range Chickens
Rotational Grazing
Raising Livestock
Fencing Supplies
Creative Farming
Gardening
Yard Landscaping
Pigmy Goats
Pot Bellied Pigs
Ducks
Chickens
Geese
Etc.
This is just a list to get you started, but you get the idea. As you go through page after page of images, your plans will become more and more concrete. Think of how the ideas you get will fit perfectly into the theme of your Miniature Farm.
Choosing The Theme For Your Miniature Farm:
If space isn't a problem, then you might be able to diversify with a several kinds of farm animals, but I am geared more toward Miniature Farms. Keeping that in mind, it's time to consider which type of Miniature Farm you will specialize in. As for myself, I have chosen a Cluck & Quack & Garden theme for my Miniature Farm. This is mainly due to the zoning of the city I live in. Be sure to check your local laws before investing in anything. My philosophy when it comes to the legalities associated with Miniature Farms within city limits, is that it's better to ask for forgiveness, than for permission.
I am not endorsing stupidity here, but I am encouraging any person, family or community to engage in well planned Miniature Farming that benefits both the humans and the farm animals. Only responsible and well informed adults should attempt a Miniature Farm. The better you plan your Miniature Farm, the less likely a run in with a neighbor or lawman is going to be. So keep this in mind as you choose a theme for your farm.
You have to be able to manage the noise, the smell and the waste of your Miniature Farm, or your plans will fold before they have a chance to come to fruition. Please tag along with me on my journey, but don't be afraid to begin your own, and we'll learn together. I'm lucky to have an agricultural background, but just because you may not have one, doesn't mean you can't learn. Here is a list of possible themes for your Miniature Farm using the noises farm animals make. You can combine any number of these sounds to help get your plan in place. The choices you make regarding the farm animals you pick will directly effect what types of infrastructure you'll need to build to support them.
Oink! (Pigs)
Quack! (Ducks)
Cluck! (Chickens)
Honk! (Geese)
Gobble! (Turkeys)
Mooo! (Cows)
Baaa! (Sheep)
Maaa! (Goats)
Neigh! (Horses)
Now I know there are several other possible farm animals, but if you want to veer in a different direction with exotics, go right ahead. I chose the Cluck & Quack, because I happen to have a pond in my back yard and ample space for chickens and ducks to rummage around. If I can figure out a way to incorporate a Moo & Oink & Neigh & Maaa combination I will, but I foresee noise, smell and waste management being my biggest planning problems there. I may just have to wait before diversifying that much.
Take a step back for a minute and think of what you want to accomplish with you desired Miniature Farm theme. Do you want a yard teaming with healthy and happy animals where you have found the perfect balance between quality and quantity, or do you want a big messy stink hole run over with unhealthy and unhappy farm animals? Please choose the prior. Start small and never over populate your Miniature Farm. You can go to jail for animal abuse and get hit with several fines if you make stupid choices.
If you feel your not quite ready to plan the Miniature Farm, but you do want to get your hands dirty on the weekends, you might just consider a Miniature Farm garden. Choose a nice sunny protected spot and dig in to the soil. Plant all kinds of seeds and try to grow them from sprout to harvest. The nice thing about gardening is the tranquility and stress reduction that comes from tilling the soil and working the help plants grow. A garden is not as easy as the gardening books make them look.
I've just recently delved into adding a garden to my Cluck & Quack campaign and it's amazing how complicated the conditions are for gardening. I'm no expert, but I am excited about learning how to sprout seeds, provide well balanced soil for planting my sprouts, watering, weeding, fighting off bugs and disease, and trying to get my garden to bear fruit at the end of the season. I never knew soil was so important to plants as well as sunlight and water. Did you know that plants don't like cold water? Do you like taking a bath in cold water? Didn't think so. They like water to be room temperature. To get a garden to thrive, humidity in the air plays a big part as well a the right nutrients in the soil.
Like I said, I am no expert, but what I do know is that there must be a balance to life and if you don't plan in the beginning, the life you are responsible for may die before it ever gets a chance to live. Last year I started raising goldfish and they kept dying on me. I kept buying more and they kept dying. Don't make this mistake with farm animals. My ignorance was killing my fish. I will go more in depth about this on the Raise It page of Miniature Farms website, but for now, let me suffice it to say that you really need to research and plan your Miniature Farm long and hard before every buying anything that will depend upon you for survival.
Many of you are probably already running Miniature Farms, but one common denominator between experienced and inexperienced Miniature Farmers, is funding our projects. The major deciding factor of how big, small, advanced, specialized, or successful your Miniature Farm will be is going to depend upon your budget. The the next step is to figure out how your going to pay for the dream you've just created in your head for your back yard.
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