SELF SUFFICIENT HOMESTEAD - What LIVESTOCK And HOW MANY of Each

You have your land, beautiful grass growing, and even some fencing up, and now you find yourself asking the question all new homesteaders ask - What livestock should I raise?
If you want to be as self sufficient as possible, producing your own families food with as few outside inputs as possible we are going to help you select the right type of livestock and how many you should purchase.
Before you select your livestock you need to focus on the goal for your homestead. Is your number one goal to feed your family the best quality food you can? Is the goal to run a totally self sufficient homestead, one that you produce all your own feed, forage, etc for your animals, do all your own breeding?
Today's video answers a question from a KZbin Viewer Evie who asks
"Could you do a video on how many of each animal you suggest that a large homesteading family have to be as self sufficient as possible food wise?"
So to help answer Evie and any other of you viewers or readers who are focused on Self Sufficiency, we have a list of livestock that require the most minimal inputs from outside sources that will help feed your family, even when times get tough.
In part 2 of this series we will add a few more livestock options that will help you feed your family, but require more outside inputs and so are less self sufficient.
The Best Livestock For Self Sufficiency Focused Homesteaders
Sheep - An animal that can produce both milk and meat from just grass, sheep are on the top of the list for the self sufficient homesteader. If you have good quality pasture and live in a warm climate you could raise a small flock of sheep to provide your family food from without purchasing much from outside sources. For a large family I suggest starting with 2 Ewes and a Ram, and eventually growing to 4 Ewes. A Ram is a necessity if your family is focused on self sufficiency as you will need to breed your sheep each year for more milk and meat.
Goats - Goats almost magically turn weeds into delicious milk and meat too. Let these hedge trimmers loose on your homestead (well not completely loose, some sort of fencing will be needed) and watch them turn weeds and brambles into food. We like Nubian goats for their tasty high butterfat milk. If your does have buck kids you can raise those for meat, as Nubians can grow quite large. For a large family who want to be self sufficient start with 2 Does and 1 Buck and grow to 4 does.
Chickens - Depending on the breed chickens can be master foragers. Living outside they can find bugs and plants to munch on all day. They will still need some feed, but their diet can be supplemented with scraps from your own family or from your garden, or even with bugs raised to feed them, such as Black Solider Fly Larvae. Each morning you can enjoy harvesting farm fresh eggs, and when it is time to cull birds you will have hens or extra roosters to put in the stew pot or pot pies.
Ducks - Ducks actually out perform chickens in many categories. They are better foragers, produce more eggs, produce bigger eggs, and are more hardy in bad weather. Instead of raising all chickens, add some ducks to your flock. They can live with your chickens and make your homestead even more self sufficient.
Bees - Bees are not right for everyone, but if you like the idea of working with these little guys flying around you, they are one of the most self sufficient animals you can bring onto your homestead. Once you build their initial infrastructure they require almost nothing from you as far as feed goes. Sometimes you will need to supply them with something to help them last the winter, but all spring, summer and fall bees will forage the flowers of your farm, meanwhile creating one of natures most amazing treats.
Fish - If you have water on your property, or a place that would work for installing a pond, you can enjoy another self sufficient system that will help feed your family and provide you with some fun too. A small pond can become completely self sufficient, when properly manage and initially stocked. Watch as bugs, reptiles, birds and of course more fish begin making your pond home, and when you want to take an hour or two to relax load up on pan fish and have a good old fish fry!
These are the BEST livestock for self sufficiency focused homesteaders.
In part 2 of this series we will add to this list a few more animals that you will want if you are more focused on feeding your family, and less worried about ABSOLUTE self sufficiency.
LINKS TO QUOTES
Grassfeeding Challenges - www.sheepandgoat.com/grassfed
Chickens Need More -articles.extension.org/pages/...
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[@PeterSedesse]

rabbits not cows :) 2 bucks and 6 does and 1 rooster and 8 hens are easily enough to feed a family of 4. Can pretty easily get you 16 rabbits, 100eggs and 50 chickens a month. Buy a lamb every 4 months and slaughter at 8 months ( so always have two on farm). That is a ton of protein.

