Regarding beef cattle: I'm not a homesteader, but I inspect rural roads and bridges. One day a few years ago I was inspecting a wooden bridge and heard a guy loudly cursing. Finished the inspection went to check and see if the guy was okay. He was mending a barbed fence, muttering he needed to electrify it and was "gonna turn that sumbitch into hamburger." He had one particular cow that kept tearing up his fence and running off, letting the others out. Helped him look for the escapist and we found him about 30 minutes later drinking from a nearby creek. Also, turned out we were distant cousins. Me and the farmer, not me and the cow.
Omg, why kill animal? Why no buy hamburger from shop? No animals killed from buy in shop, it just meat/hamburger from shop, so no one died. y do this then? ? ? buy from shop, no animal hurt or killed they just drive it to shop and it is on shelves.
I still remember going to a petting zoo as a kid and all of the animals had sweetly taken pellets from my hand. Then, I got to the goat. The goat stood up on his hind legs, stretched his neck out and promptly snatched the entire pellet bag out of my hand. He ate the paper bag and all. That single experience told me all I ever needed to know about goats 🤣
I worked on a goat farm and a cattle farm on a working holiday trip in New Zealand. To me goats are alright. Granted I mostly work with kids, does and neutered males, and they produce fiber not meat so they are not as big, but out of roughly 250 goats only one was trying to fight me all the time. But cattle is a completely different story. They weigh thousands of pounds and they could injure me easily, say by turning and accidentally bumping into me with their behinds.
I went to a petting zoo back in the eighties with my son. At the time , those nylon pants with zipper pockets were popular. Yep,the goats went crazy over those. I had about eight goats attached to my pants.i couldn't get them to stop grabbing them until i finally made it out of the enclosure.
At the very least I STRONGLY disagree on bees and cows. Bees are "hard" because folks usually buy non-native species, poison them with pesticides and feed unhealthy syrups to the poor creatures. It's our fault, not theirs. Cows due to their size and horns kill people all the time, at least in poor unsafe countries like mine. Also Muscovy ducks are way easier than the regular ones. Rabbits are prone to some very nasty diseases. Pigs and goats are the type of livestock even my grandma can handle.
We have been homesteading for just over a year, and jumped in hard and fast. Having never done any of this before, I feel like we are a pretty good control group for animal difficulty. As total newbies, here are the animals that we have raised ranked in order from easiest to hardest for first timers: Layer ducks: easy fencing, minimal housing requirements and don't tear up the flower beds. Laying hens: close second to ducks. They roam more and can jump/fly over fencing and will scratch exactly where you don't want them to. Easier watering and brooding than ducks though. Hair Sheep: half of the year I practically forgot that we had them. They eat grass and hang out. Easy on fencing and don't roam. Broad breasted turkeys: they don't fly and are easy to fence. Butchering is about as easy as chickens, but you get 4x the meat per bird. Meat chickens: would be #1 other than the butchering work. I love that they're a 2 month commitment and you're done. John Suskovich chicken tractors for the win! Beef: on a day-to-day basis, beef is one of the very lowest effort level animals we have, the issue is in the big things. You can't put a cow in the back of a minivan. Bulls are big and can be dangerous. I had to get 40 four foot round bales that each weigh 800 lbs and butchering requires either specialized equipment, or a professional. I do love a good steak though... Dairy goats: I really wanted to say that our dairy goats were easy, but when I compared them to the rest, they are a little bit harder than most. We have the best goats. We bought oberhasli goats from a local dairy and they are amazing. They don't challenge our fencing, they're quiet and healthy and so far haven't tried to poison themselves. We got a Saanan buck who is a super chill guy and just had a successful round of kids. They aren't nearly the challenge I was expecting them to be, but the daily attention required to keep them friendly and milkable, along with the actual milking does make them more work than most others. Heritage turkeys: our heritage turkeys fought like crazy, were impossible to fence, would jump on our roof, cars, barn, trees, etc. They insisted on roosting in the most dangerous places. We started with 15 heritage poults, 5 died right away for no apparent reason, 1 was pecked to death at about 2 months and 3 ended up getting eaten by coyotes. They destroyed our fruit tree starts and flower beds. Uggh. Honey bees: I am allergic to bees, so my wife handled this one. She is a brilliant woman does amazing research, keeps impeccable notes and is amazingly diligent. We had the coldest, wettest spring I've ever seen and they all died. It was so disheartening to feel like you could do everything right and not a single one of the 5000 bees would live. Bees require a whole bunch of specialized gear and an entire suit to make sure you don't die. It honestly feels to me like some sort of tribal religious ritual, where you done the special attire, blow smoke into the sky, dance around a little and pray for good weather. I firmly believe that my wife will be successful with this at some point, but it feels like it requires not only a tremendous amount of knowledge and skill, but many factors will outside of your control. Also, my skin feels all itchy when I watch them.
I have bees and they are easy to keep alive PROVIDED you dont take the honey. If you do, you can easily take too much, mess up the feeding and they wont survive the winter. But the big advantage is you can go on holidays and just let them be
I have bees I'm constantly worried the same .. for die dont die dont die. They seem pretty chillaxed and havent had an issue yet. Also have milking goats mostly toggenbergs but one saananberg (saanan cross toggenberg) she is the daughter of the saanan we started milking with.. they where all hand raised even the buck we have and so chilled out 1200 high fence no electricity and no issues. Tho I have some friends and their saanan buck knocked over a bee hive and the bees actually killed the buck. It went from a white goat to a black goat.. so bee careful. This is another stress of mine
I been home standing for just 2 years. We have only chickens. A big 36ft long by 10ft wide green house. Also a outdoor garden. I planted 4 apple and 2 plum trees this year starting are orchard. We want to get sheep and goats. But we dont have a barn or any covered areas for them. And we need to fence are property in. Just don't have the money for either.
@@bcase5328 now that I’ve had them for a bit, they’re easier. I have a pallet fence though and my one pig jumped it yesterday bc he was so excited to see me 😂 it was easy to get him back in though.
@@mazvirataaja9397 Ease of starting out with feeders ig. But I lowkey agree, pigs are a massive pain. Ive helped out at a farm when I was quite young (11-12) as part of afterschool club activities and we had a couple of them escape. So then we proceeded to get a free cardio workout chasing them around. But it was bought out when I got to keep a "small" pig in my hands (well small...it was like 30 kilos). Absolute angel of an animal, so calm and big. I got to see why people keep pigs as pets, aswell as why theyre popular as livestock.
As a professional horse trainer who also has goats, no way are horses easier than goats. A rude or poorly trained goat won't kill you. They don't break your foot if they step on you. Horses also have parasite issues, like to escape, and die because of tummy aches. Or, more likely, step on a slightly sharp rock and become a permanently lame so you have to feed them and let them destroy your pasture and fencing for the next 30 years without getting any use from them.
😂I literally started with goats! Won't disagree that they're hard. But I'm actually glad I got goats first because the ease of the other animals just made the journey more rewarding
Goats v cows reminds me of the cat/dog debate. Whatever defines easy for you will decide -- walking and off-leash roam or maintaining a litter box and providing indoor scratch options... equal work, different methods
Sitting here watching this with my goats, who've had zero issues with anything but my cheapskate choice in fencing. They were my first choice in livestock, and I have zero regrets. Strong personalities, and I love that.
I do aquaponics and it is very easy to raise the fish BUT it is dependent on which fish species you choose, your climate and how efficient your setup is. Some people could find it difficult.
I recently asked in a local group how much is it costing to keep a family dairy cow and the whole thread turned into the ministers of goating evangelizing on why I need to convert to goats instead! I was like chill out people I want a freaking COW 😂
Get one! Don't listen to what ppl say about frickin cows. They give SO much milk you can basically live off a cow alone, eating the (older calves) and not even needing a male to inseminate these days. I was told by so many ppl not to get a cow and I regret listening to them. Eff them. Get a cow.
Haha, must be goat people. Always lecturing in the forums😂 Also, I have goats and they are the most pain in the butt stubborn animals. Love them, but my goodness are they a lot of work.
I think your local environment can also make certain animals easier or harder. I live in a desert in a climate closer to what a lot of goats evolved to live in while lots of other animals struggle in the heat and don't thrive. My rabbits are considered the most heat-tolerant breed but they're lots of work in the summer because I have to give them ice packs to keep them outside in the shade of my porch. My friend has chickens that randomly die in the heat even-though she has given them a cooling kiddy pool. In the desert we have less pest pressure, far fewer mosquitos, flies and even low exposure to parasites (hardly any natural grass to transfer their eggs). We don't get ANY ticks or fleas. They just don't survive. But some livestock don't either.... so it's a trade-off.
I agree. I live in an arid climate with fairly hot summers. My two goats do well here. (I clip my shaggy buck during the hottest months). Virtually no parasites or mosquitos to deal with.
@@shea5542 I haven't tried ducks yet, but I imagine that being in some water would help them. I would look for duck breeds popular in southern India, the area formerly known as Persia and savanahs in Africa ;) that's often where I find the right heirloom plant and animal varieties for my dry 9a zone
One critter you didn't mention is Yaks. I'm going to guess they rank somewhere around goats. :) Granted, we got our yaks under somewhat false pretenses. The sellers outright lied and told us how they were hand tamed and all. We were planning on raising yaks for milk and wool, as well as packing. Turns out these were yaks that had been raised as brood mothers for a meat farm. We bought mamma, older baby and newly born baby as a package deal. Far from being hand-tamed, mama Yonkers was an ornery, unfriendly and suspicious animal who'd obviously been abused. She was terrified of humans and hated us. And that's what she taught her daughters! And talk about escape artists! They got out of their enclosure 3 times in 2 years, and each time became more challenging to locate and recapture. (Though the last time, after a 2 month walkabout, they actually showed up asking, "you got water?") It took us 2 years, but eventually, we did Forgive me if I, also, chuckle a bit about having done your research prove to Yonkers that we were trustworthy. On one good side, super-easy birthing. We bred Zoozoo the older daughter, and the birth took about 15 minutes. Just long enough (as first time yak grandparents) to realize the vet was an hr and a half away and begin to freak, and then Ferdie was struggling to her legs and making her way over to me and giving me kisses. (You haven't lived till you've been kissed by a 10 minute old yak!) Sadly our experiment in yak-steading was brought to a close when mom-in-law developed alzheimers and we had to return to FL. We at least managed to find the girls a forever home that promised to never slaughter them for meat.
Wow. Quite an adventure! You ever get some yak milk? You guys should have made RUclips videos about the yaks! They sound like they would have been fun to watch😜
@@Homesteadyshow There will be a language barier, for sure, but videos are still nice and show how one group of nature protectors have yaks (and heritage breeds of goats and sheep) for grazing valuable medows with critically endangered flowers in our region in central Europe :-). www.youtube.com/@csop_libosvary
Here's something that's not asked often. What tools/equipment make homestead life easier? What about gear and clothing, if any? I'm sure you wouldn't want to be in a muddy paddock with sandals and shorts 😂 I'm honestly looking for a really great pair of overalls that can breathe well on hot summer days but be durable enough to crawl around and sit on the pasture with my lgd and livestock.
A note on aquaponics systems: most people who struggle are in a rush. It takes time to figure out the right location for a pond, it takes time to establish bacterial colonies for proper filtration, and lots of people don't understand the limitations inherent to selecting aquaponics crops. But if you're patient, do the research up front, and are willing to make the front-end investment, they will keep you in salad greens and soft-stemmed herbs all season long. We keep ornamental koi, which makes us a little bit of money(I buy a few small koi to fill a secondary pond every year and grow them to re-sell), gives us a great gathering point for barbecues, a nice stress-reliever place to sit in the evening, and winters off(they hibernate when it gets too cold and we transfer them to smaller holding tanks indoors). If I add up EVERY SECOND of actual work from last season - filling, draining, and cleaning the pond, feeding up to five times a day, wellness checks, flushing filters, testing water, everything - I bet that I've got less than twenty hours of work between April and October, and another three during their hibernation months. I think the biggest difficulty(aside from people being in a rush) is the expense, because it absolutely isn't cheap, and the fact that a lot of the skillset to managing a pond doesn't cross over with the general livestock skills most people being surveyed have acquired. Poultry is poultry is poultry, and a lot of the differences between chickens and turkeys and quail and guineas is in the minutia, but a ton of that knowlege is transferable. Same with waterfowl, and same with large pastured livestock. Fish are very much in a different category, and it doesn't mesh as cleanly.
I can't believe bees are that high! I probably put less manpower into my hives every year than I do my pond! I have literally forgotten about my bees for weeks at a time and never had a problem! Out of curiousity, how are we defining "hard" when it comes to keeping livestock? Is it expense? Labour hours invested? Technical knowledge? I think I must be defining it very differently than a lot of your viewers. For people struggling and calling bee-keeping difficult, what metric are you using? What struggles specifically are you having?
Brad, both comments are fantastic input, love you sharing! Aquaponics- Love what you said about the skillset not crossing over, I think thats true. Caring for goats and pigs there is a lot of similarity, but fish are new altogether. Bees - I have heard people talk about that with bees, the fact that they are forgettable... its true, cant do that with chickens or goats. But there is a high failure rate with bees, seems like your good at it! HARD- how are we defining it? I specifically didn't. I made it very simple, because I wanted someone with experience to give a simple, gut level rating. We could go in depth in our questionnaires in the future, maybe have different categories, time, expense, challenges, etc... but I think we will save that for videos that go in depth on 1 specific animal. I like that idea, will start planning it!
The world is a crazy place right now. Is there a fish I could raise in a 12' diameter 30" deep swim pool in Illinois weather. Any info would be welcome. Thank you.
@@michaellindsey5858 That's a pretty broad question. In-ground or above? Hard-sided, flexible liner, or inflatable? Heated or not? Indoors or out? How are you planning to handle filtration? Ornamental fertilizer-producers or livestock meant for the table? And you'd have to give me a rundown on Illinois weather; I've never been within 1000 miles of the state.
