Livestock Thread

[Procrastinhater]

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

Let them out at sun up and make sure they're locked in at night. They go in themselves but you want them secured.
Make sure their feeders full and they have water once a day and you're good to go.
Chickens are self sufficient and the easiest livestock to keep.
Just clean out their home once a week.
If you're looking at starting to keep your own livestock Chickens are a good introduction.

 

[${Sandy}]

a good cat raised properly won't kill your chickens, and will keep snakes away.

Cats generally don't attack chickens either as far as I understand. But I'm pretty sure raccoons and squirrels are hostile to chickens.

One of my chickens was attacked and I was suspicious it was a neighborhood cat that keeps coming into my yard. I was so pissed off and I was conflicted about how I should deal with it because if it was any other animal I'd just kill it because fuck em Im gonna protect my chickens but I think all of us would agree that hurting cats is wrong. Fortunately I found out it was not a cat that was the issue.

I ended up seeing a squirrel and a racoon in my yard a few times and I did some reading about it and found cats aren't prone to attacking chickens but many other smaller critters do.

Needless to say, I let cats come and go as they please and I cleared out some bushes growing in my yard. I haven't seen any squirrels or racoons lately and none of my chickens have been attacked in months. I'm starting to think that the cats are actually quite helpful because they take care of pests that can be harmful to my flock but they don't seem to be interested in eatinh my chickens. Also, getting rid of some bushes in my yard really seems to keep pests away since they don't have as many places to hide or forage.

 

[Kheapathic]

I'm starting to think that the cats are actually quite helpful because they take care of pests that can be harmful to my flock but they don't seem to be interested in eatinh my chickens.

A well behaved outdoor cat is worth its weight as a mouser; even if it didn't affect the flock, mice piss and shit wherever they walk, to include where you might be storing chicken feed, and carry disease that transcends species. Chickens will kill and eat mice when they can, but a cat is a far more efficient hunter and is prone to be awake at night when the mice are more likely to be out and foraging and chickens are sleeping. I'm not a cat person by any metric, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that simply having one around helps cut down on pests.

 

[Procrastinhater]

Cats generally don't attack chickens either as far as I understand. But I'm pretty sure raccoons and squirrels are hostile to chickens.

One of my chickens was attacked and I was suspicious it was a neighborhood cat that keeps coming into my yard. I was so pissed off and I was conflicted about how I should deal with it because if it was any other animal I'd just kill it because fuck em Im gonna protect my chickens but I think all of us would agree that hurting cats is wrong. Fortunately I found out it was not a cat that was the issue.

I ended up seeing a squirrel and a racoon in my yard a few times and I did some reading about it and found cats aren't prone to attacking chickens but many other smaller critters do.

Needless to say, I let cats come and go as they please and I cleared out some bushes growing in my yard. I haven't seen any squirrels or racoons lately and none of my chickens have been attacked in months. I'm starting to think that the cats are actually quite helpful because they take care of pests that can be harmful to my flock but they don't seem to be interested in eatinh my chickens. Also, getting rid of some bushes in my yard really seems to keep pests away since they don't have as many places to hide or forage.

Squirrels ain't from my experience but fucking Raccoons will absolutely decimate your birds if you don't keep them secure.
They look cute but they're sadistic little fucks that will murder your whole flock for fun the same as foxes.
If they get into the coop or among the birds they won't just take one, they'll do a lot of damage.
They're good at opening stuff too so if theres Raccoons around you gotta make sure the birds are secure.

 

[Look--an Alien!]

Squirrels ain't from my experience but fucking Raccoons will absolutely decimate your birds if you don't keep them secure.
They look cute but they're sadistic little fucks that will murder your whole flock for fun the same as foxes.
If they get into the coop or among the birds they won't just take one, they'll do a lot of damage.
They're good at opening stuff too so if theres Raccoons around you gotta make sure the birds are secure.

Absolutely. As a related side note, a cat trap can be used to catch raccoons, if you run chicken wire or some obstruction around the bait end of the trap. Raccoons will reach through the wire mesh and grab the bait. When I had my place in south Texas, I was at constant war with raccoons coming out of the fields and treeline nearby. Smart suckers, and Procrastinhater is exactly right, they can do an unbelievable amount of damage in a single night.

