Farm Livestock: Choosing Food Producing Animals

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Differentiate early between pets and beasts that will be food.
Differentiate early between pets and beasts that will be food.
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Figure 2: Smoking the hive entrance.
Figure 2: Smoking the hive entrance.
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Figure 3: A standard hive.
Figure 3: A standard hive.
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Figure 1: Inspecting a beehive.
Figure 1: Inspecting a beehive.
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Figure 4: A mail-ordered bee package.
Figure 4: A mail-ordered bee package.
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Figure 5: Harvesting eggs.
Figure 5: Harvesting eggs.
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Figure 7: A simple nest box.
Figure 7: A simple nest box.
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Figure 6: A $110 hen house.
Figure 6: A $110 hen house.
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Figure 8: Barred Plymouth Rock (J).
Figure 8: Barred Plymouth Rock (J).
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Figure 10: A nesting box.
Figure 10: A nesting box.
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Figure 12: Butchering a rabbit. One buck and two does can produce over 100 pounds of meat a year.
Figure 12: Butchering a rabbit. One buck and two does can produce over 100 pounds of meat a year.
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Figure 9: An all-wire rabbit cage.
Figure 9: An all-wire rabbit cage.
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Figure 11: New Zealand white rabbit.
Figure 11: New Zealand white rabbit.

MOTHER’S Handbook: How to choose the right food-producing farm livestock animals for your farm.

Farm Livestock: Choosing Food Producing Animals

Many good folks dream of the day they can exchange the noise, dirt, and pressure of city life for the tranquility of a country place with a cozy house, a big garden–and livestock. It’s the animals that really make a rural home special, isn’t it? Only with a flock of glossy-feathered poultry, a few gentle sheep, a mare with a frisky colt, or maybe even a great-eyed Jersey cow does the picture of country living come alive.

But there’s a hitch, a big hitch. While the house will wait patiently for its repairs and you can make up for a week’s garden neglect with a hose and hoe, farm livestock demand continual care and attention. Many new country dwellers populate the barn before they’re ready to take on the challenges involved, and then find their long-anticipated rural tranquility transformed into plain old drudgery. They can’t even get away once in a while not once Daisy’s marvelous milk machine starts turning their meadow grass into two or three gallons of Grade A every day.

Don’t let yourself become unwittingly indentured by what I call the livestock trap, and end up as much servant to your animals as they are to you. Think through each acquisition of a living creature…know how it will change your life before you take it on…learn essential management techniques in advance…and build your animal facilities ahead of time. Do all that, and livestock can be a major satisfaction of country living.

  • Published on Mar 1, 1987
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