one thing no one mentiones when you start out with livestock

[Hens and Roos]

what gets me is those who have been in farming but don't consider rabbits and chickens to be livestock and can be taken care of whenever.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

BrownSheep brings up a good point about having "backup". We don't travel often , but when we do it's nice to have some animal loving neighbors who help out. While they enjoy doing it we try to make everything as easy as possible for them.

We have our pens/pastures set up with auto waterers, and a pond. If it's fall or winter we have a round bale out so they don't have to mess with haying the outside goats. I have large hay racks for the smaller pens so they can be stuffed full before we leave. Gravity feeders for the chickens make life easier. We have pvc feeders that will hold almost a week's worth of feed. About the only thing that has to be fed daily are the goats in smaller pens like mama's/babies and bucks. We have gravity feeders for them also, but only use them if the goats have been getting grain and are accustomed to it.

The neighbors get any and all eggs they can find and if it's spring/summer they can have all the garden bounty they can pick. Now, if I could teach them to milk!

 

[norseofcourse]

I once was excused from classes to get a rooster out of an engine block.

This belongs in the "You know you're country if..." section!