ANIMALS ON THE HOMESTEAD - OUR PLAN (SO FAR)

No, I am NOT building the next Noah's Ark!

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I thought that I would take a moment to take inventory of our animals and share with all of you the reasons that we have each of the animals that we do. While we have had some others in times past, and while there are some others that we may wind up with one day, the purpose of this post will just be to show you the animals that we currently have and why we have them. Hopefully this will put some things into a better perspective for some of you. Enjoy!

THE ANIMALS ON OUR HOMESTEAD AND WHY WE HAVE THEM

Chickens are one of the common animals that can be found all around the world. Because they are so useful and yet smaller, they are one of the first animals that many people use either to survive, or when they are starting a homestead or becoming more self-sufficient. For us, they are a continuous source of eggs and a source of meat too. Since we also keep roosters, we can hatch out eggs as well and make a new generation of chickens any time that we desire. Besides being useful for eggs and meat, chickens also help reduce the pest population in the area by eating all sorts of bugs and insects. As an added bonus, their manure can be composted and used to feed our garden and other plants.

Muscovy Ducks are a lot like chickens in some ways. They can produce an excellent amount of eggs and their eggs are larger than chicken eggs. Also, they grow bigger than chickens and can provide a lot of meat. Many people claim that the meat changes flavor as the birds age and can even taste like venison or roast beef on an old enough bird. We like them because they reproduce very well on their own and can do an excellent job of feeding themselves in the summer months. Any edible creature that can not only make us more of themselves but also do a great job at feeding themselves and their young is a great animal for the homestead in our opinion. The young ducklings are really good at eating flies too. Thankfully, these are also getting along great with our Guinea Fowl and Chickens!

Speaking of Guinea Fowl, here's a photo of one of ours. These were purchased with a group effort that @vcelier and @matthewtiii pitched in on. Like our Chickens and Muscovy Ducks these birds can also do a great job of reproducing. Moreover, besides the meat and the eggs, these are a key component in our pest control posse. Guinea Fowl are common on many homesteads partially due to their reputation of being tick-eating machines. Since there are certainly enough ticks down on our land, we are hoping that they can get to the ticks before the ticks get to us. Since ticks like the taller grass too, our grazing animals should be removing some of the tick habitat for us.

At the moment we have two types of sheep here on our homestead. We have the Jacob's Sheep pictured here plus some Shetland/Finn cross sheep. We like sheep for many reasons, but they also seem to be the easiest chore on the homestead. Both varieties that we have are wool sheep so we have to shear them each year. This adds another job on the homestead, but a friend has offered to teach our @little-peppers how to spin wool this year, so these sheep also have the potential to add another layer of self-sufficiency, income, and skill to our homesteading crew. The primary purpose for these sheep here on our homestead will be edible lawnmowers. They can keep the grass trimmed, fertilize it as they go, reproduce to make sure we do not run out, and provide a healthy and trustworthy food supply for us too. So far they are doing excellent, and we look forward to having sheep for years to come.

While our land and especially our pastureland may be limited, we still have a heifer on our homestead. We were able to trade three piglets to a nearby friend for this beautiful cow back when we were getting rid of our pigs, so it was an offer that we couldn't refuse. Thankfully, this little girl is a Dexter heifer, and they require about half as much pasture as other cattle. We are hoping to breed her this summer and then have her calf in the following spring. The goal is to have her as a milk cow. If she calves a male we will most likely raise him for meat, but if she calves a female we will probably sell it. Whether we end up with meat or money as a byproduct doesn't matter much to us, we are mostly hoping for the milk! So far she's growing, but we've still got to get her friendly. Much like with our sheep, we are hoping that she can help keep the grass form growing too tall and therefore reduce the tick habitat.

Goats are another fun one on our homestead. While sheep are mostly grazers goats are more known for browsing. The have an appetite for plants like Poison Ivy and Blackberry bushes so they will be used to help "tame" our land. I'm currently working on fencing in some larger areas for them so as the plants in the forest begin to wake up these goats can help remove some of the less useful ones for us. Like the sheep they will be part of an edible property maintenance crew that also reproduces after its own kind. Also, some of the goat varieties that we have are commonly known as "milk goats," so that will be another source of milk for our family, along with the cow. So far ours have pretty much respected the fencing that we have provided them, and we are super excited to watch them clean up the woods for us this spring and summer.

While we have switched the purposes for our rabbits recently, we've still got some on the homestead. At the moment their primary purpose is manure. Rabbit manure is called "cold manure" because it does not need to be composted prior to garden use. Some other manures contain so much Nitrogen that they are called "hot manure" and can "burn" your plants if you apply the manure directly to the garden. To skip the composting stage is a huge bonus for us and we are looking forward to the results of using more rabbit manure in our garden this year. While rabbits are also just nice to have around, we also like to breed them as a potential animal for sale or trade. At the moment we are just having fun mating some different colored ones and watching the results of the breeding in the next generation.

As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:

proof-of-animals-on-our-homestead

Until next time…

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GIF provided by @orelmely

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