Questions and Answers
Hi there I'm just making this post to see if there are any other people out there that keep poultry in towns etc , I live in a large city , in a residential area I keep , breed and show … Double laced Barnvelder bantams , black Australorp bantams , Blue Australorp Bantams , Light Sussex Bantams , Black D anver Bantams , Silver Birchen Japanese Bantams , Gold Sebright Bantams , Barred and Buff Wyandotte Bantams , I have amazingly 23 cock birds at the minute and never had a complaint in the 3 years yet , but they are all put in dark boxes at night you see … And I put them in their breeding pena at 8 am, what all do house keep and breed etc.
Hi,
I am new to keeping chickens and have just got 5 Pekin Bantams 🙂 They are only 7 weeks old so still in there brooder so just waiting for the weather to get better so they can go into there new coop.
I too live in a built up area but have asked neighbours if they minded and they were all quite happy for me to continue.
My family are very much looking forward to having our first eggs 🙂
I would say there are two great ways to get the word out about your backyard poultry to make it grow. #1 advertise it through your own website, by getting one through www.freedom.ws and entering the access code: givinghope
#2 Let your friends and family know about it and spread the word for you using the latest technology from www.talkfusion.com To join just enter the number 1001695 where it asks for it.
I love these two sources, and I hope they work for you.
So lately I've been on a farming kick and my family and I are already planning on getting 6 hens and planted some veggies, but I was thinking, why not get a cow? I was looking at getting one mini jersey cow (yes, I know cows are herd animals but I heard they adjust just fine). We have roughly 1.5 acres and I would probably look to create a half acre pasture and small barn next to our shed and chicken coop. I know that overgrazing is a problem with smaller pastures but we have a lot of room in our yard where we can take her out and allow her to graze on that grass, as well as our neighbors lawn whom we have already asked if a cow would be allowed to graze a little while there. I was also thinking of getting one or two pygmy goats or sheep to keep the cow company. Would these goats/sheep be able to stay in the same barn without specified areas (it would be modeled after a one stall horse barn with a small section set off for milking)? Thanks in advance!
Well in my local extension office, the official recommendation is 1 calf/cow pair per 2 acres. A mid sized cow can easily go through over 25 kilos of feed a day and that cow of yours can easily chow down the half acre pasture of yours no problem in no time. Since you need winter shelter for these animals, you will need a separate stall for all these animals in separate stalls and that will only require more space. This sounds like an incredibly crammed operation and I don't think the cow is a great idea even though you can rotate between soy/corn feed and grazing.
To be honest, getting into animal raising requires all season care and you simply cannot leave them. It is not a hobby at all but it turns into a job. Also, this start up will cost you quite a sum of money to have the amount of equipment and infrastructure to back them up.
To sum it up, if this farming kick is simply growing veggies and raising a small amount of poultry, go for it. But from what I read, it seems like this brainstorm went way out of proportion for the amount of land, knowledge and equipment you seem to possess. Cows and goats are not pets and as I have heard from an old timer cattle farmer, he thinks raising his cattle is a bigger pain in the butt than his own kids. I think the furthest you should go are goats, sheep or miniature ponies. Anything beyond that will be too expensive (well unless you are loaded with stacks) and too much work for something that is seemingly a hobby.
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