 

[Topsoil]

For anyone looking into meat sheep, this channel is useful:

 

[Meiwaku]

Let them out at sun up and make sure they're locked in at night. They go in themselves but you want them secured.
Make sure their feeders full and they have water once a day and you're good to go.
Chickens are self sufficient and the easiest livestock to keep.
Just clean out their home once a week.
If you're looking at starting to keep your own livestock Chickens are a good introduction.

They also will eat all your scraps so you don't waste food. Yes they will eat their own eggs and chicken meat. It's actually good for them to get calcium back if they're laying hens.

Plus I find them cute, you can get them pretty tame and they can come sit in your lap. They enjoy being preened too.

They are also not hard to understand, here's a cool video of a lazy sounding the alarm of a hawk nearby to get her chickens to flee to safety.

They also have gyroscopic vision so their heads stay in one place when there bodies move.

The worst thing they do other than become eggbound (just soak them in epsom salt bath) is peck one another to death. But this can be stopped as chickens are triggered by the color red and blood.

Their poop can be used for compost to inevitably put in your garden too.

Get chickens and let us name them Josh!

 

[${Sandy}]

Yes they will eat their own eggs and chicken meat. It's actually good for them to get calcium back if they're laying hens.

I was initially grossed out at the idea of feeding my chickens, chicken. But I realized it wasn't cruel to feed chicken to my flock when I butchered one and the chickens gladly started eating their former friends innards.

Chickens also love quail eggs and quail meat. Last time I cooked up some quail I had leftovers sitting in the fridge and nobody was in the mood for quail so I gave my chickens the leftovers and they loved it. Which is pretty great because I would feel bad if the quail leftovers went to waste since I was the one that harvested them.

 

[Cirrhosis_of_Liver]

Something I've learned talking to a ton of farmers is, it doesn't matter what you're thinking of raising, if you ask a farmer what they think of "X" animal they all say the same shit "they're dumb as fuck" "all they do is find ways to kill themselves" "you couldn't pay me to raise X"
What I've noticed is it's either they couldn't be arsed to even go look at their animals once a day, or got burnt out by a couple of bad seasons.

Around here, so very much land is small (under 100 acre) plots people inherit or buy as a retirement haunt. They get animals to dodge taxes. I'll never speak ill of dodging taxes, but they get it in their head that buying four cows and a bull and paying someone to come steal calves once a year makes them expert in all things agricultural.

I bought land because I have an autistic obsession with pasture-raised livestock as well as pasture management. I would *not* consider myself an expert, because I know enough to suspect how much I don't know. Goats, sheep, Turkeys, cattle, what have you-- if people eat them, there's a market, and they can be produced at a profit. It comes down to what sort of animals you like spending time with.

Idk I just don't respect "farmers" unless they actually make money. So many honyocks who wouldn't know bundleflower from nightshade moaning about how it's just impossible to succeed.

I mean, if some guy claims to be an excellent mechanic and brags about his "hot rod," and the damn thing doesn't run, you wouldn't ask him to advise you on your car. I'm not talking down about people with small operations. Some "backyard breeders" really know their shit. I'm talking the people who have overgrazed nightmare pastures and brag about their "expertise" because they've been failing for decades.

Goats are chaotic by nature, they may seem like a dumb farm animal, but they're like a cat, with horns and hooves.

This is an excellent description of goats. They thrive on chaos, and goat people are weird like cat people.

 

[Meth Until Death]

Don't snakes eat eggs as well? What's the chance of finding a snake in your coop when you open it to gather your eggs?

I haven't noticed any eatin eggs honestly. Depends on where you are and what time of year it is, summer is pretty high, winter is obvious as they're gonna be schnoozin. Fill up any holes and you should be golden. If you think there's a snake, stomp your feet and make a bit of noise. Make sure you got a shovel or snake gun gun handy too.

 

[Topsoil]

If you happen to live in an area with an insect problem (flies & japanese beetles are common ones), you can put up a trap like these to catch insect by the pound. The results can then be fed to your chickens.

Spoiler: Related videos

 

[Squawking Macaw]

Nigga that sounds like animal cruelty. They have to walk and sleep on metal grates for their entire life? You don't even let them have hay to sleep on???

