Hello everyone in the wonderful homesteading community. I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying the weather wherever you are. Welcome to my blog. 

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As I mentioned in my post in the community that we are in the harmattan season over here. This is the season where there is dusty and dry wind and cap it all, no formation of rainfall. I had always thought the harmattan season is the season farmers hate the most. Growing up, I never believed it was an important season. 

I had always thought the harmattan season was just a period of suffering. And farmers just have to bear with it till it passes. But I was surprised when I wrote about the harmattan season and someone corrected me in my last post. Thanks to the member of this community who said “the harmattan season helps the soil to yield more fruit next year”. The comment made me do some research. I also found out that the harmattan period is important to farmers because they get to clear the lands and prepare for the next season. 

To my fellow Nigerians, I hope you’re enjoying the Harmattan season and to every other member of this community, I also hope you’re enjoying the weather and making good use of it. 

In this article, I’ll write about my biggest failure as a homesteader. Before I start, I’d like you all to know that I grow crops and rear animals for the consumption of my family and I (not for commercial purposes (basically what homesteading covers). My biggest risk is not really something huge, and it didn’t cost me too much money. Of course, I felt sad, but I still didn’t give up. 

As humans, we are bound to experience failure at one point of our lives. Things cannot always go our way; that’s just the way life is. While some people can handle failure well, others let it affect them. Sadly, I’m one of those that allow failure to get to my head. Well, I WAS one of those that allowed failure to get to my head. Recently, I’ve been able to control my feelings. 

As a homesteader, you should know that you won’t win every time. Your crops won’t produce the same amount every time. So if it is better you control your feelings and make good use of situations. 

**MY BIGGEST FAILURE AS AN HOMESTEADER**

My biggest failure as a homesteader happened a few years ago. I was new to everything. I didn’t even have a garden nor a farm at that time. I was not experienced in any agricultural aspect (except movies I’ve seen and school notes). 

My childhood friend, we grew up together and attended the same elementary school and his parents’ house was just beside mine, bought broilers (about 5). Broilers are chicken breeds that are raised mostly for meat production. His dad was a carpenter. He made a big cage for him where he kept his chickens. 

I wanted a chicken of my own. I wanted to raise broilers like my friend. So I saved up some money, and told my dad about the cage. Surprisingly, my dad agreed to build the cage. I actually didn’t know he’d agree because he was not the type that likes things like that. Well, he agreed to build one for me, and I was really happy when he did it. 

A day old chicks are pretty difficult to raise if you don’t have the necessary things and if you’re not experienced. Well, as I said earlier, I was not experienced at that time. I bought 10 broilers (day old chicks) two times the one my friend bought. 

I was really happy. I spent almost all my day with the chicks; changing their water, feeding them and all. Everything was going well until they started dying one after the other. Within one week, I lost all ten chicks. 


It really affected me that I vowed never to raise broilers again. It was then I discovered the benefits of raising local/indigenous chickens and I opted in for that. Although after about 2 years later, I was forced to raise broilers in a big poultry farm and I successfully did it. 

Thanks for reading.