The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Other => Topic started by: Orinlooper on June 06, 2020, 06:21:43 am
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Which are the easiest animals to keep to eat the grass and brambles?
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Its not a straightforward question I'm afraid. It will depend on your land and how much input you wish to do?
Sheep are good at grazing steep land, but not good in wet/boggy land and will get stuck in the brambles.
Goats are great for clearing brambles, but will also strip bark and kill trees. They will need shelter too and won't do well in wet conditions. You will also need excellent fencing.
Pigs are great at clearing ground, but don't really like scratchy brambles, they will also need very strong fencing and shelter.
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I assume that by 'easiest' you mean 'requiring the least input'. Every single animal used as livestock will need care, treatments - routine and emergency - , veterinary care, extra feed, housing and so on and so on. Please be aware that when you take on livestock, there are no shortcuts or easy options. For that you need machinery.
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A machine :coat: but where's the fun in that!
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Which are the easiest animals to keep to eat the grass and brambles?
Meat rabbits! I fattened rabbits on just brambles before as an experiment.
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A machine :coat: but where's the fun in that!
Oh machines can be the best fun, or the worst.
But what is not fun is realising that your animals are not in the best of health and are suffering because you failed to factor in the time and money and space needed to keep them properly.
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I am sorry but I don't think that there is any animal for those duties and responsibilities which is easy to handle.
I just can say that for eating grass and brambles goats are a good solution. But of course they need care.
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I think there are can be difficulties with different kind of animals. It depends on amount of your free time, patience, etc ;D
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Please excuse me for sticking my nose in (since I don't keep livestock), but Scartlet.Dragon is obviously right: hardy, potentially native or other semi-wild breeds of animal will almost certainly be the animals requiring least oversight (but not "no over-sight"). If the preferred animal doesn't get on well with brambles, then mechanically cut. You might need to repeat mechanical cutting, but animals will then gradually win the battle in a confined area.
Stock numbers will also need to be fine-tuned to the grazing potential available throughout the year to minimise the need for supplementary feeding.
Fencing: the larger the animal the more likely they will accept a hedge as their boundary, but, as even I know, goats and sheep will simply see a hedge as something they need to get to the top of !
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Which are the easiest animals to keep to eat the grass and brambles?
Meat rabbits! I fattened rabbits on just brambles before as an experiment.
This is very interesting yes I think rabbits maybe the answer to my question as the easiest animals to keep
Thanks so much now I知 very interested
Did you let them run wild in runs or did you cut the bramble yourself to feed them?
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No, I kept them i cages and brought all their feed in.
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No, I kept them i cages and brought all their feed in.
Could you set them up to love wild and thrive?
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I could set them free, but guaranteed theyxwould not survive the night.
We are in the city. I see foxes every single night. And most DAYS.
Today saw one at 11am. Had run and make sure the chickens are locked in their run.
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Orinlooper I have to write what I think here. There are no animals that you can 'keep' and not care for .... there are laws agains this .... try reading all the welfare codes https://www.gov.uk/guidance/animal-welfare (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/animal-welfare) they are written for pet animals too.
There are no animals that are get rich quick schemes .... animals take time effort and money. Most smallholders with livestock, have a very expensive hobby not a money making business. They do it because they love working with animals ... if you dont then dont have any.
Please stop asking in different topics about this the answer will be the same.
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Orinlooper I have to write what I think here. There are no animals that you can 'keep' and not care for .... there are laws agains this .... try reading all the welfare codes https://www.gov.uk/guidance/animal-welfare (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/animal-welfare) they are written for pet animals too.
There are no animals that are get rich quick schemes .... animals take time effort and money. Most smallholders with livestock, have a very expensive hobby not a money making business. They do it because they love working with animals ... if you dont then dont have any.
Please stop asking in different topics about this the answer will be the same.
I'm talking about animals who would live off the land anyway and I just encourage them.
