Protecting Yourself - 3
As promised last time, I am going to go into raising animals and large gardens and also if time allows will get into some on hunting for your own food. One of the reasons that I am so sure we will need the ability to feed ourselves without depending on stores is that I believe that there is going to be a takeover of certain areas of the economy. As I write this there are demonstrations and riots going on all over the world. These are all directed at the one percent of the wealthy, or so it is stated. This is an act of pure anarchism. If this keeps up (and it looks like it may) the next thing that will happen will be looting and more riots. Once that begins, it will not be safe to go to stores, even if they do have goods on their shelves. The police will not be able to control it as there are not enough police. The only way to control it will be to declare martial law and that is just what I am afraid of.
My personal preference of animals to raise is chickens. The reason being that they can supply you with both meat and eggs. For two people I feel that ten laying hens, one rooster and two bantam hens are about right. The ten hens will supply eggs for two people and the rooster will fertilize the eggs. Sitting on eggs has been bred out of most chickens so you need the bantams if you want to produce more chicks. I would probably try to hatch at least twelve or fifteen chicks per year. This would allow you to kill off the roosters as soon as they reach fryer age and keep the hens as replacements for the older birds. If you have one of the heavy breeds such as Rhode Island Reds or Brahmas, which I prefer, and you wind up with too many hens you could raise a couple up for roasting birds. When the new five or six hens that you are going to keep for layers are of laying age, you can butches that many of the old hens for soup. Thus you will be able to keep a steady flock of ten good layers and still have meat.
You will need a hen house with roosts and nesting boxes in it for your chickens and a fenced in outside area for them to exercise in. You probably will need to purchase some feed unless you are able to let the chickens completely free range. Even then, feeding some laying mash will pay for itself in the amount of eggs you will get. When I keep chickens in a fenced area I feed laying mash and also some oats as a scratch feed. The mash is kept in a feeding trough while the oats is scattered around the ground. You also need to keep water where they can get to it at all times. In the winter here in the north that either means a heating element in the water or adding water two or three times a day.
Another plus you will get from the chickens is the fact that all of the manure that you get out of the hen house can be used on the garden. There is one thing to be careful of and that is that chicken manure is too hot to use immediately. You must let chicken manure age for at least one year before using it or the crops you plant in it will burn. If you build a movable chicken house you can rid entire areas of weeds. Every time the grass is all gone from the pen area you just move the house and fence to the next weedy spot and let the chickens do their thing. Also, throw any weeds and other trash from your garden into the chicken yard and they will clean it up. If you are not going to compost something, the chickens get it.
Now for rabbits. There are two ways to raise rabbits, the most common way in raised hutches or in a pen in a grassy area. The hutch method is probably best especially if you are limited in area. Also the hutch area gives you the ability to collect the manure and that is great stuff in the garden. You need to purchase rabbit pellets for feed and that can get a little expensive. You also need to keep water for them at all times and again up north that can be a problem. What I did when I raised rabbits was to butcher all except one pair in the fall so I only had one pair to take care of. I used an electric heat tape to keep their water from freezing and did not let them breed until I knew that the young would be born in warm weather.
If you are going to do the pen method, you will need to build a pen large enough to hold the amount of rabbits that you have. You will need to build it in a grassy area so they can eat the grass. A clover of alfalfa field is ideal but any grass is okay. This will cut down on the amount of feed you will need to purchase, if any. all you will need to do is to make sure they always have water. One thing about the pen. The sides do not need to be very tall but you should put a cover over it. This should be make out of the same fencing that you use for the sides. This will keep all predators out of the pen and keep your rabbits safe. the one bad thing about the pen method is that you do not get the use of the manure.
There you have a short explanation of what to raise and a little bit of how to. I would suggest that if you are really serious about raising animals that you would do some study on whichever animal you are going to raise. There are many good books on the subject and a wealth of information on the internet. I just gave you the highlights and enough knowledge to decide whether you think it is worth your trouble. I firmly believe it is because as I stated, I think we are in for a long hard time in this country.
I will get into the hunting for food in my next entry. This one has gone on long enough because the hunting portion will be just as long or longer. Until next time, check out my other blog and my store.
posted by Knifeman | 5:07 PM
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