Missed

I will also say that I save on the feed by growing a good portion of the barley. As O brew my own beer, I malt the barley, dry it, make beer with it and then feed the birds with the grist. That way I believe I am maximising the potential of the barley. Pretty much a win win especially in a self sufficiency way.

No matter what you do, they will get red mite in the end, probably off wild birds. One trick is to put vaseline on the perches in the chook house. The mites come down and become trapped. Supposed to work but I have never tried that myself. I do know that if they have problems with mites on the legs (they become swollen and very scaly looking) a good smearing of vaseline before they go to roost at night will sort it out.

I keep chooks, ducks, geese and turkeys. I did have guinea fowl but ate them as they are very very noisy. All birds come with some issues, chooks can be noisy if you keep a cockerel, they have red mite and if you are not careful can attract rats. Ducks are messy and can turn a hoof-print into a pond in a winter. They do however clear a huge area of slugs in short order. If you are after ducks eggs, Khaki Campbell's are the bird, if meat is the preference Aylesbury are a good choice. Geese too are noisy buggers and you really need a bigger area for them. Turkeys are useful in that they also clear slugs but will also keep the grass down better than the ducks, especially couch grass which is a nuisance here. Another very easy option if meat is what you are after, would be rabbits. One buck and two to three does will give you some fifty to sixty rabbits a year. Does not sound like much but if you have breeds such as the NZ White you get a good sized beast. Again, easy to look after and if land is available it just requires an area to be fenced off with chickenwire and hutches for security. Lots of options out there for those who may choose this lifestyle.

I was taught as a child however over the years I have been fortunate enough to learn from other cultures. Curing meat is not difficult, when you are dealing with a large pig or beast you have plenty to play with. I enjoy the Faroese and Icelandic methods of dealing with mutton (lamb is pretty tasteless and best left on the heather for two years to gain flavour). If you stalk its worth making biltong. My children used to go through kilos of the damn stuff, preferring it to sweets. Best advice if you have never done any before is to get someone to teach you, failing that read up on the various methods and choose one and get that right before trying another method.

Food storage, now there is a thing that the fear police have put the clampers on! Currently I have hams that I cured seven years ago hanging in the shed, still in good order if a bit hard. My salamis are a bit younger, my air dried salt mutton was killed and hung to dry last October and still has not seen the inside of a fridge. There are a lot of scare stories around food, I often feel many are put around to ensure folks throw out perfectly edible food. In the Western Isles of Scotland birds such as cormorant were eaten very fresh or hung for a month or so before eating, all with no ill effect. Much worry is due to preconceived 'good and bad'. Tins will last until the tin punctures, keep them in a dry environment and they will be ok a hundred years from now. Let them rust and they could be spoiled in a year. Look at how the old people prepared and ate food and follow their example. If you have led a sterilised life you may have gastrointestinal hurry for a day or two but your guts will acclimatise to the microbiology soon enough; after all we have evolved as scavengers for over four million years!