What livestock did not work out and why?

Rabbits. They were not happy here in the OK heat. They almost never bred in summer, and so were a financial drain. I will ditto the PITA of watering them in winter - we had an automatic system which worked out fine most of the year but that would freeze up in winter so it was back to the bottles which had to be changed out at least three times daily

I still have ducks, but only because I really love to eat them. Nasty, dirty, smelly little devils. No matter how I keep their run cleaned, it is filthy by the next day. At least there is lots of good stuff for the garden from that run.

I really like my pigs. They free range and I find them quite a lot of fun. I have hair sheep so don't have to shear them. They respect my fence and are pretty easy to keep, as are most of my goats. Though a couple of them see the fence as a personal challenge. My chickens free range right now, but that will come to an end I think, because they have ruined my gardening attempts and it is hard to find the eggs. As soon as I find one nest, they decide to make one in a different place. They totally ignore the nice, clean, easily accessible nest boxes.


Mary

Hate to say anything, but so far, so good.

Rabbits, chickens, goats, ducks, turkeys, guineas... But we're at the limit now, and we took things on one at a time.

I had the chance to get a pregnant potbelly sow and boar for free, but Nick nixed the idea. I can see why, of course: we weren't set up for them, and I promised him no new animals this year.

But we do want to get a couple of pigs to raise for the freezer. Just not now.

(BTW -- I love my ducks! They make me laugh!)

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Heiffers. Never again. Too spooky to corral. Behaved more like deer than cattle. Couldn't approach them. Ended up having to lease the place to someone with a bull in his herd. I guess he got them after they calved. Lost money and ended up with a wrecked corral to boot.

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Pezzo Novante Ranch
Atoka County, Oklahoma

Ducks - As many have previously posted, they are messy, smelly & muck up the water in 2.5 seconds flat. And they absolutely HATED me. They'd run into the fence corner, practically trample each other to death whenever I came by. Not sure why either as I tried like crazy to get them to like me, and every other animal here seems to adore me (almost to the point of annoyance).

But, having said that, I would probably do it AGAIN (in a year or two after I've forgotton about the mess) because they are so darned tasty!!

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I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. - Thomas Jefferson

bees!!! we tried and will try again some day i suppose! best was me playing catch with a swarm that my brother dropped on me! pigs is another, just can't do pork for any where near what we can buy it for! milk cow, beefers, chickens, both egg and meat, sheep, bunnies, horses and hope to add goats agian come fall!

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àigeach carnaid
chaora dhubh
"Don't raise your voice, improve your argument."

cruachan

Another thought about why I won't do chickens again. Babies require too much care. I can put ducks out during the day when the temp is around 50*F and they don't need a heat lamp after the first week unless the temp is below 70*F overnight. And they don't need as much protection from the rain.

shetland sheep - too small to make butchering worthwhile & too noisy and flighty!
meat rabbits - I just hate butchering them. I like to eat them but the butchering wears on my heart too much.
muscovy ducks - love their personalities! but hate the taste of the meat.

we're going to try going goose-less next year. I like them and then again I don't. A bevy of geese can be pretty aggressive.

Ducks - Muscovies are big, messy and eat ALOT of food up here where we have winter for 6-7 months. Tried Australian Spotteds - supposed to be friendly, but where horrible, rehomed by the time they were 8 weeks - they honestly were dirtier than the scovies.

Geese - tried a trio this spring - 1 toulouse that showed up in fall 08 and a pair of Pilgrims we bought in March - terrified of people and mean to the other animals.

Turkeys - don't work out to free range as they go and poop everywhere, including your car, while sliding around on it with their claws. Eggs are yummy! We may try turkeys again someday if we have a different place.

Llamas - ornery female that spit at everyone and everything and gelded male that tried to kill me twice, enough said.

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ADGA Nigerian Dwarf and MDGA Mini Mancha goats for show, home use and pets www.dbarjacres.webs.com Located in North central Wisconsin

Dual purpose roosters! We had 25 last year and contary to what the guy where we bought them said, they were not ready at 12 weeks but instead it took until they were 10 mths old before they had enough meat to eat.

Bantams! Sure they look cute but what purpose do they serve. Mine are so attached to the barn I can't get them out unless I chase them and then they sneak back in no matter how I fence it off. They are just small enough to get through the least little place. Never again! Oh did I mntion they ARE cute? lol

Never had an animalo that I didn't enjoy.Some ways I wish I had the4m again.

big rockpile

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Llamas-Just sold him today! We couldn't get him to go any where we wanted him to and everytime we tried to move the goats from one pasture to another he would be in our own yard for at least 24 hours before he decided he was ready to go. He also tried to break my arms once when I got him leashed up. He spit on the goats and stole their food and was a bad aim- meaning he would spit on me and my wife. He also would never leave the lgd's food alone either. Just all around would never do it again!