Rabbits for example are on my small holding anyway
Years ago wild pigs lived on this land and I would love them to return, I would do everything I could to help them thrive in the wild
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It sounds like your wanting to buy in some animals and release them and then just observe them from a distance - apologies if this is not the case. These days there is a lot of regulation around keeping livestock, even if they are just pets! Pigs for example, need to be tagged, you will need an area where they can be handled/contained in case they become injured, they will also need housing - which they will demolish. You will need to keep records of all feed they consume and may be inspected by animal health to check that your doing everything properly!
Why don't you rent the land out to someone who will be aware of all the legislation and then you can just watch the animals grazing your land?
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Someone said guinea pigs are probably the easiest animals to farm
They bread so much if you start with a few in 6 months you will have hundreds
You just have to have a place for them to keep warm, well insulated
They are much easier to fed than almost any other animals which is why in South America many households have a pig herd which they feed scraps and they are a good source of meat, you can also use the skins for all sorts of things
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Someone said guinea pigs are probably the easiest animals to farm
They bread so much if you start with a few in 6 months you will have hundreds
You just have to have a place for them to keep warm, well insulated
They are much easier to fed than almost any other animals which is why in South America many households have a pig herd which they feed scraps and they are a good source of meat, you can also use the skins for all sorts of things
They literally run all around the kitchen floor, live underneath the cupboards and are fed veggie peelings and scraps. Once in a while they eat some of them.
They even slaughter them fresh in the restaurants.
I heard there is a Peruvian restaurant in London that started serving them? (Before lockdown)
If I wanted to eat them I would definitely Tey to farm them (on home scale), however I don't actually fancy eating them 😅
African Giant snails are even easier to farm at home - they will get fat on any fruits and vegetables you give them. And breed like locust.
I have kept locust in the past, as food for my exotic animals back when I was allowed to to that, I.e. living at uni (no mum) and not married (no wife) :innocent:
I have tried eating locusts once - just like dry skinny shrimps - nothing special but a valuable source of protein in some areas (either you eat them or they eat all your crops. In Yemen they were selling them fried as snacks in a take away shop ;D
As for the snails, again at uni, one student from African was trying to convince me they are delicious, you just have to scrape the slime, but the meat is yummy. So he said - still haven't tried them though ;)
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Some really useful information there Macgro7. :excited:
Sounds exactly the sort of easiest possible way of keeping animals that Orinlooper has been seeking. :thinking: :innocent:
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Someone said guinea pigs are probably the easiest animals to farm
They bread so much if you start with a few in 6 months you will have hundreds
You just have to have a place for them to keep warm, well insulated
They are much easier to fed than almost any other animals which is why in South America many households have a pig herd which they feed scraps and they are a good source of meat, you can also use the skins for all sorts of things
They literally run all around the kitchen floor, live underneath the cupboards and are fed veggie peelings and scraps. Once in a while they eat some of them.
They even slaughter them fresh in the restaurants.
I heard there is a Peruvian restaurant in London that started serving them? (Before lockdown)
If I wanted to eat them I would definitely Tey to farm them (on home scale), however I don't actually fancy eating them 😅
African Giant snails are even easier to farm at home - they will get fat on any fruits and vegetables you give them. And breed like locust.
I have kept locust in the past, as food for my exotic animals back when I was allowed to to that, I.e. living at uni (no mum) and not married (no wife) :innocent:
I have tried eating locusts once - just like dry skinny shrimps - nothing special but a valuable source of protein in some areas (either you eat them or they eat all your crops. In Yemen they were selling them fried as snacks in a take away shop ;D
As for the snails, again at uni, one student from African was trying to convince me they are delicious, you just have to scrape the slime, but the meat is yummy. So he said - still haven't tried them though ;)
Thank you macro7
Very useful info
I want to find that restaurant in London after lockdown
Here is one info about guinea pigs
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Guinea pigs, or 'cavies', are short-tailed, rough-haired South American rodents (family Caviidae).