I was hoping to see bison, camels, emu, water buffalo, and ostriches get ranked. Hopefully y'all do a part 2 to this video and rank them. Love the videos gives inspiration to new homesteaders
Those are all hard. I imagine they'd all rank harder than goats and honeybees. I have read about them all, but I haven't owned any of them, so take my opinion for what it is, but in order of increasing difficulty, I'd say domesticated water buffalo, camels, bison, emu, ostrich. Water buffalo and camels are domesticated and can be docile. They're compliant enough to be commonly used as draft and pack animals. Buffalo are harder than cattle because they spend so much time in the water, but this could be an advantage if you live in a swampy area. Otherwise, they're not much different than cattle. Camels are notoriously aloof and less likeable than equines, but they get the job done and are popular all over dry regions for good reason. They produce milk, meat, wool, and can carry good and people. The other species you named are large, dangerous wild animals. While you should always be careful around any large animals, you can never fully trust wild animals. Bison are usually not particularly aggressive, but they are wild animals and you must keep your distance. It's like keeping more aggressive beef cattle. But you can get more docile cattle bulls. Bison are what they are. The ratites are aggressive and shouldn't be underestimated. They can kill, just like a bull. I'd fear the ostriches more because of their size, they can kick you from further away. They are aggressive wild animals and very dangerous. It's like keeping bison, but worse. You probably shouldn't go near them. So you fence off some land, and don't interact with them much. They can be really vicious. Good quality meat and lots of fat/oil, but quite a bother. Since they're wild animals, I'd stay away and slaughter them at a distance with a firearm, as is done with bison.
My cousins have farm w alot of different livestock. He bought a bunch of ostrich and emus said they were mean and never was friendly. I remember them as a kid wanted to pet them , said nope get away from there . They bought a ram 🐏 not a big horn, but a large one ( as a pet on farm ) only
@@Paelorianbison are definitely the hardest and most dangerous. The others are all easy if you’ve been around animals a long time the water buffalo is probably the easiest
Pro tip for any potential hog farmers: have the hog pin enclosed in a bigger pen with wide open areas. This will keep them entertained and ways from danger long enough for you to notice they are out
I think a big problem with the States is that many of the animals you choose are not native to the land. Here in South Africa, if you choose indigenous breeds like Nguni cattle, boerbokke or Kalahari Red goats or dorper sheep...they thrive. Basically we leave them our in massive camps in the desert with a couple guardian animals and they fend for themselves. We want strong animals ans don't want to spend a fortune on vet care so the animals that show the most resilience are the ones we keep. The other issue with homesteading is that space is limited and homesteaders tend to bring in more than the land can carry. That's how diseases spread through the web. So...are all these animals easy? Nope...but I also find many people just make life complicated for the sake of it. Like horses. The majority don't need a stable, don't need expensive concentrates and don't need shoes. It's easy enough to learn how to trim your own horse's feet and they prefer to stay outside and eat hay. Just pop up a run-in shed and you're good to go. Same with cattle, sheep and goats. Sure, some get taken by leopard, jackal or caracal but that's just how it goes. I guess this was also done mostly for homesteaders in the States though🙂 everywhere is different and we all have our own sets of issues. South Africa has a drought and theft problem, for example😅 especially nowadays with the country in collapse🙄
I concur! Were I live, in Sweden, it's quite common for homesteaders to choose old native breeds which are bred for our particular circumstances. They're hardy, resistant and non-demanding. They might produce slightly less (most of them are smaller in size, the poultry lay smaller eggs and the cows/goats give sightly less milk) but in turn eat way less than their high producing counterparts, are very good at living off the land (no need to buy expensive feed) and thrive in the harsh winter months with snow, sleet and rain. Makes homesteading a bit easier, for sure.
Just a tip for new homesteaders: NEVER GET RID OF THAT BROODY CHICKEN! If you want to get a better success rate with any hatching or raising of any bird, have the broody chicken do it. I raised my turkeys with the help of a chicken and I have never had the losses that other people have, or when the turkey hens try and hatch chicks. The chicken hen will also teach the chicks to forage and will keep them alive! A broody chicken hen is worth her weight in feed if you want to hatch and raise other birds even the tricky ones!
As someone who has bees, I would agree that they are VERY hard! But not at the same time? The learning curve for them is very steep, but they can be somewhat low maintenance, if that makes sense. I checked on my bees for the first time all winter a couple weeks ago and they’re doing great! So maybe they should fall on the other side of goats 😂😂
Started with beekeping this spring. Took some colonies my neighbour's dad used to keep (they were incredibly neglected) for free and with a lot of books read. Still have issues with them. Firstly they swarm and the remaining bees could not make a new queen cell because of the poor climate conditions and the newly moved area (they got stressed). One of them managed to make it despite of the problems, though the hatched queen died quickly. Now, bought 4 queens for the 4 orphan colonies, and 3 of them killed those queens. Bought 2 nuclei with queens and bees in them,. Now, early summer here in Spain, I've started to see the progress and was worth the effort when I've visited them and saw them 3 exploding in population and fully recovered. Sadly, 1 of them 4 remained as a drone colony, but I think of it as an experience. Very comforting and an excellent experience, with minimum amount of money (2nd hand market kind of helps on that). I keep Iberian honey bees. Cheers!
people acknowledging that an animal is driving them up a wall and causing problems but still loving them with all their heart and refusing to give them up is such a beautiful thing about humans.
My parents tried rabbits, chickens and pigs while I was going through my teen years… They made the classic mistake of getting the animals before having anything set up for them, so I have not so fond memories of the chickens and pigs but the rabbits were ok and I was enjoyed them. I am currently saving up money for a few acres of land for my own (if I do not inherit my parents place after they pass away) and am going to give chickens and pigs another try, but this time I am doing my research via books and various RUclips channels and getting everything set up first!!!! Once that is done, only then will I get the animals. Besides, I only want a few since it’s just going to be me and I don’t want to overwhelm myself and loose the enjoyment of it…. Chickens and rabbits will be first then a couple goats for dairy and possibly a mini-jersey cow, you have peaked my interest in checking them out as a possible purchase…
I raised boer goats and loved them! I found that they are so full of personality. I can see why someone would think they were difficult but I never found it a challenge. I have owned and raised almost every animal out there and they are not even close to being the most difficult for me, but I’m wired that way. Lol
I think it has a lot to do with how much time and attention you can give each individual animal. If you have time and attention for each individual animal lots of things that would be hard if you weren't giving them attention become super easy. Without a lot of attention there's certain species that stay about the same and there's other species that become absolute nightmares.
Guys, I´m a future homesteader (hopefuly) from Brazil who´s recently found and listened to a few of your podcasts on Spotify. This is my first RUclips video and, beyond the amazing tips and counseling, I must say THANK YOU for so many good laughs. I wish you all the best.
I don't know enough to disagree. I have pigs, chickens, turkeys and geese. Oh, and one silly guinea fowl who thinks it's a turkey! 100% success rate so far, no fatalities. Eggs in Winter too! My daughter sent me this video. We have bees too. Such a sweet joy if you know them like I do. Bees do what bees do. Just encourage them to do it and stand back. Sweet rewards!
If you have time to answer this I would be so grateful: Do you have bees just for the honey or did you get them as pollinators for a farm you may have? I'm looking to grow all types of berries and it would be easier if I had a pollinator on site to help it grow. Otherwise I would have to deal with flies (as pollinators) and I'm wondering if it is worth it.
Not actually a homesteader yet. But I have raised alpacas for 18 years. Definitely not easy. If you are in the eastern US, you have to give them monthly ivermectin shots to prevent meningeal worm (not an intestinal parasite - think meningitis - attacks spinal cord and brain), as well as toenail trimming, tooth monitoring and trimming, fecals/FAMACHA for intestinal parasites (they carry same as sheep and goats, but have less resistance to them), and shearing. They are very good at hiding any illness, so when they do show illness, it is already progressed. They definitely have personalities, sort of like cats. Some love attention, and some will let you know if you get too close to their personal space. This year, I'm expanding my farm. Chickens are fully free-range. Hardest part is the egg hunt. Only one guinea left, and he is isolated, as he is recovering from getting his leg caught. Found him hanging upside down. Mine were all male. Last 3 were Larry, Mo, and Curly. That dumb. Late spring I'll be adding some feeder pigs in partnership with a neighbor. I grow out and he butchers. My fish are natural, in a 3/4 acre pond. Plenty of bass and perch.
Why is that an eastern us specific problem? Is it not an issue elsewhere? What's going on in that region that parasites are such a problem? In many parts of canada we have to give regular shots or fence our livestock far away from deer populations because of transference, is that what's going on?
@@pvp6077 While the white-tail deer are carriers, and the parasite is spread by deer, the primary way the parasite larvae are spread is by a minute snail. That snail isn't found west of the Rockies. It is also not found in the Hill Country of Texas, although lots of deer there, because of the limestone rocky soil. The microscopic larvae are left in the snail slime, picked up by the alpaca, and once eaten, take about 32 days to reach the spinal cord. Once there, it travels to the brain. Camelids are end hosts. It kills the camelid before it can reproduce, unlike in deer. Camelid breeders must give an ivermectin shot every 30 days to kill off any larvae picked up within that time period. Unfortunately, that means ivermectin is basically useless for intestinal parasites. They have developed resistance to it because of the regular use. Eastern Canada is also affected.
When it comes to honeybees I believe in response to the world-wide problem is that instead of trying to domesticate bees we should support them. Build them insect houses, leave sugar water out, plant helpful flowers, and don't support commercial brands that don't keep bees correctly. This is just an opinion I've gathered from research. I hope you all have an amazing day or night, thank you!
I agree, my grandma has a 17 acre plot of land that she is letting us work into a campsite, it’s barren but I wish to plant TONS of native and non invasive wildflowers in the area.
Why not both? Domesticated bees are better cared for and protected, particularly against invasive species like Asian hornets, they're also a good indicator for the health of wild populations as, if your domestic bees are struggling, wild bees are likely doing worse. But yes absolutely we should be doing all the things you say to support wild bees as well.
You would think in some of that research that you would have noticed world bee numbers have increased every year since forever. You'd think you could only get away with screaming about 40+% losses every year before someone realises that bees just naturally die off over winter and come back in spring, but here we are, into our 20th year of imminent bee extinction and moments away from the extinction of the human race somehow because of the lack of an introduced specie...
I love my chickens so much its crazy. They come up to my door and say hi. I love watching them run around like they have somewhere to be. They lay eggs in strange places.
It's so funny! I was shocked at bees! I am so intimidated by everything else on here. I have 5 bee hives and it's super enjoyable and easy. I can even if ignore them if I like. This makes me a lot more confident on giving everything elsw a try!
Don't be misled! I'm a fellow bee-keeper, and rate them right alongside my chickens for difficulty(really damn easy). If you don't have anything besides your hives, get some chickens and start there.
@@8dreamersfarm I don't want to pull you from Homesteady's channel. But I have all my bee failures documented on mine. A bunch of new ones that come out this year. I'm pretty successful at catching swarms and rehoming them into my boxes. And I have a GREAT video on where I killed a hive because of small hive beetles. The long and short of it is I gave them too much space to guard, and I created hiding spaces for the beetles where the bees couldn't get at them. I was effectively beetle keeping, not beekeeping. lol
@@hillbilly-homestead I follow several homesteading channels, homesteady won’t lose me. Which video talks about your hive beetle issue? And how you resolved it
@@8dreamersfarm ruclips.net/video/lgAGJLk5oc8/видео.html The sounds cuts out in the beginning for some reason. In short, I could have resolved it by checking sooner and catching it. Then removing empty frames and space so the bees had less frames to guard. In a conventional hive this could mean removing a super or other box. I also created the issue myself by the way I did the conversion of Langsroth frames to Layens, most people won't have that problem. The next BIGGEST way I resolve it is super simple. I don't. I catch swarms that have successfully overwintered, this usually means they're of a local feral variety. I don't treat for any pests or disease of any kind. I let genetic selection result in bees that can handle the local pests, weather, molds, etc. Since I built a swarm catcher all my hives are free. I never buy package bees or package queens. I simply keep bees that can handle veroa mites and Small Hive Beetles etc. I do that by catching wild swarms that made it through the winter and lived.
I LOVE raising quail. They ARE really easy to raise to me, as long as you put some thought into feeders that make less mess and waterers that don't drip. I've heard some folks say that you have to give quail less space in order to reduce their aggression toward each other. But to me, that's more so an issue when they're in a cage setup with no kind of natural stimulation. I always keep our quail in coop setups with covered runs. Whether the flooring is the ground or a solid bottom, I utilize the deep litter method so they're on hay bedding that they can scratch through. I throw out BSFL, seeds, and various greens to encourage more scratching. I also provide them with multiple dust baths that they really seem to enjoy. Raising quail this way and making sure they're well-protected, I very rarely have aggression issues within the flocks and rarely lose birds to random deaths. They ARE stupid, don't get me wrong, but raising them this way, I've found that they end up being a little less flighty, a bit more friendly, and a little easier to handle. Oh, and the eggs taste way better!
With aquaponics. I find it easier if I always monitor them. A 350 gallon stock tank I can hold 10 tilapias in the summer or 16 rainbow trouts in the winter, I do it like this because the temperature is hard to manage, but having it in a green house with the sump tank almost buried in the ground to cool or warm to be pumped into the fish tank is amazing for me. It really comes down to the design of the aquaponic system to be classified as "hard" or "easy". If your setup is bad then it will be hard, but a good set up will work with you and make it very easy. (I'm actually in the process to redesign my system because I put my filter in the middle of the grow beds so I haft to climb to get to it and it sucked when I had to clean it.) If you ever want to get into it all, I can always help. I do plan on starting a channel for homesteading and helping those who wish to do what I plan on doing
I’m new to homesteading with my little 6 acres, and this was super helpful as I consider graduating past chickens, cats, and dogs! Thank you for all the great info, and especially the reality check in the dreamy milk cow 😇🥰
I treated mine like giant chickens and only ever lost them to predators (bears, mtn lions, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, large birds of prey, etc) whenever I didn't properly secure them before twilight. They need pellets when they're older, they'll choke on granules, but you have to choose appropriate feed for chickens too. Snoods are as vulnerable as combs to frostbite, both need to stay dry and draft free in the winter, fresh water at all times, heat lamps in winter are mass death looking for the least convenient moment to happen, all the usual. They don't tell you when they're sick because they're prey, so check their eyes, feet, feather edges, beaks, head/neck skin, etc regularly so you'll know when something is off. Seems like chicken care, but maybe I'm overly attentive to chickens or something.
