Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I definitely decided not to have any animals that required milking. That was too much of an anchor to the property. Other animals will survive if you aren't there to feed them twice a day - especially, if you put them in a big enough pasture/pen.
Even for my 2 pigs, they had about 1/2 acre to share with a horse.
If you give them enough space, you also don't need to deal with mucking out stalls/barns.
If you just buy weaner pigs and have them butchered in the fall, you don't need to have a barn that needs to be mucked out. I just made them a small covered area where they could get out of the weather. But, if you feed them right next to the shelter, they also won't go to the bathroom in it. Pigs will pick a "bathroom" area, and will only go there - and it will always be away from their food. They don't just poop wherever they are, like horses do or other animals.
Slightly OT, but since the OP doesn’t want to raise meat animals, when it comes to picking out chickens she might want to consider choosing one of the breeds that has sex-linked feather color (https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/sex_links.html, https://blog.cacklehatchery.com/4-ou...brid-chickens/), as they can be accurately sexed as young chicks just by looking at the color of their down. Other breeds have to be sexed by hand, and while the sexers at the hatcheries are very good at their job, there’s always the small chance that one of the pullets in that sexed run she ordered will turn out to be a cockerel. And finding a home for an unwanted rooster other than in a stewpot isn’t easy!
Slightly OT, but since the OP doesn’t want to raise meat animals, when it comes to picking out chickens she might want to consider choosing one of the breeds that has sex-linked feather color (https://www.mcmurrayhatchery.com/sex_links.html, https://blog.cacklehatchery.com/4-ou...brid-chickens/), as they can be accurately sexed as young chicks just by looking at the color of their down. Other breeds have to be sexed by hand, and while the sexers at the hatcheries are very good at their job, there’s always the small chance that one of the pullets in that sexed run she ordered will turn out to be a cockerel. And finding a home for an unwanted rooster other than in a stewpot isn’t easy!
And then what does she do with the cockerel chicks? Nobody is gonna want them, not even if they're free.
If the OP doesn't want meat or milk animals, then what does the OP want animals for in the first place? Maybe alpaca or sheep or some sort of fiber animals, otherwise they're just pasture decorations.
There's someone around here who has a herd of weed clearing goats. They put up a temporary fence around the area folks want cleared and put the goats in there to eat up all the weeds and brush. Not sure how much maintenance that would be when they're not out clearing someone's land, but that would be critters that aren't eaten.
FYI - Lots of people want a few pet chickens and sheep and goats. They aren't necessarily raised "for" anything but the fun of having them.
Saying you aren't raising them for meat doesn't even necessarily mean you wouldn't let go of a rooster one day because you had too many. Emotiioo hasn't said she's a morally opposed vegan, she just said it wouldn't be her purpose for having them. FWIW, we have usually let our broody hen hatch a few eggs every year, and when we've had extra roosters born, we have actually been able to find them homes with other people looking for a pet flock guardian rooster. Only one of them I'm sure was eaten, but he was a real jerk. We didn't want to eat him, but didn't blame someone else if they did. That's a common sentiment with casual hobby farmers, actually. It works!
And then what does she do with the cockerel chicks? Nobody is gonna want them, not even if they're free.
People do buy the cockerel chicks if the breed in question is either a meat bird or a dual-purpose bird, and most of the sex-linked breeds are dual-purpose. The hatchery sells the cockerel chicks at a lower price per chick to people wanting to raise chickens for meat. So the OP could go with a sexed run of pullet chicks, and with the sex-linked breeds be quite certain she won't wind up with a cockerel by mistake. (She could also buy started pullets, but they are a lot more expensive than sexed chicks.)
It's the poor cockerel chick from the egg-laying breeds that no one wants. They aren't worth raising for meat, and most of them end up being destroyed by the hatchery at a very young age.
Edited to Add: It occurs to me that Hotcatz may not understand that hatcheries will sell chicks a variety of ways: as a "straight run" (no sexing performed, so on average 50% will be male and 50% female) or as a "sexed run" (just males or just females). So if I order a sexed run of 20 pullet chicks, in theory all 20 chicks will be female. In practice, though, a cockerel or two will probably be in the mix if the breed in question doesn't have sex-linked feather colors, because sexing by looking at the chick's vent isn't 100% accurate. With the sex-linked crosses, one sex will be white and the other brown (for example), so sexing by appearance is extremely accurate.
FYI - Lots of people want a few pet chickens and sheep and goats. They aren't necessarily raised "for" anything but the fun of having them.
Exactly. When it gets complicated is when the decision is made to keep dairy animals, or if the person wants to start their poultry flock with chicks instead of older (and much more expensive) birds but can't bear the thought of dealing with some unwanted roosters. But just keeping a few critters around as pets is pretty common (although keeping even the easiest livestock is a fair amount of work).
Chickens and Ducks are easy, though ducks are messy.
I'll leave my chickens with a topped off feeder and a few extra water bowls for a few days. You can buy Pullets from the feed and ag stores or online (females that have been pre-sexed.) Though you run into the longer term problem that their production goes down as they age. They're not expensive to keep once you have the coop built.
For more than a few days I get someone to come by and collect eggs and make sure the feeders/waterers aren't broken.
Ducks are arguably easier except they require water and they're messy.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
We didn't want to eat him, but didn't blame someone else if they did. That's a common sentiment with casual hobby farmers, actually. It works!