Why are guinea pigs one of my favorites? Here are 10 reasons guinea pigs make great free range farmed meat animals.
1. Guinea pigs are hardy. When cared for and fed properly, guinea pigs are generally very healthy animals. Also, since guinea pigs are from cool climates, they don't do well in hot, humid conditions. Keeping them outside with insulation from cold lessens the likelihood that they?ll overheat and/or dehydrate. As long as they always have somewhere for shelter and water they can forage for food themselves.
2. Guinea pigs are easy to care for. They require hay, fresh water, fresh vegetation and they will keep your lawn down so you don't have to cut your grass. They also need a fairly large cage lined with paper-based bedding. The cage needs to be spot-cleaned often and completely cleaned monthly. Add some daily attention and they are good to go. Just remember, unless you want to end up with several hundred little additional guinea pigs in no time at all, you?ll need to separate males from females even before they are a month old!
3. Guinea pigs are great animals for meat. Not as fragile or as lean as rabbits and generally less skittish than smaller rodents like hamsters and gerbils, guinea pigs are wonderful meat. You can see where they get their name from they really are similar to tiny pigs once you take the fur off. Just like pigs they can be eaten head to tow everything once you have gutted it.
4. Guinea pigs live long lives. While most hamsters, gerbils and rats live only two to three years, on average, most guinea pigs live five to seven years and some have even lived into their teens. This is why a handful of them can turn into hundred in a short time and then they multiply exponentially as they carry on breeding for much longer than say rats. You will find it hard to eat and give away faster than their numbers increases.
5. Food is cheap and easy for them. Pretty much any vegetation can be gathered for your pig herd. Grass or similar is perfect and add common veg sometimes for variety. If you can let them run on green land they will forage themselves.
6. Guinea pigs breed fast and often and as has been said carry on breading for long times. Which is why your herd can grow so much and the young are quite hardy soon after birth, females even look after each others young ones.
7. Guinea pigs are colorful. Short-haired, long-haired, even hairless - guinea pigs come in various breeds with fur of all lengths, colors and patterns. According to the American Cavy Breeders Association, there are 13 breeds and 10 basic colors of guinea pigs. This fur can be used for all kinds of craft projects and insulation.
8. Poop is amazing compost. Yes, you can compost guinea pig droppings & their bedding (assuming their bedding is something like paper, straw or woodshavings). As vegetarian animals, rabbit poop from healthy guinea pigsdoes not pose a significant health risk (unlike meat-eating animals like cats and dogs) so it can be added to the compostheap.
9. Preparing them for the plate is quick and easy. Just slit the throat to bleed it, drop it in boiling water which makes it easy to take the fur off. Then gut and wash it that's all you are ready to cook. It's very tasty and enjoyable to eat.
10. Guinea pigs make great first animals to breed. Given their low-maintenance care, overall hardy nature, easy to find food and generally long lifespans, guinea pigs make a terrific first animal choice for families who want an animal that is easy and rewarding but can't provide the degree of care that a larger animal requires.
A cuy pronounced cooey a South American name for guinea pig. This endearingly cute and tiny animal is highly regarded among South American indigenous cultures and is utilized in several ways, but primarily as a food source. Here, cuy serves as a good source of low-on-the-food-chain animal protein as some feel the higher up the food chain the higher the toxicity build up. It is also used in spiritual practices and healing ceremonies, performed on the patient by a healer. Many family?s keep a cuy farm in their backyard, where they raise about hundreds of these furry rodents to sell and to eat. They breed very fast and are easy to feed on almost any vegetation.
The preparation of the cuy was interesting, but gruesome. For this meal, most families need two or three cuyes to feed a modest sized extended family. They quickly slit their throats, while the animal is happy so no fear chemicals in the meat, dispatching their living essence in a method done for centuries. The cycle of life is so apparent there, this reflection carries through the rest of the meal preparation.