I don't have personal experience but my grandma kept a turkey named Tina as a pet a while back and she survived for years mostly just having free reign of the yard and only inside during the night. I never heard my grandma complaining of any challenges with Tina except that she kept chasing the people who came to install the pool and scaring the neighbor kids lol. Only lost her because some neighbor's dogs got lose and attacked her. My impression from that is that it looked much the same as the way my Grandma cares for chickens, just with a bigger and more intimidating bird.
I love how vindicated you look over the goats being more difficult. My kids have asked for goats and I always say no because I don't like anything a goat has to offer and from everyone I've known who owns goats they're difficult. I'm trying to talk my husband into getting miniature jersey cows for milking, and potentially beef, but he thinks the cost to setup the infrastructure for them is too great at this point in our lives. Maybe someday. For now we're good with our chickens.
Infrastructure for mini jerseys is sooooooooo not hard, except milking machine stuff if you go that route. They hardly need a barn unless the weather is total cold rainy stormy, a small 3 walled shed would be enough, and 1 strand of electric and step in posts keeps em where you need em. Tell you husband no excuse ;)
I love this video! A lot of times different farmers and homesteaders have very traditional videos, and while sometimes that is refreshing, the comedic nature of your editing feels relatable and entertaining. Even the creative way you chose to share the results and interact with your viewers, genius! Y’all were made for this.
Horses are the hardest in my opinion and I have 2 degrees in equine science. I have worked with a lot of livestock. Horses can have so many health issues or injuries. They test fences like it is their job. Need a ton of training to be save to handle. Are very easy to spook and will take off. Can be very sweet but can also be incredibly aggressive. Are 1,000lbs, with a mind of thier own and very opinionated! But I love them so much and wouldn't stop having horses for anytime!❤
in France we have a type of sheep called "mouton d'ouessant " there shorter than other sheep (50 centimeters at the withers) but you can raise them for meat or for the wool . they are easier to raise than other sheep due to there height . thank you for your video it really interresting
I just saw a video interviewing co owner of Murry -McMurray chicken hatchery, and he said your chickens will be sick more often if you have geese with them.
Really depends on your situation. I live in a wheelchair and chickens, turkeys, geese, and goats are about all I can handle. I visited another homestead and tried horses and pigs, but no dice.
I'm loving these videos! It's so interesting to see some actual data collection presented in a fun and entertaining way. Really enjoying it y'all! And I may want some guineas now haha
my family went from not having any animals (except cats and dogs) to having 3 donkeys. Was a hardcore road to get used to as we also had to renovate the house and build up their area x)
Thank you so much for this video. I am just beginning my homesteading journey. I’ve only raised quail for about 6 months. I was thinking my next animal would be a dairy goat, but I see now that I need to find another animal. Thank you 😊
I controversially agree about goats. 🙈 We had one we absolutely loved, the rest were a nightmare. We are getting our Belfair milk cow this Saturday. ❤️
Is there a reason that people don't seem to use sheep for milk? It sounds like sheep milk and goat milk are very similar, but that goats and cows are more trouble. @Homesteadyshow
@@BobieWanKenobifinding good milking sheep is a challenge. From what I understand cows give several gallons sometimes for a year, goats give a gallon or so for many months, and sheep give cups fora few months or weeks. I have wool sheep and a couple have produced milk for over six months but I’m sure it wasn’t much.
@@OkTxSheepLadyThat's what I hear about milk sheep, lambs every year and only 6 months milk. Goats will yield almost a long as you milk them. I bought mine in milk and she has done between 2 and 4 pints a day for 5 years. Looks like she's going to dry up this year and I think I'll retire her as a pet rather than put her in kid. She's at least 7, maybe 10. I think cows are similar but even longer lived? Even a low yield goat gives more milk than a family needs, I don't know what you'd do with the milk from a cow. Of course you can't keep just one goat, I have a neutered male "companion" goat so I only have to milk one.
Puts into context my dad and step-mom's experience; they started with chickens, went right to alpacas, and my dad was talking about bees when he decided he'd rather just work on old tractors than deal with any livestock, period.
I have no interest in working with some kinds of animals especially goats, pigs and bees, but I'd love to befriend people that do raise them if there are any in the area if I ever get to build the homestead of my dreams one day :) We all love the idea of self-sufficiency but I think people forget that we humans historically survive as a community, not as solitary beings. You don't have to do everything and in fact you shouldn't or you'll likely overwhelm yourself. You should build a community with fellow homesteaders, farmers, gardeners, beekeepers, etc. and barter with each other to fill in the gaps and play to each other's strengths and cover each other's weaknesses.
Unfortunately this doesn't ever go well in real life. It's a nice idea but just like regular life people disagree , butt heads, and there's always those that don't pull their weight . It's why almost every single time people try to start up communities like this they're riddled with drama and usually fail.
That was interesting to actually look at the comparisons. It was fun and informative all at the same time. It would have been interesting to know the percentage of people who participated that had each type.... to know what percentage of homesteads had each kind sort of thing. We are loving this content involving your community. So entertaining and yet relevant. Great video!
Great video! I missed the original poll so here are my rankings of animals I own or have owned from easiest to hardest. 1. Chickens - simple and easy 1b. Pheasant and Quail - Easy like chickens but require more infrastructure when it comes to a pen (you must have a net on top). 2. Beef Cows - Easy for me because I grew up with cows and know what it takes. With cattle it depends on your breed and if they are docile. Beef cows are the lowest return on investment of the meat animals. 3. Hair Sheep - leaning towards easy/medium because of the predator impact. Easy if you think of the unit cost (in our area 1 cow unit is = to 6 sheep units) compared to a beef a cow. 4. Honey Bees - Medium - I like working with my bees but during the summer when it is over 100 F everyday I die in the bee suit. 5. Turkeys - Medium - they will roost where they want and there is nothing you can do to change their pea brain. 6. Pigs - Medium - Good luck keeping them in. Plus side is that they will eat just about anything. 7. Horses - Hard because they are the biggest money pit of all animals. Never again! 8. Goats - Extreme Hard - They could breakout of Alcatraz! They will get sick and will die fairly often. Better have a vet on speed dial... The one thing i like about goats are the "goats screaming like humans" videos!
I would add the extra dimension to chickens is that they're highly useful if you're also doing small crop lots and using compost. Its almost like _chickens aren't optional_ when you do homesteading. I certainly wouldn't "homestead" fish, crawdads are actually more of a homestead thing tbh. While you can do a lot of fish farming it is definitely something that you have to dedicate a LOT of time to. goats are what you do if you can't dairy cow or are going to do one of those weed mowing businesses
I’ve had Anglo-Nubian goats and true they are not easy, but you have to put yourself in their shoes so to speak, same with donkeys, people say they are stubborn, and they maybe, but try to understand what they need and want, that’ll make your life way easier! On top of that watch them and give them love, they do understand!
28:55 I got LaMancha x Alpine goats as my first livestock. I am a single mom & wanted a livestock animal to care for when my son left my nest to keep me busy & keep me busy they did! Too busy. I had them for a full year… like your story, I love them and miss them but my life is much easier without them. I do miss them but I know my neighbors are glad that the escape artists were adopted by someone else.
I grew up with a couple dozen horses, couple hundred buffalo, tens of cows, and some random smaller critters from rabbits to pigeons and goats. Honestly the smaller the critter the harder they are to keep alive and in the pen in my opinion. Big critters like buffalo can be intimidating for a lot of people, and yes large livestock can hurt you very easy. But personal opinion, buffalo are easy, cows are medium, and horses and small critters are hard in my opinion to keep alive and contained.
I have been homesteading on my family farm since I was six. I can give a lot of advice when it comes to different types of animals and what to plant. Chickens are the easiest by far. Only thing is the predators, but if you have a sturdy, off the ground chicken huntch, they are truly the easiest animals that replace themselves. We have bought lots of different chicks over the years. For the ohio river valley area, orpingtons are the best for never getting frostbite and make good brooders. They only lay from march to november. There are chickens that will lay every day but it is hard on them. They will only lay 2-3 years. Orpingtons will lay double that amount of time or more. Rabbits are easy. We have a colony set up. The meat on the rabbits compared to huntches are tremendously better. They need their exercise! The meat taste better. To help with fed, we have a clover garden specifally for our rabbits to give to them in spring and summer. Goats are hard. They escape often. We have 25 acres and all our neighbors are cool with them so that helps. We let them out for three hours a day, and put them where we want them to trim. They stay for a half hour at most before moving to a place we don't want them... They are hard to milk unless they are catered to like they are all royalty. However, when new goats hit the ground, there is nothing like feeding beautiful bottle babies. We bottle feed most of ours to make them more friendly while we milk the goats. We let them keep one to help with milk production. They are bad mothers.... We have Nigerian dwarfs, boers, and nubians. Pigs are smelly. They are costly unless you can supply them with food that isn't pig pellets from a store. It is not worth the effort otherwise. They are easy to raise as long as you have and excess of resources. The best plants are tomatoes, peppers, radishes, onions, potatoes, sunflowers(if you have chickens instead of corn), strawberries, cucumbers, zucchini, squashes, and herbs.
I ❤ all the statistics and fellow homesteaders opinions. We love our dairy goats. They are easy on our pastures and their size makes them easy to handle.
My parents had a small hobby farm in TX for 20 years. They started with weed-eating geese (which were no trouble as my parents had no intention of eating them), which were the easiest of all. The poultry supplier gave them a pair of bantam Black Cochins, who quickly morphed into about a dozen and a half. My parents just kept them for eggs and as pets. Dad made them into quite a project, but they weren’t hard. Then Mom got a pair of Saanen dairy goat culls (one had a weird-shaped teat). They were fairly easy but they were labor-intensive, what with baths, hoof trims, taking them for walks to eat grape leaves. These guys got everything except massages. But we loved doing it. Mom even went to Houston for a cheese-making seminar, learned how to make soap (which worked well as Christmas presents for friends and neighbors). Milking was fun, especially when I was there to help. My mother would bring a weak goat baby into the house and sleep with it on the sofa. Actually the only hard one was a dairy cow. Even though they put orphaned calves on her, she gave way too much milk (and she was a cull). They were never able to dry her up. Finally they had to sell her. At that point they wanted to keep up their sideline of rescuing orphaned calves (as many as five at a time), so most of the goat milk got to be diverted to that purpose. Dad had installed a pecan orchard and some fruit trees and blackberries and asparagus bed and veggie garden. The pecan orchard was his obsession. I was never able to persuade Dad to go organic. The goats were the most fun of all because they were like dogs. Oh, I forgot the horses. But that is another story. Cows are no fun, they were too shy.
Gotta say IMO donkeys and even mules are much easier than horses if we’re comparing animals that have basic training (comparing a fully broke horse to an unhandled donkey is not super fair). In my experience they’re way more hardy and very very rarely have hoof issues. They get fat off of air! That being said I do and always have lived in a desert climate, in wet areas donkeys and mules are more prone to white line and overgrazing, and like ponies they can and will get obese quickly and develop issues related to that. I think quite a few of these votes would be skewed by location actually! For example I would never even attempt rabbits, ducks or geese in this climate. I know it can be done but no thank you, not worth it 😂
We did quail because we lived in the suburbs. They were low maintenance and easy to butcher. Our yard was a boiling hot desert which was the only reason we had difficulty. It was hard to keep them cool even in the shade.
I had a similar crazy goat experience! Bought a brother a sister when we first got into goats. They were way more feral than the seller let on. I had them in a large, black cage. I went to put them into the barn and somehow they bust the side of the cage and took off into the bush. We spent a few hours trying to herd them back in, to no avail. We went to bed. The next morning, it was torrential rain and they had gotten separated. One was hunkered down in ditch, so we got him herded into our chicken run. We played mama goat sounds (one of our other goats had just given birth) on the speakers for a few hours until the second little one was lured out of the bush and our dog chased her into a pen. I thought I had just seen $400 disappear into the bush for good! Yeah... but we still have goats. The ones we have now are much less feral.
I've grown up with my grandparents having goats, which I'm about to actually start farming for them and growing their numbers for meat, hide, etc. Also going to get 2 bee hives starting next summer, and actually within the next month or so I'm going to build our chicken operation and get 20 Buff Orpingtons (2 Male, 18 Female). So fun times ahead for our little stead. All on 3 acres of land and I only work 3 days a week at 12 hours each so that gives me 4 days a week to care for our animals. Were also going to retill their huge garden, I can't remember its exact size but it could in one row have 64 tomato plants and about 10 rows of other plants. so pretty big. I've got a get few people that can be good guides and have knowledge I could build from. I wish everyone luck who is going to start farming or already is. I wish you good crop and prosperous breeding.
Appreciate this video! I have always farmed, but have been thinking hard about getting goats again. This first time was terrible but I learned something and thought about trying again. Now I learned more and think it’s just not worth it. I love my beef cattle and chickens. I would put pigs a little higher on the list for being hard. Climate can make pigs very hard to keep healthy.
Great video. We just finished running 130 meat goats. By far, the most challenging with all of their potential issues, but also, by far, the most fun and enjoyable. Love, love love them.
Your video is just starting, so I haven't heard your ranking yet, but mine would be rabbits as the most difficult. Goats would follow, although I've had them for almost forty years and love them. Although, if the people getting goats would get their fencing and facilities set up BEFORE bringing goats home, AND have an experienced goat person inspect said facilities, that would make them a whole lot easier.
