Bees, and why they are great

Im sure you have all seen honey bees, and Im sure you know what they do, they produce honey. I think they would be a good thing to have because of this, but not only this. Honey of course tastes good, but did you know that honey is also very antiseptic and can be used to preserve goods. Honey can last along time, thousands of years to be specific. Jars of honey have been found preserved from ancient civilizations still edible, and dont need pressure to be canned.

If you are going to raise honey bees then you will need a hive, your choises can range from the commen langstroth hives to top bar hives, and even warre hives. I personally prefer the top bar hive, also known as the kenyan top bar hive.

Kenyan top bar hive: The kenyan top bar hive is a hive designed to be inexpensive and easy to build yourself, they were develped for third world countries that needed cheaper means of honey. The top bar hive consists of an open hive with bars on which the bees build their comb.

Warre Hive: The warre hive is a hive that has characteristics of both the top bar hive and the langstroth hives. It is square in design like the langstroth but it also has the top bars like in a top bar hive. Warre hives are gaining poularity in the beehive world.

Medieval Lifestyle

The medieval ages is a time period in europe lasting from the 5th century to the 15th century.

Why is this important? Well I believe that in order to survive the future we must learn from the past, and when it comes to being as self sufficient as possible our anciant peoples are the experts. The people of the middle ages could build their own homes, grow their own food, and make everything they needed by hand.

Housing: During this time period, a man could make his entire house out of natural materials, like waddle and daub, which is woven branches coved in mud grass and animal dung, yes that sounds nasty but it helped the supports of the wall tremendously.

They could make everything they need. Anything they need made of metal came from a blacksmith, like tools, weapons, and the blacksmith could even make his own tools in case his break.

I love the medieval ages, I love to blacksmith, and I thnk you should to, I try to learn as many anciant skills as possible, since I know balcksmithing I can make my own knives, tools, arrow points, and more.

Meat Rabbits

    When it comes to self sustenance and prepping, I believe that meat rabbits is a great food source. Why? Because rabbits are easy to raise, they grow fast and reproduce fast, and the meat of the rabbit is some of the healthiest meat you can find. I started raising meat rabbit not to long ago, and it is a wonderful experience, your first few rabbits will become family, at least mine have, but soon you will have more that wont be difficult for you to kill.

    Starting a meat rabbit opperation is not difficult, but it will cost money. All you need to start is some cages rabbits feeders and water bottles, I started mine on only $50, but depending on how you make your cages depends on your cost. a friend of mine gave me some spare lumber and then I got my rabbit from the amish. If you decide to buy pre-made cages, perhaps from tsc, it will be expensive, about $30 per cage, depending on size of cage and that specific store, you can find rabbits fairly cheap on craigslist, prices ranging from $5-$25, feeders will cost around $6 at tsc for the medium size, water bottles can cost $2-$10, I wouldnt reccomend the walmart brand.

when it comes too cages the design you use is really up to you and your needs, some people build their own, and some people buy theirs, here is my design,

And here are some more designs:

If you are a prepper, or just want to be more self sufficent, rabbits can feed your family, in a disaster, job loss, or if you just want to save money.

Raising Black Soldier Fly larva (for beginners)

The black soldier fly is an insect that only lives for about 5 days as an adult, but there larva are great for the prepping community, why? Well they are great composter’s for your unwanted table scraps, and the composted material is very good for your garden. They are also good for chicken feed, since they are about 40% protein and the rest is fat, once they get to their mature phase they stop eating and leave, (so at this point there useless for composting) with the right setup they will be collected as they leave, and since they are in the wild you never have to buy them. When you collect them you can feed them too your chickens.

What you will need:

-        5gallon bucket with lid

-        ½ in Tubing

-        Air conditioning filter

-        Plastic golf balls

-        Cardboard and screw with bolt

-        drill

-        Possibly larva offline if there scarce in your area

-        Velcro tape

-        Some kind of small container with lid

Step 1:

Drill holes in lid

Step 2:

Cut circle out of the filter to fit the bottom of the bucket, and then loosely stitch it together.

Step 3:

Add the plastic golf balls to the bottom of the bucket and place filter on top

Step 4:

Put the tubing in where it is goes around the sides, then drill hole on the side near the top where it will come out, the tube need to fit tightly in the hole,

Step 5:

Drill a hole in the top of your smaller container and run the tubing through

Step 6:

Cut out a few pieces of card board at only about 2-3 inches, then drill hole in the center of the lid and put hole through the center of the cardboard, put the screw through and bolt it down.

-This is one version