Official BYH Poll: What Animals Do You Have In Your Backyard Herd?

[River Buffaloes]

So very true but I would love to cushion my pockets along the way!! Farm life is anything but cheap! Feeding this crew alone is enough to choke me! We do know that it will come around by them feeding us eventually!

Once I asked a group of young people "which revolution was the most consequencestial in human history", some said the French revolution, some said the Russian revolution, some said the glorious revolution, nobody said the "Neolithic revolution".

The people deciding to abandon the nomadic lifestyle of hunter gathers and domesticating plants and animals was the most consequencestial decision our species ever made. It was not an easy choice. The grains, the fruits, the vegetables, the animals we see today didn't exist back then. They are the results of the Neolithic revolution. Still they did it, they stuck to it. Why? Why did our ancestors decide to start farming? Well we don't know, my theory is that they wanted to control of their lives. Farming is all about taking control of yourself.

I think we should start with trying to save money and then go to make money part with the farming. More food you are able to grow for yourself and your menagerie, the more money you will save. Start with the millet next year, they are the hardiest crops.

 

[Hudson and me]

I like this topic. It’s been very interesting. I put other because geese weren’t on the list. I also used to have turkeys, but sold out of them for the time being. And my last cat died recently, so no more kitties until DH decides the mice get bad without them.


I breed budgies, but they are in the house, so I didn’t even think about that on the list. Been breeding those for 11 years now. I quit once, and started back up a year later. This year will be my last. Honest!

You know, a budgie killing another one would be highly unusual. Not impossible of course, because you can never completely generalize when it comes to animals. Occasionally there will be some that just can’t get along, and they can get into some nasty fights, but they don’t usually fight to the death. What is more likely, and what people don’t think about, is that if one dies for whatever reason, the remaining ones will sometimes cannibalize the body. So then that appears as though it was murder, even if it wasn’t. I’m really sorry your budgie experience turned out badly!

True, I think he may have been ill so it was kind of a kill-off-the-weak kind of situation. He used to be very lethargic and puffed up. And then she used to attack you if you even tried to pick her up.

 

[thethinkingweasel]

I like this topic. It’s been very interesting. I put other because geese weren’t on the list.

Same here! We have a flock of mostly "ornamental" geese in addition to our chickens, pigs, ducks (new ducklings this year!), sheep, one goat, dogs, and barn cats.

 

[Tammyd57]

Right now, we consist of:
6 horses-assorted breeds and sizes
3 Angora Goat wethers- assorted colors, kept for their Mohair fiber
Approximately 10-12 barn cats- their numbers fluctuate
9 Silky Chickens- we keep those just because they are so freaking funny!
2 Shih tzu housepups
Me, and one very tolerant husband

 

[Baymule]

More food you are able to grow for yourself and your menagerie, the more money you will save.

You and I are on the same page. I have a hard time understanding people who do nothing to feed themselves. Not even a tomato plant, nothing, no effort at all on their part. There is nothing like fresh produce that was just picked off the plant!

 

[Ridgetop]

1 Molly Mule
3 Dorper Rams
9 bred Dorper Ewes (due now through January)
4 bred fall 2019 ewe lambs (due December through March)
5 open spring 2020 ewe lambs (to be bred in spring)
2 open nursing Dorper ewes (will be bred back in3 months)
2 newborn fall 2020 ewe lambs
2 newborn fall 2020 ram lambs
Total of 28 Dorper sheep protected by 3 Anatolian livestock guardian dogs

 

[farmerjan]

PRESENTLY
10-25 cats/kittens.... barn semi feral animals
collectively (son and mine) 150 beef cows, avg wt 1100 lbs... and they calve yearly.... sell the calves mostly as feeders at weaning time around 500 lbs or so... Have someone that regularly buys 15-30 heifers at weaning and steers get sold in a feeder sale/livestock auction.
25 or so replacement heifers raised yearly
2 purebred jersey cows used for house milk and as nurse cows
5 jer/hol bred heifers and cows
1 jer steer going in my freezer shortly
10+ 800-1200 lb steers and heifers for sale as beef
8 beef bulls used for breeding and sometimes rented out for breeding to others....avg 1500-2000 lbs
15 rams and about 10 ewes....White Texas Dall sheep. Bred for the rams horns sold to hunting preserves...also some killed for meat but they are not a meat breed per se.
Puerbred New Hampshire and purebred Black Langshan chickens both in large fowl for show and eggs
Raise anywhere from 30-200 cornish x meat birds a year.
We also make 2-3000 sq bales of orchard grass hay to sell; and about 1500 rolls of some orchard grass and mixes grass hay for our cattle to eat. We grow 15 acres of corn to chop for silage and 20 acres of sorghum-sudan grass that makes a good hay and can be chopped for silage -known as haylage- as well as wheat or barley that is grown on any open ground for a cover crop that is also made into hay.

Have raised dorset sheep, and had 12 sows of hampshire and duroc and berkshire breeds to raise feeder pigs to sell. Had 150 layers for free range pasture eggs.
Royal Palm Turkeys for years
Had about 10 tanks of tropical fish just because I like then and will again once I get settled in the new house.

 

[Baymule]

@farmerjan what did you like or dislike about the Royal Palm turkeys? They are very eye catching! Nothing like eye candy to go along with meat purposes. Did they set their eggs and raise their own young?

 

[farmerjan]

Liked the Royal Palms More active but not aggressive behavior. Set and hatched and raised their own poults. Not quite as big as some of the other breeds. I only have some experience with the Bourbon Reds also, and they too were pretty good at setting and raising their own. Only reason I got out at the time is I moved and no good place to keep them. Turkeys do much better out with room to roam some. A small "pen" just doesn't suit them well. They will eat alot of bugs and stuff if out foraging. Neither is broad breasted so they can breed naturally.

 

[Baymule]

I really don't need to add another species, but it is tempting. LOL