Now that I've watched almost all of the video, LOL! I've heard several stories of people bringing goats home, letting them out of the trailer or whatever they hauled them in, and the goats bolt and are never found again (and the local coyotes had a good lunch). Or, one of my neighbors bought a couple of does, put them in a corral, and in the morning they were gone (and the local coyotes had a good dinner). Most of the problems that people have with goats are due to inexperience and inadequate facilities/fencing. To minimize problems, get an experienced mentor before you even start seriously looking for goats, and have them help you set up your fences and facilities, or at least make suggestions (and follow them! People who've had goats for a long time know what they are talking about -- they've learned things, often the hard way. You don't have to learn the hard way -- you can learn from their mistakes!). I like cows; we had a Brown Swiss for a while when I was a kid, and lived around both beef and dairy cows during most of my childhood. As an older female (and even when I was younger and had small children), I prefer goats except for one thing: it's easier to get the cream off of cow milk so you can make butter. You have to be properly set up for them, but once you are, you've got 125 lb animals (or smaller, if you have Nigerian Dwarfs or one of the mini breeds) instead of 1200 lb animals. Less feed, less housing, less weight when they stand on your foot, easier to manhandle them if you need to, easier to haul them, easier to trim their feet, give shots, and so on. I'm raising a couple of bottle calves right now, and they are still about the size of an adult goat, and pretty easy to shove pills and medicine down their throats (sale barn calves, I *think* we are to the point where they are both going to make it!). But doing that with a full-grown cow will be a whole different story! As for rabbits, I've had a lot of those over the years, and have had so many issues with them. Failure to breed. Diseases and pests. Nervous animals bouncing around in their cages during thunderstorms and breaking their own necks. Bad mothers. There's a lot I like about rabbits, but they are really not as easy as chickens. Geese, being waterfowl, can be messy, and small children and the inexperienced can be intimidated by them, but they really are pretty easy, and don't need much more than grass to eat. They do need some respect, especially during breeding season, when they are more aggressive. I think a lot of the problems with sheep would be solved by getting hair sheep, especially one of the breeds that are known to be fairly parasite-resistant. And take the time to train them to electric fencing -- if you have one that doesn't respect the fence, cull it immediately before it teaches the whole flock to get out. We only have, at most (using almost all of my yard), a little less than two acres of pasture; the calves I'm raising now will either be sold in the fall (the Jersey heifer) or butchered when the grass is gone (the steer). At the moment I have three Nigerian Dwarf goats, and expect to finally start milking one of them in a couple of months. But I'm strongly leaning towards getting Katahdin sheep as our meat and dairy animal. They are fairly parasite-resistant, don't need sheared, usually have twins (which have a good growth rate), and are sometimes used as dairy sheep. And they are fairly common in our area. I can keep a ram for a few ewes; we don't have enough pasture to keep a bull for one cow!
@@promisedjubileedaniels Keeping them in colonies? I haven't tried that -- partly because I was worried about them digging out and escaping! I'm also concerned about disease -- I've been told by a local breeder that there is a disease going around, can't remember the name of it, that can be picked up by rabbits that are on the ground, especially if birds can drop poop into their pen.
I have hatched lots of quail. They are definitely easy, but setting up their living area was pretty expensive because of all the tight weave fencing. They poop an incredible amount and die easily. And, of course, to hatch them, you need to incubate and brood them, which requires electricity. A couple things that they really have going for them over other animals is that their tiny size and fast reproduction rate make selecting and reproducing the less aggressive individuals that do well in your management system very fast, and overwintering a minimally small population in a small space is easy since the population grows quickly when you start incubating again in the spring - assuming you live somewhere cold. If you live somewhere warm enough to reasonably be able to keep hatching year-round, it would be less expensive to get started since you could just go with a constantly small population (less cage space and potentially a smaller incubator). They're just a bit too small to truly thrive in a cold climate. Where I live, my rabbits are probably around ten times easier than quail.
@househunt5175 TL:DR - they're too domesticated to reproduce in the wild with few lucky exceptions To be clear, when I talk about raising quail for eggs/meat, I am specifically talking about Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica). To answer your question, this species has been domesticated in Japan since the 11th or 12th century, and furthermore, around WWII, the species experienced heavy artificial selection towards increased egg production and, due to events of WWII, an extreme population bottleneck. So, all that said, they aren't a wild species, so they don't really reproduce in the wild. If one escapes captivity, the vast majority of the time, being a small prey animal, they quickly experience predation and death, with no opportunities to reproduce. They can, however, hybridize with wild common quail (Coturnix coturnix), the species from which they seem to have been domesticated. Their relation to common quail is much like that of dogs to wolves. Unlike dogs, quail are small prey animals and precocial birds, so as long as humans have had artificial incubation, there has been no selective pressure for quail to be broody or good parents. When you consider that they can breed as young as 6-8 weeks old, the possible number of generations born this way is staggering.
I truly cannot believe I found chickens difficult - to the point of quitting on them completely a year after starting - and find goats easy in comparison to chickens. I can't be the only one...
I sort of agree. Chickens are the only animals I've had losses in; predators, disease, accidents. They also did most damage to the garden. I don't keep much else though, only a couple of goats We don't have predators here that will bother an adult goat. My easiest would probably be ducks. They suit the climate (Ireland), need minimal fencing (if any) and only a simple low house. They eat garden pests (including slugs, which chickens don't) and rarely damage plants. Plus they lay at night when they are in, so you get the eggs. My chickens lay anywhere and everywhere, so it's the dog who gets the eggs.. On the minus side, ducks need a pond, which they will mess up so you get involved in water changes etc. Hardest would have to be horses. Goats are a similar amount of work, but things like hoof trimming are easier (and safer) with the smaller animal. Most trouble is actually the dogs, but I suppose they don't count as livestock. They do rat a bit though, so they might be working animals. As a final note: any livestock is less work than growing veg.
I have raised cows all my life, but I think I would like goats better. I have had to many times where a tame gentle cow will decide to try to kick me or horn me because they happen to be in a mood that day. It's why whenever I milk the cows I put them in a shoot and put a bar to keep them from kicking back at me, have heard of a few people in this area that have had "gentle" cows kick them in the head before.
I'm now worried I'm missing something when it comes to taking care of my goats 😂 Mine are super easy… they like to stay in their enclosure, and if they get out they want to be wherever we are, even if that means trying to get in the house, they come when we call them, maybe bottle raising makes a difference. Hated our ducks, they were easy, but ate way to much and made a huge mess.
What about worms for worm tea and fishing bait? I think that would be an easy animal to keep. I was considering starting a worm bin for a backyard garden, but I live in an area where for three months of the year it's over 100F and as high as 115F. Outside of the monsoon season the humidity will go down to 5%-10% which means every thing dries out quick.
@@tracy419 If I buried it like this I wouldn't be able to extract the generated worm tea that follows gravity to the lowest point or the composted soil at the bottom which follows gravity as well. The bins are large enough where most people do not have the strength to pick them up. Virtually every worm bin I've seen is stored above ground to access the bottom of it.
@@ohdogwow2 ahh... Good points I hadn't thought of. Something you might be interested in that you could modify for the purpose is a worm septic system. They basically take those big square plastic food grade totes that things like concentrates come in, and turn those into the first stage of a septic system that uses worms to process the waste. Cut the top off, put a plastic pipe filled with holes straight down to the bottom, and curved over to the built in drain, put gravel in to hold everything up and top the rest of the way with organic material. This system uses worms to process your bathroom waste, but doesn't necessarily need to. They take that and enclose the tote in insulation, soil or whatever and the fluids come out the bottom through the built in spout and into the septic field. You might be able to modify and use that system without the actual septic aspect.
You hit it when you said raising a couple of feeders is easy. Very little infrastructure is required. Very little space and effort are required. I think breeding and raising is different from raising just for your food. I've never had dairy cows, but beef cows are easy for me. Once you have the fencing and the infrastructure, it is easy to raise a couple of steers. Quail were very easy for us, but they are messy. We found that we preferred chicken over quail, so we stopped raising them. We have bison in Montana. You need lots of land and they will break down a fence in a heartbeat.
I think it really depends on the climate and weather. I am from Brazilian Northeast, a tropical climate. I was raised by my beekeeper father with bees ands goats all around. They seemed the easiest thing to me. We are always called to rescue bees, and our hives produced beautifully. The goats were fun and roamed pretty much free, very, very resistant. Funny how it goes
This is interesting. Our 1st "farm" animals we ever got was 3 dwarf goats😆😆😆 I'd say my husband is doing a good job. And then we got the most easiest animals chickens. But we love our goats, even got a 4th
As a Beekeeper, that one really surprised me. I honestly wouldn't think they'd get much more difficult than a fish. Yes I Koi fish too. Very low maintenance, very low costs compared to all the others. They are very self sustained animals, check their hives for parasites and they are good. I live in mid Sweden so there isn't really any predators that'll destroy the hives.
Had donkeys growing up, and i disagree that they're harder than horses. You don't have to be as careful with their diet, and they're more durable. With that said, it matters a lot where the donkey comes from. We had one who was taken out of the grand canyon as part of a gov't program, and he was always at least half wild. Great personality, though. We got along just fine as long as we let him just do his thing. The thing about taking three days to walk them back after getting out is totally accurate.
Thank you for posting this video. It was both entertaining and educational. I grew up raising goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens and ducks. We also tried geese and turkeys with indifferent success. For us goats were easy, and that is because we were set up for them land-wise, and trial and error for enclosures and a barn for shelter. Goats are personable.
Our easiest (and only) “livestock” is deer. Wild on our property. Hoping to harvest again this Fall. No vet bills, no overhead. We are young 70 somethingThis was an interesting content! . Thanks for compiling info and sharing. I’d love to have chickens, but we need to really do it right. Coyotes, raccoons, hawks and vultures also share this property. We’ve owned the 5 acre property for almost two years and just finished building our retirement house and finally moved in. No garden, no animals. Grading will happen soon. Best to you!!!
So I’m actually going to disagree with the goats being hard. I have a herd of 30 dairy girls in Alaska. I got my first girls when I 15 years old. I think that they are a lot more manageable for 1 person to handle. They are a lot more self sufficient to own, you don’t need a dangerous bull, or be dependent on AI. Their yield is wonderful for how little feed they need, quicker turn around time to reap the benefits, and the meat from the offspring gets in your freezer a lot quicker. Same with pigs, right infrastructure makes the world of difference. It’s all in knowing where your goats came from and being from a quality farmer. They can be very attainable for people who want dairy animals. I’ve learned you will hate goats if you lack a calm personality. They get very frustrated with you if they can sense you’re angry or stressed. I’d say imo they are an easy to medium animal.
Only problem with rabbits is the RHVD2. We decided against raising them because it was too risky and we can’t set up enough sanitation practices to prevent it. We’re getting khaki Campbells instead. We live in a city so we have certain limitations. Ducks or rabbits are pretty much the only animal we can see breeding on our little urban homestead
I’ve been raising dairy goats for 18 years and I can say they are easy and hard at the same time. Having Fort Knox fencing, good shelters and the best diet in place and adding access to loose trace minerals prevents a lot of issues. Staying on top of the parasites and hoof trims are essential. I also choose to bottle feed all kids to aid with socialization and better monitor health. It also allows ease of milking the dams since they see you as the “kid”. Than you get into genetics and I breed for parasite resistance and hardiness in addition to good confirmation and strong milkers. Also the different personalities and traits of the different breeds. Once upon a time raised Boers and found them to be more prone to escaping and not as enjoyable as my Nubians.
Horses need to have real work to do. I agree that if they are just toys for entertainment, they are expensive and time-consuming. But if you have work for them to do, they do have a place.
I grew up on a dairy goat farm and my mom always says “Goats come into the world trying to find creative ways to leave it” 😂
There is a saying here: “those who want to learn how to swear should get goats” 😂
@@saal0I got one still refuse to swear
@@Aymen19827get 2
Lol
So accurate 😂😂
Horses; a dirt bike that can be mad at you….
If a bicycle could make bad decisions
Horses. What a waste of time to keep unless you actually do work with them. They eat money and shit work.
ponies. smaller. smarter and meaner
My Little Pony is gangsta
Horses are stupid and dangerous
Regarding beef cattle: I'm not a homesteader, but I inspect rural roads and bridges. One day a few years ago I was inspecting a wooden bridge and heard a guy loudly cursing. Finished the inspection went to check and see if the guy was okay. He was mending a barbed fence, muttering he needed to electrify it and was "gonna turn that sumbitch into hamburger." He had one particular cow that kept tearing up his fence and running off, letting the others out. Helped him look for the escapist and we found him about 30 minutes later drinking from a nearby creek.
Also, turned out we were distant cousins. Me and the farmer, not me and the cow.
Thank you for clarifying you weren't related to the cow.
Almost believed you were related to the cow, thanks for clearing that up
Be a lot cooler if you were related to the cow
Omg, why kill animal? Why no buy hamburger from shop? No animals killed from buy in shop, it just meat/hamburger from shop, so no one died.
y do this then? ? ? buy from shop, no animal hurt or killed they just drive it to shop and it is on shelves.
@@iamerror1699 burgers are made from cows yknow
I still remember going to a petting zoo as a kid and all of the animals had sweetly taken pellets from my hand. Then, I got to the goat. The goat stood up on his hind legs, stretched his neck out and promptly snatched the entire pellet bag out of my hand. He ate the paper bag and all. That single experience told me all I ever needed to know about goats 🤣
Average goat experience 😂 no jokes goats be like that haha
I worked on a goat farm and a cattle farm on a working holiday trip in New Zealand. To me goats are alright. Granted I mostly work with kids, does and neutered males, and they produce fiber not meat so they are not as big, but out of roughly 250 goats only one was trying to fight me all the time. But cattle is a completely different story. They weigh thousands of pounds and they could injure me easily, say by turning and accidentally bumping into me with their behinds.
For sheep, from what little I know: fencing, parasite control, hooves, shearing, rotational grazing, minerals. And so many ways they could die.
Ditto basically, goats are evil fr
I went to a petting zoo back in the eighties with my son. At the time , those nylon pants with zipper pockets were popular. Yep,the goats went crazy over those. I had about eight goats attached to my pants.i couldn't get them to stop grabbing them until i finally made it out of the enclosure.
For those who want a quick overview of the animals mentioned in the video:
2:12 Chicken 91 6 3
3:10 Quail 74 18 8
4:04 Rabbit 70 28 2
4:51 Duck 65 30 5
5:37 Turkey 55 35 10
7:58 Fish 50 37 12
10:05 Goose 46 54 0
11:03 Guinea 45 40 15
12:17 Beef Cattle 27 61 11
14:45 Pig 25 61 14
17:59 Sheep 24 55 21
19:15 Dairy Cow 20 50 30
22:41 Alpaca 22 44 33
23:28 Horse 11 54 34
25:15 Donkey 14 50 35
26:52 Goat 16 46 38
31:48 Bee 13 32 54
Thx! Real helpful!
legend
At the very least I STRONGLY disagree on bees and cows. Bees are "hard" because folks usually buy non-native species, poison them with pesticides and feed unhealthy syrups to the poor creatures. It's our fault, not theirs. Cows due to their size and horns kill people all the time, at least in poor unsafe countries like mine. Also Muscovy ducks are way easier than the regular ones. Rabbits are prone to some very nasty diseases. Pigs and goats are the type of livestock even my grandma can handle.