After killing the cuy by cleanly slicing it's neck, the cut is placed in boiling water to make it easier to pull off the fur. Whatever fur was left if any is burned or roasted off.
With all the fur gone, the cuyes are gutted, washed, and put into the stove. Normally, a cuy is grilled outside, but sometimes on a stove inside.
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They are rats. who would eat rats unless they had nothing else
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They are rats. who would eat rats unless they had nothing else
Gordon Ramsey doesn?t agree with you
He thinks it is delicious and he should know
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/gordon-ramsay-guinea-pig-eating-twitter-national-geographic-uncharted-a9018351.html%3famp
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They are rats. who would eat rats unless they had nothing else
Guinea pigs are not rats. It is not even certain following recent research that they are even rodents. :thinking:
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They are rats. who would eat rats unless they had nothing else
Guinea pigs are not rats. It is not even certain following recent research that they are even rodents. :thinking:
If they are rodents or not, doesn?t matter to me
I think I have the answer to my question about the easiest livestock to keep.
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I can't over emphasise the difference in work and responsibilities of keeping larger animals as livestock. There are no paperwork or other red tape requirements keeping a guinea pig farm compared to larger livestock. You can keep off the radar and be a stealth farmer which will have big advantages as the bureaucracy is making farmers jump through hoops and have all kinds of expenses that just don't apply to guinea pigs farms.
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Someone said guinea pigs are probably the easiest animals to farm
They bread so much if you start with a few in 6 months you will have hundreds
You just have to have a place for them to keep warm, well insulated
They are much easier to fed than almost any other animals which is why in South America many households have a pig herd which they feed scraps and they are a good source of meat, you can also use the skins for all sorts of things
They literally run all around the kitchen floor, live underneath the cupboards and are fed veggie peelings and scraps. Once in a while they eat some of them.
They even slaughter them fresh in the restaurants.
I heard there is a Peruvian restaurant in London that started serving them? (Before lockdown)
If I wanted to eat them I would definitely Tey to farm them (on home scale), however I don't actually fancy eating them 😅
African Giant snails are even easier to farm at home - they will get fat on any fruits and vegetables you give them. And breed like locust.
I have kept locust in the past, as food for my exotic animals back when I was allowed to to that, I.e. living at uni (no mum) and not married (no wife) :innocent:
I have tried eating locusts once - just like dry skinny shrimps - nothing special but a valuable source of protein in some areas (either you eat them or they eat all your crops. In Yemen they were selling them fried as snacks in a take away shop ;D
As for the snails, again at uni, one student from African was trying to convince me they are delicious, you just have to scrape the slime, but the meat is yummy. So he said - still haven't tried them though ;)
Thank you macro7
Very useful info
I want to find that restaurant in London after lockdown
Here is one info about guinea pigs
.
Guinea pigs, or ?cavies,? are short-tailed, rough-haired South American rodents (family Caviidae).
Wherever you found this- don't read any further than first line. First line is completely wrong - guinea pigs don't have tails at all.
Why would I want to read the rest if I know they already messed up in the first line? :innocent:
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Orinlooper
The answer to your question ... much easier than guinea pigs ... (which I think would need heat in winter in this country ... definitely need good housing..
.... rats.....
these must be the easiest as we all farm them already ...... they thrive on any crap we drop.... multiple exponentially ..... no rules or regs to follow ..... no housing to provide just harvest and eat when you feel like it .
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They ain't the easiest to harvest though, are they? I've been trying to harvest ours for a couple of weeks now, without success :dunce: .
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Orinlooper
The answer to your question ... much easier than guinea pigs ... (which I think would need heat in winter in this country ... definitely need good housing..
.... rats.....
these must be the easiest as we all farm them already ...... they thrive on any crap we drop.... multiple exponentially ..... no rules or regs to follow ..... no housing to provide just harvest and eat when you feel like it .
