Livestock Thread

[${Sandy}]

I keep talking about my chickens in sneed chat and I figured I should just start a thread for kiwis to talk about farm animals instead of making sneed chat my personal chicken blog.
This is a thread where we can all give each other advice and discuss our delicious farm animals.

Tell me what animals you guys have. How are they doing? Do you eat them? Have you gotten any new animals? Have you lost any of them?

As for myself, I got 7 chickens, 4 silkies, and 5 quail. Gonna hatch some quail eggs soon for meat birds.
I lost two of the chickens this year unfortunately. But the rest of them are healthy and their eggs are fucking delicious. Also, all of the chickens and quail I've harvested and eaten myself are tastier than any meat I've bought from the store.
I'm not gonna harvest the chickens I currently have for meat because I got attached too these ones and gave them names. But I'm gonna hatch some quail eggs and raise them for meat.

The Hens I have all follow me around my yard and eat out of my hand. The silkies I got ended up being roosters and they are constantly fighting eachother. I'm not even sure what to do with these things.

The quails are dumb little fuckers. Some times they accidentally kill eachother but they fuck like rabbits so its easy to hatch more. They taste kind of like turkey and their eggs are great for breakfast burritos and egg noodles.

 

[Total Annihilation]

Out of curiosity do you use feed with Omega-3 in it or something else? I've heard some local farmers use it in order to lower the cholesterol of eggs, and make it slightly healthier (they already have good cholesterol in them, but I've heard this just lowers the small amount of bad cholesterol to an even lower amount).

Also, do you get your feed from Sneed's Feed and Seed (Formerly Chuck's)?

 

[Dr. Ricearoni]

Out of curiosity do you use feed with Omega-3 in it or something else? I've heard some local farmers use it in order to lower the cholesterol of eggs, and make it slightly healthier (they already have good cholesterol in them, but I've heard this just lowers the small amount of bad cholesterol to an even lower amount).

Also, do you get your feed from Sneed's Feed and Seed (Formerly Chuck's)?

I'm no nutritionist but I heard the whole egg cholesterol thing was bullshit anyway. Like how people thought margarine was healthier than butter.

 

[Total Annihilation]

I'm no nutritionist but I heard the whole egg cholesterol thing was bullshit anyway. Like how people thought margarine was healthier than butter.

Ah, interesting.
I've been a pusher of the Omega-3 agenda at least. A family member who is a doctor says that Omega-3 can help to lower bad cholesterol. In their case they had high cholesterol, and started adding flax seeds to their morning breakfast (plain oatmeal). Over the course of a few years it went from bad to normal. It's interesting to see as well, because they are in their 60s, and unlike most obese boomers, they care about their health and are actively working on improving their diet and fitness regiment.
That said, having a good local source of food and a good way to keep up an exercise regiment is a great way to improve yourself. Keep up with the good farming and keep us updated

 

[${Sandy}]

Out of curiosity do you use feed with Omega-3 in it or something else?

Tbh, Im not sure. Ill have to go check the bag of feed and scratch.

But I let my chickens free range and eat bugs and I will say I am confident these eggs are WAY healthier than store eggs. The eggs are smaller but their contents are pretty dense compared to the watery globohomo eggs at the grocery store. Also, The yolk has the consistency of jelly and its usually orange in color.

I always feel full and genuinely energized after I eat these eggs.

Also, do you get your feed from Sneed's Feed and Seed (Formerly Chuck's)?

Yes.

 

[Dr. Ricearoni]

I'm about to buy my first house (a nice rural place, I actually live there already but the landlady wants to sell it to me) and it's got a decently big backyard. I've been very interested in raising chickens and am planning to look into the legality of it around here but in the meantime I was curious about chicken coops. I have very little experience with DIY projects, is it worth it to hire a professional to build one for me or should I start teaching myself some carpentry? I'm thinking about 80-100 square feet. I plan to start out with about a half dozen chicks so I figured it would give me some wiggle room for "chicken math"

Does any of this sound right or are my plans deeply concerning?

 

[${Sandy}]

I'm about to buy my first house (a nice rural place, I actually live there already but the landlady wants to sell it to me) and it's got a decently big backyard. I've been very interested in raising chickens and am planning to look into the legality of it around here but in the meantime I was curious about chicken coops. I have very little experience with DIY projects, is it worth it to hire a professional to build one for me or should I start teaching myself some carpentry? I'm thinking about 80-100 square feet. I plan to start out with about a half dozen chicks so I figured it would give me some wiggle room for "chicken math"

Does any of this sound right or are my plans deeply concerning?

I forget the exact dimensions of the chicken coop I have in my yard, but my family built ours completely DIY and its held up pretty well. It isn't too hard to make or do maintenance on. 100 square feet is 10x10 so that should be more than enough room for 6 of them with extra space for more. My coop is smaller than that and I can fit all of my birds in there pretty comfortably.

If doing it completely DIY sounds hard, You can also buy kits online and you can build one of those.

As far as I've read your plans don't seem too concerning. I'm still pretty new at this stuff myself and from what Im reading you seem to have more land than me and you want to build a pretty decent sized coop. Seems like a good plan.

I'd also recommend building a brooder box too so you have a place to keep baby chicks until they are old enough to sleep in a coop.

Also make sure your coop has a big door on the side so its easy to clean. I heard alot of people go months without cleaning their coop when you should be doing it every couple of weeks if not every week.

 

[Null]

How hard are chickens actually to raise? Like if you have them what sort of time investment per day are you talking?

 

[CHARizard]

How hard are chickens actually to raise? Like if you have them what sort of time investment per day are you talking?

I grew up raising goats and chickens. Chickens the biggest time investment is setting up their space, and then cleaning it on a regular basis. If you can set aside an hour or two a weekend to make sure the coop is clean its not bad.

To put it in perspective, my kids daycare lady does the daycare with half a dozen small children for 12 hours a day and still has time to raise a small flock. Most of them did just get eaten by a fox though so I dont know how good she actually is at it, but the eggs were tasty.

 

[Null]

I grew up raising goats and chickens. Chickens the biggest time investment is setting up their space, and then cleaning it on a regular basis. If you can set aside an hour or two a weekend to make sure the coop is clean its not bad.

To put it in perspective, my kids daycare lady does the daycare with half a dozen small children for 12 hours a day and still has time to raise a small flock. Most of them did just get eaten by a fox though so I dont know how good she actually is at it, but the eggs were tasty.

Why don't more people own chickens then? I know Mexicans do, but if eggs cost as much as bullets in the US, what's stopping more people from raising chickens? They seem to have less space requirements than dogs.

 

[anliteralidiot]

How hard are chickens actually to raise? Like if you have them what sort of time investment per day are you talking?

They're easy. I'd say maybe 30 minutes a day, maybe? Like @CHARizard said, the time mostly comes from setting up a pen, and cleaning.

Why don't more people own chickens then? I know Mexicans do, but if eggs cost as much as bullets in the US, what's stopping more people from raising chickens? They seem to have less space requirements than dogs.

HOAs and shit. I keep telling my in-laws to do it, but they're cowards.

I have too many hens and four roosters. We're always pushing cartons of eggs on our friends, too.

 

[CHARizard]

Why don't more people own chickens then? I know Mexicans do, but if eggs cost as much as bullets in the US, what's stopping more people from raising chickens? They seem to have less space requirements than dogs.

Its getting very popular in my area to have backyard chickens actually. What some people run into is that you have to be in a neighborhood that allows them, so if you live in city limits or have an HOA it can sometimes be a no go.

 

[Dr. Ricearoni]

Why don't more people own chickens then? I know Mexicans do, but if eggs cost as much as bullets in the US, what's stopping more people from raising chickens? They seem to have less space requirements than dogs.

It's actually shockingly expensive to own chickens from what I can tell, and most of that price is in getting them a coop that won't have them ripping each other's feathers out. Every hobbyist I come across has generally said that unless you're doing it for years and milking those chickens for all they're worth it's really not cheaper than buying eggs.

 

[Justa Grata Honoria]

Why don't more people own chickens then? I know Mexicans do, but if eggs cost as much as bullets in the US, what's stopping more people from raising chickens? They seem to have less space requirements than dogs.

Most towns have banned livestock , chickens are fucking loud as hell, they tend to destroy gardens pretty fast. These fucks are omnivores and will eat everything and anything they are used by farmers as part of recycling heappile. The neighbor's will make you miserable for having them . I live in semirural area we don't have fences and few neighbors tried chickens which ended up always terrible with people complaining. People don't use that much eggs because they buy shit already premade for them . We use like a dozen a month of you get chickens for eggs lying you need to get minimum 4 because they are social animals . Egg layers shit out on average 4-5 eggs per week during laying season . No family i know uses 16-20 eggs per week. Most westerners don't know how to keep and raise them and always give them store bought feed which costs a lot. Shitton of regulation coming in from registration to government decided to destroy every single livestock because zog said so.

You are better off with quails since they don't take up space and produce half of what chickens do and the best part don't make noise.

 

[${Sandy}]

How hard are chickens actually to raise? Like if you have them what sort of time investment per day are you talking?

From my personal experience its usually not that much work day to day. You just gotta give them food and fresh water and that only takes a few minutes.

I clean their coop out once a week and its not more than 30 minutes of work.

Lately its been pretty hot so we have been spraying the ground in my backyard with water so the chickens dont burn their feet and that takes about 10 minutes.

All in all its less than an hour of work every day.

If they get sick or have mites or you have to do some extra maintenance on the chicken coop the extra work you have to do then can be pretty time consuming. But generally speaking you just have to spend a few minutes making sure the chickens have food and water and just check on them a few times during the day. Its easy for the most part.

 

[waffle]

Why don't more people own chickens then? I know Mexicans do, but if eggs cost as much as bullets in the US, what's stopping more people from raising chickens? They seem to have less space requirements than dogs.

It's illegal in a lot of towns . If you keep them like a total scrounge they're stinky.

 

[Kier]

What are the merrits of owning ducks vs chickens. I don't mind, rather I really want to build a pond for the little guys, but is there a compelling reason to chose chickens over ducks?

 

[Lidl Drip]

I would like to eventually own some goats for milk (and cheese making), not for meat. Does anyone own goats and can share some experience? Do they need to have babies regularly in order to keep producing milk? I would prefer to give them a long and happy life and not sell the males off to be butchered (shocking, I know) but I don't know if that's possible.

 

[CHARizard]

I would like to eventually own some goats for milk (and cheese making), not for meat. Does anyone own goats and can share some experience? Do they need to have babies regularly in order to keep producing milk? I would prefer to give them a long and happy life and not sell the males off to be butchered (shocking, I know) but I don't know if that's possible.

I havnt had them in 20 years, but if you like an animal that stays in its pen, do not get goats. They are natures ultimate escape artist and will devour everything they can get their greedy mouths on.

Also if your neighbors have goats, they will jump the fences and impregnate your goats. We had this happen and had a nice little surprise one day when ours gave birth.

 

[4EB]

What are the merrits of owning ducks vs chickens. I don't mind, rather I really want to build a pond for the little guys, but is there a compelling reason to chose chickens over ducks?

Nothing really. Some duck breeds are migratory. Unless you clip their wings they will take off, and you may never see them again. The biggest thing with both is what breed you choose. Some are raised for their meat, eggs, or both. With ducks I'd suggest Peking for meat. They lay decent sized eggs, but I've never tried them before.

I bought a kiddie pool for my ducks, and that did just fine for them.