Have you ever got carried away buying livestock?

Kaitlin · #1 02/05/08, 11:49 AM

I went around a few weeks ago saying I wouldn't have any more bantams as they weren't very practical. I'd just have hybrid layers for eggs. Today I came home with 2 Lavender Pekin bantams and 14 hatching eggs of various different sorts of Pekin. It was only while driving along feeling pretty happy with my new birds that I realised I wasn't going to have any more. Guess I just got carried away but they all looked so pretty. Doh! I have some explaining to do this evening!

Forerunner · #2 02/05/08, 02:25 PM

I occasionally frequent the Rutledge, Missouri "flea market", which is more of a back-to-the-lander's backwoods one stop shopping strip mall.....
Every spring, come time to procure chicks, I go, planning to get 50 or so, and come back with every baby chick they have.....of the heavy and laying breeds.
In all honesty, I've yet to regret it. There is no such thing as too much fried chicken....and there is always a neighbor who needs eggs.

Blair · #3 02/05/08, 03:16 PM

Who? Me? No way! Not me! Nope!.............Sigh. I'm guilty.

FarmboyBill · #4 02/05/08, 06:54 PM

We thought we were buying a place with no elect, in S Mo. So when a sale listed a icebox in perfect shape, I told my wife to go to the sale and buy it if it ran up to $200. We couldnt afford $200, but I knew we could make it work somehow, Well I went to work. When i came home I saw a bunch of boxes and barrels of stuff, pieces of chain, pieces of pitchforks, schovels, ect. Then came she with another load of crap. Then we had to go and pick up a S spreader, and it was full of junk. The total, $3??. We had a heck of a time getting it oaid for, This was in 1975, Ive still got the S spreader.

sammyd · #5 02/05/08, 07:10 PM

When I traded 14 old layers for 11 rabbit does and 3 bucks with all the cages.
You just don't realize how many bunnies they can make until you experience it.

ibcnya · #6 02/05/08, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Forerunner

I occasionally frequent the Rutledge, Missouri "flea market", which is more of a back-to-the-lander's backwoods one stop shopping strip mall.....
Every spring, come time to procure chicks, I go, planning to get 50 or so, and come back with every baby chick they have.....of the heavy and laying breeds.
In all honesty, I've yet to regret it. There is no such thing as too much fried chicken....and there is always a neighbor who needs eggs.

AAhhhh! Another Rutledge flea market goer. Takes a four wheeler to see it all and a truck and maybe a trailer to get the goodies home.

Shirley · #7 02/06/08, 07:36 AM

Yes I have and it won't be the last time! LOL I went to a livestock auction to look for a wethered male goat for my female as a companion and came home with the goat ($70, which was within our budget)....and a calf ($330)! OOPS! LOL

Forerunner · #8 02/06/08, 08:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ibcnya

AAhhhh! Another Rutledge flea market goer. Takes a four wheeler to see it all and a truck and maybe a trailer to get the goodies home.

I suspected that I might flush a fellow Rutledger or two in this thread......
any others ?

If ever there was a place to go overboard, it's Rutledge, Missouri.

Leo · #9 02/06/08, 08:57 AM

My husband did, after a difficult labor, emergency c-sect. I had heart problems and couldn't get up w/o help, to make me feel better DH kept on bringing home chicks.

It was sweet, but I really had a hard time taking care of them, baby and myself.

Anyway, I bet your bantams are cute though.

ebook · #10 02/06/08, 09:04 AM

Chickens are one thing ... but, this summer we decided we wanted to get our feet just a tiny bit wet in the world of Dexters so we bought a bred heifer and a steer that we planned on eating so we would have an I idea of grass finished beef if we wanted to do more. Well, just this past Sunday we that heifer had her calf (a little heifer), but we also have 4 more cows that are expecting. You see that original heifer and steer turned into 9 heifers/cows, 4 steers, and a bull (to be picked up soon) in just a few months. Once we had one it was like I couldn't stop buying ... and they cost more than a chicken!

Kaitlin · #11 02/06/08, 09:54 AM

Yes, Leo, they're really sweet. I'm sure the fourteen in the incubator will be as well.... Better get started on the housing for them now. It was sweet of your husband to keep buying chicks. Just what you needed, more helpless little things to look after!

I'm worried that when we start again with larger animals (we've got goats coming in April and are getting some sheep shortly) that getting carried away could come a lot more expensive. If it works like your dexters, ebook, perhaps I'd better not start!

ebook · #12 02/06/08, 10:33 AM

Yep Kaitlin, you better watch out once you start getting involved in those bigger animals. My problem was that we had plenty of room and hay so I just thought why not... But, I have had to rein myself in now and we will just let the herd build itself for the most part ... here's hoping for heifers!