Customer Rating: 
Summary: Big Yard or Small Farm!
Comment: Continues one of my favorite outdoor magazines,.This includes a wide range of info from gardens to livestock, and great photos and or diagrams when called for. I especially like the comprehensive info on heritage history, again, for both livestock and vegetables.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Makes an AMAZING gift for people with hobby farms
Comment: I bought this as a gift for my step-brother who lives on a very small farm and has lots of little animals running about. He absolutely loved it and called it the best present he got for Christmas, so it was totally a great gift. If you know someone who lives on a little farm or even someone who wants to, this is a great magazine for them.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: guinea hens
Comment: don't be put off by the reviewer who complained about corrections. I haven't read the magazine yet, but it was recommended yesterday by a woman farmer I was visiting. Her small flock of guinea hens demonstrated their "watch bird" skills by flocking together and trying to intimidate my leashed Bichon. And talk about a racket! They were LOUD! She commented approvingly "wow, watch them work him! A flock of 30 would be really intimidating!" So perhaps both the original article AND the correction were true -
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful for Hobby Farmers!
Comment: I have subscribed to Hobby Farms magazine for the past three years and enjoy every issue cover to cover! The articles are written so those with little to no experience can understand and use them as well as those with more experience may learn helpful hints they might not have known or sources and facts newly available. Though corrections may be added or information post scripted to an article(as one of the reviewers mentioned), this is a strength in my eyes not a weakness! A magazine should not spend its time and space trying to encompass every single detail possible. Instead it should give readers enough information to gain a basic foundation and a beginning guide or helpful tips for along the way on a hobby farmer's journey and this magazine does a wonderful job! From "How to" articles to "Did You Know" write-ups complete with web site and book reference information for further exploration to full color pictures, if you own or dream of one day owning a Hobby Farm, this magazine is for you!!
Customer Rating:
Summary: I'd rather have a bag of manure
Comment: I subscribed to Hobby Farm and after reading two issues I cancelled it.
I read an article in the March/April issue about show birds. Then, I got my May/June issue. Don Schrider, the Communication Director of ALBC, wrote in to correct the story. The article claimed "over 1000" birds at the show, the correction was 11,640 birds were present. The other correction was regarding earlobe color and egg shell color stating there are exceptions to the red earlobe/ brown eggs white earlobes/white eggs.
In the Mar/Apr issue I read an article about Guinea hens. In the May/June issue I read another letter from a reader (Dana Manchester a member of the Guinea Fowl Breeders Assoc.) correcting the article in the previous issue. Apparently, Guineas aren't the "watch fowl" they are portrayed to be, but fall victim to predation often. Dana Manchester also corrected the mislabeled photos of Guineas.
These may be small errors but how goods is a resource that isn't reliable?
If errors were the only issues, I may have given the mag 3 stars but the article on manure management in the May/June issue was lacking on many levels. The advise in a nutshell was buy a manure spreader that you can pull around your field, fill'er up and drive. One word of caution according to the article- only use well rotted manure in the garden, but there wasn't one word on how to rot manure.
I liked the article about smaller breeds of cattle, "Bigger is Not Better" May/June but we'll have to wait for the next issue to see if any readers step forward with corrections.
I am not waiting around.
There are a lot books and magazines dedicated to small farms. I like Mother Nature News and I just subscribed to Countryside (my nephew recommended it he owns a small farm, as well). I also like John Seymour's book Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It. He has an upbeat attitude with a can-do spirit.
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