Appreciate the kind words and thanks for watching!

@@EvergreenFarm19 your welcome dear

That’s awesome! Doing it right for sure. It’s fascinating to see how much they enjoy fresh forage and watching how quickly they work the land. Also to your point, it makes a much happier and healthier animal. Best of luck finishing them out!

Open to your thoughts

I do really like the as needed mindset so you don’t have to worry about preservation. Like I said we’d most likely have some power for freezers but ya never know!! I didn’t even know you could eat Guinea pigs lol. We’ll I figured you could but haven’t heard of it. Thanks for sharing!

I would agree. Definitely need diversification if possible! The fort idea is really cool. Probably not in the cards for most but a really interesting concept for sure! Thanks for sharing

Great breakdown! I do truly think you could manage to make any one of these work if it’s your sole focus. Some will be easier than others depending on location/climate/size of land as you mentioned. We did have IPPs here and for whatever reason they rooted like crazy as well! Food over winter will probably be the biggest challenge for most of the larger choices so it pays to have some hay stocked up or ability to cut / trade / buy some. The pigs actually love that as well. Thanks for sharing!

​@@EvergreenFarm19if you are rotating your animals as you should and have a winter sacrificial pasture you need almost no hay unless you are in an area which gets deep snow. Each animal I chose was for different size properties. You need the proper space for whatever you choose. Not just a single large pen and never move your animals. Parasites will be a big issue if not moved and hay will be required in larger amounts. Most animals don't NEED grain. But society has been taught to use it since it's easier.

@denisewilson8367 correct. We don’t feed any grain to the sheep. We do however get some good snows which is why we keep hay

The eggs would definitely be a great bonus!

Definitely comparable to sheep in this situation!

If you have enough forage, I think you could make it go but that may be tricky depending on time of year and location

Possible for sure but I haven’t heard of many smaller scale operations with this issue. Animals definitely get sick and it’s important to take the correct measures as you say. Thanks for sharing - it’s a great point!

Appreciate the feedback! Goat would be great as well and very comparable to sheep in this situation. You can also milk sheep. Depending on the breed you’ll have some foraging characteristics of goats as well. Our katahdins will eat a lot of weeds, browse and tree leaves. I wasn’t sure how if they would until I saw them up on their hind legs going after low hanging branches!

Makes sense haha

Haha not sure about that one!

Definitely a good one. There’s tons of comments on the main video from viewers on rabbits. Makes me want to consider them

It’s not exactly free ranging if you don’t have the space to do that. We do but it’s still not our best option and they’d destroy what you have in terms of pasture

Most people aren’t going to go rogue and live off the land. We’re talking about one animal you’d raise in a survival situation. It’s hypothetical obviously with a lot of “it depends” but something to think about

I actually don’t think our sheep are that noisey. We have 2 big chest freezers and another upright so plenty of space. I have about 30 chickens, some turkeys, a bunch of beef, pork, lamb, bear and broth from the chickens haha well prepared

Sheep are wolf bait, no food - no energy to knit with or cut firewood with..

These are hair sheep but you could definitely go with wool!

Now we’re talking! Let me know when you have them ready. You found a buyer for sure haha

Well said thanks!

Sheep are wolf bait..

No wolves here but yes coyotes can be a concern. Fortunately no issues but they’re around

You’re right. We ran some in a composting system last fall (did supplement with some grain). You could in theory run them without and it would just take longer to grow out but our egg layers get no grain. They’re 100% free range. Problem with that at large scale and for survival would be you can’t afford to lose birds so you probably couldn’t just have them going wherever

Definitely a bonus that I didn’t even talk about. Would be a huge nutritional boost as well. Although ours don’t have wool. They’re hair sheep so shed every spring/summer

While ours don’t have wool I really want to get into milking at some point. Had sheep yogurt and it was fantastic!!

@@melissaskaggs7229 interesting!

Real life my friend

Now that’s an interesting one! Obviously there’s a lot of detail that’s open ended by design. Assume you’re able to get whatever you choose for this but doesn’t hurt to be realistic. The thought of moving toward the ocean is a good one. I wouldn’t have the experience to do much else than catch “some” fish haha but sounds like you do so that would be great!

