Truly a sick a person...

"Susana" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

lee

In fact, our plan is to try to get chickens this year for eggs and meat, honey bees next year, then the following year let the boys raise rabbits for 4-H, you can bet that we will eat the extra ones, and if that makes us monsters, so be it.

Regards, Ranee (who has eaten frog, rattlesnake, ostrich, buffalo, alligator, elk, venison, rabbit and other recently classified strange meats)

Ranee Mueller wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.harbornet.com:

well, nothing, but it wasn't a meat rabbit. i couldn't really tell from the picture if it was a dwarf or not, but house rabbits aren't exactly worth the effort unless you're desperate. kinda like eating squab or cornish hens. lots of effort to pluck & cook, too many bones for very little muscle.

we have chickens for eggs. i hate plucking so they're safe from the stewpot. the steer, OTOH, is just waiting to go into the freezer. Tom has a "thing" about bugs, so he's nixed the idea of bees so far. if we end up with an orchard at the next house (likely considering the area we're looking in) then he'll just have to learn to live with them because i'll insist.

had any yak yet? i'm looking at starting a small herd... quivet (thier undercoat) sells for good money, the meat is good (better than buffalo, less cholesterol than skinless chicken breast) & you can ride & work them too. all around useful :) lee

Ranee Mueller wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.harbornet.com:

oh, i know how. it's just messy & stinks. i used to pluck the gamebirds my dad shot.

i hope you like eggs :) we're down to 4 chickens ATM (lost 2 to a fox & one to egg binding), but even in the middle of a New England winter we're getting 2-4 eggs/day. we're going to get a few more layer chicks in the spring so we have enough eggs to sell the extras. i'd like to get a couple heritage turkeys. i feed the wild ones here, but it's not like i can go out & grab one for dinner. funny how they all disappear during turkey season...

less room than a cow. they don't need anything but graze or hay (no grain) & eat about a third of what a cow does. they are more friendly than llamas or alpacas if they are imprinted at birth... IOW, you want to get one from a reputable breeder, not someone who keeps a herd out on range & pretty much ignores them. yaks have been domesticated far longer than cows actually & are used as farm machinery & riding animals in Tibet. i would say they are safer around kids than a steer or cow.

We're looking into alpaca, for fiber, but that

musk ox are not very domesticated, so i wouldn't trust them around kids. yaks you can brush. musk ox you gather the quivit, that is, you pick little bits of shed undercoat off bushes. they don't stand to be brushed out. there are heavy wool llamas with fiber almost as fine as alpaca & there are cheap alpacas available... i just saw a couple of unregistered ones go for $500 each last week. i would have bought them but i don't want to add to the herd since we're planning to move to another state this summer. i have enough to move already... although Tom wants to sell everyone but the old pygmy/dwarf nubian goat. he likes that goat. anyway, llamas/alpacas are much easier to keep than most large animals. you need good 4' fencing, a 3 sided shelter, water & about an acre for two. llamas & alpacas should never be solitary. guard llamas bond with thier sheep, but that's still a herd, just different species. i give mine grain when it's really cold, otherwise they only get hay from late October to late April. they graze in the summer. lee

How awkward for them! Amusing but you have got to feel sorry for those birds in that unnatural state. I don't have any problem with people eating meat, it's how it's produced that bothers me.

LauraJ

"Laura J" wrote in news:wDIYd.1692$FB6.1026@trndny09:

not all meat is raised that way & you would do wonderful things for small farmers if you were to look for humanely raised meat (even better if you can buy it direct from the farm). we free range our chickens & you wouldn't believe how much better the eggs are. besides supermarket eggs are usually old, over a week (fresh eggs do not hardboil well. the shells stick). our steer was grass fed (we used apples & grain as treats though. don't carry a cup of cider into the pasture unless you want to share) & handled enough so that he wouldn't be stressed at shipping. stress makes meat tough. i hope to have a couple feeder pigs when i have more room. pigs are very intelligent & do really well on pasture, although they root so they need to have lots of pasture rotation. they also need shade as they can't sweat (they wallow in mud to get cool. they'd prefer clean water though) & they sunburn easily. anyway, check with your state ag dept. & i'll bet they have a list of organic or humane livestock producers or check here:

i hope to have my farm certified humane. i can't afford organic certification yet, but i do use organic methods.lee

Lee, I agree with you 100%. When I became a vegetarian 15 years ago, however, there weren't the options that there are today. I was also a teenager at the time and so wasn't in charge of my own spending and food-purchasing choices. Unfortunately, now, I don't think my digestive system would like me going back to meat even if I was interested in doing so (and I do admit to sometimes wishing I could at least try some).

I'm just curious, where do you live? From this and other posts you've made, I get the feeling that you may be living my dream life!

LauraJ

"Laura J" wrote in news:45mZd.2443$qN3.1188@trndny01:

i was vegetarian for around 20 years... you have to go slow if/when you start eating meat again. meat still isn't my favorite thing. i have a housemate that is vegetarian & hates vegetables:) he eats a lot of what my SO calls "I can't believe it's not food" (after the fake meat brand 'I Can't Believe It's Not '), all kind of soy stuff made to look like meat.

currently in NH, but looking to move to upstate NY where we can get a nicer house & way more land for much less than here. after selling this house & 62 acres, we should be able to buy a slightly larger house (with insulation! ) & around 120 acres. the most difficult of the livestock to move will be the chickens. there are huge restrictions on moving poultry (rightly though. avian flu is a big problem in some areas). the llamas & goats are easy. lee

Oooh, that is rough! Luckily I love (most) vegetables. Living in the city, you wouldn't think I'd have access to much locally grown stuff but there are a surprising number of really good farmer's markets around so we frequent those as much as we can. There's also one family farm within the city of Boston and we're lucky to live about a mile from it! It borders Brookline and the land is worth a fortune but the kids who inherited it from their grandparents have chosen to keep it running so it is well worth spending the extra $$ to support their endeavor.

Ah, I see you are going through what we are going through right now - trying to figure out a more affordable place to live! We would love to move to Vermont, even found the perfect house, but there just aren't any jobs for DH (we're both computer programmers but I am lucky enough to work out of my home). Real estate in Boston is just ridiculous and we are definitely not suburb people (city or country I'll take but not in between). When we do move and I get annoyed at what a pain it is, I will remember how much of a bigger job it will be for you with all the animals :) Do you run a commercial farm or do you keep them for your own personal use?

LauraJ

Ranee Mueller wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.harbornet.com:

2-3 ares would be plenty of space for 3 alpacas! you could subdivide & set up rotational grazing with that. we have 3 pastures we can rotate through. rotational grazing is good because it lets grass regrow. also, if the areas are brushy you don't have to clear them & plant pasture first (as long as the brush is not rhododendron or mountain laurel family, that is, non-toxic). alpacas eat brush. i neutered all my males, but mostly because they're all interrelated, except for Russian. he was (is) too high-strung & that is an inheritable trait in lamas. if you get a male for breeding, you will either have to sell him after a few years, or use him for only outside breeding, or sell all his female progeny. you don't want to inbreed. not having a male means you need to find a stud & transport the girls, but i think it gives you more choices in the long run. a female can have a cria annually for over 15 years (although that's not as likely if you don't have the males, since it requires breeding back within a month of birth. gestation is around 360 days). normally males are no more trouble than females unless they were overhandled as babies (never get a bottle raised male lama!)... i don't know about alpacas, but some male llamas will try to kill male crias if they're kept in the same pasture as the females. a batchelor herd will fight to set up pecking order, but they usually get along ok. lee