Mrs. Gravy
Quite Saucy
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Homesteading and Hobby Farm/Ranch
- Thread starter Kiroy
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Kiroy
Marine Biologist
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I'd just get on facebook craigslist ect and find locals selling pullets - most local chicken raisers will be producing stock that's best for your area
Once you have a little flock, and if you're ok with being slightly heartless, just throw a rooster in for a few months every year, let nature takes it's course, and then get rid of it, you'll end up with enough chicks that live to replenish your flock and then some (just butcher the roosters kids when they're big enough to eat). My neighbor turned me onto this strat and it's by far the best/easiest. It's like 50% survival on the chicks but you're ensuring you're getting the best and brightest out of them this way
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BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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That has to be pretty high on the list of undignified ways to die. My sister in law was once attacked by a normal sized rooster and it spurred her hard enough to give her a bruise through her insulated coveralls so I can imagine that a 15 lb chicken could get a lucky spur and hit an artery.
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BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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Spoilered highly technical stuff:
Look in the feeder and waterer. If there's feed and water in them then you're good. If they're empty, fill them up. Repeat daily.
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OK, for those who have gone down this path already. I have a colleague from my line of work who has decided that her and her spouses goals of off grid country living aren't what they really want. They're selling their land and I'm considering it. My criteria were somewhere out of town a good bit, with at least 20 acres of land, that I could start building on. Preferably with something I could spend time living in while coordinating contractors to build the get-away house/compound. What they're offering up...
How suspicious should I be?
- 50 acres
- Around 2.5 hours ENE of Dallas (past Paris, towards Texarkana)
- Already has a metal building, containing a tractor with some attachments, a couple 4 wheelers. Which convey.
- Has a small building built out for living (essentially a single wide) with generator. which conveys.
- Has an onsite propane tank already.
- No city water and no well yet.
- City grid electricity would have to be brought in from down the street. (But I want to build out Solar anyways)
- Currently under timber ag exemption
How suspicious should I be?
Gavinmad
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Couple different searches put the average cost of undeveloped land in Texas at 7.5k per acre, so 400k sounds like a reasonable deal at first glance considering that some of the initial steps have already been taken towards development, it certainly doesn't seem low enough to immediately raise red flags.
I'd get eyes on the property asap.
Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
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Guess it depends on your definition of off grid. I have two neighbors, the national forest and a 9800 acre block of timber company land.I haven't been up there in a while (last went to Atlanta, TX), but here the biggest issue is you buy X acres and then shortly after someone else builds a dozen commercial chicken houses next door. Eventually you get used to the smell and don't realise it's in your clothes so that when you go out people smell it instantly. Not to mention they're illegal magnets.
In TX you can buy land that someone reserves the timber rights. Which means like oil/gas rights if they want to cut timber they can and you can't stop them. Read everything and ask tons of questions.
It would be near impossible to buy land there with mineral rights after the 2007 fracking boom and they are fracking again for oil/gas now. They need to be aware if no mineral rights whoever owns them can come and go as they please and you must give them access to test, develop etc...
In TX you can buy land that someone reserves the timber rights. Which means like oil/gas rights if they want to cut timber they can and you can't stop them. Read everything and ask tons of questions.
It would be near impossible to buy land there with mineral rights after the 2007 fracking boom and they are fracking again for oil/gas now. They need to be aware if no mineral rights whoever owns them can come and go as they please and you must give them access to test, develop etc...
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BrutulTM
Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
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Find out what it's going to cost to drill a well. If you can hit good water at 100 feet it's no big deal. If you have to go to 1000 feet it is a big deal.
www3.twdb.texas.gov
Put the address in here and see what the neighbor's wells are like. Just look at ones that are labeled "domestic". I randomly clicked a couple in the general area and it seems like people can get reasonable water from wells under 100 feet but it can vary greatly in a short distance.
Groundwater Data Viewer | Texas Water Development Board
Put the address in here and see what the neighbor's wells are like. Just look at ones that are labeled "domestic". I randomly clicked a couple in the general area and it seems like people can get reasonable water from wells under 100 feet but it can vary greatly in a short distance.
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The_Black_Log Foler
Stock Pals Senior Vice President
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Or I'll be building out off grid with solar and a powerwall until the city creeps out far enough to make it cheaper.... Which honestly was one of the things I was already researching (Solar+battery with grid/propane-generator as the backup)
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The_Black_Log Foler
Stock Pals Senior Vice President
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I have a relatively large solar system in North Texas and it still produces the same as the year I got it (3 years old now).
Kiroy
Marine Biologist
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I'd be most annoyed with the water. I've watched youtubes of real offgridders who have to carry in water and jesus that looks miserable. I like my showers.
Figuring out the well would be my biggest criteria before buying property with no water.
Figuring out the well would be my biggest criteria before buying property with no water.
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The_Black_Log Foler
Stock Pals Senior Vice President
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What’s so hard to figure out about the well? Is that something specific to Texas geography?
The_Black_Log Foler
Stock Pals Senior Vice President
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Coop and run should be delivered this coming thurs/Friday. Got everything setup for brooder. Looking at grandpa feeders. Anyone ever tried one?
www.grandpasfeeders.com
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