Livestock Thread

[anliteralidiot]

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 lived with goats. I hate goats for very autistic reasons. They don't milk without kids, and they usually give birth to twins. They're escape artists, and we burned the horns off of ours (I don't know if that's ethical, that's just how it was) to prevent injury to themselves, and us.

I don't recommend goats.

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?

Eggs. We've bred chickens to really pump out eggs, but not so much with ducks. Not that you can't eat them, it's just they're not as plentiful. Ducks are also messy little goobers, and they love getting mud everywhere, and making everything muddy.

 

[Lidl Drip]

I lived with goats. I hate goats for very autistic reasons. They don't milk without kids, and they usually give birth to twins. They're escape artists, and we burned the horns off of ours (I don't know if that's ethical, that's just how it was) to prevent injury to themselves, and us.

I don't recommend goats.

But they are so adorable! Well I guess I won't be keeping any goats or cows for milk then and instead just buy it directly from a farm, I guess there's not really a way to just get milk without also having to sell or eat the offspring.

 

[Crypto Six Gorillionaire]

I'm getting 6-8 chickens in the next month, what breed(s) do you have? I was thinking half buff Orpingtons and a few fancy breeds my supplier has.

 

[PyrrhicRustle]

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

If you’re willing to spend a little more time and money up front you can automate almost every part of the day to day. When we were keeping some, I basically only had to go let them out in the morning, grab the eggs, and check to see they had enough food and water, and then shut them in at night. You can easily buy a door that opens and closes automatically, once they get settled in the birds should go in all by themselves, and if you’re feeling crafty you can rig up automatic feeders and watering systems too. When things were smooth it was like 5 minutes a day, plus an hour of mucking out the coop every now and then.

We’re not keeping any at the moment because we’re burned out from losing almost our entire flock last summer to predators, but once I get around to building a sturdier coop setup I’d be happy to get them, they’re great if you’ve got land and my kids love running around the yard with them.

 

[Dr. Ricearoni]

If you’re willing to spend a little more time and money up front you can automate almost every part of the day to day. When we were keeping some, I basically only had to go let them out in the morning, grab the eggs, and check to see they had enough food and water, and then shut them in at night. You can easily buy a door that opens and closes automatically, once they get settled in the birds should go in all by themselves, and if you’re feeling crafty you can rig up automatic feeders and watering systems too. When things were smooth it was like 5 minutes a day, plus an hour of mucking out the coop every now and then.

We’re not keeping any at the moment because we’re burned out from losing almost our entire flock last summer to predators, but once I get around to building a sturdier coop setup I’d be happy to get them, they’re great if you’ve got land and my kids love running around the yard with them.

I've seen some people with some cool simple diy auto feeders. One I saw set up a couple large pvc pipes with caps on the end that you dump feed into ending in an open elbow at an angle so it didn't just dump on the ground, that was poked through a hole in the hardware cloth from which the chickens could peck at the feed and gravity would refill the elbow.

His water setup was crazy too, he had this bigass water barrel that was also setup to collect rainwater, pipe drilled into the bottom and feeding horizontally into the indoor run, where he had drilled holes into the pipe and installed chicken nipples (Very good for keeping your water clean I'm told)

 

[CHARizard]

In terms of being overwhelmed with the volume of eggs, learn to expand your horizons and think a bit outside the box for storage. Pickled eggs can last months, and you can also freeze hard boiled eggs. We have several neighbors that give us eggs so I bought a little egg machine for about 20 bucks on amazon, you can thoughtlessly cook half a dozen eggs easily, and buy a bigger one if you want to expand. I use this in the morning so I dont have to boil water for my eggs.

 

[God's strongest milkman]

I've had chickens for about a year now and this is the first time today where I need to kill one. One of them somehow injured itself in the coop and it has survived for two days but I don't think it will survive too much longer. It keeps getting pecked.

I'm preparing now to execute. Here is the injured chicken.
I have never killed, scalded, feathered or gutted a chicken before so I'm a little nervous. But letting it die in the coop in the next couple days would be a waste.

 

[anliteralidiot]

I'm getting 6-8 chickens in the next month, what breed(s) do you have? I was thinking half buff Orpingtons and a few fancy breeds my supplier has.

I have a few purebred silkies, one serama rooster, and then mutts. The serama rooster was a random rooster my mom had from Tractor Supply, and we have him now because he's fucking cute. He's half the size of all the other chickens, even the small breeds, and he has a high-pitched crow and noises and everything.

One hen is part Polish, so she has the silly hair feathers, and everhing, and she's the loudest hen I've ever had. She complains about every little thing!

I've sperged about my silkies before, and I still maintain they're the best chicken breed you can own if you want to hatch. If you want them for cheap, go to Tractor Supply: they're in the assorted bantams chick mix. Look for chicks with black/blue skin, and 5 toes.

