[amosfella]

Originally Posted by Red Bullets

Just my 2 cents worth....

We used to have 200 broiler/fryer chickens started from 2 day old chicks, 100 laying hens and a couple dozen free range bantam chickens when I was on the farm. A few years we had 20 to 40 domestic turkeys or geese. The best is to have a wire pen on the end of your coop and put a chicken wire roof over it. And dig down a foot or two and put chicken wire underground or page wire to keep the digging animals out. Essentially an aviary. Suitable for unclipped wild turkeys too. Chickens or birds can roost scratch around safely in the aviary during summer. Flying birds don't get let out of the aviary. You can let chickens free range for the daytime...they don't go far from the coop so they can always retreat to the coop if threatened. Good meat birds like turkeys, chickens and fowl should be finished on ground grains besides free range foods.

Most young chicks (turkey, fowl or chicken) need a brooder. Read up on how a brooder is set up. You need constant specific temperatures when they are young. They spook easy and crowd into corners resulting in dead chicks so they need a quiet place for the first couple weeks.

Weasels, skunks and owls cause the most losses. A weasel or skunk will kill as many birds as they can in one night, only eating the heads and brains, where a fox or owl will only take one bird at a time.

Quite a few small town auctions have an odd and unusual sale a couple times a year. You can buy golden pheasants, peahens, guinea hens and other nice birds. Just beware because some are very loud birds.

Pigs are best kept from digging under the fence by burying page wire or heavy chicken wire two feet down. Another thing to consider is pigs in a barn need sewage gutters and regular cleaning. Pigs are work. To finish them nice for butchering you need to feed them good chop/grains.

If you eat a lot of meat... rabbits are easy to feed to maturity, handle and butcher. 4 does and a buck, (Belgian meat rabbits) can produce quite a few rabbits. Building up a 'herd' doesn't take long. Use a hutch with an enclosed wire run for them.

Consider getting some ducks. They can live in a barn for the winter. A friend keeps about 36 year round. Free range in the yard with a little kiddies pool in summer. IMO.... Duck eggs are better than chicken eggs.

All these animals and birds you mention wanting to get require good feeds and good husbandry. Do your homework. Very much worth doing for good quality eating.

I prefer sprouted to ground grain. Meat tastes better IMHO. ymmv