Raising Livestock While Working Full-Time: Tips for Busy Homesteaders to Avoid Overwhelm

Raising livestock while working a full-time job can feel impossible at first. Between long hours at work and the endless chores on the homestead, it’s easy to get overwhelmed and stressed.

The truth is, you can balance a full-time career and a thriving homestead—but it takes planning, routines, and some creative problem-solving. In this article, I’m sharing some of my personal experiences, strategies, and tips to help you care for your chickens, goats, and other livestock while staying sane.

The Reality of Being Away from Your Homestead

Being gone for 8+ hours a day means you’re going to miss things. Animals can escape, accidents can happen, and goats might go into labor while you’re at work. Your job might not always allow you to drop everything, and that’s okay—it’s just part of the reality of being a working homesteader.

For example, one day I was work and my youngest son called. Our goat had gone into labor. Well… his exact words were, “Did you know we have baby goats?” She was fine, and both babies were safe, but it was still stressful. I wasn’t able to be there, and I’m incredibly grateful she didn’t have any complications during labor.

It’s better early on to understand this truth: the homestead keeps running whether you are there or not. Emergencies might happen and you will miss things. That’s why having systems in place matters—to help you respond, respond quickly, and… worst-case scenario… be prepared for the worst.

You can’t always prepare for everything. There will be times you’re caught off guard. When that happens, you learn from it, adjust, and move forward.

Set Up Routines and Automation

One of the best things you can do for your homestead is to set up systems. Routines will you push you through the hard days when motivation fails and anything you can automate will be burden off your shoulders.

Here are some of the automations I have on my homestead

1. Automatic or gravity-fed feeders – Keeps animals fed without daily mangement. This allows me more time to watch their behavior or put my energy into something else on the property.
2. Waterers with auto-fill systems – Ensures chickens, goats, and ducks always have water. You’ll still have to check these frequently to ensure they are working correctly.
3. Timers/Irrigation setups– This is so helpful during gardening season. It ensures all my plant babies get enough water, no matter my schedule. This gives me the opportunity to be weeding beds or just enjoying the garden.
4. Timers for lights – Especially helpful for winter gardening, or heat lamps.
5. Cameras – Allows you to check on your animals remotely, giving peace of mind during the workday. I’ve done this several times for when I have animals getting ready for birth or for after care. This helps me do frequent checks at a glance of my phone instead of running out every 30 minutes just for the animals to look at me and sigh like… “again..? woman I’m fine”

These systems don’t replace care, but they help reduce stress, prevent emergencies, and give you peace of mind.

Animal Go-Bag

One thing I highly recommend for any working homesteader is having an animal go-bag or first aid kit ready to go. This doesn’t need to be fancy, but it does need to be stocked. Having basic supplies on hand — bandages, wound spray, gloves, electrolytes, and any common medications you’re comfortable using — can make a huge difference when something happens. In many situations, being prepared is the difference between staying calm and scrambling.

It’s also important to have the contact information for a vet who actually treats your animals saved ahead of time. The last thing you want during an emergency is calling ten different offices trying to find someone who will even look at your poor sick baby. Emergencies are stressful enough — having an animal go-bag ready gives you one less thing to worry about.

Ask for Help and Divide Chores

Even with automation, running a homestead full-time is…. a lot. Don’t hesitate to ask for help:

• Family members can share daily chores like feeding, collecting eggs, or filling waterers.
• Rotate responsibilities to avoid burnout.
• Reserve weekends or evenings for maintenance tasks like repairing fencing or deep cleaning coops.
• If you have big projects, provide a meal and invite friends and family over. I know this may seem odd, but they really are willing to help. Especially if they don’t live the same lifestyle. People are curious, maybe want to play with the animals or get in on the hard work.

Often people will be to proud to ask for help, so if you see a local homesteader struggling…. AND you’re available… you can always offer to help.

Maintaining Peace of Mind While at Work

Being away from the homestead is always going to come with a little worry — that part never fully goes away — but having the right systems in place makes a huge difference.

1. Cameras can help you check in on your animals remotely and give you peace of mind without constant guesswork.
2. Keeping simple notes or a daily journal about your animals’ behavior, health, and routines helps you recognize patterns, so when something is off, you notice it faster.
3. Having a neighbor, family member, or trusted friend who knows your setup and can step in during an emergency is invaluable, even if you rarely need them. And yes… even the most prepared homesteader will still call home once — or several times — to check on animals.

Accepting that this is part of the lifestyle helps you stay calmer and more focused while you’re at work. Preparation doesn’t mean nothing ever goes wrong; it means you’ve built routines, automations, and backup plans so things keep running even when you’re not there.

Automatic waterers, timed lights, first-aid, secure fencing, and consistent daily routines all reduce the number of emergencies you’ll face. You’ll still come home some days to fix a broken fence, tend to a sick animal, or deal with an escape — that’s just homesteading. Keeping basic tools and repair supplies on hand, running through a mental checklist of common issues, and understanding that you can’t control everything helps prevent overwhelm. Peace of mind doesn’t come from being present all the time… it comes from knowing you’ve done what you reasonably can to prepare, respond, and adapt when the unexpected happens.

Final Thoughts

Being a busy homesteader doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice your career, your family time, or your sanity. Routines, systems, and preparation are what allow your homestead to function even when you can’t be there every moment. You won’t catch everything, and that’s okay. Confidence comes from knowing you’ve done what you reasonably can — and learning as you go.

If staying organized feels like the hardest part, I’ve created a print-at-home Homesteading Binder Insert designed to help you keep everything in one place. It’s an easy-to-print planner set you can add to your own binder and customize as your homestead grows. It includes pages for animal management, garden planning, projects, budgeting, and more — all reusable and flexible for real life.

And if the mental load is what’s weighing on you most, my Mindset Shift Mini Course was created specifically for busy moms juggling a lot. It’s a self-paced digital course with 5 short video lessons, a guided printable workbook, and a motivational audio boost you can use whenever you need a reset — designed to help you feel calmer, more focused, and more in control.

What’s your biggest challenge managing livestock while working full-time? Share your experiences or tips in the comments — I’d love to hear how you make it work.