All those advantages are the same with guinea pigs but they are actually appetising but rats are not
https://youtu.be/zHlRSqcgwMc
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Guinea pigs pregnancy lasts for 3 months. Rabbit's is 1 month.
Guinea pigs have usually only 2-3 babies.
Rabbits csn have anything upto 12.
Guinea pigs grow slow and there's little meat on them (although I read somewhere that they are breeding much larger more meaty variety somewhere, probably Peru or Bolivia).
Rabbits grow fast and at 2-3 months old can be slaughter ready. You will get quite some meat from them, even at this young age.
I have bred rabbits for meat in the past. You make me miss them :innocent:
There is nothing better for a family pet than a Guinea pigs though! They cry out for you when you come back home! Rabbits are better kept outside - indoor rabbits would have to be cleaned up every day.
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Guinea pigs pregnancy lasts for 3 months. Rabbit's is 1 month.
Guinea pigs have usually only 2-3 babies.
Rabbits csn have anything upto 12.
Guinea pigs grow slow and there's little meat on them (although I read somewhere that they are breeding much larger more meaty variety somewhere, probably Peru or Bolivia).
Rabbits grow fast and at 2-3 months old can be slaughter ready. You will get quite some meat from them, even at this young age.
I have bred rabbits for meat in the past. You make me miss them :innocent:
There is nothing better for a family pet than a Guinea pigs though! They cry out for you when you come back home! Rabbits are better kept outside - indoor rabbits would have to be cleaned up every day.
Yes it depends on the breed
Some guinea pigs have more meat on them than some rabbits so it depends on the breed
What I like about guinea pigs over rabbits is that you don't skin them you just drop it in boiling water and the fur comes off.
Can you do that with rabbits or do you have to skin them?
Also guinea pigs can live off the grass alone, rabbits do need money spending on them
I guess a god solution is keep both rabbits and guinea pigs
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I'm sure you could do that with rabbits, I supposed they would have more hair on them though. It's probably quicker and easier to skin them.
I have fattened and bred rabbits by feeding them BRAMBLES ONLY (as a test). It worked very well.
You can feed them just hay, some veg leftovers (carrots, cabbage, carrot greens, broccoli leaves and stalks, etc). They could manage without the concentrates, but they obviously grow faster when fed some.
They really don't need a lot.
Let me know how you are getting on with the guinea pigs ;)
Good thing about rabbits is you can keep quite a lot in a small backgarden and no one would even know - as long as you clean them regularly of course.
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I'm sure you could do that with rabbits, I supposed they would have more hair on them though. It's probably quicker and easier to skin them.
I have fattened and bred rabbits by feeding them BRAMBLES ONLY (as a test). It worked very well.
You can feed them just hay, some veg leftovers (carrots, cabbage, carrot greens, broccoli leaves and stalks, etc). They could manage without the concentrates, but they obviously grow faster when fed some.
They really don't need a lot.
Let me know how you are getting on with the guinea pigs ;)
Good thing about rabbits is you can keep quite a lot in a small backgarden and no one would even know - as long as you clean them regularly of course.
I have lots of wild rabbits on my land already and rats for that matter considering that other post talking about rats
I don't want to have to clean them regularly or feed them at all, I want to let live natural and wild
I'm wondering if guinea pigs would all die off and get eaten by predators or if it's possible to create an environment for them to live free range and care for themselves just like the rabbits and rates do?
Guinea pigs needs lots of insulation in their shelters as they don't dig burrows like rabbits and rats, although they have been know to use borrows already there from other creatures
I wonder about creating a large netted run for guinea pigs where they could get in and out so free range and a warm place for them to sleep and breed and water sources
And occasionally feed extra carrots etc while they get the herd upto some serious numbers ie in the hundreds
Then I wonder if they could survive the uk wilderness on their own?
I'm sure a certain percentage would be lost to predators but as long as they breed faster than they die off just like my rabbits
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Guinea pigs really like pipes as natural shelter, I suppose it seems similar to a rabbit or mole hole
Lots of these in blackberry bushes near water sources for them, I wonder if they could have a thriving colony with a little help to just get them started on my could of hectares ?
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I would imagine guinea pigs would get killed by predators, eg foxes, cats etc if left feral to fend for themselves; as they do not breed as fast as rabbits, and nor can they run as fast.
I was once given about half a dozen adult ones by a friend who was going abroad. They were used to living outside so I put them in a large hen run. They lived there quite happily, but it seemed a shame to enclose them, once they had got used to their new surroundings. So as I have a large garden, I let them out. All went well for a while and they seemed happy and contented and returned to the run for food and shelter. Then they gradually disappeared. I rather suspect the fox got them but never actually found out.
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I would imagine guinea pigs would get killed by predators, eg foxes, cats etc if left feral to fend for themselves; as they do not breed as fast as rabbits, and nor can they run as fast.
I was once given about half a dozen adult ones by a friend who was going abroad. They were used to living outside so I put them in a large hen run. They lived there quite happily, but it seemed a shame to enclose them, once they had got used to their new surroundings. So as I have a large garden, I let them out. All went well for a while and they seemed happy and contented and returned to the run for food and shelter. Then they gradually disappeared. I rather suspect the fox got them but never actually found out.
Thanks that's useful
I suspected as much
I think what would be needed is lots of 5 inch pipes meter long under black Berry bushes
And lots of them for places to hide
Also lots of good food and water to encourage them
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From what people say once your herd of guinea pigs is in the hundreds the numbers multiply exponentially as long as their is enough food
https://youtu.be/ZvAjGHbJ7TI
My plan would be to get the herd a few hundred by feeding them myself and providing protection then slowly let them feed in the wild with plenty of protection
I hope they would breed and survive more than they would be take by predators
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That video is great! I've wondered about a little herd to mow the lawn. Bunny Guinness said one of her college lecturers kept a herd of them to mow his lawn for him. They don't dig and tended to just graze the grass rather than eating everything else. He set out little hutches and tubes for them to hide in. My friend told me it was important to breed the females young if you're going to. Not sure what age but older females would struggle and likely need a c-section.
To be honest I think you?d need a very well fenced enclosure. Stoats and mink if you have them would be the right size and I think would get the lot once they worked out what they are.
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Equally loved the big herd video.
I've had many pet GPs (mine and then the children's) and they are definitely more endearing than any other readily available captive rodent. (I am a bit of a GP fan actually although I do not keep them presently.)
There was a small escaped community of GPs in my town neighbourhood for a while, but they did not last very long at all !!
Also, I seem to think GPs fare better in a drier environment than we have in the UK.
Further, there will be UK reg's about introducing non-native species into the wild: although wild UK GPs might not survive very long, their release might actually be against the law ! (I haven't checked, but it is very likely.)
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That video is great! I've wondered about a little herd to mow the lawn. Bunny Guinness said one of her college lecturers kept a herd of them to mow his lawn for him. They don't dig and tended to just graze the grass rather than eating everything else. He set out little hutches and tubes for them to hide in. My friend told me it was important to breed the females young if you're going to. Not sure what age but older females would struggle and likely need a c-section.
To be honest I think you?d need a very well fenced enclosure. Stoats and mink if you have them would be the right size and I think would get the lot once they worked out what they are.
Yes that exactly what I was thinking lots of hutches and tubes for them to hide in but keep them free range
One male can keep impregnating many females so I would mainly eat the males and keep lots of new young females in the herd.
Once the herd is in the hundreds my hope is it would keep expanding to account for losses from predators birds of prey etc
I have good fox traps on my land to try to keep the numbers down that way
What other predators are there for guinea pigs?
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Equally loved the big herd video.
I've had many pet GPs (mine and then the children's) and they are definitely more endearing than any other readily available captive rodent. (I am a bit of a GP fan actually although I do not keep them presently.)
There was a small escaped community of GPs in my town neighbourhood for a while, but they did not last very long at all !!
Also, I seem to think GPs fare better in a drier environment than we have in the UK.
Further, there will be UK reg's about introducing non-native species into the wild: although wild UK GPs might not survive very long, their release might actually be against the law ! (I haven't checked, but it is very likely.)
I wouldn't be releasing them, they would be enclosed in about a hectare
I know there will be losses to predators but I will do everything I can to encourage them to thrive
Yes it's a bit wet sometimes so they will need comfortable hutches and pipes lots of natural insulation to stay dry and warm but at least you can set up rain water harvesting systems for them to drink
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I知 thinking to start with making a few very very large runs which I will move every few days until the herd is a few hundred and then let the excuses guinea pigs out to them free range and see how they get on
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Letting them "free range" would not be a good idea, i think. Most likely they will get eating by something very quickly.
Why don't you make a "guinea pig tractor"?
I cage with wire bottom so nothing can dig but they csn still eat Grass. You move it to freshxspot every day.
I kept rabbits like that and they were very happy. Rabbits can be kept like that all year round but for guinea pigs it might be a bit too cold/wet?
Obviously my rabbit cage was dry and sheltered from sunshine, wind and rain.
Actually now that I think of it, my dad used to keep guinea pigs like that during the summer.
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Letting them "free range" would not be a good idea, i think. Most likely they will get eating by something very quickly.
Why don't you make a "guinea pig tractor"?
I cage with wire bottom so nothing can dig but they csn still eat Grass. You move it to freshxspot every day.
I kept rabbits like that and they were very happy. Rabbits can be kept like that all year round but for guinea pigs it might be a bit too cold/wet?
Obviously my rabbit cage was dry and sheltered from sunshine, wind and rain.
Actually now that I think of it, my dad used to keep guinea pigs like that during the summer.
Yes this is probably the best idea all round thanks
I知 thinking a very large rabbit and guinea pig tractor combined. I read you can even include chickens all three get on well with each other as long as you don稚 have a cockerel in with them.
I知 thinking of quite an ambitious project of making a rather large 60x30 foot run with good hutches and walk in accommodation one end. It would house meat rabbits, guinea pigs and laying chickens.
It would only just be movable due to the size but only need moving every week or so. I知 hoping to move by a very low geared winch.
Looking for rainwater harvesting and a float valve and have a few watering systems for redundancy so they always have plenty to drink.
I知 looking for some ideas how it could cope with a little uneven ground maybe chains and loose netting and hope to drag it over lots of blackberry bushes
Even considering have a goat pen and a goat chained to the outside of it to clear a lot of the blackberry brambles before I drag the tractor over it and constantly move it to new areas
Is it really difficult to stop foxes digging under and getting in? What are the best anti fox measures?
I also wondered about having fox traps all around it even included on the outside of the run using my rabbits and guinea pigs as bait👍
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Chaining a goat to anything is NOT a good idea.
For someone who is looking for easiest animals to keep, you seem to have some grand ideas which involve a LOT of work.
You cannot keep animals and hope that they will look after themselves. It doesn稚 work like that.
Foxes will get in/under/over and through anything to get a food source.
You say you want to clear brambles and keep grass short......
Buy a tractor, mower and a very heavy duty brush cutter and clear it your self.
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Keeping rabbits with guinea pigs is not a good idea - they speak "different language".
Chickens definitelly cannot be kept in the same cage as bunnies and guinea pigs. No chance. Unless you want them all to die of bacterial infections from chicken poo.
For rabbits (and guinea pigs probably) you will definitelly need wire at the bottom of their run - or they will dig themselves out so the fox doesn't even have to. I used old bed frame - around 2 x 2 inches holes (or maybe 3 x 3?)
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Before you start buying guinea pigs and breeding them i would suggest to ascertain your sales market. The majority of people in the UK look on these as pets not food. Personally I definitely wouldn't eat them
I think you need to do a great deal of market research before you start. And a decent business plan
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Orinlooper you have many differing plans .... from goats to guinea pigs, from wild to enclosed by wire on all six sides. Have you really put any proper business plans together?
Are you farming for selling? If so guinea pigs are pets in this country you will not pursuade people to eat them here. If you are not selling then just get a large guinea pig hutch and breed a few a yr for yourself to eat if that is what you intend.
Use a flail mower or brush cutter on brambles and reclaim the field for other uses. Grow vegetables .... vegans pay a fortune!
:pig: might fly or :cow: might jump over moon but no amount of :thinking: of new ideas which dont require work will get you anywhere without a business plan, and proper finacial figures.
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I still think you should just feed your wild rabbits, grow them veg scraps and buy a big bake of hay for the winter. Recon that would increase your population.
Other predators of small mammals: rats, badgers, weasels, stoats, mink, pine marten, cats, buzzards, sparrow hawk, (possibly owls?).
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I'm switching off because I just cannot understand why, Orinlooper, you are persisting with this and various related threads. Sorry, but your various threads/posts are just not stacking up in any sensible way. Orinlooper, please get real; save yourself some money and hassle over the long term (and save the rest of us from pondering over your hare-brained schemes) and go buy pre-butchered meat - that will be THE easiest way to keep animals !! (Especially if you have a freezer!)
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Orinlooper you have many differing plans .... from goats to guinea pigs, from wild to enclosed by wire on all six sides. Have you really put any proper business plans together?
Yeah, I get that point of view, but this is an internet forum - a virtual pub where we can float our crazier ideas to see if they might just work. I just built a functioning guitar from a 1960s chest of drawers. Is that really any less daft than guinea pig ranching? It's also not all about business. If we'd done a business plan for anything we've so far achieved, we'd have run for the city ASAP. (Actually, we did do a business plan - it said we were going to lose a ton of money, and in hindsight even that was written with rose-tinted sunglasses on!)
@Orinlooper, I think the issue people have here is not actually that your ideas are a bit 'out there'. It's that it doesn't seem like you've thought through the animal welfare aspects properly. I'd encourage you to put that first and everything else will follow. IME once you've figured out how to keep an animal happy and safe, you're 80% of the way there anyway.
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I think you've cracked it there Womble when you mention "virtual".
I too initially got a bit fed up like arobwk with the sheer fantasy of it all :innocent: . But then I thought "what the hell - no harm in hiding in a virtual reality from time to time". And there have been one or two points of interest. I think we've all learnt a lot about guinea pigs. :idea:
And at least he's not as bad as Demonfarmer whom we had on here some years ago who was begging for food parcels (and got sent some!) because he decided to see if he could get through February (that month of plenty) by spending no money. Then he wanted donations of bee keeping equipment because he and his grandmother had decided to keep bees (as you do.)
Another of his well thought out plans was to propagate Japanese Vine Weed. Apparently his hens loved eating it and his landlord was quite happy with the idea.
I think his final plea for freebies was for someone to provide or build some quail cages for him because he'd hatched out a load of quail eggs and had nothing to put the chicks in. (I always believed that in the 2 weeks it takes for quail eggs to hatch that it would dawn on someone that they were soon likely to get a sudden increase in numbers and that they would need housing. But apparently it came as a complete surprise. :thinking: )
Anyway - all this makes easy reading in these times of lockdown if you don't take it too seriously. :sunshine:
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I think we all need some entertainment nowadays, since you are not allowed to see your mates, go to cinema, Melton Mowbray Livestock Market, or anywhere really...
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I'm convinced Orinlooper is a wind up merchant, entertaining though in the quieter moments .
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I'm convinced Orinlooper is a wind up merchant, entertaining though in the quieter moments .
:thumbsup: ;D I think he might be trying for a record for the number of posts he can attract. Got to admire his persistence in the face of criticism. :raining: