Anybody Raise Animals For Food?

Psychedelic Breakfast

Well-Known Member
If you want to go all there, actually, no, if you just cropped that plant theirs a good chance it would live on to produce more crop the next year after another vegetative state. To make it worse, we have like 40,000+ genomes, plants have well over 100,000, their dna is way more complex then ours. With animals their is no cropping, you either eat that bastard or you don't.
Well in this case we're working with an annual that would die naturally outdoors.

Eating seeds is like eating babies.

Every plant wants to be born
 

RavenMochi

Well-Known Member
If your talking about weed, your a lie. I've seen several plants last quite awhile outdoors and become the size of trees. Seriously, try it. Whoever told you it was an annual lied.
 

Psychedelic Breakfast

Well-Known Member
If your talking about weed, your a lie. I've seen several plants last quite awhile outdoors and become the size of trees. Seriously, try it. Whoever told you it was an annual lied.
I'm not lying. Look it up it's classified as an annual. It can live practically forever if you let it but in nature it's an annual.

No need for name calling dude :peace:
 

rowlman

Well-Known Member
Back to farming animals....I bought a farm in 2009...we still need to put up some more fencing and then I plan to start real small with just a couple goats and some chickens. I too will have alittle trouble killing something I raised for food...I'm not against it in anyway, just a personal thing....same reason I don't hunt anymore...I am not against it in any way, I still go to the lodge, I still shoot all my guns...just not at animals anymore....I support all the local huinting, I just lost my lust for the kill I guess. I enjoy watching the deer in the morning, this time of the year I see them almost every morning by the pond ( in my avatar )...and we have a shit load of wild turkeys back there too...now those I would shoot, but they don't taste like a butterball...lol...I don't care how you cook a wild turkey, its' ganna taste like shoe leather.
But I'm hoping to save alittle money in the future, with all the farms around me, I'll be able to get help starting.Even just eggs at first will save some food expence. And it will give me a new life since I can't lay brick anymore....maybe.
 

RavenMochi

Well-Known Member
Back to farming animals....I bought a farm in 2009...we still need to put up some more fencing and then I plan to start real small with just a couple goats and some chickens. I too will have alittle trouble killing something I raised for food...I'm not against it in anyway, just a personal thing....same reason I don't hunt anymore...I am not against it in any way, I still go to the lodge, I still shoot all my guns...just not at animals anymore....I support all the local huinting, I just lost my lust for the kill I guess. I enjoy watching the deer in the morning, this time of the year I see them almost every morning by the pond ( in my avatar )...and we have a shit load of wild turkeys back there too...now those I would shoot, but they don't taste like a butterball...lol...I don't care how you cook a wild turkey, its' ganna taste like shoe leather.
But I'm hoping to save alittle money in the future, with all the farms around me, I'll be able to get help starting.Even just eggs at first will save some food expence. And it will give me a new life since I can't lay brick anymore....maybe.
Well, can tell you the goat taste good if cooked right, ;)
I've never taken joy in the killing, but was taught to do it as a matter of responsibility. If I'm going to kill it, I'm going to do it with the purpose of eating it.
Sounds like you got a plan there, sorry you can't lay brick anymore, but maybe it was time for a new life? Best of luck to you rowlman.

I'm not lying. Look it up it's classified as an annual. It can live practically forever if you let it but in nature it's an annual.

No need for name calling dude :peace:
Fair enough on the name calling, but again, all the huge plants I saw were outdoor plants. They didnt die after one year. So regardless of what its classified as, in nature it can live on for years.
 

rowlman

Well-Known Member
Thanks...I'll be asking you guys for advice when I get started in the spring...I stll have work to do 1st.
 

Stark Raving

Active Member
I raise chickens and rabbits. Both are easy to take care of.

Keep in mind that laying hens and meat chickens are different. A three year old laying hen will have tons of flavor, but little meat and it will be tough. Great for soup though. I raise about a hundred meat birds every year. But them as ady-olds, and they are ready to slaughter in 3 or 4 months. roos get slaughtered as soon as they start to act like males to avoid testosterone tainting the meat. They dress out at around 4 or 5 pounds. Good for the BBQ. The hens I raise til they dress out at 8 or 9 pounds. I butcher at least half and freeze into small packs (breasts, leg/thigh, wings, and tenders)
I also keep half a dozen layers for fresh eggs. My meat birds are in a huge pen so they can forage, and my layers are free to run about as they please. Just make sure they are closed into their coop at night. One visit from a fox and you'll loose every lasy one of them.

If you need any advice, I'd be happy to help. I grow food for a living, and it's all done naturally.
 

RavenMochi

Well-Known Member
I raise chickens and rabbits. Both are easy to take care of.

Keep in mind that laying hens and meat chickens are different. A three year old laying hen will have tons of flavor, but little meat and it will be tough. Great for soup though. I raise about a hundred meat birds every year. But them as ady-olds, and they are ready to slaughter in 3 or 4 months. roos get slaughtered as soon as they start to act like males to avoid testosterone tainting the meat. They dress out at around 4 or 5 pounds. Good for the BBQ. The hens I raise til they dress out at 8 or 9 pounds. I butcher at least half and freeze into small packs (breasts, leg/thigh, wings, and tenders)
I also keep half a dozen layers for fresh eggs. My meat birds are in a huge pen so they can forage, and my layers are free to run about as they please. Just make sure they are closed into their coop at night. One visit from a fox and you'll loose every lasy one of them.

If you need any advice, I'd be happy to help. I grow food for a living, and it's all done naturally.
†L† damn, man, I was straight taking notes... What about as far as medicine/diseases?
 

kevin

Well-Known Member
i've been buying and selling chickens for the past few years and love it. i buy 250 day old pullets and raise them till they're laying eggs and then i sell them on craigslist. i do it twice a year. cows and goats are a pain in the ass and the olny thing stupider than a horse is the person that owns 1. never tried keeping a pig.
 

RavenMochi

Well-Known Member
Family never had any problems raising goats. They graze, not much to them. Hell, there's even a type of vine that grows at a mad rate that they can eat. And on horses, never known them to be kept for food, but I'm not sure why you hate them. They are good animals, not to practical unless you got a crapload of land, but have their purpose.
 

rowlman

Well-Known Member
Isn't a horse more of a pet now a days?I see lots of horses on the farms by me...I've never seen one work. So I assumed they were just to graze around, eat the grass, and be used for riding...lots of people ride their horses around here...more for fun than for transportation.
 

rowlman

Well-Known Member
We even have a used car dealership that also deals in horses...lol...he always says " you'll get 40 miles per bail of hay"...like the MPG's on a car...he's a funny fucker.
 

RavenMochi

Well-Known Member
Isn't a horse more of a pet now a days?I see lots of horses on the farms by me...I've never seen one work. So I assumed they were just to graze around, eat the grass, and be used for riding...lots of people ride their horses around here...more for fun than for transportation.
Pretty much. The only people that use them for work nowdays, to my knowledge, are ranchers.
 

420God

Well-Known Member
Pretty much. The only people that use them for work nowdays, to my knowledge, are ranchers.
Lots of Amish around that still use horses like crazy also. I keep 2 around for riding or for work horses if ever I need them to be.
 

Carne Seca

Well-Known Member
Been looking into chicken farming, looks interesting and easy as hell. You get eggs for 3 or 4 years then a fat chicken dinner! What about Cows? That seems like it would be much harder and more expensive.. Pigs? What else is common for your average person to raise?

  1. Chickens
  2. Cows
  3. Pigs
  4. Ducks
  5. Geese
  6. Turkeys
  7. Guinea fowl
We have 10 acres so it's not that hard to take care of livestock. Better find out what your zoning allows. Some places allow hens but not roosters and others won't let you keep a cow or pig.
 

Stark Raving

Active Member
I've never given a chicken any medication whatsoever. If they are in a large space (I have 160 acres, so it's not a problem giving them what they need) and the space is clean with plenty of forage you will very rarely see any illness. Once I did have some resperatory infection run through the meat flock, but I caught it early, removed the birds that were sick, and only ended up losing 4 out of about 80 birds.

As far as horses go....I can do without them. They are nice pets, but there are VERY few people who have them for anything more. I lived as a ranch hand for a little over a year, and got to truly use my horse for work. Aside from herding, I also used him for travel. I had a car, but could only afford to insure it every second month (ranch hands make squat for money BTW lol) I rode my horse to town for groceries and everything. I gotta say, after that I'll never keep a horse for a pet. Round my farm, any critters that live here have to earn their keep, and a horse needs to put in a ton of work to do that. They are eating machines, and without good pasture will cost a lot of money.
 

robert 14617

Well-Known Member
had some p foul and pheasant in large runs , i lost one and sent it to have a necropsy at the state school , it was parasites dropped into the runs from wild birds unlike free range they keep picking up the parasite eggs in their own droppings compounding the effects , the school suggested using a fraction of the recommended water treatment for cattle worms and parasites worked like a charm
 
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