Also would be cool to raise fish. We have a pond with small bass/bluegills. Could probably add some catfish

Trapping is fair game in this situation and sounds like would be great for you! I love duck eggs and meat but unless you’re raising Muscovy ducks I’m not sure what type of meat yield you’d really get. The legs and wings are often very small compared to chicken with a much longer breast. Also concerned about the mess they’d leave if you don’t have a large area to run them

Haha I appreciate your input! We are in Pennsylvania and have hair sheep. Katahdins to be specific. They have proven to be very hardy and display many of the foraging characteristics that goats have. Definitely need to think about overwintering as well. We have plenty of hay but they’ll also eat a lot of the brush in the early winter and spring. Also do have hogs but I’m still skeptical on being able to feed them enough if I couldn’t get feed. But aside from that hogs are great animals to raise

@@EvergreenFarm19 Right now I am in W.Va. but I grew up in both Montana and West Virginia. The problem we have is coyote's, bear, and wild boar and swine. With all the rain and predators it is kind of hard to keep sheep alive. But with good dogs it is not that hard. I am thinking of only one and in MT and WV we need something that can fight back. W.Va. is easy because how fast everything grows here and the grass is green year around. SO! much clover in the hay. We could get three or four cuttings a year, if it was not for all the rain. Just need the time to dry it. Cattle do very well here, They are good at fighting off predators and same with the Hogs. But the breed of hog is from and for the hills here. On the small farms, anyhow. Montana is a whole thing as well. You have to be a real Cowboy and live with the sheep, cattle, etc. buy following them on your horse. It is dry so it is not really that hard.(Does get very cold) But in WV it would SUCK! 😂Dry snow is so much better than cold rain and wet snow or 100% Humidity every day in the Summer. Anyhow the amount of land you have and have to cover is a big deal as well. I can cover a lot of land in MT easy. But in W.Va. it is real work in the hills and briars. It is also very easy to see coyotes, bear, wolf in MT and remove them. W.Va. they have so many places to hide. It is a lot more work/fun.😁 One last thought. SHTF, I am sleeping with them no matter what and no matter the location, And no matter the animal. I will move with them and they will move with us. Good family and neighbors will help a great deal with this work. After all this is how Nelson Story drove the first herd of cattle from TX to MT, at a time when every human and animal was after his live stock.

Very interesting insight! Definitely can relate to hills and humidity here in PA as well lol. I also think most people don’t realize how hard keeping animals can be in general let alone in MT. So much of all of this is dependent on location and willingness to get it done but certainly possible wherever if you want to make it happen. I’m with ya on a real SHTF situation though. Would be more than just raising them. You’d have to make it part of your life to protect as well

Curious as to how many chickens you think you’d need to survive like that? I want to so bad say chicken and sheep/goats are 1a and 1b but I keep going back to needing so many chickens to make it work

​@EvergreenFarm19 Great question. To start with you need knowledge to survive. To prepare for a food shortage one would be growing fruit and nut tree's, bushes and vines that bear fruit that return every year with little to no care. growing a garden and collecting seed for the next growing season. Also learning about wild edibles too. As for meat and my choice being chickens i would only need about 25 chickens or less at one time. I would not do a mass harvest where I'd need to store them in a freezer or can them or dry the meat. I'd harvest as needed. There's 52 weeks in a year and most chickens are full grown in 6 months. I WOULD NEVER RAISE "MEAT BIRDS"!!! Those chickens are not healthy and die if not all harvested by a certain time. 1 chicken a week would feed me no problem and eggs would be plentiful to hatch and eat and share with neighbors. the bones make great broth for soup and add minerals to our diet. Could do with less chickens if space was limited and a few small hatches to make up the difference as you harvest them for eating. In a survival situation one must think will there be electricity? or would one need to have broody chickens to do the job of hatching? i have bantams (and used to have some dual purpose chickens Rhode Island Reds I'm moving so scaled down at the moment) because they are broody little things so i don't need an incubator. however they tend to go broody a couple times a year and that depends on the chicken. there are many variables and things to consider. Chickens also provide needed fat an very important to a healthy diet. Unlike rabbit that have very little fat. An alternative to chickens would be quail they eat less eat more bugs and eat greens, berries an fruit and take up less space, grow faster, provide fats in our diets, food for them is also easy to grow. if i had a couple sheep or cows or large animals I'm taking bigger risks of not having food if the baby/s didn't make it for some reason. it takes longer for them to be born and longer to grow up an become food. Also i would need a pace to store meat and process it takes a much longer amount of time. if you had a big enough place pigs would be useful. but you said one animal so that's why i chose chickens. currently I'm in town however moving soon to 4+ acres. I have 2 English walnut trees just gave a 3rd 2 year old tree to my neighbor. The squirrels planted them. One of my tree's already giving me nuts. 4 mulberry trees 2 male 2 female. plum trees, apples that came up in my compost i let grow now i have really delicious tasting apples about the side of golf balls on one tree and slightly smaller delicious tasting ones on the other, these grew from seed make delicious apple sauce and apple butter and juice. raspberries i planted, black berries brought to me by the birds. Rose of Sharon bushes because the flower are edible and attract bees as pollinators are needed for the garden and they bloom through out the summer. and 2 grape vines. currently i have garlic chives onion chives sage oregano and mint growing, they all come back every year with little care. Even if those little apples tree fruits didn't taste good the wood could be used for smoking meat used for heat in winter or mulch for the garden. Nothing need go to waste just think of ways for it to be useful. Also how many people are you feeding? that will depend on the amount of food you need no matter what it is.

