Everyone loves farm animals, and many people would love to raise them. But of course, while the benefits of raising livestock are many, it can be a bit intimidating at first to dive in head first to the wide world of animal husbandry. Here’s a few suggestions for easy farm animals that are perfect for beginners:
Bees:
Bees are a great option especially if you don’t have a lot of pasture or yard space. If you make sure bees are right for you, honey and beeswax harvests can be plentiful and they’ll provide wonderful support for your garden as well, after all, they’re nature’s pollinators!
Goats:
Goats are a perfect low-maintenance starter animal for milk and meat producing livestock. Here are five reasons to get goats, but in short: milk, cheese, weed control and they’re totally fun too!
Ducks:
Ducks are super fun and super cute, too! Kids love them and they’re perfect as pets, to whet your pallet for farm animals. They don’t require a whole lot of space and can be very happy with a small shelter and simple pool. One very appealing advantage of ducks is that they will eat bugs in your garden-but won’t scratch it up the way a chicken would.
Rabbits:
Common pets, rabbits are also wonderful options for easy livestock. They don’t take up a lot of space, you can feed them veggie scraps from your kitchen and garden, their meat is delicious and they’re productive-the phrase “breed like rabbits” exists for a reason, you know.
Chickens:
What’s a farm without some laying hens? Chickens are so easy and popular that these days, many people even keep them in their backyard in cities. They are very cheap to feed, are often happy with a simple enclosure or will wander happily around any farm or large property. They can also be tossed scraps from your kitchen and love grains and even fruit and vegetables. They’ll hunt on their own for bugs-just make sure to keep them securely out of your garden or they’ll tear it up!
This is a short list of some easy farm animals to start. Whatever you choose to start with, just remember, it’s all about trial-and-error, learning-by-doing and, most importantly, having fun!
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21 thoughts on “Great Farm Animals for Beginners”
I have thought about raising rabbits do you have someone in mind that you couldn’t buy from
I live in the north Florida area
ZIP Code is 32259
My phone number is 904-631-6919
Any information you can give me would be much appreciated .
Jack
Look on Craigslist.Net that is where I found my 2 female rabbits. Or go into your local feed store. That is how I found my male bunny. I have had my original 3 for 2 full years now. They started having babies when they were right at a year.
Look on Craigslist.Net that is where I found my 2 female rabbits. Or go into your local feed store. That is how I found my male bunny.
Thanks for inrioductng a little rationality into this debate.
I dont get the “hold your nose and vote liberal” thing.I mean, there are other parties you can vote for if you dont like the liberals and conservatives.Vote NDPVote GreenBut why vote for a party that you have to hold your nose in order to do it??
Sorry did not mean to send that twice!
Hi Jack, With all the state fairs going on now, this may be a great opportunity to visit one and check out the rabbits at the fair! You be able to talk to a lot of growers and be able to choose which breed is suitable for your needs. Plus you can have a great time as well while you’re there 🙂
Wow! Great thngikni! JK
It’s great to read something that’s both enjoyable and provides pragmatisdc solutions.
"Steve, you kinda forgot a major issue in transit amongst diversity: safety."Whiskey is not hyperbolizing, even though it is no longer the crack era, when you ride the subway, you'll notice nobody sleeps and everybody watches the doors to see who is entering.Safety-wise, the only benefit I see to mass transit is the reduction of car accidents.
I have a very small farm and started with 2 chickens and 3 rabbits. I now have 3 hens to lay eggs and 20 rabbits. When the Wethersfield cools off I have tagged 12 of the rabbits to go into the freezer. We also have a small stock tank with Sun fish and Bass. Is there a way to catch the fish and keep them to cook another day? Right now, if we catch 2 we toss them back.
Have you thought about adding a small hoop house (green house) made from cattle panels stapled to a rectangular frame covered with non-condensating plastic to house an aquaponics system? Use split food grade barrels lengthwise and create beds to grow veggies and feed them with circulating fish water from a Rubbermaid stock tank. The hoop houses are less expensive than standard type greenhouses. I recommend looking at the “Greenhouse” video by TexasPrepper2. (the 1st one he made showing exactly how to build the hoop house) and anything by Donald Porta on his aquaponics system. I am putting in a 12″ by 24″ one. I have split 5 barrels for 10 beds and I have 2 extra barrels for bio filters to run the fish water through back to the beds. (a chop2 system). I’m making some vertical towers for short root plants like lettuce and strawberries.. I have a homemade solar panel( 250 watts) to connect to a battery bank of 6 batteries to power the one pump, lights and winter heating for off grid use. I’ll be able to add some of my house circuits to it as well.. I added an extra stock panel lengthwise on each side to the frame and short posts where I tied in the 16″ hoop over panel. This give me a middle height of over 7 feet to grow mangos, papayas, moringas and dwarf fruit trees in the middle area with the vertical towers.
Ducks can also be good watchdogs. They’ll give warning noises when something gets too close.
I live in a small rural village. Recently a proposal to allow chickens within the village limits was defeated – by a narrow margin, I understand. They are considered farm livestock. Rabbits, considered pets, are a reasonable alternative. No eggs, yes, but manure for compost and garden. An earlier post mentioned fish in a stock tank. That quite interested me, and I would like to know more about that. How big a tank, cleaning tank, feed etc. Thanks everyone for sharing
Just a PS I forgot to add – rabbits are quiet. Chickens can be noisy characters when joyfully announcing to the world their freshly laid egg. 🙂
Play infovmatire for me, Mr. internet writer.
That’s a well-thought-out answer to a challenging question
Flemish Giant Rabbits weigh 15 pounds on average, though the biggest ones can weigh up to 22 lb. mixed with others such as such as the New Zealand, to increase both meat-to-bone ratio and litter size.. They will need larger cages and require special handling. Google this breed it may be something you desire.
That’s a creative answer to a difiucflt question
Change out bucks every two to three years or you will start getting deformed litters. You might not see it untell they are dressed out. Think of incest.
Keep chickens apart from rabbits. Chickens it will look like a cold will kill rabbit’s like the flu. We lost over a thousand layers in under two weeks time.
I have chickens and 3 geese. I could use some advice about geese from an experienced person. I am experienced with chickens.