Getting started in a city?

[FarmerChick]

I think also it is about keeping the number LOW......have a few birds, a few eggs and be happy and relatively quiet.

if you make that flock a little bigger, oh yes, the noise increases definitely! LOL

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Quail are awesome for stuff like this. They are kept in rabbit like settings and make no more noise than the common songbird. I'm sure if you kept hundreds or thousands then it may be noticeable, but we keep from 12-40 and you wouldn't know it.

Rabbits, perfect!

Worms are great composters, thrive with the rabbits and will take care of edible kitchen compost.

I've heard of people raising a hog or two in their garage. A bit of cage maintenance, but it's been done. I was reading "Raising the Homesteading Hog" and there were small meat hogs being raised on balconies in Italy. A hog might be too much "farm" to argue it's a pet, if you were ever busted; unlike "pet" bunnies and your colony of "cage" birds.

Bees? Learning about bees myself and will be getting a few hives in the next few months. Plenty of people keep them on suburban settings. There are many ways fun and creative ways to hide bees. A beek friend of mine, knows a gentleman who built an observation hive in his HOUSE with the bee's exit leading outside. That way he could sit in his house and watch his bees work. My hubby and I saw a similar hive built at the Smithsonian Museum on the second or third floor. The hive was inside with a plastic tunnel for the entrance leading outside. Oh, you could have fun with it. Paint the hives to look like dog houses or bird houses. I was reading a Foxfire book and it showed the old time hives, which was actually a just hollow log sat on a rock, with a roof put on the top.

Guinea pigs? I don't think they are as hardy as rabbits. They don't do well on wire bottom cages, which means their cages will need to be cleaned on a regular basis. Personally, I'll stick with my rabbits, they are lower maintenance.

2-3 chicken hens can be kept in the house, if care is taken to keep their cage well kept. I thought it would be a stretch to keep them in the house, but when my hen was caught in a legtrap, I brought her inside and kept her in a large wire dog kennel with shavings in the bottom. If you build a chicken tractor, 2-3 hens need very little space. A small A-frame tractor 2'X4' or 3'X6' and moved regularly would be fine. If kept in the house, your neighbors would never know.

Muscovy ducks! They could be kept in the backyard and nobody would here them. They would lay eggs, incubate, and provide meat. The caruncles take some getting used to, but they are great for flying under the radar. Make sure to keep those wings clipped or get them pinioned! They will fly.

 

[tamlynn]

Gardening and fruit trees are a big part of our life.

Have you read about the Dervaes family here in LA? http://www.pathtofreedom.com/
Lots of ideas of what can be done on a city lot.

 

[tortoise]

Thanks tamlynn! That is inspiring! I wonder how much I can do here?!

 

[Farmfresh]

I just found this thread.

I have been city homesteading for the past 25+ years! At first I did not even know that was what I was doing.

I have farmed everything from a 4 foot strip around townhouses to my present "farm", which consists of a 40 X 120 lot with my house in the middle of it, a large vacant lot behind some neighboring apartments, and a mobile poultry coop at my D1's house.

Currently I raise grapes (3 kinds), apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums, cherries, blackberries, black raspberries, strawberries, almost all of our vegetables, all but a few of our herbs. I have 3-4 hens for eggs, and raise all my families chicken and turkey at my D1's house in my mobile coop (called the Chick Mobile). I have even raised wheat and currently oats (just to see if I could). In the beginning we raised our own meat rabbits, but now I have a source of great meat bunnies from a 4-H kid for $5.00 each - so no need to raise our own.

I buy my other "meat on the hoof" from local farmers that take them to a nearby towns family owned butcher shop. I supplement what I don't grow from our local farm market. I can, dehydrate and freeze our food supply to last at least the next year.

I also make our own soaps and lotions.

How did I get started? Just EXACTLY like you are!

Suggestions for success?

One project at a time! Learn all you can, get good at one thing BEFORE jumping into the next one.
Always keep good records - treat it like a business.
Keep the neighbors HAPPY! Landscape the yard with food, but make it beautiful and share, share, share.
Never be afraid to learn a new skill ... and always get all the help you can at first.
Make friends with like minded folks. It is always nice when I can barter for some fresh venison or get bags of leaves for mulch from my friends.
Spend a LOT of time on Sufficient Self. These folks have done it all and are always ready to help out.

 

[Wifezilla]

Grapes are ridiculously easy to grow. I got about 50 lbs or so off 2 vines this year. I have a lot in the freezer and I also have a batch of wine going (mead actually...pyment if you want to get technical about it )

I also have 2 dwarf apple trees and a pear tree. Pear tree has been producing for years, but the squirrels raid it. Have a trap for that problem now...LOL. Apples should start seriously producing next year.