Thanks he is too chatty. This saves me
thank you
We have been homesteading for just over a year, and jumped in hard and fast. Having never done any of this before, I feel like we are a pretty good control group for animal difficulty. As total newbies, here are the animals that we have raised ranked in order from easiest to hardest for first timers:
Layer ducks: easy fencing, minimal housing requirements and don't tear up the flower beds.
Laying hens: close second to ducks. They roam more and can jump/fly over fencing and will scratch exactly where you don't want them to. Easier watering and brooding than ducks though.
Hair Sheep: half of the year I practically forgot that we had them. They eat grass and hang out. Easy on fencing and don't roam.
Broad breasted turkeys: they don't fly and are easy to fence. Butchering is about as easy as chickens, but you get 4x the meat per bird.
Meat chickens: would be #1 other than the butchering work. I love that they're a 2 month commitment and you're done. John Suskovich chicken tractors for the win!
Beef: on a day-to-day basis, beef is one of the very lowest effort level animals we have, the issue is in the big things. You can't put a cow in the back of a minivan. Bulls are big and can be dangerous. I had to get 40 four foot round bales that each weigh 800 lbs and butchering requires either specialized equipment, or a professional. I do love a good steak though...
Dairy goats: I really wanted to say that our dairy goats were easy, but when I compared them to the rest, they are a little bit harder than most. We have the best goats. We bought oberhasli goats from a local dairy and they are amazing. They don't challenge our fencing, they're quiet and healthy and so far haven't tried to poison themselves. We got a Saanan buck who is a super chill guy and just had a successful round of kids. They aren't nearly the challenge I was expecting them to be, but the daily attention required to keep them friendly and milkable, along with the actual milking does make them more work than most others.
Heritage turkeys: our heritage turkeys fought like crazy, were impossible to fence, would jump on our roof, cars, barn, trees, etc. They insisted on roosting in the most dangerous places. We started with 15 heritage poults, 5 died right away for no apparent reason, 1 was pecked to death at about 2 months and 3 ended up getting eaten by coyotes. They destroyed our fruit tree starts and flower beds. Uggh.
Honey bees: I am allergic to bees, so my wife handled this one. She is a brilliant woman does amazing research, keeps impeccable notes and is amazingly diligent. We had the coldest, wettest spring I've ever seen and they all died. It was so disheartening to feel like you could do everything right and not a single one of the 5000 bees would live. Bees require a whole bunch of specialized gear and an entire suit to make sure you don't die. It honestly feels to me like some sort of tribal religious ritual, where you done the special attire, blow smoke into the sky, dance around a little and pray for good weather. I firmly believe that my wife will be successful with this at some point, but it feels like it requires not only a tremendous amount of knowledge and skill, but many factors will outside of your control.
Also, my skin feels all itchy when I watch them.
I have bees and they are easy to keep alive PROVIDED you dont take the honey. If you do, you can easily take too much, mess up the feeding and they wont survive the winter. But the big advantage is you can go on holidays and just let them be
I feel like building a green house that they can get out of around the bees during the colder seasons could help
I have bees I'm constantly worried the same .. for die dont die dont die. They seem pretty chillaxed and havent had an issue yet.
Also have milking goats mostly toggenbergs but one saananberg (saanan cross toggenberg) she is the daughter of the saanan we started milking with.. they where all hand raised even the buck we have and so chilled out 1200 high fence no electricity and no issues. Tho I have some friends and their saanan buck knocked over a bee hive and the bees actually killed the buck. It went from a white goat to a black goat.. so bee careful. This is another stress of mine
so you just leave them "bee" huh@@wojciechjanek1215
I been home standing for just 2 years. We have only chickens. A big 36ft long by 10ft wide green house. Also a outdoor garden. I planted 4 apple and 2 plum trees this year starting are orchard.
We want to get sheep and goats.
But we dont have a barn or any covered areas for them. And we need to fence are property in. Just don't have the money for either.
I think pigs are harder than goats. About 3 days in, my pig escaped and had the entire town (including police) chasing him 😂
Pigs can chew wood boards, and always root.
@@bcase5328 now that I’ve had them for a bit, they’re easier. I have a pallet fence though and my one pig jumped it yesterday bc he was so excited to see me 😂 it was easy to get him back in though.
Right. Goats are a pain, but Pigs are smarter and soo much stronger. I don't know how they got under sheep.
@@mazvirataaja9397 They're not a pain, not that much. This video's bullshit.
@@mazvirataaja9397 Ease of starting out with feeders ig. But I lowkey agree, pigs are a massive pain.
Ive helped out at a farm when I was quite young (11-12) as part of afterschool club activities and we had a couple of them escape. So then we proceeded to get a free cardio workout chasing them around.
But it was bought out when I got to keep a "small" pig in my hands (well small...it was like 30 kilos). Absolute angel of an animal, so calm and big. I got to see why people keep pigs as pets, aswell as why theyre popular as livestock.
As a professional horse trainer who also has goats, no way are horses easier than goats. A rude or poorly trained goat won't kill you. They don't break your foot if they step on you. Horses also have parasite issues, like to escape, and die because of tummy aches. Or, more likely, step on a slightly sharp rock and become a permanently lame so you have to feed them and let them destroy your pasture and fencing for the next 30 years without getting any use from them.
You must have never met a rude goat...
Joking... great points. You've got me convinced... no horses!
also as a horse trainer... i vote... ponies!
Ponies are good if ther are trained properly.
@@DanielGarcia-no2id lol ponies are immune to proper training.
Why not butcher the horse? If it cant work its a meat animal, otherwise you can hardly call it livestock.
😂I literally started with goats! Won't disagree that they're hard. But I'm actually glad I got goats first because the ease of the other animals just made the journey more rewarding
Goats v cows reminds me of the cat/dog debate. Whatever defines easy for you will decide -- walking and off-leash roam or maintaining a litter box and providing indoor scratch options... equal work, different methods
Same!
Same. First day escaped and got on the roof 😂
Lmao I grew up with goats so found them easy compared to the other critters, sheep are a blasted nightmare for me.🤣
@@rustyhowe3907 I agree.
Sitting here watching this with my goats, who've had zero issues with anything but my cheapskate choice in fencing. They were my first choice in livestock, and I have zero regrets. Strong personalities, and I love that.
I do aquaponics and it is very easy to raise the fish BUT it is dependent on which fish species you choose, your climate and how efficient your setup is. Some people could find it difficult.
Also the infrastructure is more complicated and expensive than for small poultry & rabbits/cavies.
I recently asked in a local group how much is it costing to keep a family dairy cow and the whole thread turned into the ministers of goating evangelizing on why I need to convert to goats instead! I was like chill out people I want a freaking COW 😂
But goats are really great 😃 You should definitely get a goat
Get one! Don't listen to what ppl say about frickin cows. They give SO much milk you can basically live off a cow alone, eating the (older calves) and not even needing a male to inseminate these days. I was told by so many ppl not to get a cow and I regret listening to them. Eff them. Get a cow.
@@aryafylfort9717 Yeahhhh, the goat people need to chill out. 🙄
Haha, must be goat people. Always lecturing in the forums😂 Also, I have goats and they are the most pain in the butt stubborn animals. Love them, but my goodness are they a lot of work.
I think your local environment can also make certain animals easier or harder.
I live in a desert in a climate closer to what a lot of goats evolved to live in while lots of other animals struggle in the heat and don't thrive. My rabbits are considered the most heat-tolerant breed but they're lots of work in the summer because I have to give them ice packs to keep them outside in the shade of my porch. My friend has chickens that randomly die in the heat even-though she has given them a cooling kiddy pool. In the desert we have less pest pressure, far fewer mosquitos, flies and even low exposure to parasites (hardly any natural grass to transfer their eggs). We don't get ANY ticks or fleas. They just don't survive. But some livestock don't either.... so it's a trade-off.
I agree. I live in an arid climate with fairly hot summers. My two goats do well here. (I clip my shaggy buck during the hottest months). Virtually no parasites or mosquitos to deal with.
Any advice on ducks in the desert?
@@shea5542 I haven't tried ducks yet, but I imagine that being in some water would help them. I would look for duck breeds popular in southern India, the area formerly known as Persia and savanahs in Africa ;) that's often where I find the right heirloom plant and animal varieties for my dry 9a zone
One critter you didn't mention is Yaks. I'm going to guess they rank somewhere around goats. :) Granted, we got our yaks under somewhat false pretenses. The sellers outright lied and told us how they were hand tamed and all. We were planning on raising yaks for milk and wool, as well as packing. Turns out these were yaks that had been raised as brood mothers for a meat farm. We bought mamma, older baby and newly born baby as a package deal. Far from being hand-tamed, mama Yonkers was an ornery, unfriendly and suspicious animal who'd obviously been abused. She was terrified of humans and hated us. And that's what she taught her daughters! And talk about escape artists! They got out of their enclosure 3 times in 2 years, and each time became more challenging to locate and recapture. (Though the last time, after a 2 month walkabout, they actually showed up asking, "you got water?") It took us 2 years, but eventually, we did Forgive me if I, also, chuckle a bit about having done your research prove to Yonkers that we were trustworthy. On one good side, super-easy birthing. We bred Zoozoo the older daughter, and the birth took about 15 minutes. Just long enough (as first time yak grandparents) to realize the vet was an hr and a half away and begin to freak, and then Ferdie was struggling to her legs and making her way over to me and giving me kisses. (You haven't lived till you've been kissed by a 10 minute old yak!) Sadly our experiment in yak-steading was brought to a close when mom-in-law developed alzheimers and we had to return to FL. We at least managed to find the girls a forever home that promised to never slaughter them for meat.
Wow. Quite an adventure! You ever get some yak milk? You guys should have made RUclips videos about the yaks! They sound like they would have been fun to watch😜
@@Homesteadyshow There will be a language barier, for sure, but videos are still nice and show how one group of nature protectors have yaks (and heritage breeds of goats and sheep) for grazing valuable medows with critically endangered flowers in our region in central Europe :-). www.youtube.com/@csop_libosvary
Here's something that's not asked often. What tools/equipment make homestead life easier? What about gear and clothing, if any? I'm sure you wouldn't want to be in a muddy paddock with sandals and shorts 😂
I'm honestly looking for a really great pair of overalls that can breathe well on hot summer days but be durable enough to crawl around and sit on the pasture with my lgd and livestock.
A note on aquaponics systems: most people who struggle are in a rush. It takes time to figure out the right location for a pond, it takes time to establish bacterial colonies for proper filtration, and lots of people don't understand the limitations inherent to selecting aquaponics crops.
But if you're patient, do the research up front, and are willing to make the front-end investment, they will keep you in salad greens and soft-stemmed herbs all season long. We keep ornamental koi, which makes us a little bit of money(I buy a few small koi to fill a secondary pond every year and grow them to re-sell), gives us a great gathering point for barbecues, a nice stress-reliever place to sit in the evening, and winters off(they hibernate when it gets too cold and we transfer them to smaller holding tanks indoors).
If I add up EVERY SECOND of actual work from last season - filling, draining, and cleaning the pond, feeding up to five times a day, wellness checks, flushing filters, testing water, everything - I bet that I've got less than twenty hours of work between April and October, and another three during their hibernation months.
I think the biggest difficulty(aside from people being in a rush) is the expense, because it absolutely isn't cheap, and the fact that a lot of the skillset to managing a pond doesn't cross over with the general livestock skills most people being surveyed have acquired. Poultry is poultry is poultry, and a lot of the differences between chickens and turkeys and quail and guineas is in the minutia, but a ton of that knowlege is transferable. Same with waterfowl, and same with large pastured livestock. Fish are very much in a different category, and it doesn't mesh as cleanly.
I can't believe bees are that high! I probably put less manpower into my hives every year than I do my pond! I have literally forgotten about my bees for weeks at a time and never had a problem!
Out of curiousity, how are we defining "hard" when it comes to keeping livestock? Is it expense? Labour hours invested? Technical knowledge? I think I must be defining it very differently than a lot of your viewers.
For people struggling and calling bee-keeping difficult, what metric are you using? What struggles specifically are you having?
Brad, both comments are fantastic input, love you sharing!
Aquaponics- Love what you said about the skillset not crossing over, I think thats true. Caring for goats and pigs there is a lot of similarity, but fish are new altogether.
Bees - I have heard people talk about that with bees, the fact that they are forgettable... its true, cant do that with chickens or goats. But there is a high failure rate with bees, seems like your good at it!
HARD- how are we defining it? I specifically didn't. I made it very simple, because I wanted someone with experience to give a simple, gut level rating.
We could go in depth in our questionnaires in the future, maybe have different categories, time, expense, challenges, etc... but I think we will save that for videos that go in depth on 1 specific animal. I like that idea, will start planning it!
The world is a crazy place right now.
Is there a fish I could raise in a 12' diameter 30" deep swim pool in Illinois weather. Any info would be welcome. Thank you.
@@michaellindsey5858 That's a pretty broad question. In-ground or above? Hard-sided, flexible liner, or inflatable? Heated or not? Indoors or out? How are you planning to handle filtration? Ornamental fertilizer-producers or livestock meant for the table? And you'd have to give me a rundown on Illinois weather; I've never been within 1000 miles of the state.
After reading your reply, I realized I don't have the skills it would take to be successful. Thanks for the reply.
I was hoping to see bison, camels, emu, water buffalo, and ostriches get ranked. Hopefully y'all do a part 2 to this video and rank them. Love the videos gives inspiration to new homesteaders
Those are all hard. I imagine they'd all rank harder than goats and honeybees. I have read about them all, but I haven't owned any of them, so take my opinion for what it is, but in order of increasing difficulty, I'd say domesticated water buffalo, camels, bison, emu, ostrich.
Water buffalo and camels are domesticated and can be docile. They're compliant enough to be commonly used as draft and pack animals. Buffalo are harder than cattle because they spend so much time in the water, but this could be an advantage if you live in a swampy area. Otherwise, they're not much different than cattle. Camels are notoriously aloof and less likeable than equines, but they get the job done and are popular all over dry regions for good reason. They produce milk, meat, wool, and can carry good and people.
The other species you named are large, dangerous wild animals. While you should always be careful around any large animals, you can never fully trust wild animals. Bison are usually not particularly aggressive, but they are wild animals and you must keep your distance. It's like keeping more aggressive beef cattle. But you can get more docile cattle bulls. Bison are what they are.
The ratites are aggressive and shouldn't be underestimated. They can kill, just like a bull. I'd fear the ostriches more because of their size, they can kick you from further away. They are aggressive wild animals and very dangerous. It's like keeping bison, but worse. You probably shouldn't go near them. So you fence off some land, and don't interact with them much. They can be really vicious. Good quality meat and lots of fat/oil, but quite a bother. Since they're wild animals, I'd stay away and slaughter them at a distance with a firearm, as is done with bison.
😂😂😂 man they can’t win 😂😂😂
My 2nd family growing up raised Rhea. Similar to an emu. I wouldn't mind having a few.
My cousins have farm w alot of different livestock. He bought a bunch of ostrich and emus said they were mean and never was friendly. I remember them as a kid wanted to pet them , said nope get away from there . They bought a ram 🐏 not a big horn, but a large one ( as a pet on farm ) only
@@Paelorianbison are definitely the hardest and most dangerous. The others are all easy if you’ve been around animals a long time the water buffalo is probably the easiest
Pro tip for any potential hog farmers: have the hog pin enclosed in a bigger pen with wide open areas. This will keep them entertained and ways from danger long enough for you to notice they are out
I think a big problem with the States is that many of the animals you choose are not native to the land. Here in South Africa, if you choose indigenous breeds like Nguni cattle, boerbokke or Kalahari Red goats or dorper sheep...they thrive. Basically we leave them our in massive camps in the desert with a couple guardian animals and they fend for themselves. We want strong animals ans don't want to spend a fortune on vet care so the animals that show the most resilience are the ones we keep.
The other issue with homesteading is that space is limited and homesteaders tend to bring in more than the land can carry. That's how diseases spread through the web.
So...are all these animals easy? Nope...but I also find many people just make life complicated for the sake of it.
Like horses. The majority don't need a stable, don't need expensive concentrates and don't need shoes. It's easy enough to learn how to trim your own horse's feet and they prefer to stay outside and eat hay. Just pop up a run-in shed and you're good to go. Same with cattle, sheep and goats.
Sure, some get taken by leopard, jackal or caracal but that's just how it goes.
I guess this was also done mostly for homesteaders in the States though🙂 everywhere is different and we all have our own sets of issues. South Africa has a drought and theft problem, for example😅 especially nowadays with the country in collapse🙄
I concur!
Were I live, in Sweden, it's quite common for homesteaders to choose old native breeds which are bred for our particular circumstances. They're hardy, resistant and non-demanding. They might produce slightly less (most of them are smaller in size, the poultry lay smaller eggs and the cows/goats give sightly less milk) but in turn eat way less than their high producing counterparts, are very good at living off the land (no need to buy expensive feed) and thrive in the harsh winter months with snow, sleet and rain.
Makes homesteading a bit easier, for sure.
Just a tip for new homesteaders:
NEVER GET RID OF THAT BROODY CHICKEN!
If you want to get a better success rate with any hatching or raising of any bird, have the broody chicken do it. I raised my turkeys with the help of a chicken and I have never had the losses that other people have, or when the turkey hens try and hatch chicks. The chicken hen will also teach the chicks to forage and will keep them alive! A broody chicken hen is worth her weight in feed if you want to hatch and raise other birds even the tricky ones!
As someone who has bees, I would agree that they are VERY hard! But not at the same time? The learning curve for them is very steep, but they can be somewhat low maintenance, if that makes sense. I checked on my bees for the first time all winter a couple weeks ago and they’re doing great! So maybe they should fall on the other side of goats 😂😂
Started with beekeping this spring. Took some colonies my neighbour's dad used to keep (they were incredibly neglected) for free and with a lot of books read. Still have issues with them.
Firstly they swarm and the remaining bees could not make a new queen cell because of the poor climate conditions and the newly moved area (they got stressed). One of them managed to make it despite of the problems, though the hatched queen died quickly. Now, bought 4 queens for the 4 orphan colonies, and 3 of them killed those queens.
Bought 2 nuclei with queens and bees in them,.
Now, early summer here in Spain, I've started to see the progress and was worth the effort when I've visited them and saw them 3 exploding in population and fully recovered. Sadly, 1 of them 4 remained as a drone colony, but I think of it as an experience.
Very comforting and an excellent experience, with minimum amount of money (2nd hand market kind of helps on that).
I keep Iberian honey bees.
Cheers!
people acknowledging that an animal is driving them up a wall and causing problems but still loving them with all their heart and refusing to give them up is such a beautiful thing about humans.
My parents tried rabbits, chickens and pigs while I was going through my teen years…
They made the classic mistake of getting the animals before having anything set up for them, so I have not so fond memories of the chickens and pigs but the rabbits were ok and I was enjoyed them.
I am currently saving up money for a few acres of land for my own (if I do not inherit my parents place after they pass away) and am going to give chickens and pigs another try, but this time I am doing my research via books and various RUclips channels and getting everything set up first!!!!
Once that is done, only then will I get the animals.
Besides, I only want a few since it’s just going to be me and I don’t want to overwhelm myself and loose the enjoyment of it….
Chickens and rabbits will be first then a couple goats for dairy and possibly a mini-jersey cow, you have peaked my interest in checking them out as a possible purchase…
It's just selfish not to research. They only have one life and a suffering is probability risk for them even if you know a lot.
I raised boer goats and loved them! I found that they are so full of personality. I can see why someone would think they were difficult but I never found it a challenge. I have owned and raised almost every animal out there and they are not even close to being the most difficult for me, but I’m wired that way. Lol
I think with proper fencing, goats become super easy after that. Billy's are knuckleheads though.
I think it has a lot to do with how much time and attention you can give each individual animal. If you have time and attention for each individual animal lots of things that would be hard if you weren't giving them attention become super easy. Without a lot of attention there's certain species that stay about the same and there's other species that become absolute nightmares.
Guys, I´m a future homesteader (hopefuly) from Brazil who´s recently found and listened to a few of your podcasts on Spotify. This is my first RUclips video and, beyond the amazing tips and counseling, I must say THANK YOU for so many good laughs. I wish you all the best.
I don't know enough to disagree. I have pigs, chickens, turkeys and geese. Oh, and one silly guinea fowl who thinks it's a turkey! 100% success rate so far, no fatalities. Eggs in Winter too! My daughter sent me this video. We have bees too. Such a sweet joy if you know them like I do. Bees do what bees do. Just encourage them to do it and stand back. Sweet rewards!
If you have time to answer this I would be so grateful: Do you have bees just for the honey or did you get them as pollinators for a farm you may have?
I'm looking to grow all types of berries and it would be easier if I had a pollinator on site to help it grow. Otherwise I would have to deal with flies (as pollinators) and I'm wondering if it is worth it.
@@jennajoseph893 For honey. They pay people here for bee hives as pollinators though.
Not actually a homesteader yet. But I have raised alpacas for 18 years. Definitely not easy. If you are in the eastern US, you have to give them monthly ivermectin shots to prevent meningeal worm (not an intestinal parasite - think meningitis - attacks spinal cord and brain), as well as toenail trimming, tooth monitoring and trimming, fecals/FAMACHA for intestinal parasites (they carry same as sheep and goats, but have less resistance to them), and shearing. They are very good at hiding any illness, so when they do show illness, it is already progressed. They definitely have personalities, sort of like cats. Some love attention, and some will let you know if you get too close to their personal space. This year, I'm expanding my farm. Chickens are fully free-range. Hardest part is the egg hunt. Only one guinea left, and he is isolated, as he is recovering from getting his leg caught. Found him hanging upside down. Mine were all male. Last 3 were Larry, Mo, and Curly. That dumb. Late spring I'll be adding some feeder pigs in partnership with a neighbor. I grow out and he butchers. My fish are natural, in a 3/4 acre pond. Plenty of bass and perch.
You seem to be a homesteader if you raise all of these.
Why is that an eastern us specific problem? Is it not an issue elsewhere? What's going on in that region that parasites are such a problem?
In many parts of canada we have to give regular shots or fence our livestock far away from deer populations because of transference, is that what's going on?
@@pvp6077 While the white-tail deer are carriers, and the parasite is spread by deer, the primary way the parasite larvae are spread is by a minute snail. That snail isn't found west of the Rockies. It is also not found in the Hill Country of Texas, although lots of deer there, because of the limestone rocky soil. The microscopic larvae are left in the snail slime, picked up by the alpaca, and once eaten, take about 32 days to reach the spinal cord. Once there, it travels to the brain. Camelids are end hosts. It kills the camelid before it can reproduce, unlike in deer. Camelid breeders must give an ivermectin shot every 30 days to kill off any larvae picked up within that time period. Unfortunately, that means ivermectin is basically useless for intestinal parasites. They have developed resistance to it because of the regular use. Eastern Canada is also affected.
Goats were the hardest animal on our homestead but they were also the most affectionate. And baby goats are the very cutest baby animal on the farm.
bunnies
When it comes to honeybees I believe in response to the world-wide problem is that instead of trying to domesticate bees we should support them. Build them insect houses, leave sugar water out, plant helpful flowers, and don't support commercial brands that don't keep bees correctly. This is just an opinion I've gathered from research. I hope you all have an amazing day or night, thank you!
I agree, my grandma has a 17 acre plot of land that she is letting us work into a campsite, it’s barren but I wish to plant TONS of native and non invasive wildflowers in the area.
Why not both? Domesticated bees are better cared for and protected, particularly against invasive species like Asian hornets, they're also a good indicator for the health of wild populations as, if your domestic bees are struggling, wild bees are likely doing worse.
But yes absolutely we should be doing all the things you say to support wild bees as well.
You would think in some of that research that you would have noticed world bee numbers have increased every year since forever. You'd think you could only get away with screaming about 40+% losses every year before someone realises that bees just naturally die off over winter and come back in spring, but here we are, into our 20th year of imminent bee extinction and moments away from the extinction of the human race somehow because of the lack of an introduced specie...
I don't get how someone could say cows are more difficult than goats, I've never seen a cow climb a tree to get out and chase the neighbors.
@@fundyproductions5927 do cows cooperate with hoof care like horses or they don’t?
I love my chickens so much its crazy. They come up to my door and say hi. I love watching them run around like they have somewhere to be. They lay eggs in strange places.
It's so funny! I was shocked at bees! I am so intimidated by everything else on here. I have 5 bee hives and it's super enjoyable and easy. I can even if ignore them if I like. This makes me a lot more confident on giving everything elsw a try!
Don't be misled! I'm a fellow bee-keeper, and rate them right alongside my chickens for difficulty(really damn easy). If you don't have anything besides your hives, get some chickens and start there.
My goodness, bees are difficult for beginners!
Please tell me how to best prevent hive beetles this year!
@@8dreamersfarm I don't want to pull you from Homesteady's channel. But I have all my bee failures documented on mine. A bunch of new ones that come out this year. I'm pretty successful at catching swarms and rehoming them into my boxes. And I have a GREAT video on where I killed a hive because of small hive beetles. The long and short of it is I gave them too much space to guard, and I created hiding spaces for the beetles where the bees couldn't get at them. I was effectively beetle keeping, not beekeeping. lol
@@hillbilly-homestead I follow several homesteading channels, homesteady won’t lose me. Which video talks about your hive beetle issue? And how you resolved it
@@8dreamersfarm ruclips.net/video/lgAGJLk5oc8/видео.html
The sounds cuts out in the beginning for some reason. In short, I could have resolved it by checking sooner and catching it. Then removing empty frames and space so the bees had less frames to guard. In a conventional hive this could mean removing a super or other box. I also created the issue myself by the way I did the conversion of Langsroth frames to Layens, most people won't have that problem. The next BIGGEST way I resolve it is super simple. I don't. I catch swarms that have successfully overwintered, this usually means they're of a local feral variety. I don't treat for any pests or disease of any kind. I let genetic selection result in bees that can handle the local pests, weather, molds, etc. Since I built a swarm catcher all my hives are free. I never buy package bees or package queens. I simply keep bees that can handle veroa mites and Small Hive Beetles etc. I do that by catching wild swarms that made it through the winter and lived.
I LOVE raising quail. They ARE really easy to raise to me, as long as you put some thought into feeders that make less mess and waterers that don't drip.
I've heard some folks say that you have to give quail less space in order to reduce their aggression toward each other. But to me, that's more so an issue when they're in a cage setup with no kind of natural stimulation. I always keep our quail in coop setups with covered runs. Whether the flooring is the ground or a solid bottom, I utilize the deep litter method so they're on hay bedding that they can scratch through. I throw out BSFL, seeds, and various greens to encourage more scratching. I also provide them with multiple dust baths that they really seem to enjoy. Raising quail this way and making sure they're well-protected, I very rarely have aggression issues within the flocks and rarely lose birds to random deaths. They ARE stupid, don't get me wrong, but raising them this way, I've found that they end up being a little less flighty, a bit more friendly, and a little easier to handle. Oh, and the eggs taste way better!
With aquaponics. I find it easier if I always monitor them. A 350 gallon stock tank I can hold 10 tilapias in the summer or 16 rainbow trouts in the winter, I do it like this because the temperature is hard to manage, but having it in a green house with the sump tank almost buried in the ground to cool or warm to be pumped into the fish tank is amazing for me. It really comes down to the design of the aquaponic system to be classified as "hard" or "easy". If your setup is bad then it will be hard, but a good set up will work with you and make it very easy. (I'm actually in the process to redesign my system because I put my filter in the middle of the grow beds so I haft to climb to get to it and it sucked when I had to clean it.) If you ever want to get into it all, I can always help. I do plan on starting a channel for homesteading and helping those who wish to do what I plan on doing
I’m new to homesteading with my little 6 acres, and this was super helpful as I consider graduating past chickens, cats, and dogs! Thank you for all the great info, and especially the reality check in the dreamy milk cow 😇🥰
I really want to try turkeys but I have heard they actively look for ways to unalive themselves
True they stuck themselves in some box thing and DIE
Yes.
Do not get the whites go for the heritage breeds that can breed without AI. They weren't as dumb
I treated mine like giant chickens and only ever lost them to predators (bears, mtn lions, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, large birds of prey, etc) whenever I didn't properly secure them before twilight. They need pellets when they're older, they'll choke on granules, but you have to choose appropriate feed for chickens too. Snoods are as vulnerable as combs to frostbite, both need to stay dry and draft free in the winter, fresh water at all times, heat lamps in winter are mass death looking for the least convenient moment to happen, all the usual. They don't tell you when they're sick because they're prey, so check their eyes, feet, feather edges, beaks, head/neck skin, etc regularly so you'll know when something is off.