Great insight! Thanks for sharing. I’ll say your system would most likely work. Only issue I would have is 1 chicken would never last me a week!! Haha and that’s not even including the family. But yea it would all depend on how many you’re trying to support as well. Great stuff!

@@EvergreenFarm19 It would depend on the amount one would eat too. just for myself i figured one would be sustainable for me for a week some times we pig out but isn't necessary tho lol

Very true! Would definitely need to scale it back a bit in this situation. Realistically we’d all be growing some food as well

Getting a lot of chicken comments. Appreciate your thoughts! I’m thinking maybe you could scale with chickens if you run them on compost like I showed in another video. Would need a ton of material but could be doable if you’re able to supplement with other foods. Perhaps a garden

Absolutely depends and that’s what makes it so interesting! Thank you for sharing. I’m not a huge fan of goats but absolutely agree with you they would be right there with sheep in this discussion and may even have some advantages. I’ve also never eaten goat and know many people haven’t (although it is the most widely eat meat in the world I believe) so wondering what type of value it would have for trading purposes. Believe there may be a ton of value in goat cheese and milk but can also do that with sheep too. Appreciate your comment and thanks for sharing

@@EvergreenFarm19 Goat tastes very much like venison -- if you've had venison and liked it, you'd like goat meat. Meat breeds of sheep will produce more meat, faster, than a dairy breed of goat -- you'd have to compare meat goats to meat sheep for a good comparison there. Sheep milk has advantages when it comes to making cheese, as their milk has about double the milk solids as cow milk or most breeds of goats, so you should get twice as much cheese from the same amount of milk. However, some goat breeds do have the same milk solids as sheep (Kinder goats, for example). And goats bred for dairy purposes will stay in milk for ten months (or more -- some does get 'milked through' two years or more without being re-bred), while even dairy breeds of sheep generally only stay in milk for six or seven months. One advantage sheep do have -- the wool breeds -- is the wool. If things were so bad that we couldn't buy anything, having a source of fiber to make fabric and felt would be good. My grandfather's family used to keep some sheep just for the wool to make quilt batts! (I'm sure they did eat surplus animals, too). Something that has to be considered is what you and your family can eat. We have had food sensitivity tests, and learned that my youngest daughter CANNOT eat eggs (and she's doing a lot better without eggs in her diet -- she's got a lot of health problems, including lupus, and she's autistic). So that lets poultry out for us. And after we moved here, I was considering getting hair sheep, instead of goats, but the food sensitivity test showed that I'm moderately sensitive to lamb. So I stuck with goats; I currently have a mix of several meat goats and several milk goats. I do agree with you that small livestock have a number of advantages over cattle, though someone who has the land and the experience to raise cattle may choose them, especially if their land is fenced with a few strands of barbed wire (which won't keep goats or sheep in, and won't keep coyotes out). It can be hard to make a decision -- I've made several spreadsheets evaluating different livestock options in different locations that we've lived. And more spreadsheets comparing breeds of whatever I'm looking at. If we had enough land available, I would keep a few head of cattle (butchering in the late fall, when the weather has cooled off -- if we didn't have power, the meat would get salted, dried, or canned). But I'd also keep some goats, and some rabbits. If we had hundreds of acres of land wooded with nut-bearing trees, I'd probably throw a couple of pigs out there, but otherwise, you'd have to grow a lot of corn, potatoes, and legumes to feed the pigs. (Healthier to eat pork, than eating the corn, potatoes, and legumes yourself, though.)

Well said and a ton of information - thanks!! Very interesting points on food tolerance and sensitivity. I know I knocked the cattle down a little in this one but definitely want to add some in the future as well. Always good to have variety. Also really hoping we don’t actually encounter this situation!! Either way have 3 freezers stocked up with meat as a starter haha. Thanks for sharing and wish you the best

Haha I had to preface that we won’t go down that road. That would make the comments interesting though!

