Feeding a Family From a Garden

[Jared77]

The problem is milk. You have to produce offspring to get milk. It's not like chickens who lay with or without the company of a rooster.

So if the option is there to sell the offspring sure, but it's still a source of protein. So what to do?

I wouldn't raise chickens that long to eat unless they were old layers. I wouldn't keep replacing hens every year either. Actually correction, I would replace them at a still quality laying age if they were not healthy, or didn't produce (their offspring), or meet my standard for growth rate, overall size etc. Yes it's potential loss of protein, but it's also that much more resources to get them up to where they are useful with egg production or the cockerels as table fare. Eventually with hard culling you get to where you need them to be with the standard you have in mind. Sometimes it's a few generations, other times it's longer, depends on where you start and what you have to work with.

So your paying for it either way but it's about being efficient. That's why the Cornish crosses are so popular. Rapid growth, so they get to market weight a lot faster than say a barred rock, or a New Hampshire, or any other heritage breed that was used for meat before the Cornish cross came along.

That's also why I'd have rabbits before chickens if I was trying to do a sustainable situation like was being suggested. At 10-12 weeks there is more meat on them than any sustainable heritage breed of the same age. And by sustainable I mean you can reproduce them & those chicks can reproduce too. Like a Rock, or Buckeye, or Delaware for example. That shorter turn around means less $ per lbs. I don't have anything against chickens but it's simple economics at that point.

 

[digitS']

The offspring of cattle can go on the table. Our bull was a Hereford for beefiness . . . Doc Hanawalt did show up with the artificial insemination kit for Daisy, our best milk cow.

Another thing about rabbits is, and someone who raises them can correct me if I'm off-base,

their feed is alfalfa hay based. Inexpensive since it is not grain. They may as well be grass-fed beef, I'm guessing.

Steve

 

[Jared77]

I agree with the offspring going to the table. I mentioned that in a previous pits about using a meat breed to get better offspring for the table. I thought your comment about lost protein was directed at offspring going to the table. Sorry for the confusion.

Not sure about t he rabbits I'm still at least 2 yrs out from that kind of project but they are going to happen here.

 

[baymule]

If you lived on a small lot, then rabbits would be the way to go. They live in a small cage, don't make noise, don't smell, don't eat a lot and they taste good!

 

[Ridgerunner]

With rabbits, you’ll get meat. They reproduce fast and grow fast. With good fencing you might be able to pasture them but I’d think you’d wind up getting their food for them. You either harvest that or buy it. Still, it’s relatively inexpensive. You’ll need to time the litters to keep yourself in meat without having a population explosion. I haven’t kept rabbits but they seem a reasonable way to go.

With chickens you get meat and eggs. There is generally more of a time investment, especially for eggs. Not all hens go broody so you may even need to buy an incubator. The key to their efficiency is how you feed them. In some climates and under some conditions, they can totally forage for all their food, though in winter you might need to supplement that some, depending on your climate. Quality of forage is of extreme importance. The more variety in grasses and weeds, grass and weed seeds, and various creepy crawlies for them to eat, the better the quality of the forage.

Some people have very little problems with predators, some have tremendous problems. Rural versus urban or suburban makes a huge difference. If you have to keep them confined or buy most or all of their food, then they are not especially efficient.

There are different ways to go about it, with different ones of us suited to different ways.

 

[digitS']

I haven't go it all worked out.

Jared has it right questioning my lack of certainty/conviction. For livestock maintenance, nutrient loss is mostly loss of calories. Protein is concentrated in growth.

One problem with scheming out something like this is our own nutritional needs. Plant protein is not human protein so plant protein intake must be balanced so that needs are met and protein isn't simply burned as calories. The calories are available in most vegetable foods in excess.

This isn't true with all vegetables, some animals would thrive on a diet of tossed green salad (hold the dressing). We would starve to death simply because our digestive systems do not have the capacity for all the salad that would be required.

Seeds have adequate protein when in balanced mix. Animal protein, of course, comes closer to human protein that our bodies need to build for human growth and repair.

Steve

 

[Jared77]

It's all good from my perspective.

 

[Nyboy]

If you have a pond you could stock it with fish, no work protein, well till you have to catch them.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

UNH is doing some hydroponic research using Tilapia in tanks below their growing tubs. interesting setup they had when i was last over there. but having an outdoor pond is nice for raising catfish, or in my case, koi. (i don't eat my koi but i can keep the catfish in with them!)

 

[digitS']

Fish, and especially Tilapia, are supposed to be highly, highly food efficient.

Fish don't "burn" their calories to stay warm. And, they don't have to use many calories moving around.

Salmon and such fish require a high-protein diet. That is not true with Tilapia and, maybe, Catfish - but I don't know.

Steve