[@babybluehashyo]

If you sprout your grains you can quadruple the amound of feed you have which will not only be more nutritious for your animals but it will fill them up faster. This plus raising worms and snails for your birds could supplement over 60% of your food costs for all your animals if you dont have enough land to raise them just on pasture

[@CaptainMattsWorms]

I have never thought of raising worms as feed for birds. : / I raise millions of worms for fertilizer for my garden and to teach others how to care for them :)

[@defective6811]

@@CaptainMattsWorms name checks out

[@dapooramericanhomesteadfar7192]

I am city guy my whole life. I have been homestead for 3 years. I don't recommend any animals until you are comfortable in killing them. I did start off with chickens and I couldn't kill it because I grew attached to them. I gave them away and just grow crop. I only eat what I can kill. So basically my diet is fish and vegetables.

[@dapooramericanhomesteadfar7192]

@@wayneben7195 it's not stupid and I am not even white. Humans have a genetic traits of compassion. Some of us couldn't cross that traits.

[@nukethenarrative5873]

@@wayneben7195 still managed to enslave da' brothers...

[@zechariahhambone3841]

Trade your chickens with someone else's chickens and kill them before you get attached.

[@bennettfender1546]

DaPoorAmerican Homestead Farming you could always just raise them for eggs.

[@theoriginallele_]

@@wayneben7195 I'm a fully black female and my parents grew up on the farm lifestyle and I myself grow attached to animals very easily. It's easy to judge someone if you haven't been in their shoes. It's unbelievably ignorant of you to make this about race. I'm disgusted by you, you're truly pathetic

[@bettypearson5570]

I grew up on subsistence farm which included all the usual animals including ducks. Ducks are filthy animals, much more so than chickens or even geese. They are great tasting IF COOKED PROPERLY. They are a more precise food to cook than chicken so if you are a multi tasker who doesn't use timers and thermometers you are more apt to pull a tough and greasy bird out of the oven than a fine dining restaurant worthy duck breast that melts in your mouth. And the final opinion that others may disagree with is the eggs. While we had hundreds of chickens we sold eggs which meant there were times all the chicken eggs had been sold so there were no e left for our personal use. Since very few people wanted anything but chicken eggs we were stuck with guinea, goose or duck eggs. Us kids had to fix our own breakfasts and most of the time we were eating fried taters and eggs. My older sister kept telling me that I just had to try cooking at a lower temperature which was good for reducing the rubbery whites but definitely did nothing to diminish that overpowering "richness" of the yokes. I can still remember fighting the gag reflex🤢🤢🤢🤢🤢. Before you get ducks I would recommend buying a dozen or 2 eggs to experiment with. Another option for eggs is using them in baking. Then I would suggest getting a couple dressed out ducks to see how they work out for your cooking style. Who knows, you may think they are worth the mess.

[@havenheritagefarm4525]

With chickens you need to think outside the box as far as feed. Chickens can eat left over human food. They also thrive on clabbered milk. They are omnivores like pigs. They don't necessarily need grain. We have 200 free range chickens. We do Not feed them. They scratch up bugs and clean up cow manure. We have beautiful healthy chickens. We have a herd of cows to support our large flock of chickens. Great Video, lots of great info.!

[@infiniteadam7352]

Do you give them meat scraps also? I could see giving them vegetables but wasnt sure about other scraps.

[@theconstitutionalconservative1]

Notice if you have a different view he won't like it or comment. That's a liberal for ya.

[@Peac249]

i feed my chickens with rice and left overs like fish head, vegetables, corn. I never bye ready made feeds and the chickens are perfectly fine.

[@rochelledavis3423]

We took your advice and got our first cow and absolutely have no regrets. Way easier than the goats. Thank you.

[@xanmontes8715]

Reading this video's comments give me hope for Humanity as a whole. You all are the people that will keep humanity flourishing through the worst the Universe can throw at us.

[@chariseblodgett1862]

I just want to say thank you. We are a family of 6, soon to be 7 as well, our kids are similar ages. It has been so helpful to see how you all do things because sometimes people don't get what life is like with 4 (almost 5) young children. We have been able to work on our property and slowly add animals. We are up to 2 puppies, 12 chickens and 3 turkeys with hopes to add pigs this summer. Thanks again for your videos!

[@mdguthro]

Don't eat the puppies

[@SoldierOfGodKJV]

Michael, why would you say that?

[@amansingh6936]

@@mdguthro hhhhopppplvhhgjiooppkgfr

[@Cookingevie]

Thank you for answering another of my questions!!!

