What is the best Livestock animal to have on a small residential property?

Forgot to mention... You will have to keep laying mash on hand to feed the chickens ( then you DON'T need a rooster ) BUT, mash draws RATS. They love it !

So some 55 gallon drums with lids can do it. Also, if you get ones with gasket on lid, ring to tighten, you can do what I did with about 450 pounds of 2010 flour ( Kind WITHOUT any Fukushima radiation ); clamp the lids in place , then unscrew one of the small caps on top, and drop a two x 1/2 x 1 inch peice of dry ice in there. Put cap back on, but leave loose, as the CO2 generated will drive out the Oxygen/Nitrogen and any weevils that MIGHT hatch out die of asphyxiation !

Eagle

to keep this going for others needing good Info

Hey op check out the link i posted for backyardchickens,really good info.

I will, thanks!

Most chickens willnot run away, and take care of themselves by flying up into the tall trees at night. During the day they like to visit a laying cope with individual, privatised boxes for laying their eggs, but run free all day, and stay out of the road. Geese donot stay out of the road.

Be sure to keep your feed in large, metal trash cans with lids with staying power and no holes. Maybe a heavy, plastic, trash bag over the can first then the lid tied down. Keep trash bag cut short or the wind will get under it and blow can and all over and away.

Your dog and roosters should, for the most part, save your hens, if and when they need saving.

Roosters will fight to their death to save their hens.

Just make sure you know the hens are his, not yours, and the roosters willnot give you a bad time. Just keep your hands off the ladies.

Probably chickens, you get eggs and also a nice roasted chicken

re predators

Fowl will attract raccoons, which can open just about any latch you put on your hen house, and also get in through any other opening, such as an egg-gathering flap door behind the laying boxes. Then they will turn your henhouse into a bloody slaughter.

So whatever you do, make sure you can secure your henhouse tightly at night. Raccoons can operate just about any kind of gate latch. I don't think they can use a key in a padlock. But they might learn.

If you are in a residential area, you will probably have to contend with neighborhood dogs at one time or another, and they may get a real kick out of chasing and killing your chickens. Keeping some kind of fence between them and your flock is a pretty good idea. If you have a big Red rooster with long spurs, he can do serious damage to a dumb, unsuspecting dog, so that is another thing to consider when deciding whether or not to fence. Even if you live where there are leash laws, dogs get out.


If you can get old commercial fishnets, you can suspend them on poles over wide areas to keep the raptors out and still give your fowl plenty of room to graze and hunt bugs.

If you are going to keep them in a fenced in area (good idea), strip off the top layer of soil and lay chicken wire on the ground on both sides of the fence, then lay the soil back over. This will give you a 4 foot barrier to stop diggers, like neighborhood dogs or foxes which want to terrorize your chickens. Digging a deep perimeter and burying your fence several inches into the earth will also keep out diggers.

There is nothing so disheartening as going out in the morning and finding your flock has been slaughtered.

^^
This

before you buy any animals go take a butcher class and make sure you know how to properly kill and cut up your meat, including skin because rabbit skins sewn together make good rugs, among other things.

If you cannot stomach the kill butcher process you're better off saving your money.

I just finished reading a book that I had recently bought. I thought it was a good read and very simple to understand about homesteading.. Called "The Backyard Homestead". It explains what animals/plants you can manage in small spaces, like a 1/4 acre lot. There are other books out there like this one. All the best!

If you CAN"T BUILD your in trouble already. If your doing this for self relience and SHTF senario's and can't bulid oh my god.

Better learn some carpentry skills fast my child or your done. Animals wreck stuff and so do predators. Fix and repair daily when you have animals and a farm or hobby farm.

Get with the program.

rats and ferral cats

you have just to give them few food to induce the rats to stay around your house.

you let most of the work to mother nature: the food will make the rats to flock and cats will come to eat them

then when need fresh meat, put out some food for the cats and grab your dinner

I second that! It is a great book.
I did a lot of research before I got chickens, so many breeds, etc. I have a few breeds, some I have no idea what they are, my favorite breed seems to be the hybrid - black stars. They are very good layers. I have all sort of predators on the property, and have not lost any chicken to them in 4 years. The coop is about 4 feet off the ground and their pen high enough that coyotes can't jump, and I have wire about a foot down so they can't dig. This year I am going to build a new coop for a smaller flock of three Rhode island red hens and one barred rock rooster, so I can breed black stars - they are sex link chicks so they can be sexed by color. If I think of anything else i'all be back :-)

Added - build your coop yourself, with a helper. I do not have any carpentry experience and, I built mine with my then 11 year old son. Sure its not the prettiest thing in the world, but its sturdy and keeps the chickens safe, also it was inexpensive.

Last Edited by RoxykinsIII on 02/14/2013 01:43 PM

Uh, I would if I didn't have severe srthritis in both hands and I'm a 56 yr old lady. But...I'm prepared in many other ways I assure you. This is just something I would like to do. Minor repairs I can handle sometimes. Oh to be 30 again....
Correction: arthritis

Last Edited by Jeepster on 02/14/2013 05:12 PM

At least a goat.

Never piss off a bunny or THIS might happen

Bear's, for obvious reasons...

i'd go with a Bison or a rhino

somethng that can guard like the back yard

and if they die you can like sell horns and get rich
and then have like exoctic bbq for your neighbors and sell some to them too

no doubt about it, but maybe the bison for the milk instead of the rhino but no one talks about rhino milk so its probably really good or somethjng

Backyard farming scene

Rats. Raise thousands of them. The Vietnamese like eating them and they look like they would taste good skewed on a stick and roasted over a grill with teriyaki sauce.

skewered

I personally enjoy Tigers (climate permitting) or mountain lions. Great source of meat, plus noone will try to steal it. The humane center/animal shelter folks tend to get a little upset, but if they ever show up to take it just tell them to go on in one at time only, mention you're a muslim and don't agree with trank/dart guns and don't forget to mention you haven't fed it in a few weeks. It takes a decent quantity of neighborhood pests (ya know just average liberals etc) to keep these types fed, but well worth it in the end. To feed it just set up an entry only door, and put Free kOOL-aID, ABORTIONS, HEALTHCARE etc signs up.

Lots of info on this site with pros and cons, cheaper food options etc.

[link to www.permies.com]