[klmmicro]

We have livestock animals, intact and able to breed. Chickens, goats and turkeys. We live in an area where locals breed other animals as well, cows and pigs are commonly available. The chickens are no brainers in terms of breeding. We bought an incubator and will be starting our meat flock this spring. We intend to kid our goats this year and are primarily looking at our goats for milk and not meat. I started to realize something, I hear about milk prices sky rocketing or eggs being unavailable and realize that we insulated our family from these things when we started raising our own livestock. It became clear that raising our own food animals is a very useful skill to work on.

Just wondering what other's here do along these lines.

 

[Rock_Crawler_Jeep]

I own and operate a cattle ranch. We eat the beef we raise as well as marketing them. Our employees also raise chicken and pigs here as a food source, FFA projects for their kids, and as additional income sources.
Over the years we have also had goats and sheep here.

 

[kwo]

Feed the tree rats and other pests good food so they may be eaten if needed.

 

[Blackshirt]

We do chickens, ducks, Guinea fowl, and occasionally Turkeys. We also have a 3/4 acre pond that we stocked with Bluegill and Bass.

Guinea fowl

 

[tenifglockfin]

Plants, but in the future thinking of chickens.

 

[lazarus66]

Nice bass!

 

[DIY4Tom]

I keep my animals at my in law's farm as I live in the city.

 

[nitesit(+ an e)]

We have a couple dozen ducks which aren't for meat but are for the eggs. One of nature's perfect foods. They free range pasture land and have a 1/2-acre pond to swim in. Happy birds.

 

[RichardB]

I worked with a WW2 vet who grew up on a farm during the depression. He once told me "We did not have nice clothes, but we never missed a meal".

 

[BrentC]

For those who free range chickens or other fowl, how do you keep the coyotes away? A coworker tried free range but said he couldn't shoot enough coyotes to prevent his flock from being wiped out. He finally broke down and built a structure to keep them in but wishes he could go back to free range.

 

[jstrange]

We have a couple dozen ducks which aren't for meat but are for the eggs. One of nature's perfect foods. They free range pasture land and have a 1/2-acre pond to swim in. Happy birds.

Forgive my ignorance, but how do you keep them there?

 

[nitesit(+ an e)]

.... how do you keep them there?

Keep them happy and fed and satisfied. Daily feeding to supplement their foraging. Coyotes occasionally get one but that is the circle of life.

When we kept them pasture raised but kept within a large fenced pasture, a coyote would occasionally dig under the fence and grab one, so there really isn't too much difference between fenced in and free ranging.

 

[jstrange]

Keep them happy and fed and satisfied. Daily feeding to supplement their foraging. Coyotes occasionally get one but that is the circle of life.

When we kept them pasture raised but kept within a large fenced pasture, a coyote would occasionally dig under the fence and grab one, so there really isn't too much difference between fenced in and free ranging.

They don't do seasonal migration? Or is that just wild ducks? I don't know crap about this.

 

[nitesit(+ an e)]

Probably born from wild genealogy but they are not not wild, instead they are carefully raised from one-day old and nurtured so they are pretty much domesticated and they are very flock oriented so unlike chickens, our ducks are tight knit and they stay put when they have all they need.

 

[klmmicro]

We considered ducks, but have set our limits on inbound livestock until be get all of our current animal life situated. We are going to breed the goats this year and will be setting up another birthing pen for them soon. We might get some ducks in the fall...not sure what their season is.

nitesit, how many did you start with and have you incubated any?

 

[nitesit(+ an e)]

@klmmicro

We started out with ten Khaki Campbells hens and within one year we got twenty more which were ten Russian Blues and ten Buff hen ducklings. All of them were one day old when we got them. And all of them are female so no fertilized eggs to incubate. How the hell the breeder can tell at birth if they are male or female is astonishing to me.

We have lost a few to predation but they sure lay some of the most delicious eggs on the planet. Totally free range duck eggs are amazing. Ask French and Japanese master chefs.

 

[bdcochran]

I raised chickens as a kid.
Have lived now in the same house for 42 years. Legally, I could raise chickens and three neighbors do in this neighborhood of multimillion dollars homes. However, because of the geography of the yard (hilly) and the fact that high fencing would be expensive, I decided not to raise chickens.