How many species do you raise?

[Kathy]

I know when I was on the farm I wanted some of everything!

So what do you raise-just one species such as cattle or goats or are you like I was with a mix of many species?

[bbird]

Oh man, when we finally had the acreage and the money to get animals, we went hog wild (teehee).

We've had hogs, chickens, turkeys, rabbits, geese, peacocks, goats all at the same time. Decided to concentrate on chickens. Raised hundreds of them, but it got to be so time consuming that we sold all the one's we were raising (except about 30 of the one's we liked to keep)

When he freezer starts getting empty we raise a couple pigs. A few turkeys get added too.

Right now we have the chickens, geese which is nice over the winter, and we don't have to deal with water bottles, or deal with hay/alfalfa.

That is the nice things about living on a farm. When you get the inkling to get a new animal, you can.

[rogue]

A little of this and a little of that lol. We have downsized a bit. We sold all of the geese, pigs, and a few other things. Right now we have cattle, goats, chickens, ducks, turkeys, and rabbits. We may get some sheep soon and will probably pick up a pig to raise now and then (but for the moment I am tired of dealing with so many of those things all of the time lol). Having a mix is more fun for me

[momo]

We have a petting zoo for the Princesses. We have a halflinger pony, German shepherd, goat, 2 chickens, 3 cats, lot of wild birds that DH feeds, and a pond full of fish.

[bergere]

I had to down size for health reasons and the move.
Used to raise miniatures sheep, miniature horses, Dutch Hook Bill ducks (great Ducks BTW) and Heritage breed chickens.

Here we are only raising Belgium D'Uccle bantams.

Have a couple of mini horses, a donkey, Icelandic, and a Fjord horse.

We are on the look out for a couple of halter trained small breeds of cattle. Prefer steers. Dexter, Highland or such.
I would like to get a couple of Emu chicks too.

[painteddaisy]

15 chickens
8 ducks
1 goat, need another
3dogs
3 cats
2 lovebirds
1 canary
1 lizard
19 eggs in the 'bator
and sometimes a partridge in the cherry tree! ;D

Hmmm, I thought that was too much but now that I've written it down, it dosen't seem like enough!

[thrillbilly]

around 400 total chickens and more when I am hatching out of the bators. Five dogs. Two turtles. A belgian and a arabian. Two jerusalem jacks. Three hundred gallon fish tanks one salt water all with fish etc. One quaker parrot a cockatoo named Baretta and a hyacinth macaw named Elvis. One python and a blue iguana. Newly acquired bobcat. Male about 30 pounds caught in a trap out in the chicken and put it in a pen til I decide where to release it.

[Deleted]

I used to have a little bit of everything. I had to sell out all the "pets" when my husband lost his job. I now have Nubian & Pygmy goats, chickens, & guineas. I hope to build the critters back up soon. I need to get some fence up first. The next on my list is a cow. I would love to have a miniature jersey.

[Deleted]

Not "raising" anything yet, though when I last looked at my pond, my mosquito fish population had boomed to about a gazillion.

I do have five chickens, a dog, and a "new" cat. And a Hahn's Macaw (a mini macaw). When the house is built out on the land, I'm hoping to raise weaner hogs, run some meat/dairy goats, maybe raise rabbits (meat) and maybe raise some locker lambs. If the beau had his way, we'd also have llamas, Jacob's sheep, peacocks, ducks, ponies, a Jersey cow and Snuffleuffagus.

Oh yeah---I do have four honeybee colonies out there right now--hope to expand that project both on my property and on outyards in the area.

[bbird]

Lupine-

You mentioned Macaw's and I wanted to ask you if you know Jack Devine? He has the Macaw place down by Jantzen beach, and goes to the rain forest and what not. Dh's family has been friends with him since dh was a kid. Neat guy, and his involvement with the macaws is fabulous. We were channel surfing a couple months ago, and there he was again doing a documentary in the rain forest with all his birds, lol.

[Deleted]

Nope--I got Hopper from a parrot rescue here in the city about five years ago...have never heard of Jack Devine. I'll have to google him to learn more. Does he have a bird store, or is he a breeder?

Last thing I need is another parrot, so maybe I shouldn't be digging...I got Hopper mostly as a companion for another small parrot I had, who met an untimely demise a few years back. Thinking of getting Hopper an African Gray as a buddy, since they really do need a "flock"...but not sure if the rest of the household can take the decibels!

[bbird]

Duh...I could have given you the link before, lol. Here is a link to his foundation website. www.macawlanding.org/index.shtml

Birds are such a commitment, especially the big birds. I just love looking at them, but have never gotten past the occasional parakeet for the kids, lol.

[Deleted]

All I have now is 2 rabbits, 3 dogs, 2 cats, 2 goats, 2 hogs (wow, just hit me it sounds like Noah's ark! lol) On the old farm, there were always a couple hundred chickens, a few turkeys, 9 horses plus any foals that year, 2-6 beef steers, barn cats, dogs, 77 milk goats and whatever babies were still around, and 2 hogs a year.. one day I'll be back to it like that again. (or at least close)

Kaza[/size]

[Deleted]

hehe... make that "3" goats. ;D