Rabbits, chicken, lambs or, goats?

S

Sid Post

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Oct 14, 1998
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What do you raise and how? After watching some end of the world shows on cable over Thanksgiving and thinking about the tough economy, I started thinking about rabbit hutches, chicken coops, and similar things. It seems like raising your own small meat animals would be cheap, easy, and healthy (no worries about factory farms, sanitation, imported animals from dubious countries, etc.).

How hard is it to keep small animals around healthy, fed, watered, and safe for future consumption? I'm thinking rabbits and chickens might be best as they are basically one meals worth of meat but, goats or sheep might be easier to keep and raise.

What do you raise? How hard or easy is it? Is the meat production cost and time efficient?

TIA,
Sid
 
No matter what you pick you have some work and effort in caring for them. I have raised all but sheep, and so not think any are all that difficult ot take care of.

Rabbits. Wild animals can will tear into a hutch unless it is strongly made. Cold weather can kill rabbits without proper protection. They do breed well so having a lot of rabbits for a long time is easy. Fur is useful as well. Tasty

Chickens. Dumb animals, need to be cared for constantly. Wild animals will eat them-even breaking into a pen (coop) to get at them. Chickens can forage on their own better than rabbits. Reproduce easily and quickly. Fresh eggs are a plus. Need a heat lamp in the coop during the cold months. (Depends on where you are too I would guess)

Goats - I personnaly hate them.... Self reliant. Will truly eat anything. Often hunted and killed by coyotes and wild dogs. Billy's can be mean but not enough to protect from a pack of canines. Goat's milk is good and can be made into a wide varierty of things. Goat meat is very tasty (well to me it is). Breed pretty well but may need some assistance with the birthing process. A warm shed or barn is a good idea for winter.

I would raise goats and chickens on our farm if there was a eotwawki situation. Rabbits need to much care for my taste. (And yes I still hate goats. A Billy attacked me when I was 6. Let's just say those horns can be very effective weapons.)
 
Another plus for goats is that they are incredibly hardy animals. Far less suceptible to disease than many other types of commonly raised livestock.
 
Tasselhoff said:
No matter what you pick you have some work and effort in caring for them. I have raised all but sheep, and so not think any are all that difficult ot take care of.
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I showed cattle in high school and helped pay for college with beef cattle I raised so, I have some basic notion of the effort required. Carrying buckets of water from the bathroom in winter was never fun but, what are you going to do with show cattle in the pen when the stock tank is ice all the way down to the concrete? Where I'm at now, it generally doesn't get that cold (brief periods of freezing weather).

Tasselhoff said:
Rabbits. Wild animals can will tear into a hutch unless it is strongly made. Cold weather can kill rabbits without proper protection. They do breed well so having a lot of rabbits for a long time is easy. Fur is useful as well. Tasty.

Chickens. Dumb animals, need to be cared for constantly. Wild animals will eat them-even breaking into a pen (coop) to get at them. Chickens can forage on their own better than rabbits. Reproduce easily and quickly. Fresh eggs are a plus. Need a heat lamp in the coop during the cold months. (Depends on where you are too I would guess)
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I haven't run into wild dogs (or pets running loose) but, we had trouble with Bull snakes in the barns on the farm killing kittens in the hay bales. Where I'm at now, we have some occasional Corn snakes and Copperheads which are probably the biggest threats. When you say chickens need constant care, what are you referring too? They are not like a dairy cow that needs to be milked twice a day are they (did that for a period too)?

Tasselhoff said:
Goats - I personnaly hate them.... Self reliant. Will truly eat anything. Often hunted and killed by coyotes and wild dogs. Billy's can be mean but not enough to protect from a pack of canines. Goat's milk is good and can be made into a wide varierty of things. Goat meat is very tasty (well to me it is). Breed pretty well but may need some assistance with the birthing process. A warm shed or barn is a good idea for winter.