We have hair sheep. Katahdins to be specific. No need to shear. They’ll grow a thick coat for winter and look kind of scrappy late spring as they shed it off

@@EvergreenFarm19 way kool

Lots of good info - thanks for sharing! We don’t actually have a barn to lock them up. Depending on time of year I’ll keep the sheep closer to the house and also have a more secure small pasture to lock them down if needed. Typically early spring when the coyote pups are born is a good time to do that. Otherwise we have large areas of hot perimeter that have done the job. I really want to say chickens would be excellent because of the meat/egg combo but I keep going back to how many you’d need to support a family. Obviously you could still grow food as some of the others have mentioned but in terms of meat yield you’d still need at the very least 1 chicken per day. More if you have a few kids

Interesting take and appreciate you sharing it! I don’t question the importance of earthworms for soil health one bit however, I would be concerned with trying to survive solely on plants. It would certainly keep you alive but likely not viable as a long term option as we need meat to truly sustain health. Would also personally be worried about the uncontrollables that come with growing food but that’s also the case with animals as well. This is where I think it’s important to go with what you know best as well. Can’t just jump into any of these and expect results. Again, thanks for a different view on this!

@@EvergreenFarm19 I have been thriving solely on plants for 16 years. I healed leaking heart valves, high cholesterol, prediabetes, intestinal issues, acne, obesity, and a severe autoimmune disease eating solely plants. I know lots of people who have done likewise. It is a viable long-term option. I'm 60 and stronger, healthier, and more energetic than most people half my age. Thanks for your respectful answer. I enjoy your channel.

@suzyq6767 Appreciate the follow up and Glad you’re healthy and well! Thanks for watching

I’m not sure I’m following this one. Land is certainly more expensive and to your point most people don’t have much of it. In those instances it would make sense to look for something smaller. You also don’t need as much as you’d think to raise sheep/goats with good practices. Understand it won’t work for all though

What are your thoughts as to how many you’d need?

1 Buck and 4 Doe rabbits will keep your family in meat and give you something to barter for other things. Pound for pound rabbits will out produce all the other animals you mentioned. You can also grow all of their feed. ​@@EvergreenFarm19

Rabbits hardly have any fat. If you can't get carbohydrates, you'll be fine. If you can't get protein, you won't be well, but you'll live. If you don't get fat, you will die very quickly.

We aim for 100 growouts a year. Basically 1 per adult per week ... but that's with other sources for dinner (Chicken, Duck, Turkey, Goose, Muscovy) I would say 2 to a week per adult (scale down for munchkins/younglings) if Rabbit were the only thing youve got. Our Rabbitry is housed in a 12' x 4' footprint shed... Theebreeders are fed mainly with about a 1/5th acre hay plot we take 3 cuttings a year on (old school scythe and loose stacked hay) and the growouts are tractored for grazing plus ALL the garden scraps and a 100' x 100' plot of purpose grown perennials. They havebtheir own food plot we harvest from.

Good to know! Thanks

Environment is definitely important. Going to need some space for sheep. The milk is a good idea. I’d be curious on what people would do in a more extreme climate. Seems like that is when the smaller animals would do better.

@@EvergreenFarm19 my choice would be sheep być of my temperatur climate in Central Europe for the Milk, wool, meat and skins. In wärmer climates hairsheep or goats are surly the way to go. Cows Like you say are to big of a Hustle and risk. I would też Ducks, geese ans rabbits for my situation but one day maybe sheep

Awesome! Ducks are great and so are the eggs. Definitely go for sheep someday if you can!

sorry for ranting... Get rabbits

Well said - can’t deny what worked in the past! I agree they’d be great as far as easy to feed, nutrition, space, etc. would definitely need to supplement with other foods or you’d probably need dozens at a time to keep up with your needs. Hope we’re never in that situation as well but good to think it through! Thanks for sharing

Rabbits are also quiet for suburban growing.

Hmmm I certainly hadn’t considered that one but great idea. If you’re in a more rural area with lots of wild game (especially large - deer, bear, etc) this would allow you to focus your time and energy on other needs while having the added layer of security for your home. Very nice. Thanks for sharing!

Interesting haha

That got dark fast..wink wink

You bring up a very good point and I agree that community would be important. The basis of the video was choosing one animal to raise and not necessarily you’ll be alone forever. Obviously could take it much further but would go way too long! Haha. As for the pig feed. It’s doable but challenging. To grow any sort of substantial calories most people wouldn’t have enough land or even equipment. Of course you could hand plant everything but that would take a ton of work. Doable as a community but probably not the best option. And then the community would need more pigs to support. But yes community all raising different things would be ideal! Thanks for sharing - great feedback!