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When you’re starting out, the best farm animals for beginners are often the smallest ones. There’s no problem with wanting to start out with easy farm animals. Starting small is also a good way to choose the best homestead animals when beginning. Especially when you know as little as I did!
I read so many books about livestock, homesteading and what to start with. As a seasoned homesteader, I want to tell you some information I wish I would’ve had.
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I didn’t grow up around any farm animals, so chickens were super intimidating. I knew I wanted to raise goats and dairy cows. But, as a small farmer starting out, I wasn’t ready.
Goat milk was appealing but these three types of livestock were the best farm animals to raise on my hobby farm.
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Raising chickens is inexpensive to do and one of the easiest farm animals to have on a small farm. Because of this, they’re also one of the best hobby farm animals to raise.
They’re multipurpose, providing eggs, meat and fertilizer making them great for beginners. There are still ways to decrease expenses when raising chickens. You can save money on feed by fermenting it and sprouting fodder. Additionally, you can also feed them scraps, weeds, etc.
Chickens are some of the best small farm animals to have. And you do not need to be afraid of them! I say that because I was. When we started homesteading, we inherited a flock of grown hens and I was terrified.
A family friend came down to help with a few home improvement projects (and teach me how to use a screwdriver…). That friend showed me a few things about chickens, which helped.
The best advice is to be confident with your animals as a beginner. You’re the boss, and if you act like it, they’ll know it. It hurts a little to be pecked by a chicken but not too bad. Wear some long sleeves and you’ll be fine!
I have dreams of having honey bees one day and I plan to raise them near our chickens. So eventually I’ll be choosing which hurts worse – a bee sting or a henpeck.
Ducks weren’t an animal we thought of raising when we bought our homestead. We inherited them and it turns out that they’re one of the best farm animals to raise if you’re a beginner!
Also great hobby farm animals, ducks rarely get sick and they’re so easy going. If you give them a plot of land to graze on, they won’t need too much pellet feed. They’re great foragers, making them some of the best livestock for beginners.
Ducks, like chickens, give you eggs and meat. You can also sell duck eggs for more than chicken eggs for many reasons. Duck eggs are BIG, Y’all!
We raise Welsh Harlequins and they are beautiful, naturally flightless and calm birds. The eggs are the very best to bake with.
Welsh Harlequins are a smaller breed of duck, so if you’re looking for more meat you could choose a Pekin. If you want to know more about raising ducks, read this post “A Quick Start Guide to Raising Ducks” by The Free Range Life.
Rabbits were the first farm animal that we chose to raise as beginners. Well, I guess my husband chose to raise them. In the beginning, I didn’t want anything to do with raising rabbits for meat because they were pets as a child. My husband started working full-time.
I took on the role of full-time-homesteader and find-out-how-to-do-all-this(er). With that role came the caretaker of the rabbits. Needless to say, I’ve ended up loving our rabbits and with the help of this book, I got pretty good at it!
Rabbits are some of the best beginner farm animals and great small farm animals. They’re also the best introduction to raising mammals for beginners. With a gestation period of about a month, cull date as early as 8 weeks depending on the breed. They provide a quick and hearty meat provision.
The most difficult part of raising rabbits is determining their gender, but you’ll get the hang of it.
Don’t let this discourage you, though!
Rabbits are a fun animal to raise for meat as a beginner. If you’d like to know more, you can read more about raising rabbits.