They're expensive normally, but sorting the chicks at Tractor Supply yourself is way cheaper.

 

[God's strongest milkman]

If I'm you're interested in raising pigs it's worth looking up bread factories and breweries near you a lot of the times they'll have spent or useless grain which you can get for free if you have a truck or trailer. This can significantly cut down the cost of feeding pigs.

 

[Invective Mass]

Sorry,I had to delete almost my entire post cause I can't read. Yeah chickens produce a lot of eggs

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.Hey

 

[Invective Mass]

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.

They destroy grass and shit constantly. While chickens have a lot of benefits to raise, you're not going to get Omega 3 fatty acids from that meat. As I mentioned in the supplement thread (while forgetting the name) Omega 3 fatty acids are only found in nuts, seeds, fatty fish and grass fed beef. Grass fed is so important because cows that are fed dogshit slop arent breaking down their natural foods which are grasses. And, IIRC even David Duke referenced cows as being the best source of animal protein because of their four stomachs breaking down grass into their most fundemental parts.


Speaking of livestock, does anyone have much to say about keeping bees? They're great for having natural sugar, but you really have to keep an eye out for mites that will kill a hive.

 

[Null]

Speaking of livestock, does anyone have much to say about keeping bees? They're great for having natural sugar, but you really have to keep an eye out for mites that will kill a hive.

https://kiwifarms.st/threads/bees-and-beekeeping.57665/

There's a very old thread for it that didn't get much traction.

 

[Cirrhosis_of_Liver]

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 made a thread about goats before seeing this one. Should it be rolled into this thread? Goats and chickens alone are both huge topics with not that much overlap past very general things like "animals need water."

If you don't want to sell for meat, there are other markets, especially if you're only raising a few goats. Lots of people will buy wethers as pets. That's generally what I do with any bottle babies I have. I sell pets at like $100 a piece, but I've also given them away. I've been wanting to start moving into the pack goat (as in tiny agile baggage animal for wilderness types) sphere for some of my most appealing males.

Also, many cattle producers like to buy a few bucks or wethers to put in with their cattle to control mesquite and other woody plants. They are cheaper than herbicide! One cattleman bought a group of "billies" from me. A doeling slipped in with them, and five months later, he had baby goats. Now he's getting into goats.

I am a meat goat producer. 95% of males and about 10% of females born on my farm go to the sale barn to likely become enchiladas. I philosophize that their sacrifice is what allows the herd to carry on, and they did get to be baby goats, the best thing on the planet. I can't conceive of hating goats. But I absolutely sympathize with wanting to keep them all forever and not let any die. They're such likable creatures.

I know dehorning is useful for big dairies so the goats can get on those cool carousel things, but I think the idea that goat horns are dangerous is silly. For a toddler, maybe, although my toddler hangs out with horned goats. I'm more worried about some idiot stepping on her than hooking her. I get hooked occasionally, but it's on par with walking into a door handle. In no way is it worth it to me to make a kid hurt in order to avoid something that's usually an accident, and rarely hurts much, let alone causes a real injury.


Everyone tells me goats are "escape artists." A goat getting out of my place is roughly a once a year occurrance. I've never had one escape and disappear. They run around near the fence they got over, screaming. Maybe I have retarded goats.

Goats are great. I recommend them to people willing to learn more than "fire and forget."

 

[I Digivolved Into A Loli?]

Why don't more people own chickens then?

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

To find out if chickens are illegal in your area you need to look up the county or township website for the are you are looking to move to.

You then need to look for the County Commissioner which should have a link to the County Code which is often a pdf that you can download and Ctrl+F search for the words "fowl" or "chicken."

If you aren't finding it on your county's website you can Google "[County Name]+Code of Ordinances"

If you don't get any hits you are usually good to get as many chickens as you want. If you want to double check they will often have a section labelled animals that usually isn't too long and worth reading to make sure you don't get into trouble with the local cops.

Oftentimes you can find a full section about keeping chickens. Take this section from Collin County, Texas where Riley has been arrested:

Found here
From what I have noticed, roosters are almost always banned, but regular chickens usually have pretty lenient restrictions. I have seen places that allow for 5 chickens per member of your household.

Some places I have seen also require the chickens to be held 24/7 in some kind of enclosure and may require that enclosure to be a specified distance from your or anyone else's house.

 

[${Sandy}]

I've had chickens for about a year now and this is the first time today where I need to kill one. One of them somehow injured itself in the coop and it has survived for two days but I don't think it will survive too much longer. It keeps getting pecked.

I'm preparing now to execute. Here is the injured chicken. View attachment 6148487
I have never killed, scalded, feathered or gutted a chicken before so I'm a little nervous. But letting it die in the coop in the next couple days would be a waste.

Speaking from experience here, don't cut the head off without draining their blood first, even if you broke its neck and its dead, it will flop around violently if you cut off the head without draining the blood.