I would raise goats and chickens on our farm if there was a eotwawki situation. Rabbits need to much care for my taste. (And yes I still hate goats. A Billy attacked me when I was 6. Let's just say those horns can be very effective weapons.)
Click to expand...

Thanks! I think goats tend to be overlooked. I don't think I would want to milk one but, self reliance and a flexible diet are good things. Fresh eggs for breakfast, mmmmm ..... ;)
 
We have chickens for eggs, but not for TEOTWAWKI. While it is great to supplement any food (storage) with a garden and/or livestock, I don't believe it is realistic to think you can survive on your own with those things if the TEOTWAWKI occurs. Too difficult to defend and too risky based on disease, weather, etc. If you are that concerned, spend your money on food storage IMO.

Nonetheless, chickens are easy and being in the south like you are, no need for a heat lamp, just a good coop and a hardy breed. Inexpensive to raise and relatively inexpensive to replace if you lose some to predators of which if you free range them, you are asking for it.

Here is my run with coop inside...

[youtube]YFbhjcG1FsQ[/youtube]​
 
No, chickens are not as bad as milk cows. You just need to keep an eye on them. Free range is, I would think, out of the question for most people. Goaste are kind of set it and forget it type animals. Chickens are more feed today, collect egggs in the morning (or evening), keep predators away, oh, and watch those copperheads. Even a little one will kill several chickens if in the pen.
 
I have done all four.

Rabbits - Agree on the danger from animals getting into the cages. Wrap barbwire around the legs of the hutch leaving only and inch or two between the strands. The wire for the cage inself should be mounted on the inside of the frame. Animals attacking the cage will pull on the wire, not push. The meat can be tough. Cooking it in a pressure cooker was the best method I found. Rabbits are more sensitive to heat rather than cold. I have raised them in individual cages in temps as low as -30 f with no problems.

chickens - I lost a batch once to an unknown animal. To me they are very easy to maintain. Feed and water once or twice a day. They taste best if dressed out at six weeks. I would vacuum seal them for the freezer. I maintained some for eggs year round. A small light in the coop during winter is to keep them laying. With the short days, egg production reduces, or stops.

goats - What a great animal. They will eat anything, so they are perfect for cleaning overgrowth on your property. Milk is a little strong. I personally do not like goat meat.

sheep - An animal that I dislike. I had a pair for a year, so my experience with them is not as great as the others. I never tried sheep milk, but I did not care for their meat (mutton ?).
 
Plus sheep are stupid. Really really stupid.

Hmm, Our rabbits always suffered anytime it got below 20 or so degrees. Wimp rabbits!
Teotwawki - look at raising water buffalo. (The kind mozzarella cheese comes from) Great animals, reproduce easily, give milk (obviously) HUGE - so lots of meat, easy to care for, no big diseases and such and are super friendly. they would rather stay near you than wonder away. )(Still need a fence of course.) I really like them and am thinking about getting 6-10 for our farm when we move there full time. 9Breeding pair included.)
 
abo4ster said:
We have chickens for eggs, but not for TEOTWAWKI.
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If it ever gets to that point, I don't expect to be tending farm animals. In tough economic times, it seems like a good idea to supplement what we eat whether a garden, meat animals, tree nuts, etc.
 
jw2n said:
I have done all four.
Click to expand...

Thanks! It sounds like Chickens and Goats are my better options. Rabbits are hard to find if you are NOT looking for pet. The pressure cooker is easy for me since I use one a lot though. I'm not much of sheep fan but, I do enjoy eating lamb.
 
Tasselhoff said:
Teotwawki - look at raising water buffalo. (The kind mozzarella cheese comes from) Great animals, reproduce easily, give milk (obviously) HUGE - so lots of meat, easy to care for, no big diseases and such and are super friendly. they would rather stay near you than wonder away. )(Still need a fence of course.) I really like them and am thinking about getting 6-10 for our farm when we move there full time. 9Breeding pair included.)
Click to expand...