[@thedragonslay3r]

We live next to a large flock of hair sheep. The shepherd is a prepper. He grows his own foods and loves to help others get started. We plan on chickens to get our complete supply of eggs from them. And next door to him on either side are goat farmers (one with normal-sized goats, and one with pygmy goats). We are in a good area for this kind of thing.

[@johnnyblaze2257]

I loveee goats!! 🍽

[@josephhowell6186]

Hi we are joe and angie and we looking for land to start our prepping homestead any advice and help is welcome and appreciated

[@saureco]

@@josephhowell6186 What state are you in or looking to be in?

[@2shay337]

My friend started raising goats: Alpine, Lamancha, and pair of Nubians. Later over the years she found that raising Nigerian dwarfs for meat, and Toggenburgs for milk. The fat content of the Toggenburgs was higest for making dairy foods. The dwarfs produce 2-3 qtrs. of milk and the Toggens 3-4 qtrs. a day. Each breeds would kid most years twins/triplets. And all the males would be used for meat...since a mature male of the N. dwarfs could grow to 30-40 lbs. and as her Buck and does aged out she would hold out one good male Buck from each breed and does for next years stock. But often would take her young, best Bucks and trade with a neighbor that had Bucks of different gene pools, and if he didn't have one to trade at the time, she would sell or trade her Bucks to bring her does to be bred by his Buck and if he didn't keep her young bucks she would give him offspring of next years kids. The dwarfs and Toggenburgs being smaller breeds were lower feeding to maintain.

[@scottdegenaer6322]

Almost watched the whole Video. You left out an important factor (well 2) Your geographical location/environment and amount of land required to range your livestock. For example in my part of west Texas, it takes almost 3 acres of land to graze/feed one cow because we are semi-arid. So you will have to take into consideration the size of your property and or what you have access too for grazing of herbivores. I have a little over one acre in a really small rural town. I have 40 chickens, sell eggs so they pretty much feed themselves as for purchasing feed, but I also free range them as well. Got room for a few goats, been looking into that for couple of yrs now but want to get a good breed for dairy. Maybe 2 nanny and a billy so I can put meat in the freezer as well.

[@angelcastro3129]

good info guys, thanks. Oh Mutton is actually old sheep meat, better put, under a year old its called Lamb, at a year old + is a hogget, and finally adult/mature sheep meat is Mutton. Happy Easter.

[@dunestaniszewski2300]

Yes, I’ve been wanting a video like this for SO long!

[@ladyhawk6999]

One thing city people on these McFarmsteads soon come to realize is this is work, work you cannot sherk ! You feed , water , you clean stalls, tend to health issues no matter the weather , no matter how YOU feel! It's a great life but a lot of work , it keeps you young!

[@HiltsyAdventure]

It would be hard to be completely self-sufficient, even the homesteaders of yesteryear traded and bought goods.

[@Homesteadyshow]

Very very true

[@dapooramericanhomesteadfar7192]

The most realistic comments on homestead.

[@johnnshamu5624]

you trade against what you have that is good enough.

[@adaraperry9996]

What my partner and i planning on doing is butchering for trading goods rather than money so like butcher a cow, we might ask for the hide or if they have something of use for us and not for them. We dpnt want money we want to trade as much as possible

[@dapooramericanhomesteadfar7192]

@@adaraperry9996 labor trading for good is the best form of bartering that I have ever seen. It's also the most realistic one. I have bartering 20 kilograms of daikon for helping wash 200 kilograms of daikon. It's a 10 percent cut. The hard thing about bartering is the scale system of value. That's why money is so popular for centuries. It's easier to get a fair value with money as a scale system.

[@ciphercode2298]

Chicken and rabbits for meat. If milk,cheese,butter are a necessity I'd stick with a few of the smaller breeds of goats. There are miniature breeds of dairy cows too that eat alot less than their full size counter parts,but goats are easy to come by and require less space and resources. Smaller breeds of pigs are still great for meat too and certainly not picky about their diet. Rabbit and chicken manure are great for gardens too.

[@jethrohughes2381]

Man! your Living in what so called the "Fullest" ,When i was a kid I really wanted to deal with nature and create my own food, Now I'm in 2nd year college , I started A Garden at my backyard, but after This , i will start to have my own Land and Do the same as you, Thanks For your video! Helps me a lot

[@tjsfarmandfamily]

Rabbits are probably the easiest and they are very portable. New Zealand and Californian are the meats breeds that you want.

[@bt1vn]

A lot of people will also add flemish giants in to cross with but the bone to meat ratio is a bit high and the feed rate to meat is a bit high to have them as pure bred for meat, the rex and dutch rabbits were also used frequently, rex has the benefit of an amazingly soft velvet like coat if you kept the pelts, but make sure its standard rex not mini rex and dutch are a bit smaller than cali and nzw rabbits but arent too far behind in size. There are lots more than just the californian and new zealand whites but by far are the most popular. My comment wasnt to take anything away from yours, just anyone else reading might learn a little

[@brianthesnail3815]

Rabbit protein is not a sustainable food source. Humans cannot live long term on rabbit meat. It doesnt nutritionally support a human being.

[@tamdonovan244]

Yes New Zealand has great lines in sheep and rabbits

[@Rdwrer]

These videos are so feel good whilst very informative :) thank you for your contribution to the KZbins!

[@thegreatcornholio7255]

Watching this, because my wife and I have been slowly building toward this. For the past 6 years I think, we started w/ chickens then rabbits, and now have both for learning about animals. Now we want to go bigger and move from our 1 acre to much more land, and include goats, ducks, sheep. We'll be somewhere between option 1 and 2 you cited. Probably not "self sustaining", but we'd like to focus on learning about it by trying it with a small set of our animals, just so we'd have the basic know-how if it really ever became a necessity. It's easy to do with rabbits, I can say that. The first time, we had a few babies that were ready to be weaned, and they fell in our yard, and for the life of us we couldn't catch them. My wife said I looked like Mr McGee running around with a fishing net trying. Two grew to butchering size just eating our yard.The other disappeared. Now we purposefully do it with one or two rabbits from the litters we get, and they grow fine. Anyhow, thanks for the video.

[@user-gc7pv7ok9x]

You mentioned land size, can i ask how large is your new land? We just bought a land and it's a little over 1 acre and we are thinking of starting to raise animals like sheep, horse, cow etc However i'm not sure what's a good land size to go for Do you have any advice about this?

[@RobinsFamilyHomestead]

Great advice as always!!!! Thank you!

[@RefinedLook]

wow amazing video...this is what we are looking into: MODERN SELF SUFFICIENCY!!!! Thanks so much...we are looking into developing a homestead and your videos are soooooo helpful ..watch out we'll be following you hahehe

[@MOOSEDOWNUNDER]

Start off with 12 chooks, 6 ducks (if you have a pond) Peking duck is best, load a dam or large pond with trout if possible, 4 pigs Hampshire pigs are awesome tasting, 2 dairy cows. Remember the commitment it takes, dairy cows need milking twice a day, you never get the day off people. Remember that.

[@deblawson1575]

My hens get a little scratch daily and ALL the scraps off our table also they get their own eggs once or twice a month, I do live in a mild climate. We have aprox 2 weeks a year of snow/freezing temps, the rest of the "winter" we have rain.

[@panpiper]

I would think that if you are doing holistic planned grazing on paddocks, and rotating several species through the same paddocks, you might well have enough manure in your paddock to breed sufficient grubs to adequately feed a decent number of chickens, without using external feed. It would really depend on the size of the herds running through the paddocks and the quantity of chickens. Wintering of course might complicate that, but again a sufficiently large compost heap can generate a lot of chicken forage as well, during winter.

[@moreheadhomestead3025]

Just subscribed! We are starting our homestead journey. Look forward to watching your videos and learning from you guys! I’m quite a bit smaller but let me know if you need anything in the Oklahoma area!

[@snakethepeg7828]

Thanks for your expertise. Very helpful for a prospective homesteader like me😁

[@ZZZELCH]

Excellent video. Great perspective.

[@RidgeLife]

Thx for the help We are growing quickly here @RidgeLife!

[@octopussmasher2694]

As a hopeful homesteader I’m more concerned with making a living than eating off of my farm. How would I make enough to support myself without a hundreds of animals?

[@wartdog345]

watching from NZ. thanks for the shout out..... grass for life

[@stuartskrabec1156]

Great video, thank you.

[@Toonstead]

Hi! new sub but been watching for awhile! Yall have a beautiful family and homestead!

[@gingerreid8569]

We have 9 hens and 4 roosters, lots of eggs and they are dual purpose (Australorp) for eggs and meat...have 2 does and 1 active buck and 1 young buck...2 gilt pigs...should be ready for harvest this December and we just added 1 bred meat cow... and we were lucky to have two ponds on our homestead...bass and catfish... there are just two of us...so we think we have more than we will need but with enough freezers...we can sell and barter extra with neighbors for things they have that we don't and vice versa...clean and healthy food and living

[@Mel-qr5ob]

Actually in NZ the weather is so variable you can get everything from multiple months of drought, to major floods which can drown your stock. This year we had a 2 month drought in Waikato, everyone depleted their winter reserves of hay in order to feed their stock.

[@derekpaul6319]

I love this channel.

[@KateGoldauthoress]

I love that I knew you were from PA before you said it. I'm from PA too!

[@GoldenTouchVideos]

50 seconds in and already loving it!

[@callumsmith9756]

Quail make quite a good animal for a homestead because the produce extremely tasty eggs and there meat is delicious as well also the mature really quickly

[@williamfreeman9995]

Thanks!

[@PineRidgeHomestead]

Great video!

[@TheAnimalFamily]

Such a good one! 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻

[@jaredcolahan759]

I was going to wait until I seen the second video, but, someone beet me to it. Yes rabbits. research has proven that rabbit is the most profitable by way of meat production. every 4 pounds of food will produce 1 pound of meat. and one breeding pair can produce 360 pounds of meat annually. this is far more thane any of the others mentioned. Side note it's easier to raise either goats or sheep and not both. remember the does produce, the breeding males don't. they are only needed temporary. A.I. might be more beneficial. But this is an excellent video.

[@streetfighteralpha9891]

Maybe buy 3 or 4 females to start and learn. Have them A.I. and maybe keep a ram if they have a good one.

[@nellie2m]

My first drake drowned three hens in the pond trying to maye with them before he got rehomed, but I tend to have bad luck with first tries.

[@jsb7398]

*_Ah yes, I would really like to grow my very own eggs, meat and milk_*

[@voyager1420]

Do children grow? Then chickens, goats, and cows all grow too.

[@federalmemeist961]

This is an under appreciated comment.

[@AviaryBirdsAndCo]

Great Video! Hope to have a homestead in the future!

[@joannbrewer6046]

Well, I'm just eat-up with jealous. Of course you knew but overlooked that I am your Pioneer Super Vierwe. Yes I'm an old (very old) lady but i live my farm life vicariously through your videos and some time I'm lucky enough to hit an miss the pod casts. Maby I'll get that digital path sorted soon. Truly I adore your precious family and I'm in love with the goats, chicks and biting wanda?? The jerseys are lovely. So fondly mrsjob

[@jesseblack9460]

#askhomesteady Can you go more into detail about home much area each animal needs to live comfortably?

[@bradsimpson8724]

When it comes to larger pastured animals(goats, sheep, cattle, etc), the amount of living space really depends on where you live and the quality of your pasture land. My local agricultural extension recommends one and a half acres of pasture per cow/calf pair, and suggests six sheep or goats per acre of pasture.

[@jesseblack9460]

@@bradsimpson8724 may I ask where your local agriculture is? For reference

[@bradsimpson8724]

@@jesseblack9460 I'm in British Columbia(Western Canada). I would expect that the Pacific Northwest would be pretty similar.

[@bestlifeever4548]

I have had my homestead/farm long time and dont think many who move out here have any idea of what it takes in money, time, infustructure, and all the other things. It isnt cheap and even doing it on buget or frugally you cant count or depend on anything. We see so many with grand plans to move to country or live off grid or grow own food but not prepared for learning curves or mistakes or other things. We have lots of animals which cost a lot to feed and care for. The weather can destroy all crops. Also people think can just move to rural area and be accepted or part of community when so far from case most places. Especially if not from there and different than locals . If you dont respect the people and culture and heritage aka history then dont move there. Dont come to change anything . People complain about animals that get out or other things that is normal to living in country.

[@zaccariasippidabarbersmith9922]

Very Good Video. About to get my first Home with 24 acres of land Lord Willing. Very Informative

[@keithhoward6799]

Thank you

[@cyrilthomazeau6292]

A miracle topic and Video!! Forever Thank you! #AskHomesteady, Could you do a video on how the homestead generates feed, grass and the nutrient that the livestock will require throughout the year, to be as self-sufficient as possible?

[@Homesteadyshow]

You gonna go and make it hard on me Cyril! See what I can find ;)

[@4philipp]

That should be fairly easy to calculate. Let’s take your chicken feed. If you use 1 ton of feed (1000 kg/2000LB), divide it into its ingredients. Let’s say equal parts of corn, oats and barley. Roughly 670 pounds of each. Now take into consideration a 80% germination rate, seed stock for next years planting, some losses due to wildlife...rounding it up to 1340 pounds of each at harvest. Now you can google how many acres are needed to grow 1340 pounds of each of those ingredients. This is one problem if feedlot operations. You May only need 5 acres to raise 100k chickens, but the 100 acres (guessing here) needed to grow their feed and responsibly spread their manure is often overlooked. A traditional family homestead used to be 5-10 acres, of which 1/3 or more was a wood lot. But those people didn’t eat as much meat as we do today either

[@cyrilthomazeau6292]

@@Homesteadyshow Im soo sorry! ^^ It's because Ive never seen a homesteader talk about it, was very curious to hear your way of approaching it. Greetings from London, England! :) I dream of a homesteady life every day but sadly atm Im a recently-married 28yo man starting family life in a skyrise flat.

[@4philipp]

Cyril Thomazeau look on KZbin for “tales from the green valley” - its a 12 part series from bbc Scotland about medival farming. They have several editions to represent different times in history. They are absolutely awesome to watch.

[@joanneganon7157]

Your Roosters are beautiful.! They seem to get along . Jo Jo in VT 💕😊

[@christianshiels2819]

the background music is perfect

[@Steve-ps6qw]

What about rabbits? They are one of the best sources of protein and require so little compared to goats, sheep and cattle.

[@bradsimpson8724]

Rabbit crap is also a KILLER good garden fertilizer that doesn't need to be aged/composted to nearly the same extent as other livestock, and if you're crafty or know someone who is, rabbit skins can be turned into all kinds of stuff and are easier to work with than the hides of larger animals.

[@parissamuel4610]

" Steady."

[@meguileadmen3859]

Nice

[@amandabest7364]

Love Love DEFINITION 💘 NAILED IT

[@gentleman423]

Hello Amanda 👋 How are you doing today?

[@AnneGoggansQHHT]

The chickens aren’t eating the grass as much as bugs, small animals, and seeds. My dad got RIR mixed with game hens and we fed them very little. It depends on the breed how much they can forage, but they don’t lay as many eggs. It’s give and take. I’ve seen my hens in a circle pulling apart a vole like the little raptors they are. You can grow grains for chickens, and know THEY ARE NOT VEGETARIANS. They are little raptor omnivores. Carcass in the pasture? You might catch chickens pecking at it.

[@Millenialhermit]

I thought he stopped homesteading i watched one vlog of him wherr he said hed do something else. Nice to see this vlog

[@ritamccartt-kordon283]

We spent hours rubbing corn off the cobs, after it dried. We did this every year. Made sacks of it. We fed our chickens and some to the pigs. We had to make sure that there was enough gravel/grit for the chickens. They use the grit to crush the corn in their craw. The pigs would eat just about anything! We also had rabbit and squirrel to eat, as well as deer. Once in a great while, we bought a gallon of milk from our neighbor! But that was a treat, not something we had very often. It was an old way of living, not many do it now. I know if my health holds out, I'd make it if the need arose.

[@marygoat8651]

Great video. I think my #1 choice for meat production would be rabbits. They grow more slowly, but they can be totally raised on grass, weeds and greens from the garden. I have done it several times just to assure myself.

[@streetfighteralpha9891]

Do they taste good?

[@hihey304]

@@streetfighteralpha9891 just like chicken, white meat & very tender

[@RockinRack]

Not enough fat to live off

[@mr.greenjeans8323]

Aww they love their daddy

[@davisfamily1712]

Goats and sheep neither one need feed. They will thrive on forage, pasture, and hay

[@thegreekanimalkeeper]

For the seep with goats together it 100% work, my dad does it in a small scale

[@danielkennedy4518]

I heard about a farmer who kept a steer for a pet. He named it Duncan Nonuts!

[@activeuser9995]

#askhomesteady Hi Austin, Did you invest a lot on your homestead? Or did you start with a small investment? And how much do you make in a month?

[@starrmiller8737]

The only issue I’ve had with keeping my chickens and ducks together is all of a sudden one of my hens decided to start trying to peck one of my ducks eyes out. Not pretty. Of course it was my best laying hen so she did not go to freezer camp and I just had to separate them

[@dove111]

So much valuable information thank you Austin, would you and your family ever consider raising rabbits?

[@ladyhawk6999]

I grew up in this lifestyle , and love it! I live it today! That is why we are healthy and happy! We raise beef cattle, a couple dairy cows , a dozen horses , a few sheep, dairy goats , assorted fowl all for meat , eggs and entertainment!. I make cheese and get meat from the sheep and goats . I sell the extra. As with the beef cattle they are our main meat besides venison . We raise and can our garden , fruits trees Hunt and fish . We love our team of Fjords who pull our carts and wagons..saddle horses for nice long trail rides! We make our own hay and feed as we farm five thousand acres . I couldn't imagine any other way of living!

[@user-1281]

I live in New Zealand!

[@johnhildenbrand2642]

Sheep, goats, chickens and rabbits...those are probably the biggest bang for your buck, efficiency per acre animals. Add in a great big garden/field and supplement with hunting/fishing.

[@hawk270leadflinger9]

I’m definitely not a duck fan! So we have chickens here at Dry Hollow homestead! But my question regards the guinea fowl! What are they good for? And I prefer lamb chops over goat chops!!!

[@kumara5492]

nice video

[@cassieoz1702]

'No outside help' means not buying in salt/spices or (usually) coffee and grain, and very few people really mean that. We milk two standard sized house cows, freeze their calves, keep three dorper ewes and a ram, 12 heavy bodies hens and a rooster, and buy in two weaner pigs per year. There's extra beef, pork, eggs and cheese for trading.

[@daxisperry7644]

For me, I want to be self sufficient to the point where I can provide food, water, and power to my family without Relying on shady 'authorities.'

[@rbo350]

#AskHomesteady, I just purchased 40 acres in arizona and in the future will start with a few of the animals you mentioned after we amend the sand and plant fruit tree's and other food producing plants, I like goats but I am lactorse intollerant so I will either sell the milk or make cheese, I also like chickens, ducks and quail we want to be as self sufficiant as possible but there are somethings like gas that is inflexable and you have to pay what the gas station is charging

[@ChelseaVampyre]

Ringo Star you could also make goat milk soap :)

[@noniemarley7012]

Ringo Star check it out, sometimes people who are lactose intolerant can drink goat milk. Goat milk is very different than that of a cow.

[@jakethemedic1]

Platypus gives you all three, plus fur!

[@richardlove4287]

How often and how much fertiliser do you put on your pasture?

[@clintkinowski6277]

I am looking to get into homesteading for a family of 4 how much land and how many of each animal should I start with? I am looking at raising meat rabbits, chickens, ducks, geese, guinea hens, beef steer, dairy cow, dairy goat, sheep, Idaho pasture pigs, and a garden

[@DuderScooter]

Question at the end. Your videos on ducks and chickens are incredibly helpful. I'm going to start a farm on 40 acres in east Texas with my great highschool friend. We will both be living there (him first, we live in the suburb). So 2 families, 4 adults & 7 kids in total. What is a good crop to take to farmers markets for... ergmm.. hipsters in Austin? #askhomesteady I was thinking it would be good income starting off, so my only idea so far is gourmet popcorn. TIA!

[@gr8flb]

I think it's going to depend on supply and demand. It sounds like you understand your customer. What is not in the market already? Where is the market underserved? Here in Georgia where it gets hot, King of Pops has made it big selling gourmet popsicles. Also, think about expansion possibilities. Can you sell to stores or restaurants?

[@4philipp]

Go to the market and see what they sell.

[@bmiles4131]

@@4philippyes, because markets vary and change over time.

[@wneikhao9235]

We have 2 acre of paddy field. House is another 1 acre. Another 3 acres as forest. Got 2 oxen as the draught animals. 30 chickens. 5 rabbits. 2 dogs. 2 cats.

[@idealmattress]

I love the idea of starting my own little farm in Ontario Canada , I have 20 chicken already and it has been successful experience. my challenge is that I have 55 acres but mostly Forrest and about 10 acres of scattered open lands so fencing the open land would be challenging. Perhaps I will come up with some kind of plan to raise beef cattle , sheep , goats.

[@horiatomescu]

Don't make me drop everything in here in the US and come and help you...😆

[@horiatomescu]

Sounds very tempting 😉

[@auburn696]

Go with heritage breeds that have more foraging capabilities.

[@blessedabundance6266]

Electric fencing may help you

[@zacharyebert67]

How would you compare a yak to a cow, which one do you think would be better for a homestead. If you were coming into to homestead again brand new which would you think you should pick from food as well as other benefits. or maybe if a cross between the two would work as well.

[@fyrdup5283]

I missed how many ducks to have alone or with chickens many guineas? Thanks got the information. Thank you #askhomesteady

[@sanjaemullings]

There's a Jamaican who found that chickens eat fruits and some fruit tree leaves....

[@1965gracebug]

We are in the process of buying a small farm, 5 acres total land. It has 4 pastures, a 4 stall barn with loft, a small barn/garage and a home. We would like to start with a Miniature Jersey Milk Cow after watching you and your wife as well as doing some research. Do you have any suggestions on where we can get a hay and pasture fed (no shots) cow in Central Illinois? Also, do you have any suggestions of what we need to start with our cow when we get all this going? Thank you so very much. We are praying for you and your family.

[@danconcompany9285]

Consider geese for fowl that can completely forage for their food. Some varieties also make a good guard animal.

[@genesislegacykennels]

Ask Homesteady, how many acres do you actually need to start out homesteading with livestock chickens, cow, goats, and sheep and perhaps some pigs

[@ericfarran8554]

Can u re do that video and talk about acreage durring each animal section.

[@tonyabsoluteam3456]

can you rank them as infrastructure scale. for instance it's much easier to take care of a 50-gallon fish tank versus a 10 gallon tank. and what are the cost effective variables. like it's cheaper to buy a 10 lb bag of something versus 10 1lb bags. yet you don't want it to go bad before you had an opportunity to use all of it. like some animals do better by themselves as well as others do better Possed up. so what would be the good minimum for raising animals?

[@cheerup5267]

The real challenge of becoming a hardcore homestead is producing your own grains for your animals specialy when you have a limited space...

[@129kittykati]

Does it matter on the type/ breed of chicken to have for meat?

[@PeterSedesse]

The problem is most people focus on how many animals they need, but they should instead focus on how to grow the food for animals. BSFL, crickets, mealworms can all easily be ' farmed'. That really is the secret to chickens and ducks. Make decent space to raising insects for your poultry and it should be a part of your chore routine. A well developed vermiculture system will also produce harvestable worms as well as worm castings for your veggies.

[@jocelynsoria2590]

THE MUSTACHE!!!! IT’S GONE?!?! This is the first video I see where it’s gone.

[@brianthesnail3815]

There are 68 million people in the UK. We don't have enough land for self sufficiency. I was a farmer for 25 years. Only people who have inherited a farm or who have earned a living from something else and sold an expensive house in a city can afford a farm that can sustain life for a family. The caveat in this video is 'self sufficiency as much as possible' isn't actual self sufficiency. The reality is you need to be rich already.

[@cummerou1]

Depends on where you live, in Denmark for example, you can get a farm (one 3 bedroom house to live in with 1-2 buildings next to it about the same size used for storage, plus 3-6 acres of good farm land) for about 110K. Additional land can be bought for 5-6K an acre. The difference is that 1. The UK has twice the population per square mile (so half the amount of land available per person, which inheriently makes land more valuable), and 2. Is a lot more concentrated, you can get land at a decent price if you are okay with living in Wales or something like that. But the land in the South is extremely expensive due to how many people live there, (any land suitable for housing will be very valuable), you also have many large cities or cities with outstanding natural beauty or historical significance, which again drives up cost.

[@2shay337]

you would mention you were allergic to duck eggs. I am allergic to chicken meat and eggs. And not to duck for some reason. But later in life I learned that a 1/3 cup of applesauce replaces one med. egg for baking. But I think many of my allergies are caused hugely by commercial meat, dairy products from cows and chicken products from all the hormones injected into the meat or milk products sold in stores. So being allergic to chickens and cow products, I drank goat milk/products and ate rabbits, goat meat, lamb that was home raised. Now that I have lived in cities most of my life ALL FOOD bought from stores my health/allergies are damaging me.

[@marilynferguson3483]

Have you looked into waterglassing eggs? You can also can raw eggs for hardboiled eggs. Do you can any of your milk and butter? It has a great shelf life. You tube has lots of info on this.

[@gentleman423]

Hello Marilyn 👋 How are you doing today?