 

[God's strongest milkman]

To find out if chickens are illegal in your area you need to look up the county or township website for the are you are looking to move to.

You then need to look for the County Commissioner which should have a link to the County Code which is often a pdf that you can download and Ctrl+F search for the words "fowl" or "chicken."

If you aren't finding it on your county's website you can Google "[County Name]+Code of Ordinances"

If you don't get any hits you are usually good to get as many chickens as you want. If you want to double check they will often have a section labelled animals that usually isn't too long and worth reading to make sure you don't get into trouble with the local cops.

Oftentimes you can find a full section about keeping chickens. Take this section from Collin County, Texas where Riley has been arrested:
View attachment 6150103
Found here
From what I have noticed, roosters are almost always banned, but regular chickens usually have pretty lenient restrictions. I have seen places that allow for 5 chickens per member of your household.

Some places I have seen also require the chickens to be held 24/7 in some kind of enclosure and may require that enclosure to be a specified distance from your or anyone else's house.

I grew up in a surrounding suburb of a big city and roosters were illegal but chickens weren't. Pigs were also illegal. Basically if you don't live in a rural area you're going to be restricted from keeping "loud" or "filthy" animals. A certain amount of common sense is required to keeping animals if you don't live in the sticks. Anything that would upset a person who lives 200ft away from you isn't something you can keep in your backyard.

 

[${Sandy}]

I grew up in a surrounding suburb of a big city and roosters were illegal but chickens weren't. Pigs were also illegal. Basically if you don't live in a rural area you're going to be restricted from keeping "loud" or "filthy" animals. A certain amount of common sense is required to keeping animals if you don't live in the sticks. Anything that would upset a person who lives 200ft away from you isn't something you can keep in your backyard.

Tbh, I think these laws are really fucking stupid because roosters aren't even that loud.

 

[Pure Autism]

---

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?

10x10 feet is an excellent amount of space for half a dozen chicks, certainly. I'll provide you with a little DIY schematic for a poultry house mostly based around plywood so you can better visualize the space allotment and customize as necessary. I'll include the additional furnacing so you have all the options at your disposal. The project itself is 12x10 feet, but that's with the storage shed integrated, you can cut that right off and go down to 9x10 if you already have a centralized storage space in mind.

The work cites Leonard Mercia and his book "Raising Poultry the Modern Way" when it quotes that you'll need around 1 square foot per 4 laying birds either housed in a single or communal nest. So that's another useful reference to keep in mind.

---

For those with greater projects in mind a useful metric to have is that 200x200 feet of grassland could support around 100 chickens if you keep them on a range. Overcrowding has severe negative effects for both the grassland and the birds themselves.

When it comes to feeding open range is generally best, of course if you have space for it and clean grassland. You'd just scatter some grain during summer. But regardless you'd need feed during winter and we're probably dealing with limited space and or a situation where we're keeping the chickens confined and thus feed is a necessity. There are completely self-sufficient ways to feed your chickens but that requires agriculture on the side, thus you should be able to figure stuff out from the store available feed.

One thing to always keep in mind when feeding any animal that you later consume or consume products of is that you're gonna get what you put in, and it actually is very noticeable. Anyone who had an opportunity to try, say, lamb from an industrial farm and lamb from an open range should be able to say as much. Industrial feed always produces lesser results so you can always try to enrich it with fresh ingredients from time to time.

And maybe most importantly for anyone that grows their own produce. Poultry manure. Anyone who does agriculture will realize the value of any waste their animals produce. Cows are truly a powerhouse not just because of the manure but because of their surplus milk which can be used to enrich any feed your animals eat with truly amazing results, but chickens are also one of the greats. Chicken manure is filled with nitrogen, an essential fertilizer, and other lesser nutrients. After all, empires were built on bird shit.

 

[Hecate]

I raise a lot of animals. Started with rabbits as a city retard right before covid hit cuz I had a feeling something weird was on the horizon. I have a farm now and I raise rabbits, geese, chicken, beef, and sheep.

Something I like to do with all animals is make sure they have some kind of utility besides just for eating. My rabbits provide excellent cold manure, my chickens lay eggs and eat ticks, my geese tell me when predators are around and help maintain pond edges, my sheep help keep brush clear and produce wool for me to spin and weave into garments, and my cows help maintain my pastures grasses and keep my creek shores clean.

If i had pigs i would use them for clearing and tilling garden space.

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)?

Chickens that have access to fresh grass have higher omega-3's. Actually all animals that eat grass do. Grass fed beef and lamb have enough in it when they're grass fed that it actually helps reduce spoilage

 

[Justa Grata Honoria]

But they are so adorable! Well I guess I won't be keeping any goats or cows for milk then and instead just buy it directly from a farm, I guess there's not really a way to just get milk without also having to sell or eat the offspring.

sheep? they give wool and they are less escape artists . They can be milked some variietes are specifically for milk and cheese production.