How to Make Money from Your Homestead

Homesteading

A word that is thrown around loosely in today’s society….Homesteading. But, how do you make money from your homestead, or at least offset the cost? This lifestyle is not free nor is it cheaper. The end result is what we are after. Good quality meat and vegetables, homemade bread, knowing your ingredients, the slower pace of life, and working for yourself.

We will dive into how we use our homestead to offset our cost and make it a second income if you will.

Starting Your Homestead

This was something we started a bit before the BIG BANG for 2020. We have always dabbled in gardening but everything that went on in this dreadful year kick started our determination.

We started with a small garden, five chicks, and one duck. We had no infrastructure and were definitely still wet behind the ears. Learn from our mistakes and always make sure you have housing for your animals BEFORE you get them. Trust!

We walked the back of our property and decided the layout. We knew that we wanted our gardens next to our stationary chicken run. The garden would feed them, and they would feed the garden.

Break your land into zones. What will you need to visit the most?

• Gardens need tending to quite frequently, so make them close to your house. You also want to have easy access to water or have a water line run.
• Eggs need to be collected daily, so your egg laying chickens should also be relatively close.
• Animals that are on pasture can be further away but again think about water.
• Animals that need to be moved everyday should be in a spot where they are easy to move and tend to. If this means meat birds, make sure you have enough room to turn their tractors.
• Keep all feed in one spot and make sure it is easily accessible.

You want your property to work for you. If things are difficult to get to or unorganized you will burn out quickly, I promise.

How to Offset Feed Costs on Our Homestead

There are a few different ways to do this. We spend about eighty dollars a week on our egg laying flock. In peak season we are getting around three dozen eggs a day. These are both chicken eggs and duck eggs. We essentially are raising our chickens and ducks for free by selling our excess eggs. We have several customers that buy eggs weekly. This offsets our feed costs but by no means makes us money. Chickens are relatively expensive to keep because they do not survive purely on grass. We also feed them all of our kitchen scraps when we do not have pigs on the property.

Duck eggs are rarer than chicken eggs and are great for baking. If you raise ducks, you will be set apart from all of the farmers raising chickens. We charge more for our duck eggs because of this reason…..they are rare and better for you. Ducks also do not lay as often.

Raising pigs for us is cheaper than raising chickens. When Pancetta (our pig) was on our property she predominately ate food scraps, fermented raw milk, roosters (when we were outnumbered), and hog grower. Our feed bill on her was cheaper, relatively speaking.

Buying in bulk also helps cut down on your feed bill. If you buy super sacks rather than fifty-pound bags you will save!

We cannot touch on goats or cows as we do not raise them here at the Hagan Homestead, but that is the goal.

What We Sell from Our Homestead to Make Money

The Hagan Homestead actually started with YouTube and has expanding beyond what we ever could have imagined. We hope to grow it even more and help more people reach their goals of a healthier lifestyle.

We sell some items from our home, and we also rent a booth at a local vendor mall. We plan on also doing an at home farmstand and farmer’s markets in the future! Here is a list of what we sell from our homestead.

• Chicken Eggs
• Duck Eggs
• Bone Broth
• Salsa
• Sauerkraut
• In season vegetables
• Sourdough starter
• Sourdough bread
• Herbal teas
• Fire Cider
• Elderberry Syrup
• Elderberry Gummies
• Herbal Tinctures
• Herbal Salves
• Chapsticks
• Natural perfumes and self-care items like lotions, serums and more!
• Poultices
• Custom Laser Engraving
• Earrings
• Keychains
• Car Charms
• Wallets

There is way more to this list, but this is what comes to mind now. Almost all of the herbs used in these products are grown right here in our own back yard.

Like I said, The Hagan Homestead originally started from YouTube as a way to teach others that living this lifestyle and working full time jobs was possible. As we learned, we started making all these things for our family and then were asked to make a little extra for friends and family. We started selling these items from our home and then branched out.

The key is to find what you enjoy and what you already do and make a business model. We now have all of the social media platforms, the store front, this blog, and have been looking into other options. The laser engraving is our newest endeavor.

Social Media and Advertising to Make Money from Your Homestead

This is something we have worked on and worked on for the past year and a half. We do many different avenues for social media including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. The algorithm of all of these sites is a fickle beast. You have to be active, and post! Not just post but interact with others, comment, and share. There are also hashtags that can be helpful. If we are truly honest, we have not mastered this, but we have a great following and love all of our viewers and customers. They become family.

We also have hats with our logo that the boys wear around town which always strikes up a conversation. We are involved in our community as well, so this helps get the word out there.

Brittany works in more of a “city” where we sell the majority of our eggs. In our rural town everyone has yard eggs. It’s all about that supply and demand.

We have also donated items for silent auctions and giveaways that help to get our name out to the public.

By no means, does what we sell replace our “9-5” income. This is a side hustle at this point. But the goal is for our homestead to be our full-time job, both products we cultivate here and our social media platforms. We want to teach, to give back, and to interact with people.

We hope this helped to give you some ideas on how to make extra money with your homestead. Do not be afraid to think outside the box or to expand your brand, so to speak. We have watched the Hagan Homestead become something beautiful. It was a name we just threw out there. We were encouraged by so many people, and we are glad they pushed us. So, get out there and work to make your vision come true!