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Post by leree1019 on Feb 28, 2011 9:34:24 GMT -5
I just signed up today! A little background...
My hubster and I are relatively new the "homesteading" thing. We have had a small kitchen garden for a few years. The more we are learning about different subjects the more we are seeing this way of life is for us! Also a necessity for our kiddos and (one day) grand kiddos. So now we are in homesteading hyper-drive. And a bit over whelmed!
Here is what we are working with:
A flock of chickens for eggs, working on the chickens for eating.
We have about a half an acre hidden in a small downtown area
We have 1 very kind and very accomidating neighbor.
Some dogs, some cats, some kids, and a feed store ( which helps immensely in this endeavor)
This is what i need to know ASAP:
Corn, anything, growing it, eating it, grinding it all of it!!!
Dairy goats
Hunting
Canning and
Seed Saving
Thanks for looking! I look forward to learning from all of you!
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Post by ottawagardener on Feb 28, 2011 10:17:59 GMT -5
Welcome! Sweet deal to have 1/2 an acre in the city. Lots of information on here for what you're looking for. Looking forward to you posts!
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Post by garnetmoth on Feb 28, 2011 10:39:39 GMT -5
Very cool. We are in the city and have rabbits and chickens.
Goats- Ive read you need good strong fences, and that actual goat milk tastes way better than what they sell at the store.
Hunting- what and where? I remember seeing on the news that around the city here you can get hunting license for some of the larger parks and donate some of the catch to the freestore. Weve got a lot of city deer.
Seed saving- Seed to Seed by Ashworth is a pretty good book. A lot of seed is saved as-is. Salad burnet and Chives (first of the season for me) -shake/squish seeds out onto a plate of bowl. leave in open air to dry, label and put in paper envelopes (or plastic once you get a hang of making sure theyre dry enough not to mold). for tomatoes, search fermenting seed (i actually use Oxy Clean as described on tomatoville forum, havent noticed any germination reduction)
Welcome aboard!
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Post by ozarklady on Feb 28, 2011 11:33:41 GMT -5
Dairy goats: I have had 1 or more (up to 35) since 1984. I wouldn't want to not have a goat!
But too much of anything is still too much, so get the amount you can care for and handle.
Best of all: start with babies, or just weaned bottle fed goats.
A friendly animal is much easier to learn with than an animal that you can't catch!
You could start with a friendly adult, but you miss out on some of the bonding, just like the difference in getting a puppy or an adult dog.
Fences: I have 3 dairy goats, one will not get out unless she can just walk out, as in, the gate is open, 1 will jump if there is a low spot anywhere to be found, and 1 appears to be able to fly and cannot be kept inside a fence. Wanna guess which one is likely to become goat jerky? As soon as, he has kids on the ground, he will be gone, and replaced with a new young buck, hopefully one that will not "fly". I guess that says it all, some goats are not difficult to keep up and some are impossible to keep up unless you have 12' fences. My goats have roughly 2 acres for 3 goats, so not penned in an area to need out to run! The "escape artist" attitude really is an individual thing. Where does he go? Straight to the porch to beg at the door to get inside, and he was never raised in the house, he just prefers people to goats. I like him too, but inside the fence! But, his escape artist tendencies will prevent me from having a garden, orchard or anything, so I have to be tough about this.
Goats don't give the amount of milk that a cow would, but you still wouldn't need too many to supply a household. I had 2 does, that gave a gallon each per day, and even with 4 children to drink it, we were overrun.
To me, at least, the best flavored milk is Saanen or La Mancha, the others tend to have a high cream content, and easily picks up "off" flavors from their diets etc.
Contrary to popular tin can myths, goats are fairly picky eaters, except they love your flowers, garden and orchard! They do well on a diet that is 75% brush, greens, or hay, and about 25% grains. I am speaking calories here and not quantity of feed. Remember: garbage in, is garbage out. If you do not feed your goat like a dairy animal, you can't expect much out of them, both in quantity and in quality. You want to offer them fresh foods, and good quality hay, as well as, go easy on the grains, but enough to keep them "well padded". Try to think of grains as dessert, and the greens, brush and hay as the serious part of the meal.
My goal this year is to train my dairy does to be: pack and cart pulling goats, to help out with chores around here, and enter act with them more. Also they make a garden plow that is goat powered, which, I may try to train the dogs to pull that also.