Walk? Who said anything about walking?
Mild PL but I've been to a farm and while every other animal was given plenty of space to roam around, the rabbits were kept in frankly disgusting conditions. I'm talking about a dark shed filled with metal cages, each one stuffed with 4 to 5 rabbits, and they weren't allowed to wander about, that's where they spent their entire lives.
Some people say that rabbits are very space-efficient, but that's only the case if you want to give factory farms a run for their money. Healthy rabbits need a fair bit more than that, they should have coops or hutches like chickens.

 

[Smoke Manmuscle]

We have the following 2 draft horses, 0-4 cows and a dozen and a half chickens.

The range of cows is because we buy yearlings in the spring and run them on grass all summer. Come fall we butcher one of the cows and the others go back to the sale barn. The money we make from selling them usually will pay for the one we keep.

The chickens are all Delaware heritage breed that are the wonderful combination of decent layers, decent meat birds, and wonderfully docile.

I’ve kept goats and sheep and would likely do sheep again but my current fence is 5 strand barb which is useless for keeping sheep in.

 

[Cirrhosis_of_Liver]

Do you draw anything with your draught horses?

 

[God's strongest milkman]

There's a very fun documentary that I really love and is a borderline comedy called "chicken people" which follows a couple of chicken breeders who are obsessed with their chickens and the Ohio nationals chicken breeding competition. It's very well produced and paced and extremely fun.

It follows an autistic engineer who runs a chicken eugenics camp, a gay guy who does a musical theater show in Brandon Missouri and an ex alcoholic Midwestern mom who's particularly obsessive with birds.

You can tell all the people in the documentary are completely genuine and stent putting on an act at all and the documentation is just piecing together a comedy out of these real people. The funniest part for me is how the gay guy has his parents taking cared of his chickens while he does showbiz and you can really tell they wish they were taking care of grandkids instead.

They also have chicken bible they all carry and quote and reference called "standards of perfection" which is like a 100 year old sketchbook of what every breed should look like.

I highly recommend it. And tis just fun to see what the high end breeding competitions are actually like.

 

[God's strongest milkman]

Don't snakes eat eggs as well? What's the chance of finding a snake in your coop when you open it to gather your eggs?

There's a specific snake where I live called a "chicken snake" which loves to go in chicken coops and eat eggs. There's a high chance that will happen depending on how you build your coop. Snakes can and will get through any hole, if their skull can fit through a hole the snake can absolutely get in.

I built my coop with quarter inch mesh covering every inch of the coop. You have to essentially build a faraday cage or snakes will get in the coop. Most people just accept the loss and use whatever they have but if you can't deal with snakes your only reasonable option is to build a snake proof coop.

 

[NormalPornForNormalPeople]

Nigga that sounds like animal cruelty. They have to walk and sleep on metal grates for their entire life? You don't even let them have hay to sleep on???

They have sideways planting pots or containers to sleep in. I also use PVC pipe tunnels for toys that they sleep in also.
If you give them hay, they're going to use it for a toilet, not a bed.
Do an image search for "rabbit farm cage" you'll see it's pretty typical. Most won't even have amenities like the tunnel.

If you wanted an outdoor free range style set up, you won't get much manure, and you'll need to bury fencing since they are burrowing animals.

 

[TapewormSalesman]

Idk where the idea that cats will eat your chickens came from, back when I used to have chickens, the only one that ate some was the dog. I know American cats are fucking gigantic, but come on, it's a fucking chicken. I have an organic dairy/beef thing going on and the barn cats are invaluable as rodent control, they have their hunting grounds spread out across all the buildings, so it's pretty neat, especially in autumn when mice from the fields start trying to move in aggressively. As for the birds, frankly the friendly magpie couple and the crows are hurting our small birds more than the cats are, since they actually get in the nests and eat the eggs/babies.

 

[Smoke Manmuscle]

Do you draw anything with your draught horses?

Not much. They are retired carriage horses. We ride them mostly.

There's a specific snake where I live called a "chicken snake" which loves to go in chicken coops and eat eggs. There's a high chance that will happen depending on how you build your coop. Snakes can and will get through any hole, if their skull can fit through a hole the snake can absolutely get in.

We have a king snake that lives under our coop. I’m fine with it as it keeps the mouse population down and keeps the copperheads away.

 

[Freya]