Can i raise on a half acre?

[Sequestered Ridge Ranch]

I would go with ducks, they will be dropping eggs long after a chicken stops and when chickens don't With right coop for them, they will drop eggs in almost all temperatures. When it starts dropping below 0°F is when they start slowing down and around -30°F they stop all together. Duck poop is safe to go straight on plants too and they only need a body of water if you want to breed them.

 

[Ridgetop]

Ducks will eat all the slugs and snails in a garden where chickens will eat the plants.

 

[SageHill]

Ducks will eat all the slugs and snails in a garden where chickens will eat the plants.

Chickens will eat the slugs and snails too. And …. Earwigs!! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

 

[EweAreKiddingMe!]

You will have to dry lot them. Feed hay year-round. Where are you located? You should check your zoning even though the house behind you has horses and cows. If you are in a neighborhood of 1/2 to 1 acre properties you might have different zoning.

How much milk do you need for the family? You might be better off with a dairy goat. Goat meat is delicious. Rabbits make a lot of meat too.

Yes we have goats and they are way easier to take care of and dairy goats exist so you could get one of those but if you want a goat to breed and sell the babies Nigerian dwarf goats(NDG) are great for all of those things

 

[Simpleterrier]

Depends where u live here in Ohio u most definitely could raise two sheep on half an acre. But if your down south u can't. I've never understood why people try to raise livestock in the desert. I've had up to 10 goats on 3/4 of an acre for 6 months before having to move or supplement. Goats/ sheep to an acre is better then acres to a goat/ sheep. That said it all depends where u live. Also I know people might have a fit but u can stake your animals out and let them mow your yard. Been doing that with goats and horses and donkeys and mules for about 30 yrs and never lost one.

 

[halfacrehomesteader]

Thanks for the reply! We are in tennessee so more south but not so much south that it's dry like the desert. I decided on having a roughly 40x50 dry lot area for them and then I'm going to do rotational grazing with supplemental feeding when needed. I'm really looking forward to it and I think it will be a great experience for my kids.

 

[Mini Horses]

That's only an issue for me if you're in an area with a lot of predator problems -- including loose dogs. That's how many homes kept their small animals fed in years past. Basically it's about tying where they don't/won't get into trouble🙂

It's like the past when no feed stores on every corner. You grew feed. 🤷 And not everyone had fence.

 

[halfacrehomesteader]

That's only an issue for me if you're in an area with a lot of predator problems -- including loose dogs. That's how many homes kept their small animals fed in years past. Basically it's about tying where they don't/won't get into trouble🙂

It's like the past when no feed stores on every corner. You grew feed. 🤷 And not everyone had fence.

 

[halfacrehomesteader]

We will have a fence around our property and then we will have another fence around the dry lot. Then in the dry lot we have a shelter and inside the shelter I am putting pens they will stay in at night. I'm hoping it will do the trick. It might not hurt for me to put some hardware clothes over their pen too just in case. There are definitely predators around because our area is pretty open. Probably not as bad as on a farm though. A lot of my farmer friends have been losing their lambs to coyotes 😔. They are all out in the open though and mine will be in a pen.

 

[Ridgetop]

A lot of my farmer friends have been losing their lambs to coyotes 😔. They are all out in the open though and mine will be in a pen.

That will work until the coyotes earn that they can get in and take something during the day. When our last LGD (a Pyrenees) died due to cancer we decided not to get another Pyr. Pyrs roam and are almost impossible to keep inside fencing. Not a probe 30 years ago but the neighborhod has becoe more built up. We lost 9 pregnant ewes over 2 years and finally got another LGD, this time an Anatolian. We didn't want Anatolians before due to having kids and people over all the time. Their reputation was much sharper and more aggressive than Pyrs and we didn't want to risk a bite. Now, the kids are grown, and we have Anatolians. In the past 30 years their temperaments have been softened by breeding.