Woodworker | DIY builder | Sustainable farmer

This is where all that knowledge about process optimization, research and development, risk management, and operational efficiency actually gets tested in real life—with over 60 animals who don’t care about my credentials and definitely won’t wait for a formal corrective action plan when they want breakfast.

I have 56 chickens (this information might be outdated, because “chicken math” is very real for me), 5 ducks (duck math is a real danger too), 2 geese - the most adorable loudest ever things in the world - 4 goats (like dogs, but better!), and 5 quails (see the “chicken math” note above; if I tell you I have 50 quails later, don’t be surprised, it might be true)

And the most confusing, challenging, and important part of my farm life is my 8 cats: 2 house-living, indoor-only spoiled princesses, and 6 barn cats, including responsible workers, a nice lady, two bouncers, and one shy disabled cat.

All my processes are designed for low maintenance and are fully automated, with temperature monitoring, AI feedback, AI behavior observation, and data recording and analysis.

I do not push my chickens beyond their limits. They live the happiest lives: I feed them blueberries and worms, and they free-range most of the time (except during extreme weather conditions). As a result, egg-laying production is not lower in the coldest part of winter compared to summer, for both pullets and older chickens after molting. This is something I learned from auditing 500 companies - to choose proper KPIs and design and implement the right processes. Continuous improvement makes all the difference.

But at the end of the day, all my processes are built around cats - the ones that are the hardest to control.

Everything I’ve learned from courtrooms, boardrooms, and audit rooms, I apply to building coops, rotating pastures, and figuring out why one particular barn cat thinks he runs the place (he actually does).

On this website, you’ll find posts about all of it - my research, FAMACHA and FEC processes at the level of a professional research lab, six levels of passive and active security, incident investigations, chicken genetics, cat vaccinations, and everything in between - below are more detailed links to each topic.

For example, I implemented emergency procedures at home based on examples from some of the best companies in the world (Bacardi has one of the best emergency procedures). Here, you can apply this knowledge too—maybe not to your company, but to your pets at home (or kids and family): https://bobkova.online/save-our-pets-instructions/ with downloadable guide at the end.

Or here is house backyard freezing severe weather preparation guide: Backyard freezing‑weather risk management.pdf

Here is my research and experimentation on why fresh chicken eggs are so hard to peel (pH level and albumen sticking to the outer lining of the shell), and what to do to boil and peel fresh farm eggs easily: https://bobkova.online/why-eggs-peel/

Here’s how to mitigate risks related to faulty chicken feed (or cat feed). If you didn’t know, pet or livestock feed does not have the same rigorous requirements for quality, safety, and consistency as human food. I explain how to provide the best quality food to your pets, with recommendations from an auditor who can read manufacturing processes between the lines of food labels: https://bobkova.online/why-chickens-are-smarter-than-feed-manufacturers/

And another one with the practical risk assessment process: https://bobkova.online/supplier-management-from-chicken-feed-to-cloud-resilience/

Most of my long-time friends, knowing my expertise, ask me health questions as simple as: what water should we drink? Is alkaline or reverse osmosis water better than tap water? What should we choose? Here are my answers:

https://bobkova.online/should-we-filter-tap-water-or-buy-bottled-filtered-water/

https://bobkova.online/tap-water-safe-but-not-healthy/

Here is a responsible chickening post: what to do and what to pay attention to when buying chicks for the first time: https://bobkova.online/chicks-supply-chain-a-real-life-case-study-with-pictures/

And here the responsible duckening guide:

Responsible duckening.pdf

Did you know that the eggs you buy at the grocery store are at least 4–6 weeks old and can only last another couple of weeks because they are washed? Here is the explanation and a guide for egg storage and clear food safety traceability rules:

First link: short timeline: https://bobkova.online/eggs-storage-rules/
Second: full traceability https://bobkova.online/from-chicken-butt-to-supermarket-shelf/
Third: salmonella and other risks related to eggs https://bobkova.online/can-eggs-make-you-sick/
Fourth: my recommendations for establishing processes for a small poultry farm https://bobkova.online/eggs-traceability-for-small-farm/

Bumblefoot - chicken surgery process and data collection (we did five of them, all very successful, with a 100% recovery rate): https://bobkova.online/chicken-surgery-its-all-about-data/

Here’s how we built our farm based on medieval-era village defense security, to make sure our chickens are not eaten by foxes or coyotes: https://bobkova.online/farm-security-layers/

I am not writing posts for entertainment, but rather for education and for sharing knowledge and failures. You might read my articles and get the impression that everything is perfect in my backyard - it’s not. Sometimes I can’t find a needed item for weeks, buy a new one on Amazon, and then immediately find the original. We have a huge mess in the garage and workshop shed - there are always emergency projects, animal well-being is always the priority, and we all work full time and study. So yes, it’s a mess.

Here are my woodworking projects - not entirely woodworking in traditional terms of that word, and I explain why. To do true woodworking projects, you need to buy very expensive, high-grade wood. I do this for fun and don’t want the pressure of potentially ruining great materials. Instead, I buy unfinished cabinets that are broken for $5 and fix them, or I buy old wooden furniture on Facebook Marketplace and restore it. Great-quality wood and pure enjoyment in the process. Zero pressure.

I really want more people to experience the pure joy of making something with their own hands - something simple, where you can truly enjoy the process.

Here are some of my projects with practical recommendations: