5 Animals To Raise For Self-Sufficiency

Last modified October 23, 2024.

If you have a small backyard and want to introduce some homegrown protein into your life, begin with poultry. Chickens usually fit the bill.

Small animals are easier to handle than larger ones, and the learning curve is less costly. From raising to slaughter, birds are among the easiest animals to raise for self-sufficiency, so we’ll start there.

As your land grows in size, you can introduce goats, pigs and provided you can grow or obtain sufficient feed to keep them happy and healthy.

With time, your livestock skills will grow. Not only will you be able to provide meat and eggs for feeding yourself, but it is also an essential skill that can be monetized in times of need, for others will inevitably want to learn your wise ways.

Even with a little bit of land, you can feel empowered by raising your own animals, thus putting food on the table or in the freezer!

Let’s get started!

🔴 Chickens

Without a doubt, chickens are where most people start their animal-raising adventures. We’ve done that too on our property for a couple of years, then quietly went back to add ducks and geese in the mix. Which poultry to raise is a matter of preference. It also depends on your yard setup.

Perhaps the greatest thing about chickens is that they can lay a lot of eggs, with some hens laying 300+ eggs per year.

Notice, I said can. In order to do this, you must choose the right breed, give them the best nutrition possible, make sure they are happy, protect them from predators and do your best to nurture a healthy flock. Just T.L.C!

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🔻Advantages of Raising Chickens

▢ Eggs – an endless supply of eggs is yours for the raising. Plus, you can sell eggs if you have too many, a win-win situation indeed. self-sufficiency is about providing for your income, too, not just dinner.

▢ Meat – think about how much chicken you purchase from the store, then imagine how you could do the same or better at home. Butchering is simple enough, but be sure to raise meat birds for the best flavor.

▢ Selling chicks – if you’ve got a great mama chicken, let her do her job, or invest in an incubator if you’d like to reliably sell chicks.

▢ Pest control – chickens are excellent foragers, more than willing to eat ticks and all sorts of bugs in the garden.

▢ Manure/fertilizer – chicken poop is worth something, too, especially once it’s turned into compost.

▢ Feathers – can be used for crafts, stuffing, insulation and more. A by-product of all fine-feathered creatures.

Chickens, in general, are easy to care for, eat weeds and garden scraps and take very little of your time (unless they are able to get out of their fenced-in area). They are excited in a chicken tractor just as much as they are out free-ranging, always on the move in search of bugs and earthworms. In exchange for their service, they must be protected at night.

🔻Disadvantages of Raising Chickens

▢ Noise – without a doubt, chickens are noisy, early in the morning and throughout the day. If your neighbors don’t already have a flock, they may be concerned; talk to them before investing in some birds of your own.

▢ Diseases – originating in Indonesia, yet naturalized around the world, chickens are susceptible to many poultry-specific health issues. Depending on the breed, they can also be quite sensitive to extreme temperatures, both hot and cold.

▢ Prey animals – with chickens in the yard, you’ll have to watch out for animals that like to eat not only chicken but also their eggs and feed – foxes, bears, coyotes, raccoons, snakes, stray dogs and raptors, depending on your location in the world.

▢ Time to lay eggs – you’ll have to be patient if you’re starting with chicks, as it takes chickens about maximum 24 weeks to start laying eggs. Other birds mature faster.

All in all, chickens are a pleasure to be around. They are some of the most entertaining animals you’ll ever be around.

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🔴 Bees

There are numerous plants you can cultivate in your own garden to attract bees and other pollinators, and that’s all well and good. However, if you really want to help bees thrive, it may be worth looking into becoming a beekeeper.

If you’re thinking about introducing honey bees to your repertoire of livestock rearing, gather all the information and hands-on experience you can before getting started. Even in the smallest space, you can still cater to the bees, so this one is an excellent choice for urban homesteaders too. Let’s go over the good and the bad, so you’re better informed about whether keeping bees is right for you.

🔻Advantages of Keeping Bees

▢ Honey – with an extended shelf life, you can keep honey for several years, not that it would ever take you so long to consume it. You can use it raw, in canning and preserving, and as a remedy, should you ever get stung by a bee. Honey is a healthy way to replace processed sugar in your diet.

▢ Beeswax, pollen, propolis, royal jelly – keeping bees is all about an exchange of energy. Take care of them, and they will reward you with many valuable and nutritious health products. You can even learn to make your own beeswax candles or use the wax in healing salves.

▢ Pollination – if you are an avid gardener, you’ll love knowing that your bees are increasing the production of your garden and orchard. They’ll also pollinate your neighbor’s crops too.

🔻Disadvantages of Keeping Bees

▢ Allergies – if you or anyone in your family is allergic to bees, better leave the bees to other carers for obvious reasons.

▢ Learning curve – learning about how to take care of bees may be easier for some and more difficult for others. It is advisable to take classes and participate in cleaning and harvesting from hives of other beekeepers before starting out on your own.

▢ High startup costs – just because they’re small doesn’t mean they are cheap.

Whether you live in the city or out in the country, keeping bees may be right for you.

🔴 Rabbits

If you are looking for a business that replicates rapidly, you might want to think about how rabbits do it. Short gestational period of 25-28 days, with the ability to produce several litters a year, non-demanding, cute and furry.

Plus, rabbits are permitted in most locations due to their popularity and pet status. For this reason, they make the list of self-sufficient animals. Rabbits are cost-effective to raise, quiet, very quiet, love dandelions and are fun to be around. Kids can learn a thing or two from raising them.

All around, raising rabbits is a win-win situation!.

🔻Advantages of Raising Rabbits

▢ Meat – rabbit meat is perhaps an acquired taste, though it’s even easier to like when you know how easy it is to raise. It’s said that one doe’s litters can provide eighty pounds of meat per year, depending on the breed, of course.

▢ Fur and/or skins, as well as bones – a byproduct of raising rabbits can be their fur, which is gently combed or cut from the animal, as is the case with raising Angora rabbits. Rabbit skin and bones boiled for several hours into a thick creamy substance makes for excellent strong glue, favored by both furniture carpenters and shoemakers (look for time-tested glue recipes).

▢ Manure – while you don’t necessarily want a bunny in your garden, their manure is beneficial. It is rich in organic matter, which improves soil structure, drainage and moisture retention.

▢ Breeding stock for sale – rabbits have their ways of repopulating throughout the year, leaving you with plenty of stock for sale.

▢ Space-efficient – rabbit cages can be reused for multiple years, take up little space and can be sold once you are done with the rabbit raising phase of your life..

Another advantage is they will consume most of your garden scraps. Just be sure to save some for the compost pile

🔻Disadvantages of Raising Rabbits

▢ Protection – rabbits need protection not only from wildlife but perhaps from your own dog too. They need a strong, sturdy shelter to take cover in.

▢ Time-consuming – rabbit cages need to be cleaned out often, not exactly the most low-maintenance animal.

Rabbits are a great choice when it comes to urban homesteading. Even for larger farms, it is wise to diversify their array of animals when it comes to self-sufficient living.

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🔴 Goats

If you are seeking an animal that has it all – meat, milk and fiber – look no further than raising goats. You’ll be met head-on with a creature that bleats till its heart is content. There’s no mistaking the noise they make, so be prepared for some early mornings with goats on the farm.

Before buying a few goats (you can’t raise just one), you need to know that they don’t eat everything. In fact, they can be downright picky. They prefer buds to grass and weeds, and they feed almost constantly.

Goats can be tricky to handle, and each one will have its own personality, so you never know what you’re going to get.

Perhaps that’s part of the fun and excitement of raising goats.

🔻Advantages of Raising Goats

▢ Milk – it’s proven that goat milk is easier to digest than cow milk; the proof is in the smaller fat globules and in the medium-chain fatty acids. It also has much to do with the milk proteins; goat milk contains strictly A2 casein. Either way, it is fabulous for making butter, yogurt and cheese.

▢ Meat – goat meat is low in fat and cholesterol, yet high in protein, iron, calcium and potassium.

▢ Weed eater and brush manager – goats are known to eat everything, or about that much. In my experience, they can be quite picky. One thing they never seem to have enough of are branches..

▢ Hides/Goat skin – goat skin drums have such a pleasing sound – which may even pave the way to becoming a drum maker.

▢ Offspring for sale – goat kids are cute, there’s no doubt about that. Making a small income after weaning the kids from their mothers may work out great, especially if they are nannies.

🔻Disadvantages of Raising Goats

▢ Noise – again, it depends on the individual goat, but there may be a concern for the level of noise they make early in the morning. Great if you need an alarm clock to remind you that they need to be fed.

▢ Amount of care – raising goats takes far more time than tending to your poultry. But, the bigger the animal, the greater the reward. As long as you have enough space – and food – to give them, they will be happy.

▢ Escape artists – Goats will find a way to climb, push and wiggle their way into strange circumstances and will need to be rescued from time to time. A secure pen/barn is the only way to play it safe.

▢ Raising goats probably isn’t for the faint of heart, though it is an excellent way to get acquainted with bigger-bodied animals. If you are thinking of owning a cow in the future, a goat is an excellent way to start.

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🔴 Pigs

My partner and I once brought baby pigs home in the front baskets of our bicycles. One in each basket, and my, was it an ordeal! The squealing, the squirming and the trying to escape – the 5 kilometer ride couldn’t be over soon enough.

They turned out to be excellent pigs, though. One day when they escaped their pen, they ran down to the road, trotted quickly back and stepped cautiously into our house to find us. Obligingly, they went back to their pen, ecstatic about their little adventure.

If you’re going to raise pigs, don’t let yourself fall for one second into the mindset of keeping them as pets. This makes perfect sense when it comes time to slaughter them for bacon, bones and pork roasts.

Pigs are highly intelligent, wonderful creatures that will surely bring wonderful moments to your homestead.

🔻Advantages of Raising Pigs

▢ Meat for your family – the absolute number one reason for raising pigs is for their meat. Homegrown meat tastes amazing, provided you take great care of your animals. Because you have so much to harvest at once, you’ll need more than one way to preserve it: a blend of freezing, canning and curing should do the trick..

▢ Pork for sale – if your pigs grow bigger than your family needs, you can sell the excess for income. Or start a pork share at the beginning of the raising season.

▢ Selling piglets – sows often have litters of up to 10 piglets. If you don’t have space, sell them.

▢ Humor – pigs are wise beyond the credit we give them. Get to know them, and you’ll find out that even though they are feisty, they’re also friendly and curious, sure to make you smile.

🔻Disadvantages of Raising Pigs

▢ Smell – pig manure. Enough said. Wear steel-toed rubber boots.

▢ Noise – oinking is ultra-cute when they are little, a lot louder the bigger they get, especially when they have missed a meal.

▢ Cost of feed – to eat like a pig is to consume 6-8 pounds of food per day!. Sure they will eat garden scraps, though grains are what contribute to the bulk of their weight. If you grow the grains yourself, great. If not, be ready to invest in feed.

Pigs are both noisy and nosy and have a tendency to sample things with their mouths. Start off your relationship right by giving them plenty of neck rubs and belly massages, and you’ll be great friends. When all is said and done, you’re either a pig person or not. You’ve gotta love their energetic ways and ability to dig with fervor. You might put them in a cage, but they’ll never stop living out their piggy way!.

As tempting as it is to learn several new things at once, it is wise to choose one animal first as you learn their ways. In turn, you will find out a lot about yourself.

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

Thank you for hanging out with me today.

Peace, love, and dirt under your nails.

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Hey there, my name is Hloniphile Shabangu, I’m the editor-in-chief here at 1 Oak Farmstead.

Many of our readers already know me from our popular podcasts and sunday newsletters. (You are signed up for our newsletters, right?)

Each Sunday, I send a friendly missive from my neck of the woods in our small town - Hlathikhulu. It’s a bit like sitting on the front porch with a friend, discussing our gardens over a cup of tea.

I’m a firm believer in self-sufficiency, no matter where you live, and the power and pride that comes from doing something for yourself.

You can follow my personal (crazy) homesteading adventures on Instagram and Tik tok.