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grayghost668

A True Doomsday Prepper
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since getting into the goats I have learned that there may be more money in selling the milk and cheese than in selling the goat kids,,,,the milk will sell for $12 per gallon if sold by the quart and the cheese is just as pricey,,,,,,with just 20 does this is a $20k+ business a year,,,,there is a lot to learn over the next 2 years
 
since getting into the goats I have learned that there may be more money in selling the milk and cheese than in selling the goat kids,,,,the milk will sell for $12 per gallon if sold by the quart and the cheese is just as pricey,,,,,,with just 20 does this is a $20k+ business a year,,,,there is a lot to learn over the next 2 years
Have you looked into all the requirements to gets certified to legally sell in your state? AR may not be as strict.
 
GG, look carefully at both sides. $20k of income sounds great. But what does it cost in time, money, and talent? Housing, feed, medicine, losses, customer acquisitions, heating, predators... it adds up. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but look carefully before you leap.
 
GG, look carefully at both sides. $20k of income sounds great. But what does it cost in time, money, and talent? Housing, feed, medicine, losses, customer acquisitions, heating, predators... it adds up. I'm not saying it's a bad idea, but look carefully before you leap.
have you ever heard the old saying,,,,no pain no gain,,,,, there are risks in everything we do,,,even walking down the front steps of your home
 
https://milk.procon.org/raw-milk-laws-state-by-state/according to this you don't even have to have State inspections. . . You are in raw milk heaven if I am understanding this. Here we are regulated by the state and just to bring your milking parlor up to code would cost a fortune, plus the monthly inspections and the constant milk analysis done, which cost the seller.
 
If we didn't have cayotes and red foxes so regularly on our rural place, I'd consider having a few goats. I find them very entertaining personally. But the former owner (who lives next door with his daughter now) said the red fox got all his chickens. We've seen those three times on the property in as many years. Our other neighbor said the cayotes (or foxes, he's not sure) got all of his 40 guineas. Just don't think small livestock raising is going to be possible there, or at the very least, a real battle to maintain safely (or profitably). We HAVE a chicken coop already there, but cayotes and foxes dig under any kind of fencing you put up.
 
Chickens are all about night-time security. 95% of the predators come at night (if not near the woods) and you've got to lock up the hens if you want them alive in the morning. Now, guineas, I have no use for them. Loud, won't stay in coops, and small eggs. Only good for an alarm clock (eagles, coyotes, snakes, airplanes, people... anything moving). Guineas will end up roosting in trees and the owls will pick them off.

But back to chickens, they are great. Eat the grasshoppers (good for garden). Eggs are great. And in the end they're tasty.
 
If we didn't have cayotes and red foxes so regularly on our rural place, I'd consider having a few goats. I find them very entertaining personally. But the former owner (who lives next door with his daughter now) said the red fox got all his chickens. We've seen those three times on the property in as many years. Our other neighbor said the cayotes (or foxes, he's not sure) got all of his 40 guineas. Just don't think small livestock raising is going to be possible there, or at the very least, a real battle to maintain safely (or profitably). We HAVE a chicken coop already there, but cayotes and foxes dig under any kind of fencing you put up.

We are in the woods here and have lots of predators. I had our chicken house made strong with zero way for any predator to get in.

The run was dug down and we put strong welded wire (1/2” mesh) across the bed of the run and surrounded the entire run with 6’ wide treated boards set into the ground with the wire wrapped around it. Then we thickly covered all surrounding area for a few feet wide with rocks. They are at least 10” thick. The run walls are the same strong wire, but 2” mesh. We also had a metal roof put on. Nothing gets in there. I don’t even have to close the door to the chicken house at night...but most of the time I do anyway.
 
Burying wire around a pen will probably work. It's what my Dad put around his 20x20' hunting beagle pen. He had some incredibly, persistent diggers in his pack, too. Once he installed rolled, gnarled-up chicken wire in a 1' trench around the pen, the escaping and digging stopped. He didn't have to go the rock route, but with cayotes around, I'd probably do both. he didn't have a problem with cayotes in Texarkana. I will likely do the wire treatment if I should ever try to raise chickens and use the coop that is there. There are actually two pens/coops and I could even perhaps raise bunnies or ducks/geese on the other side. :)
 
Chickens are all about night-time security. 95% of the predators come at night (if not near the woods) and you've got to lock up the hens if you want them alive in the morning. Now, guineas, I have no use for them. Loud, won't stay in coops, and small eggs. Only good for an alarm clock (eagles, coyotes, snakes, airplanes, people... anything moving). Guineas will end up roosting in trees and the owls will pick them off.

But back to chickens, they are great. Eat the grasshoppers (good for garden). Eggs are great. And in the end they're tasty.
I have had all my losses at dawn and mid day,but I do have 2 yard mutts and they do a fair job of keeping the predators away,,,,so far this year I am down 4 hens
 
If we didn't have cayotes and red foxes so regularly on our rural place, I'd consider having a few goats. I find them very entertaining personally. But the former owner (who lives next door with his daughter now) said the red fox got all his chickens. We've seen those three times on the property in as many years. Our other neighbor said the cayotes (or foxes, he's not sure) got all of his 40 guineas. Just don't think small livestock raising is going to be possible there, or at the very least, a real battle to maintain safely (or profitably). We HAVE a chicken coop already there, but cayotes and foxes dig under any kind of fencing you put up.
if you really want to have goats but have predator problems, keep a donkey in with them. They do not like anything in their pasture that shouldn't be there and will stomp them! When we had donkeys they would consistently go after our dogs when they went into their pasture.

horned goats are not an easy target either, but your neighbors bird flock is. Something to keep in mind. With that zaid, I wouldn't get them until you are living permanently on the property.
 
Burying wire around a pen will probably work. It's what my Dad put around his 20x20' hunting beagle pen. He had some incredibly, persistent diggers in his pack, too. Once he installed rolled, gnarled-up chicken wire in a 1' trench around the pen, the escaping and digging stopped. He didn't have to go the rock route, but with cayotes around, I'd probably do both. he didn't have a problem with cayotes in Texarkana. I will likely do the wire treatment if I should ever try to raise chickens and use the coop that is there. There are actually two pens/coops and I could even perhaps raise bunnies or ducks/geese on the other side. :)

If things get so bad our delivery system stops or dramatically decreases, you would be able to live off of rabbits and chickens. Just a thought Buttoni.
 
We've got just every predator from bears, wolves, coyotes, fox etc. The only chicken that we've lost was from a coyote. And that's because the gate to the run was frozen open. My fault. Once I chipped about 6" of ice I could close the gate. No more problems.
We did lose 11 ducks to coyotes one night. The ducks don't return to the coop at night. I'm in the process of building a duck house and run so that doesn't happen again.
 

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