Before the econmy headed south, I was looking at a 55 acre place and considered water buffalo along with exotic animals for fancy resturants. For a dietary supplement, it is just too much meat with one kill. Lots of milk for cheese and such but, again too much for anythng but a community co-op. I'm looking to keep costs down and have something that can live in less space. Cattle are easy if you have the space for them.

Like community gardening, raising meat animals in a back yard for example could help people live healthier lives with a better overall diet and reduced food costs in hard economic times.
 
we i grew up we did 100-150 meat birds a year, didn't have any problems with animals in our yard. there were pretty low maitnence from what i remember.

i am not a fan of goats and consider them more like automated lawnmovers, who tend to stand on anything they can, roofs of shed and generally anything you don't want them on.

never did rabbits or lambs so i can't comment on them. we did do pigs and turkeys though. pigs were worth the work and feed on just about anything, sows can put out a lot of piglets in a year and were pretty clean as well. just make sure there pen is separate from all other animals, we lost three turkeys before we found the hole the pigs had dug. turkey falls in and the pig would pull it through and eat. not a terrible loss, but i don't trust a pig once it gets a taste of blood.
 
Sounds like good info so far. I have been studying these myself, and found out that they are all too much trouble for me, at this time.

There are a few Naturally-small cattle breeds and there are some recently developed small cattle breeds;
the later, I do not trust without extensive research.
There are Heritage breeds of cattle that "do it all". Milk, beef, beast-of-burden. Even the female (cows) could pull, I suppose.
Highland cattle are said to do some browsing (eating of bushes), more than other cattle, at least.

General purpose breads of some animals (poultry, cattle) are threatened with extinction,
because we have become so specialized in our agri-business.

If you read poultry forums, you will find that chicken-wire is generally considered inadequate.
The more expensive square pattern 3/8 inch is needed to keep out predators.
And it should extend a foot or more out from the chicken run or coop, to prevent digging.
It goes with saying that you need a wire roof on your run.

Any milking animal that is currently fresh, is a supreme pain, given our modern life style.
And you will likely gain too much weight eating the milk products.
Maybe you could breed a female then dry her up ASAP, as the offspring is weaned.
OTOH, in an extended survival situation, a fresh milk animal would be a "gift from God".

Seems like goats and chickens are the ultimate survival animals, around the world.
 
The style of coop I used is called "chicken tractor" there is a helpful book by the same name. It is a low, long rectangular pen with nest boxes on one end. It allows the chickens access to the ground-greens, insects while remaining protected. You simply move the pen, leaving the scratched, fertilized ground behind, giving the birds new stuff to nibble peck and scratch. You still feed and water. Even though I cannot keep chickens where I live now. I think I will anyway-just a couple hens.

I wanted a goat but never did. I thought it'd be cool to have a pack goat.
A Nubian fed on alfalfa exclusively will produce some of the best tasting milk. I used to buy mine from a local guy. what he did looked like quite a bit of work- more than I could schedule. But if you had the time

which is the main thing really- once you start you are stuck with them animals-no more running off to the woods for a week unless you have someone to leave behind that will do the chores.
 
We had 2 goats, one died of something, the other is a billy and the naughtiest animal I've ever seen. He gets into the house, crap on the floor, eats snacks, and acts like the nuisance he is. When he goes, never again. He is too clever!
Chickens are dumb but the fresh eggs are a bonus.
 
No one has mentioned pigs. Pigs are relativley easy to raise, eat darn near anything and with a simple shed can be kept in from the cold.

I have raised, cows, sheep, chickens, pigs, mules etc.

The problem with sheep is there stupid....very stupid. You also have to bob the lambs tails (if you plan on having breeding sheep) and you may also need to feed them if the mother is not allowing them to milk...which I have seen happen on many occasions. Then there is sheering them, which requires equipment and skill. If you've ever sheered a 100+ pound ram you know it requires some work.

I'll not comment on chickens as its pretty much been addressed as far as a small setup goes and I worked with hundreds of thousands of chickens....so I find them dirty and nasty to take care of in large #'s.
 
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