My chickens are often in "chicken tractors". So animals work on a homestead and don't just set in a factory pen! But, they also enteract with their owners and get exercise, fresh air, and health care as needed.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 28, 2011 11:41:08 GMT -5
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Post by leree1019 on Feb 28, 2011 12:07:39 GMT -5
HA hA!Can you imagine a bunch of goats in a tree in the pine barrens?? |
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Post by leree1019 on Feb 28, 2011 12:07:54 GMT -5
Welcome! Sweet deal to have 1/2 an acre in the city. Lots of information on here for what you're looking for. Looking forward to you posts! Thank you! |
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Post by leree1019 on Feb 28, 2011 12:08:48 GMT -5
Very cool. We are in the city and have rabbits and chickens. Goats- Ive read you need good strong fences, and that actual goat milk tastes way better than what they sell at the store. Hunting- what and where? I remember seeing on the news that around the city here you can get hunting license for some of the larger parks and donate some of the catch to the freestore. Weve got a lot of city deer. Seed saving- Seed to Seed by Ashworth is a pretty good book. A lot of seed is saved as-is. Salad burnet and Chives (first of the season for me) -shake/squish seeds out onto a plate of bowl. leave in open air to dry, label and put in paper envelopes (or plastic once you get a hang of making sure theyre dry enough not to mold). for tomatoes, search fermenting seed (i actually use Oxy Clean as described on tomatoville forum, havent noticed any germination reduction) Welcome aboard! Thanks for your tips! I will check that book out! Do you use the rabbits for meat? |
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Post by leree1019 on Feb 28, 2011 12:10:29 GMT -5
Dairy goats: I have had 1 or more (up to 35) since 1984. I wouldn't want to not have a goat! But too much of anything is still too much, so get the amount you can care for and handle. Best of all: start with babies, or just weaned bottle fed goats. A friendly animal is much easier to learn with than an animal that you can't catch! You could start with a friendly adult, but you miss out on some of the bonding, just like the difference in getting a puppy or an adult dog. Fences: I have 3 dairy goats, one will not get out unless she can just walk out, as in, the gate is open, 1 will jump if there is a low spot anywhere to be found, and 1 appears to be able to fly and cannot be kept inside a fence. Wanna guess which one is likely to become goat jerky? As soon as, he has kids on the ground, he will be gone, and replaced with a new young buck, hopefully one that will not "fly". I guess that says it all, some goats are not difficult to keep up and some are impossible to keep up unless you have 12' fences. My goats have roughly 2 acres for 3 goats, so not penned in an area to need out to run! The "escape artist" attitude really is an individual thing. Where does he go? Straight to the porch to beg at the door to get inside, and he was never raised in the house, he just prefers people to goats. I like him too, but inside the fence! But, his escape artist tendencies will prevent me from having a garden, orchard or anything, so I have to be tough about this. Goats don't give the amount of milk that a cow would, but you still wouldn't need too many to supply a household. I had 2 does, that gave a gallon each per day, and even with 4 children to drink it, we were overrun. To me, at least, the best flavored milk is Saanen or La Mancha, the others tend to have a high cream content, and easily picks up "off" flavors from their diets etc. Contrary to popular tin can myths, goats are fairly picky eaters, except they love your flowers, garden and orchard! They do well on a diet that is 75% brush, greens, or hay, and about 25% grains. I am speaking calories here and not quantity of feed. Remember: garbage in, is garbage out. If you do not feed your goat like a dairy animal, you can't expect much out of them, both in quantity and in quality. You want to offer them fresh foods, and good quality hay, as well as, go easy on the grains, but enough to keep them "well padded". Try to think of grains as dessert, and the greens, brush and hay as the serious part of the meal. My goal this year is to train my dairy does to be: pack and cart pulling goats, to help out with chores around here, and enter act with them more. Also they make a garden plow that is goat powered, which, I may try to train the dogs to pull that also. My chickens are often in "chicken tractors". So animals work on a homestead and don't just set in a factory pen! But, they also enteract with their owners and get exercise, fresh air, and health care as needed. Great info! I am only looking to get about 1 or 2. I see you talk about a buck but i don not think that is in the cards for me. Can you artificially inseminate goats? And what to do with the kids. Is there a good age for "goat jerky"  |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Feb 28, 2011 12:39:44 GMT -5
HA hA!Can you imagine a bunch of goats in a tree in the pine barrens?? Perhaps the Jersey Devil is a Tree Goat. |
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Post by garnetmoth on Feb 28, 2011 18:44:26 GMT -5
leree1019: Rabbits- depends if youre offended or not :-)
Love the tree goats.
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Post by leree1019 on Feb 28, 2011 18:59:14 GMT -5
leree1019: Rabbits- depends if youre offended or not :-) Love the tree goats. I am a country girl at heart ( I grew up in the corn belt and believe that all animals must earn their keep. I know it's not popular, but that's just me) . It takes quite a bit to get me "offended" I was wondering if it might be worth it to try 1 or two and see how well it is received on the table before I get more. |
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Post by garnetmoth on Feb 28, 2011 20:43:35 GMT -5
Good thing! Most of my family are offended, although they all eat meat. we had one from a meat CSA when we lived in TN, and liked it pretty well, took us about a year to get ours breeding (both does lost 1st liters, went down to 1 good doe, now we have her and 2 of her offspring) the Cal x NZ really seem to put on weight a little quicker than the purebreds. Our downtown historical market carries dressed rabbit. You might try rabbittalk.com and see if anyone is in your neck of the woods. Its good with bacon, red wine sauce, white wine sauce, and orange ginger glaze so far. Ive read its good BBQed but I like its subtle sweetness and that might be lost in BBQ. We have a local Indian restaurant that makes a goat curry- I just dont like all the bones in my curry. Tastes OK, id just debone it first if it were mine. |
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Post by ozarklady on Feb 28, 2011 22:05:18 GMT -5
It is possible to AI dairy goats. I just find it difficult to catch the right moment. So, I keep a buck, just long enough to do his job. Then it is either dinner or sale barn.
I have butchered pygmy goat bucks at weaning. Those are some meaty little goats.
My kids were not bothered by eating the animals. They often got half the meat for butchering for folks, or got spending money.
My cousin's children wouldn't eat rabbit. They raised them. So, when the kiddos weren't "convenient" my cousin would cook rabbit and dumplings, and she would shred up the meat, remove all bones. Those guys never knew the difference.
You can use rabbit in any chicken recipe and not notice a difference.
So that is how the buck keeps getting out? ;D He has a collar and chain tonight. Let's see if he still gets out!
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Mar 1, 2011 2:01:29 GMT -5
We never kept male testicled mammals around the farm, but there was always a neighbor's animal nearby that was glad if our females came for a visit.
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