Can I turn fruit into meat? (question for farmers)

(GINA ) #21

If you are willing to close up a coop every night and open it every morning, you don’t lose many chickens (usually) to predators. When you don’t want to open and close it every single morning and evening, you need a tightly covered yard for them to get out in during the day.

I like to go away for the weekend sometimes and go on vacation and we don’t have anyone really close enough to come over twice a day, so we have the covered yard. Before we built the closed-in yard and the hens were just sleeping in an open coop in a normal side yard, we lost them twice to raccoons. Raccoons are bast@rds.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #22

“Fox in the henhouse” is a saying for a reason!

(Bob M) #23

I’ve spoken to many people who have lost all of their chickens due to predation. We can’t have a dog due to allergy issues (not mine). This also means I’d be the one to take care of the chickens.

Also, we’re talking meat, not eggs, which means a lot of chickens. We can easily eat 2 chickens per week, and even making that one means 52 chickens per year. Even one a month is 12, then I guess you have to learn how to kill and prepare them?

(GINA ) #24

You’re right, meat chickens would be a whole different ball game.

I have no problem with meat eating. I grew up with a steer almost always in a side pasture, and have even eaten my share of cute woodland creatures, but I draw the line at my hens. :grinning:

(Richard) #25

You have a wonderful problem to solve. Self sufficiency is well within your grasp. First I would check out the book and movie “Sacred Cow”. A small reiterative “Hobby” farm might be in your future.
If you have fences the chickens and a cow or sheep or goats can forage. The animals would love the fruit also.
Good Luck
Rich

(Ken) #26

The people around my area usually keep their Broilers confined until they butcher them. No doubt they taste better, but the economics fall apart if you have to buy commercial feed, plus the PITA of processing them yourself.

Pigs would be great if they could eat the downed fruit and nuts, some of the most expensive and tasty pork in the World comes from piggies fed that way. Believe it or not, it’s fairly easy to process your own pig, I just helped with 12 of them, including one for myself. Plus, I now have 12 sets of organs which is a years worth of food for my two dogs. I also have seven buckets of pork skin brining, which will be my Homemade Pork Rinds. I also get about six pounds of Head Cheese per head. Lot’s of tasty reasons to do it, and Youtube can show you how to do about anything.

#27

Farmer here - primarily olive orchards (olive oil and table oil production) and pastured pigs (we also have sheep, chickens, and used to raise rabbits and diary cattle).

You can very very easily raise pigs on pasture, orchard & garden produce & eggs.

2 hardboiled eggs per day will cover all protein requirements for a pastured pig. Lactating sows could use more, but the basic is there. Fruit / nuts / vegetables help offset marginal or less nutritionally dense pasture. Pigs do best on grasses (no sorghum, corn, or mature grain fodder - they’ll eat field oats (as green forage) but they don’t love it). A bit different than sheep, which prefer forbes. We are working on eliminating commercial feed with our pig operation (Currently about 75 breeding stock on farm), but are a bit hampered by current drought conditions.

Pigs are spectacular at helping clear land for pasture improvements and do really really well in forested land. We are actually planting trees in our pig pasture for silviculture development. We also graze most of our sounder in our olive orchards except for that brief period just before harvest.

Hens can be pastures - electric net fencing will eliminate most of your predator problem. You will need to close them up at night. We have raised broilers with very little to no commercial inputs - you are looking at 10 to 12 weeks to harvest weight rather than the standard 6 to 8 but we much prefer the texture. We typically raise and process in batches of 40 - so you could easily bet a years’ worth of chicken in 6 months - or less if you are willing to manage two groups at once. Due to the breed they just aren’t that active as they get heavier. Free ranging the chickens in the orchards is also fabulous pest control!

Good luck!