And then there were goats....

Part of our philosophy is to be as self-sufficient as possible. One way is to be able to provide our own sources of food.




The garden is a given--we grow a large garden to not only sustain us, but out critters as well. We have one garden that is literally just for the animals. The rest we can, freeze, dehydrate, and of course, eat fresh right out of the garden.


The animals were the next step in spending less at the grocery store (and hence, burning less fuel on trips to the store). We started with chickens and ducks. The ducks started laying mid-February, and the chickens started laying shortly afterward. Between the ducks and chickens, we have been getting between two and four dozen eggs a day--GREAT investment.


Our chickens are free-range, and we supplement their diet with laying mash and scratch. We are selling our surplus eggs at a VERY reasonable price, so we have some faithful customers. And we even have started a recycling program with our customers--they get 10 cents off for every egg carton they bring back. The cartons themselves are made from 100% post consumer recycled material, and they are undyed, and bio-degradable. If one of the cartons becomes too worn or becomes contaminated with egg, we use the carton to start plants in. Once the plants are strong enough to be transplanted, they are transplanted, carton and all, into the garden.


We invested in our second brood of chickens once the first brood were laying. The second brood were mostly Cornish X Rocks, which we bought for the meat. They grow very fast and are very meaty birds. We have canned some, froze some, smoked some, and sold some. We have kept the rest for laying just to see what we get egg-wise. If they are not producers, the rest will find their way into the stew pot.


The second critter investment was rabbits, which you can read about in one of our previous posts. We have sold and given away a lot of our rabbits, as well as canned and froze some of the meat ourselves. What we have sold have mostly been bunnies for pets. There is a lot of 4-H and FFA in this area, so many families are looking for projects for their kids. We have only sold a handful for meat. I am guessing because we are such a rural area, those who eat rabbit hunt their own. Not sure...just a hunch. Most of the older folk in this area grew up on rabbit, squirrel, deer....you name it, they ate it. I have noticed it is the older folks in the area who are stopping regularly. They say it takes them back to when they were kids and had critters. EVERYONE had critters--if nothing else, they had a handful of chickens in the yard.


Our newest addition to the "farm" is goats. We started with a female LaMancha. She has gotten so much attention from the neighbors! Everyone stops by to see the "earless" goat. She really isn't earless--she has tiny little ear folds around her ears, and she hears quite well--no sneaking up on her!


Our purpose for adding goats was two-fold: for milk (NOTHING better than goat cheese!) and to sell the kids. Since goats are natural grazers, they are built-in lawn mowers as well. We can just move her post, and she clears a perfect circle of goat-mown grass. And goat manure is one of the best fertilizers as well. Between the rabbits, chickens and goats, we are manure rich! Bud christened our first goat J-Lo. He had no idea who J-Lo was, but liked the name. (ES and I both laughed at that one--is there anyone on the planet who doesn't know who J-Lo is?)



We just added our billygoat for a steal of a deal: $25! He is a gorgeous Nubian that Bud named Berle--as in Berle Ives. He is still young (18 months old) and a pistol, but J-Lo is smitten with him already. We figure she will come into estrus soon, so we will have a kid by spring. Can't wait to see what they look like.

Gleaned a lot of great info off of the internet about raising goats. We had goats when I was a kid, but that was a LONG time ago, so I figured I had better educate myself. Most people say that billy goats are stinky and aggressive, so it is better to just find a billy to breed with your females. That is probably right on the money, but we are so rural, it is not a viable solution for us. So....we have a set.

Here a few of the sites I visited:

http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/agguides/dairy/g03990.htm


http://www.goats4h.com/GoatsHome.html (scroll to the bottom of this site--lots of good info links at the bottom of the page)


~D