Just out of curiosity.....

[BarredBuff]

I have been wondering about this during the evening today. Out of curiosity how many animals would a family of 4 to 6 need to provide all the meat/dairy/poultry/eggs they'd need?

Here is what I have come up with:

12 Laying Hens
8 Breeding Rabbits
1 Beef Steer
1 Hog
24 Broilers
3 Breeding Turkeys
3 Breeding Ducks
25 Meat Rabbits
12 Meat Turkeys
12 Meat Ducks
2 Milking Goats

What are your alls thoughts??

 

[mrscoyote]

If you mean for the year I think it looks about right. I would just add the garden and fruit trees to round it off. Course I am still a ways off from that plan.

 

[Denim Deb]

A lot is going to depend on the family. For instance, if they don't like turkey, they're not going to need any. And, if they don't like goat's milk, a cow might be a better choice.

 

[Beekissed]

Some of those animals produce very big litters and quite often...like the rabbits. That list seems like a whole lotta meat to me....my family couldn't eat all that meat in 3-4 years, probably more.

 

[BarredBuff]

It was something I was wondering about. Nice to know your thoughts...I think as far as working animals (breeders, milkers, layers) that list is correct. But we usually eat 1/2 a beef a year, when we buy it as a grass fed half a beef. That is mainly because we have it on hand. I am sure it will be the same when we get the half hog in the fall.

 

[Wannabefree]

Well we eat meat every day, usually 3 times per day. We'd need a LOT more chicken, and a lot less turkey. DH won't hardly touch turkey even though he loves it, because of the tryptophan. It messes with his narcolepsy and makes him too drowsy. We'd need a few steers instead, or 4-5 deer, to last us the year. And the fruit and veggies, we are pretty much going to have enough this year, but that accounts for 2/3 of our food. We eat a lot of veggies and a good bit of fruit too. We'd also need a pond. We can't live without some good fresh fish We'd miss tuna and salmon, but I think we could manage

 

[BarredBuff]

Yeah I wouldn't including the garden, berries, foraged food, or fruit. I was talking animal wise

 

[Wannabefree]

Well i think ours would look more like this then:

15 layers
2 steers
1 milk cow
75 meaties
2 hogs
4 meat turkeys
5 deer
8 meat ducks
100 fish

 

[Snowhunter]

We basically eat beef and pork as main dishes, with fish thrown in here n there. But I'm going to base this list on what we would prefer to have available, not just what we do now

2 Dairy cows-Each could easily raise 2-4 calves a piece and give enough milk for the house and other uses such as clabber for pigs/chickens and fertilizer for the garden/pasture
24 DP Chickens-Eat extra roo's/hens
10 rabbits-2 bucks 8 does, the does each having 2 litters a year, allowing for plenty of freezer meat and plenty of manure for the gardens
2 pigs
10 ducks

We want fish too but I wouldn't know how much, as I've not looked into it enough.. probably 50ish or so

 

[pinkfox]

in terms of my personal needs.
id be feeding myself, the dogs and the cats

so my focus would be rabbits, quail and chicken as primary meat
id thingk 1 buck and 4 does would be minimum for rabbits
with the dogs eating id go through about 200 meat chickens a year
probably want 4 breeding groups of cortinux qual (about 20 birds)

i think 12 hens and 5-6 laying ducks would keep us in all the eggs we need
and 1 pig and 1 small cow should give me my redmeat and bacon/lard needs for a year.

2 full sized dairy goats for milk

i could probably pass on geese, turkey ect...

but my wish list is much more involved lol.