Seems like chicken care, but maybe I'm overly attentive to chickens or something.
I don't have personal experience but my grandma kept a turkey named Tina as a pet a while back and she survived for years mostly just having free reign of the yard and only inside during the night. I never heard my grandma complaining of any challenges with Tina except that she kept chasing the people who came to install the pool and scaring the neighbor kids lol.
Only lost her because some neighbor's dogs got lose and attacked her.
My impression from that is that it looked much the same as the way my Grandma cares for chickens, just with a bigger and more intimidating bird.
I love how vindicated you look over the goats being more difficult. My kids have asked for goats and I always say no because I don't like anything a goat has to offer and from everyone I've known who owns goats they're difficult. I'm trying to talk my husband into getting miniature jersey cows for milking, and potentially beef, but he thinks the cost to setup the infrastructure for them is too great at this point in our lives. Maybe someday. For now we're good with our chickens.
Infrastructure for mini jerseys is sooooooooo not hard, except milking machine stuff if you go that route. They hardly need a barn unless the weather is total cold rainy stormy, a small 3 walled shed would be enough, and 1 strand of electric and step in posts keeps em where you need em. Tell you husband no excuse ;)
@@Homesteadyshow Thank you! I will tell him. Thank you for the reply. Have a nice day!
I love this video! A lot of times different farmers and homesteaders have very traditional videos, and while sometimes that is refreshing, the comedic nature of your editing feels relatable and entertaining. Even the creative way you chose to share the results and interact with your viewers, genius! Y’all were made for this.
The only problem I've ever had with my goats have been the bucks jumping and tearing up fences to get to the does.
It is very cool to show other homesteaders on your show. I really like that a lot. Thank you for sharing
we LOVE featuring our fellow Homesteadys'
Horses are the hardest in my opinion and I have 2 degrees in equine science. I have worked with a lot of livestock. Horses can have so many health issues or injuries. They test fences like it is their job. Need a ton of training to be save to handle. Are very easy to spook and will take off. Can be very sweet but can also be incredibly aggressive. Are 1,000lbs, with a mind of thier own and very opinionated! But I love them so much and wouldn't stop having horses for anytime!❤
in France we have a type of sheep called "mouton d'ouessant " there shorter than other sheep (50 centimeters at the withers) but you can raise them for meat or for the wool . they are easier to raise than other sheep due to there height .
thank you for your video it really interresting
I just saw a video interviewing co owner of Murry -McMurray chicken hatchery, and he said your chickens will be sick more often if you have geese with them.
Really depends on your situation. I live in a wheelchair and chickens, turkeys, geese, and goats are about all I can handle. I visited another homestead and tried horses and pigs, but no dice.
I'm loving these videos! It's so interesting to see some actual data collection presented in a fun and entertaining way. Really enjoying it y'all! And I may want some guineas now haha
my family went from not having any animals (except cats and dogs) to having 3 donkeys. Was a hardcore road to get used to as we also had to renovate the house and build up their area x)
They live in the house?
From my experience, easiest to hardest.
Chickens, pigs, cows, ducks.
Grew up on a dairy cow farm for background
Thank you so much for this video. I am just beginning my homesteading journey. I’ve only raised quail for about 6 months. I was thinking my next animal would be a dairy goat, but I see now that I need to find another animal. Thank you 😊
I controversially agree about goats. 🙈 We had one we absolutely loved, the rest were a nightmare. We are getting our Belfair milk cow this Saturday. ❤️
Welcome to the light side of the force :)
Is there a reason that people don't seem to use sheep for milk? It sounds like sheep milk and goat milk are very similar, but that goats and cows are more trouble. @Homesteadyshow
@@BobieWanKenobifinding good milking sheep is a challenge. From what I understand cows give several gallons sometimes for a year, goats give a gallon or so for many months, and sheep give cups fora few months or weeks. I have wool sheep and a couple have produced milk for over six months but I’m sure it wasn’t much.
@@OkTxSheepLadyThat's what I hear about milk sheep, lambs every year and only 6 months milk. Goats will yield almost a long as you milk them. I bought mine in milk and she has done between 2 and 4 pints a day for 5 years. Looks like she's going to dry up this year and I think I'll retire her as a pet rather than put her in kid. She's at least 7, maybe 10. I think cows are similar but even longer lived?
Even a low yield goat gives more milk than a family needs, I don't know what you'd do with the milk from a cow. Of course you can't keep just one goat, I have a neutered male "companion" goat so I only have to milk one.
Puts into context my dad and step-mom's experience; they started with chickens, went right to alpacas, and my dad was talking about bees when he decided he'd rather just work on old tractors than deal with any livestock, period.
I have no interest in working with some kinds of animals especially goats, pigs and bees, but I'd love to befriend people that do raise them if there are any in the area if I ever get to build the homestead of my dreams one day :)
We all love the idea of self-sufficiency but I think people forget that we humans historically survive as a community, not as solitary beings. You don't have to do everything and in fact you shouldn't or you'll likely overwhelm yourself. You should build a community with fellow homesteaders, farmers, gardeners, beekeepers, etc. and barter with each other to fill in the gaps and play to each other's strengths and cover each other's weaknesses.
Unfortunately this doesn't ever go well in real life. It's a nice idea but just like regular life people disagree , butt heads, and there's always those that don't pull their weight . It's why almost every single time people try to start up communities like this they're riddled with drama and usually fail.
That was interesting to actually look at the comparisons. It was fun and informative all at the same time. It would have been interesting to know the percentage of people who participated that had each type.... to know what percentage of homesteads had each kind sort of thing. We are loving this content involving your community. So entertaining and yet relevant. Great video!
I just love you BOTH and I appreciate the data and analysis! Haven’t been watching long and you’ve quickly become one of my FAVE channels!
Great video!
I missed the original poll so here are my rankings of animals I own or have owned from easiest to hardest.
1. Chickens - simple and easy
1b. Pheasant and Quail - Easy like chickens but require more infrastructure when it comes to a pen (you must have a net on top).
2. Beef Cows - Easy for me because I grew up with cows and know what it takes. With cattle it depends on your breed and if they are docile. Beef cows are the lowest return on investment of the meat animals.
3. Hair Sheep - leaning towards easy/medium because of the predator impact. Easy if you think of the unit cost (in our area 1 cow unit is = to 6 sheep units) compared to a beef a cow.
4. Honey Bees - Medium - I like working with my bees but during the summer when it is over 100 F everyday I die in the bee suit.
5. Turkeys - Medium - they will roost where they want and there is nothing you can do to change their pea brain.
6. Pigs - Medium - Good luck keeping them in. Plus side is that they will eat just about anything.
7. Horses - Hard because they are the biggest money pit of all animals. Never again!
8. Goats - Extreme Hard - They could breakout of Alcatraz! They will get sick and will die fairly often. Better have a vet on speed dial... The one thing i like about goats are the "goats screaming like humans" videos!
Goat breeder here, and I'm rolling! Bwaahaahaaa! I totally agree, but will always stand by my goats....
i started with beekeeping...feeling much better about my chicken coop purchase for this spring. Thanks
Same, been bee keeping for almost 3 years…built a coop last week and got Buff and Lavender Orpingtons in the incubator now. Best of luck.
I would add the extra dimension to chickens is that they're highly useful if you're also doing small crop lots and using compost. Its almost like _chickens aren't optional_ when you do homesteading.
I certainly wouldn't "homestead" fish, crawdads are actually more of a homestead thing tbh. While you can do a lot of fish farming it is definitely something that you have to dedicate a LOT of time to.
goats are what you do if you can't dairy cow or are going to do one of those weed mowing businesses
Overall one of the BEST videos of this genre and length I've ever viewed. Full five stars from Peter and Mom in Florida❤❤❤
I raise Narragansetts and am always surprised when I hear people talk about how difficult turkeys are. I've been amazed at how hardy they are!
I’ve had Anglo-Nubian goats and true they are not easy, but you have to put yourself in their shoes so to speak, same with donkeys, people say they are stubborn, and they maybe, but try to understand what they need and want, that’ll make your life way easier! On top of that watch them and give them love, they do understand!
Love your channel guys. You're literally living my dream!
Thanks for the super enjoyable and informative content!
Keep it up!
28:55 I got LaMancha x Alpine goats as my first livestock. I am a single mom & wanted a livestock animal to care for when my son left my nest to keep me busy & keep me busy they did! Too busy. I had them for a full year… like your story, I love them and miss them but my life is much easier without them. I do miss them but I know my neighbors are glad that the escape artists were adopted by someone else.
I grew up with a couple dozen horses, couple hundred buffalo, tens of cows, and some random smaller critters from rabbits to pigeons and goats. Honestly the smaller the critter the harder they are to keep alive and in the pen in my opinion. Big critters like buffalo can be intimidating for a lot of people, and yes large livestock can hurt you very easy. But personal opinion, buffalo are easy, cows are medium, and horses and small critters are hard in my opinion to keep alive and contained.
BRILLIANT. Great discussion, good practical details, solid stories from people who know.
I have been homesteading on my family farm since I was six. I can give a lot of advice when it comes to different types of animals and what to plant.
Chickens are the easiest by far. Only thing is the predators, but if you have a sturdy, off the ground chicken huntch, they are truly the easiest animals that replace themselves. We have bought lots of different chicks over the years. For the ohio river valley area, orpingtons are the best for never getting frostbite and make good brooders. They only lay from march to november. There are chickens that will lay every day but it is hard on them. They will only lay 2-3 years. Orpingtons will lay double that amount of time or more.
Rabbits are easy. We have a colony set up. The meat on the rabbits compared to huntches are tremendously better. They need their exercise! The meat taste better. To help with fed, we have a clover garden specifally for our rabbits to give to them in spring and summer.
Goats are hard. They escape often. We have 25 acres and all our neighbors are cool with them so that helps. We let them out for three hours a day, and put them where we want them to trim. They stay for a half hour at most before moving to a place we don't want them... They are hard to milk unless they are catered to like they are all royalty. However, when new goats hit the ground, there is nothing like feeding beautiful bottle babies. We bottle feed most of ours to make them more friendly while we milk the goats. We let them keep one to help with milk production. They are bad mothers.... We have Nigerian dwarfs, boers, and nubians.
Pigs are smelly. They are costly unless you can supply them with food that isn't pig pellets from a store. It is not worth the effort otherwise. They are easy to raise as long as you have and excess of resources.
The best plants are tomatoes, peppers, radishes, onions, potatoes, sunflowers(if you have chickens instead of corn), strawberries, cucumbers, zucchini, squashes, and herbs.
Here is my list; (From hardest to easiest)
Horses,
Cattle,
Pigs,
Sheep,
Goats,
Turkeys,
Ducks,
Chickens,
Quails.
I ❤ all the statistics and fellow homesteaders opinions. We love our dairy goats. They are easy on our pastures and their size makes them easy to handle.
My parents had a small hobby farm in TX for 20 years. They started with weed-eating geese (which were no trouble as my parents had no intention of eating them), which were the easiest of all. The poultry supplier gave them a pair of bantam Black Cochins, who quickly morphed into about a dozen and a half. My parents just kept them for eggs and as pets. Dad made them into quite a project, but they weren’t hard.
Then Mom got a pair of Saanen dairy goat culls (one had a weird-shaped teat). They were fairly easy but they were labor-intensive, what with baths, hoof trims, taking them for walks to eat grape leaves. These guys got everything except massages. But we loved doing it. Mom even went to Houston for a cheese-making seminar, learned how to make soap (which worked well as Christmas presents for friends and neighbors).
Milking was fun, especially when I was there to help. My mother would bring a weak goat baby into the house and sleep with it on the sofa.
Actually the only hard one was a dairy cow. Even though they put orphaned calves on her, she gave way too much milk (and she was a cull). They were never able to dry her up. Finally they had to sell her. At that point they wanted to keep up their sideline of rescuing orphaned calves (as many as five at a time), so most of the goat milk got to be diverted to that purpose.
Dad had installed a pecan orchard and some fruit trees and blackberries and asparagus bed and veggie garden. The pecan orchard was his obsession.
I was never able to persuade Dad to go organic.
The goats were the most fun of all because they were like dogs. Oh, I forgot the horses.
But that is another story.
Cows are no fun, they were too shy.
Gotta say IMO donkeys and even mules are much easier than horses if we’re comparing animals that have basic training (comparing a fully broke horse to an unhandled donkey is not super fair). In my experience they’re way more hardy and very very rarely have hoof issues. They get fat off of air! That being said I do and always have lived in a desert climate, in wet areas donkeys and mules are more prone to white line and overgrazing, and like ponies they can and will get obese quickly and develop issues related to that. I think quite a few of these votes would be skewed by location actually! For example I would never even attempt rabbits, ducks or geese in this climate. I know it can be done but no thank you, not worth it 😂
Totally agree. A nice donkey is just nice 🤷🏻♀️
We did quail because we lived in the suburbs. They were low maintenance and easy to butcher. Our yard was a boiling hot desert which was the only reason we had difficulty. It was hard to keep them cool even in the shade.
This was so great guys! I’m already sharing this video with some local homesteaders considering goats.
Warn them! haha ;)
I had a similar crazy goat experience! Bought a brother a sister when we first got into goats. They were way more feral than the seller let on. I had them in a large, black cage. I went to put them into the barn and somehow they bust the side of the cage and took off into the bush. We spent a few hours trying to herd them back in, to no avail. We went to bed. The next morning, it was torrential rain and they had gotten separated. One was hunkered down in ditch, so we got him herded into our chicken run. We played mama goat sounds (one of our other goats had just given birth) on the speakers for a few hours until the second little one was lured out of the bush and our dog chased her into a pen. I thought I had just seen $400 disappear into the bush for good! Yeah... but we still have goats. The ones we have now are much less feral.
I've grown up with my grandparents having goats, which I'm about to actually start farming for them and growing their numbers for meat, hide, etc. Also going to get 2 bee hives starting next summer, and actually within the next month or so I'm going to build our chicken operation and get 20 Buff Orpingtons (2 Male, 18 Female). So fun times ahead for our little stead. All on 3 acres of land and I only work 3 days a week at 12 hours each so that gives me 4 days a week to care for our animals. Were also going to retill their huge garden, I can't remember its exact size but it could in one row have 64 tomato plants and about 10 rows of other plants. so pretty big. I've got a get few people that can be good guides and have knowledge I could build from. I wish everyone luck who is going to start farming or already is. I wish you good crop and prosperous breeding.
Appreciate this video! I have always farmed, but have been thinking hard about getting goats again. This first time was terrible but I learned something and thought about trying again. Now I learned more and think it’s just not worth it. I love my beef cattle and chickens. I would put pigs a little higher on the list for being hard. Climate can make pigs very hard to keep healthy.
Goats! Hard to keep in a fence.
Great video. We just finished running 130 meat goats. By far, the most challenging with all of their potential issues, but also, by far, the most fun and enjoyable. Love, love love them.
Your video is just starting, so I haven't heard your ranking yet, but mine would be rabbits as the most difficult. Goats would follow, although I've had them for almost forty years and love them. Although, if the people getting goats would get their fencing and facilities set up BEFORE bringing goats home, AND have an experienced goat person inspect said facilities, that would make them a whole lot easier.
That's true. We've had rabbits dig out and escape so many times 🤦🏻♀️
Now that I've watched almost all of the video, LOL! I've heard several stories of people bringing goats home, letting them out of the trailer or whatever they hauled them in, and the goats bolt and are never found again (and the local coyotes had a good lunch). Or, one of my neighbors bought a couple of does, put them in a corral, and in the morning they were gone (and the local coyotes had a good dinner). Most of the problems that people have with goats are due to inexperience and inadequate facilities/fencing. To minimize problems, get an experienced mentor before you even start seriously looking for goats, and have them help you set up your fences and facilities, or at least make suggestions (and follow them! People who've had goats for a long time know what they are talking about -- they've learned things, often the hard way. You don't have to learn the hard way -- you can learn from their mistakes!).
I like cows; we had a Brown Swiss for a while when I was a kid, and lived around both beef and dairy cows during most of my childhood. As an older female (and even when I was younger and had small children), I prefer goats except for one thing: it's easier to get the cream off of cow milk so you can make butter. You have to be properly set up for them, but once you are, you've got 125 lb animals (or smaller, if you have Nigerian Dwarfs or one of the mini breeds) instead of 1200 lb animals. Less feed, less housing, less weight when they stand on your foot, easier to manhandle them if you need to, easier to haul them, easier to trim their feet, give shots, and so on. I'm raising a couple of bottle calves right now, and they are still about the size of an adult goat, and pretty easy to shove pills and medicine down their throats (sale barn calves, I *think* we are to the point where they are both going to make it!). But doing that with a full-grown cow will be a whole different story!
As for rabbits, I've had a lot of those over the years, and have had so many issues with them. Failure to breed. Diseases and pests. Nervous animals bouncing around in their cages during thunderstorms and breaking their own necks. Bad mothers. There's a lot I like about rabbits, but they are really not as easy as chickens.
Geese, being waterfowl, can be messy, and small children and the inexperienced can be intimidated by them, but they really are pretty easy, and don't need much more than grass to eat. They do need some respect, especially during breeding season, when they are more aggressive.
I think a lot of the problems with sheep would be solved by getting hair sheep, especially one of the breeds that are known to be fairly parasite-resistant. And take the time to train them to electric fencing -- if you have one that doesn't respect the fence, cull it immediately before it teaches the whole flock to get out.
We only have, at most (using almost all of my yard), a little less than two acres of pasture; the calves I'm raising now will either be sold in the fall (the Jersey heifer) or butchered when the grass is gone (the steer). At the moment I have three Nigerian Dwarf goats, and expect to finally start milking one of them in a couple of months. But I'm strongly leaning towards getting Katahdin sheep as our meat and dairy animal. They are fairly parasite-resistant, don't need sheared, usually have twins (which have a good growth rate), and are sometimes used as dairy sheep. And they are fairly common in our area. I can keep a ram for a few ewes; we don't have enough pasture to keep a bull for one cow!
@@promisedjubileedaniels Keeping them in colonies? I haven't tried that -- partly because I was worried about them digging out and escaping! I'm also concerned about disease -- I've been told by a local breeder that there is a disease going around, can't remember the name of it, that can be picked up by rabbits that are on the ground, especially if birds can drop poop into their pen.
I have hatched lots of quail. They are definitely easy, but setting up their living area was pretty expensive because of all the tight weave fencing. They poop an incredible amount and die easily. And, of course, to hatch them, you need to incubate and brood them, which requires electricity. A couple things that they really have going for them over other animals is that their tiny size and fast reproduction rate make selecting and reproducing the less aggressive individuals that do well in your management system very fast, and overwintering a minimally small population in a small space is easy since the population grows quickly when you start incubating again in the spring - assuming you live somewhere cold. If you live somewhere warm enough to reasonably be able to keep hatching year-round, it would be less expensive to get started since you could just go with a constantly small population (less cage space and potentially a smaller incubator). They're just a bit too small to truly thrive in a cold climate.
Where I live, my rabbits are probably around ten times easier than quail.
How are quail born in the wild? Without electricity?
@househunt5175
TL:DR - they're too domesticated to reproduce in the wild with few lucky exceptions
To be clear, when I talk about raising quail for eggs/meat, I am specifically talking about Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica). To answer your question, this species has been domesticated in Japan since the 11th or 12th century, and furthermore, around WWII, the species experienced heavy artificial selection towards increased egg production and, due to events of WWII, an extreme population bottleneck. So, all that said, they aren't a wild species, so they don't really reproduce in the wild. If one escapes captivity, the vast majority of the time, being a small prey animal, they quickly experience predation and death, with no opportunities to reproduce. They can, however, hybridize with wild common quail (Coturnix coturnix), the species from which they seem to have been domesticated. Their relation to common quail is much like that of dogs to wolves. Unlike dogs, quail are small prey animals and precocial birds, so as long as humans have had artificial incubation, there has been no selective pressure for quail to be broody or good parents. When you consider that they can breed as young as 6-8 weeks old, the possible number of generations born this way is staggering.
I truly cannot believe I found chickens difficult - to the point of quitting on them completely a year after starting - and find goats easy in comparison to chickens.
I can't be the only one...
Wow! No way! Someone else did say chickens were their hardest livestock!
chickens ate my garden since 2020. preditors ate my xhickens..... then the chickens started eating the eggs! chickens have cost me litterally 1000s
I sort of agree. Chickens are the only animals I've had losses in; predators, disease, accidents. They also did most damage to the garden. I don't keep much else though, only a couple of goats We don't have predators here that will bother an adult goat.
My easiest would probably be ducks. They suit the climate (Ireland), need minimal fencing (if any) and only a simple low house. They eat garden pests (including slugs, which chickens don't) and rarely damage plants. Plus they lay at night when they are in, so you get the eggs. My chickens lay anywhere and everywhere, so it's the dog who gets the eggs.. On the minus side, ducks need a pond, which they will mess up so you get involved in water changes etc.
Hardest would have to be horses. Goats are a similar amount of work, but things like hoof trimming are easier (and safer) with the smaller animal.
Most trouble is actually the dogs, but I suppose they don't count as livestock. They do rat a bit though, so they might be working animals.
As a final note: any livestock is less work than growing veg.
I have raised cows all my life, but I think I would like goats better. I have had to many times where a tame gentle cow will decide to try to kick me or horn me because they happen to be in a mood that day. It's why whenever I milk the cows I put them in a shoot and put a bar to keep them from kicking back at me, have heard of a few people in this area that have had "gentle" cows kick them in the head before.
I love my duckies. They are messy but the mess is usually confined to their pen (where their pool is).
They actually used hog noises for the sounds of dinosaurs in Jurassic park. Change in pitch and stuff was added though.
I'm now worried I'm missing something when it comes to taking care of my goats 😂 Mine are super easy… they like to stay in their enclosure, and if they get out they want to be wherever we are, even if that means trying to get in the house, they come when we call them, maybe bottle raising makes a difference.
Hated our ducks, they were easy, but ate way to much and made a huge mess.
What about worms for worm tea and fishing bait? I think that would be an easy animal to keep. I was considering starting a worm bin for a backyard garden, but I live in an area where for three months of the year it's over 100F and as high as 115F. Outside of the monsoon season the humidity will go down to 5%-10% which means every thing dries out quick.
Couldn't you dig it into the ground and keep it covered with mulch to keep it cool and moist?
@@tracy419 If I buried it like this I wouldn't be able to extract the generated worm tea that follows gravity to the lowest point or the composted soil at the bottom which follows gravity as well. The bins are large enough where most people do not have the strength to pick them up. Virtually every worm bin I've seen is stored above ground to access the bottom of it.
@@ohdogwow2 ahh... Good points I hadn't thought of.
Something you might be interested in that you could modify for the purpose is a worm septic system.
They basically take those big square plastic food grade totes that things like concentrates come in, and turn those into the first stage of a septic system that uses worms to process the waste.
Cut the top off, put a plastic pipe filled with holes straight down to the bottom, and curved over to the built in drain, put gravel in to hold everything up and top the rest of the way with organic material.
This system uses worms to process your bathroom waste, but doesn't necessarily need to.
They take that and enclose the tote in insulation, soil or whatever and the fluids come out the bottom through the built in spout and into the septic field.
You might be able to modify and use that system without the actual septic aspect.
You hit it when you said raising a couple of feeders is easy. Very little infrastructure is required. Very little space and effort are required. I think breeding and raising is different from raising just for your food.
I've never had dairy cows, but beef cows are easy for me. Once you have the fencing and the infrastructure, it is easy to raise a couple of steers.
Quail were very easy for us, but they are messy. We found that we preferred chicken over quail, so we stopped raising them.
We have bison in Montana. You need lots of land and they will break down a fence in a heartbeat.
Cheat Sheet:
Let me know if I missed any:
1. Chickens
2. Ducks
3. Quail
4. Rabbits
5. Turkeys
6. Fish
7. Geese
8. Guineas
9. Cows, beef
10. Pigs
11. Sheep
12. Cows, dairy
13. Alpacas
14. Horses
15. Donkeys
16. Goats
I will describe edits here if I receive any!
I think it really depends on the climate and weather. I am from Brazilian Northeast, a tropical climate. I was raised by my beekeeper father with bees ands goats all around. They seemed the easiest thing to me. We are always called to rescue bees, and our hives produced beautifully. The goats were fun and roamed pretty much free, very, very resistant. Funny how it goes
This is interesting. Our 1st "farm" animals we ever got was 3 dwarf goats😆😆😆 I'd say my husband is doing a good job. And then we got the most easiest animals chickens. But we love our goats, even got a 4th
As a Beekeeper, that one really surprised me.
I honestly wouldn't think they'd get much more difficult than a fish. Yes I Koi fish too.
Very low maintenance, very low costs compared to all the others. They are very self sustained animals, check their hives for parasites and they are good.
I live in mid Sweden so there isn't really any predators that'll destroy the hives.
Had donkeys growing up, and i disagree that they're harder than horses. You don't have to be as careful with their diet, and they're more durable. With that said, it matters a lot where the donkey comes from. We had one who was taken out of the grand canyon as part of a gov't program, and he was always at least half wild. Great personality, though. We got along just fine as long as we let him just do his thing. The thing about taking three days to walk them back after getting out is totally accurate.
Thank you for posting this video. It was both entertaining and educational. I grew up raising goats, sheep, rabbits, chickens and ducks. We also tried geese and turkeys with indifferent success. For us goats were easy, and that is because we were set up for them land-wise, and trial and error for enclosures and a barn for shelter. Goats are personable.
If you get your kids into this they won't have money for drugs.....HORSES You'll be broke for life :)
Our easiest (and only) “livestock” is deer. Wild on our property. Hoping to harvest again this Fall. No vet bills, no overhead. We are young 70 somethingThis was an interesting content! . Thanks for compiling info and sharing. I’d love to have chickens, but we need to really do it right. Coyotes, raccoons, hawks and vultures also share this property. We’ve owned the 5 acre property for almost two years and just finished building our retirement house and finally moved in. No garden, no animals. Grading will happen soon. Best to you!!!
So I’m actually going to disagree with the goats being hard. I have a herd of 30 dairy girls in Alaska. I got my first girls when I 15 years old. I think that they are a lot more manageable for 1 person to handle. They are a lot more self sufficient to own, you don’t need a dangerous bull, or be dependent on AI. Their yield is wonderful for how little feed they need, quicker turn around time to reap the benefits, and the meat from the offspring gets in your freezer a lot quicker.
Same with pigs, right infrastructure makes the world of difference. It’s all in knowing where your goats came from and being from a quality farmer. They can be very attainable for people who want dairy animals. I’ve learned you will hate goats if you lack a calm personality. They get very frustrated with you if they can sense you’re angry or stressed. I’d say imo they are an easy to medium animal.
I’d also add that goats are way easier to transport in case of an emergency or routine check up. You don’t need a trailer which is a huge expense.
Very well made & interesting introductional homesteading viðeo.
I tried rabbits and my male was either gay or a dud😂
Only problem with rabbits is the RHVD2. We decided against raising them because it was too risky and we can’t set up enough sanitation practices to prevent it. We’re getting khaki Campbells instead. We live in a city so we have certain limitations. Ducks or rabbits are pretty much the only animal we can see breeding on our little urban homestead
Are kids the hardest to deal with???? 😂😂
I’ve been raising dairy goats for 18 years and I can say they are easy and hard at the same time. Having Fort Knox fencing, good shelters and the best diet in place and adding access to loose trace minerals prevents a lot of issues. Staying on top of the parasites and hoof trims are essential. I also choose to bottle feed all kids to aid with socialization and better monitor health. It also allows ease of milking the dams since they see you as the “kid”. Than you get into genetics and I breed for parasite resistance and hardiness in addition to good confirmation and strong milkers. Also the different personalities and traits of the different breeds. Once upon a time raised Boers and found them to be more prone to escaping and not as enjoyable as my Nubians.
I hate horses! Beyond being both clever and stupid there expensive then in the end only useful for entertaining city folk
Horses need to have real work to do. I agree that if they are just toys for entertainment, they are expensive and time-consuming. But if you have work for them to do, they do have a place.
In my experience, horses are basically cats with hooves. Lol