Cornish X's- They were big, fat, ugly, stupid creatures that only had diarhea poop and couldn't fly to roost less than 2 feet off the ground, so they would lie around in their poop. They also probably cost us as much in feed as we could buy the meat for.

Must say though we are really enjoying our laying hens, turkeys and goats. The chickens and turkeys are always fun to watch, the toms crack us up with the strutting. Ours are free range and don't eat much. We had predator problems but improved our fencing, got the goats to clear the brush and the lgd to protect them all and haven't had issues since. The goats can be infuriating though when the continue to escape and when the milk goat gets into something that makes her milk taste off.

I've enjoyed all species that we've raised, but rabbits are the only critters I wouldn't do again.

As someone mentioned, the frozen waterers in the winter were a pain, but what I found more troublesome was their potential for heat stroke in the AR hot, humid summers. I kept frozen water jugs in with them, which they really enjoyed. But, some days I had to rotate the jugs out so often that they thawed way faster than they'd refreeze.

And the false pregnancies, to include nesting, kept me guessing. Hard to plan ahead that way.

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Before you marry someone, ask yourself, "Will they be a good killing partner during the zombie apocalypse?"
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Meat chickens. They're too lazy. Solution is mixed meat/egg hens.

Sheep. Not enough market (although I love them, both raising and eating). Solution is I just raise sheep for us and for their brush mowing ability.

For us pigs have been our best crop.

Cheers

-Walter
Sugar Mountain Farm
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/blog/
http://HollyGraphicArt.com/
http://NoNAIS.org

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

i enjoyed my goats but i was raising them for selling and the market wasnt that good at the time--didnt make any money--lost money, plus once they get out its hard to keep them in the fence. and dont get me started on the smell when the bucks are in rut peeeeeeuuuuuuu. (but i liked my bucks the most)

Goats, will not do them again, allways getting through the fencing and into every thing.

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beekeeping
winemaking
living off grid

Awwww, banty eggs make the BEST pisanky eggs (I'm doing 6 up tomorrow) and some bantams make the BEST mamas. I love not having to have an incubator- I just pop some eggs into Adora's nest box, and take her own eggs out, and I have a dedicated incubator. (waiting for some hatchlings any day now!)

For me, it is the goats. It's not that they aren't great animals- they are. The problem is me and my back troubles. I can't wrangle anything much bigger than a chicken. I'm so going to miss my goats. I really, really love them, even if they are useless, smelly eating machines, lol.

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Pigs didn't work out for me - they are just so cool and lovable that I was unable to send them to freezercamp when the time came. Ended up with a 300+lb pet.

Suffolk sheep - I sold them all and replaced them with Katahdins. I couldn't do the shearing and they were really poor keepers and mothers compared to the kats.

So far I am still loving my katahdins, chickens, guineas, rabbits, calf, & muscovy duckies (but they are still babies - we'll see when they get older!)

#1 thing I would do differently: start off with GOOD animals, not somebody elses culls and problems. We started with cheap castoff sheep and rabbits and went through a lot of heartache and expense until I replaced everybody with good proven breeders.

I had a friend give me about 30 pheasants this year. I've only got 10 left. I was feeling bad until I read your post.

Feeder Heifers: too many found to be with calf, and most had to be pulled. Ran a bull with them thinking that after they calved the meat would be better...more management with calves than anything. Always agressive at the bale feeder, among other things.

Steers: too much to manage in the situation we got ourselves in after what happened to dad; a year's herd varied between nice animals to rotten, stinkin' nasty ones that were just a bit too wild. Tended to have a few fence crawlers every year, no surprise. Can't cull the wild and nasty ones like you can in a breeding-cow herd. All good they did was eat up the hay and silage and kept the grass down in the pasture. And make us a little money, depending on the prices.

Horses: never had them, most likely never will because they'd take too much care and attention anyway to keep them healthy. They're behaviour is much different from cattle, and the amount of time to spend with them is triple that with cattle in order to "know" them. They are nice to look at, I'll say that much.

I want to start on a cow-calf herd sometime in the future (I keep saying that and never know WHEN that will happen), and with the plans I've laid out so far and continue to do so when I feel like it, I'd love to see how that goes, see if it lives up to me "dream goals", so to speak.

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