I want chickens so badly! Someday I will. I want the eggs and the lovely fertilizer! I plan to someday raise heritage breeds. I read about them in "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. Great book by the way. 2009-03-28T14:24:16-05:00 false 8638 1958 2009-03-28T14:24:16-05:00 412 We have three miniature donkeys. They are pets, not for consumption, of course! They contribute to the compost pile and have really helped us improve our soil. I'm also a fan of Kingsolver's book on eating locally. Chickens, someday.... 2009-03-28T14:51:34-05:00 false 8641 1958 2009-03-28T14:51:34-05:00 6290 we've got nineteen chickens. going to try to add some ducks this year and rabbits sometime in the future. and fishes. 2009-03-28T15:07:24-05:00 false 8642 1958 2009-03-28T15:07:24-05:00 3098 I would love to do chickens (for eggs, slaughter and manure, plus their weeding abilities), rabbits (slaughter, fur/pelts, and manure), and fish (for slaughter and manure). I am still working on talking the husband into it. He isn't into animals at all. Where as I miss my summers spent working on an Amish farm when I was a kid. 2009-03-28T15:34:10-05:00 false 8644 1958 2009-03-28T15:34:10-05:00 3716 When my husband was 14, he was responsible for approximately 75 chickens including growing the feed for them. I'm relying on his knowledge to help get set up. Cross your fingers that I'll be getting a few as soon as the 4-H has them up for sale. At this point it's just figuring out if I want to keep a tractor or just keep them in a coop/run. Opinions? After I get them established then I'll start working the angle on some sheep or goats. Then the llama. 2009-03-28T16:41:06-05:00 false 8648 1958 2009-03-28T16:41:06-05:00 5903 whirliegig: we just bought a portable electronet to pasture our chickens a couple months ago, and it's working great. you could probably get away with a not electrified fence if it was tall enough. I don't know how much space you're dealing with or how many chickens you intend to have, but pasturing with frequent moves seems like a pretty sweet deal for everyone involved. we used a tractor for a while, but the chickens were giving us dirty looks. building a portable shelter to move with the fence was the most difficult part of using the electronet, and that was relatively easy. and I would like to push ducks. they eat slugs. ducks EAT SLUGS. egg production in the laying breeds also doesn't slow down as much in the dark months as it does with chickens. ducks. 2009-03-28T20:27:20-05:00 false 8653 1958 2009-03-28T20:27:20-05:00 3098 Nice to hear I'm not the only one interested in raising a few animals back by the garden. I remember helping my grandparents on their farm and figure since we've got the room we might as well try it. 2009-03-28T20:33:25-05:00 false 8654 1958 2009-03-28T20:33:25-05:00 4006 I would love ducks, especially since I understand they're better at not scratching the land bare. My question about ducks: how much water do they require? We've been in a drought the past 2 years and on well water. Basically we have no extra resource for the wet stuff. Oh please give me an excuse to build a pond! I'm envisioning a few koi, some lily pads, cat tails, ooh, I'd need something for shade... I'll look more into the electronet. The only concern I'd have at this point is flying carnivores. Thanks for the info! 2009-03-28T21:46:46-05:00 false 8656 1958 2009-03-28T21:46:46-05:00 5903 ducks don't need a pond, just plenty of water to drink. they would probably prefer a pond, though. they don't naturally go inside at night, so the flying carnivores are even more of an issue for ducks than chickens. just means you've got to herd them back in before dark. 2009-03-29T09:35:18-05:00 false 8668 1958 2009-03-29T09:35:18-05:00 3098 If we have enough room I would like the chickens to be totally free range during the day and just lock them up at night to keep them safe from racoons and possum and stuff. When I had chickens we didn't have problems from flying carnivores, just racoons, possum, and a stray dog once. If we dont have a property where we can just let them go where they want to then I will get a tractor. When I had chickens we had to teach them how to go to the coop at night. They were free range and decided a low tree limb was a good place to spend the night. After a couple of nights of moving them though they learned where to go and even when we moved the coop to the other side of the house they didn't really have a problem. So chickens don't eat slugs? I know they eat just about everything else. I never remember seeing them eat slugs, but I don't really remember seeing many slugs at all. I did see them eat snakes, moles, all sorts of things..... 2009-03-29T09:52:40-05:00 false 8671 1958 2009-03-29T09:52:40-05:00 5992