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Prepper Livestock - Horse

Through out history, horses have proven to be reliable transportation and a strategic advantage for those who have them, yet most people don't even know how to ride.

In our BEST Prepper Transportation post, a Horse was one of the highest rated. They are:

1. Quite - No loud exhausts that will attract danger.  In fact, few modes of transportation are quieter. No headlights to give away your position when you ride at night.  Using Night Vision or Thermal Vision while riding can be a huge advantage.
2. Security - they are alert, can smell and hear danger at great distances.
3. Reliable - Low maintenance, no maintenance, rarely break down. EMP hardy with no electronics.  Horses can also reproduce so they are sustainable long term.
4.  Street and Off-road capable - Ability to go places many vehicles cannot go. When being pursued, or trying to stay off the beaten path, you can ride through a field, the woods, a narrow alley, foot trail or down the train tracks, which is a big advantage.
5. Carrying Capacity - Sufficient capacity for your individual needs. See Rule of 3's to prioritize the supplies you pack.
6. Long Travel Range - A horse is excellent for a Nomadic life style and great for regional scouting.  You can get where you are going without running out of fuel.

But horses are useful beyond just transportation.  They can carry/pull heavy loads, including wagons, plows or a travois like the Native Americans used.  They make good companions and provide security as well as a large amount of meat as a last resort, i.e. much more versatile than cows.

Travois

While soft earth tone horses blend in to their surroundings better, Native Americans preferred horses with a pattern.  This provides a decorative value but also a broken up pattern is harder to distinguish lines and see vs. a solid color as shown below.

 

Wild horses were hunted for food and appeared in Paelo cave art as early as 30,000 BC, New DNA testing suggests they were domesticated starting 8,000 BC or over 10,000 years ago.  Solid evidence suggests they were clearly domesticated by 6,000 years ago. 

The point is, the Horse has been tested and proven reliable for thousands of years. Take riding lessons and consider horse riding as a hobby.  Perhaps this will evolve into owning your own horse some day.  Popular Breeds include:

1. Arabian - is one of the oldest breeds, known for its spirit and endurance. They are versatile, intelligent, and loyal. Suitable for advanced owners and generally healthy.
2. Quarter Horse - is arguably the most popular breed in the United States and the American Quarter Horse Association is the largest breed registry in the world. Known as the fastest breed of horse over short distances (up to 55 mph), they are used for pleasure riding and western events such as barrel racing, roping and cutting, but they can also make excellent hunting mounts and even racehorses. Suitable for slightly experienced riders and known to have below average health.
3. Morgan - compact, brave and agreeable, best known for its versatility. Small in stature but big in heart, they are used today as a riding horse and cart pulling horses. Suitable for slightly experienced riders and known for being healthy with no genetic diseases.
4. Appaloosa - were developed by the Nez Perce Native Americans They are genetically diverse, versatile, tough, independent, hardy and sure-footed, with big bodies and sparse manes and tails. Appaloosas are often used as stock horses and pleasure mounts, and also make excellent trail horses.  Suitable for Slightly experience riders and known for being healthier than average. This would probably be my first choice as a Preppers horse followed by a Morgan.

Here is a Horse Breed Selector this is obviously biased to a POA breed but also suggests an Appaloosa, Paint and Quarter Horse are ideal for me which is confirmed by my own personal research.  I've included links on each breed above to help you select one.  IF you already have horses, I'd be anxious to hear what breed you like best.

Good luck and may I also suggest visiting our Livestock link below.

For additional information see the following links:

Blog Table of Contents

List of Top 10 Lists 

Top 10 Prepper Websites 

Top 10 Posts 

Prepper Livestock series 

Best Prepper Transportation

 

See similar topics by clicking on the labels below

Prepper Livestock - Pigeons

Another sustainable source of food are Pigeons.  They are excellent foragers and require minimal care. Pigeons can breed at 6 months of age and reproduce all year round laying 2 eggs 4-6 times per year that hatch in 17 to 19 days.  The Squabs grow to edible size within 4 -6 weeks.   With 8 pairs of pigeons, you could have two 10 ounce squabs for dinner every week.   Pigeon lofts need 2 square feet of floor space per bird, so for up to 32 birds, you would need 64 square feet or about an 8 x 8 area.  A small high door will allow them to enter & exit with less risk of varmints.  

In addition to a food supply, they are good pets, security - flying when spooked and they can carry messages back home when carried off on regional travels with an easy 50 - 100 mile range when worked up to it slowly starting about 6 months old after freely flying their area daily for 4 weeks.  Start taking the bird a mile away. Go North, South, East, and West so they know how to return from all directions. Do this a few times and then two miles, then five miles, ten miles, and so on up to 50 miles where most homing pigeons will do fine. A true homer will return from hundreds of miles and some have found their way home from over 1,000 miles.

Historically, pigeons carried messages only one way, to their home after being carried off.  However, by feeding them at one location and housing them at another location, pigeons have been trained to fly round trips up to 100 miles daily.  

Multi-purpose is important in prepping.  Pigeons serve many functions outlined above; chickens provide eggs and meat while goats provide milk and meat.  Rabbits provide fur and meat. 

If you don't have pigeons, you can trap some in hard times for food or breeding stock.

For additional information see the following links: 
Prepper Livestock
Blog Table of Contents
Complete Sustainable Living Plan

 See similar topics by clicking on the labels below

Best Prepper Dog

What is the BEST PREPPER DOG?

I don't know the answer, so I'm looking for suggestions. I do know what some important factors are:

KEY FACTORS:

1. Alert - able to detect intruders
2. Smart - able to recognize family and not bark a false alarm, and not bark when instructed
3. Family compatible, loyal
4. Ability to hunt and find food

DESIRABLE ATTRIBUTES:

1. Large, intimidating dog
2. Long/Short hair depending on your climate

 The German Shepherd Dog is one of America’s most popular dog breeds — for good reason. He’s an intelligent and capable working dog. His devotion and courage are unmatched. And he’s amazingly versatile, excelling at most anything he’s trained to do: guide and assistance work for the handicapped, police and military service, herding, search and rescue, drug detection, competitive obedience and, last but not least, faithful companion.  Their biggest draw back to me is they shed a lot of hair.

I went through the Animal Planet Dog Breed Selector and it found me a dog breed I'd never heard of; a Belgian Malinois with a 97% match.  It is a variation of the German Shepard, a fine dog no doubt.

As runner up it was a tie at 95% between the German Shorthaired Pointer (left) and (right) a regular Pointer (right). 

 

 

 Having owned a pointer before I had reservations about whether he was smart enough.

I went thought he Breed selector again, selecting the following:

1. Dog Size - Medium 23-44 lbs and Large 45 - 88 lbs
2. Energetic - Not Important
3. Exercise Time Available - Not Important (on a farm) 
4. How often will you play with them - Not Important 
5. How affectionate - Not Important
6. Do you have other pets - Yes, if you count livestock
7. How Trainable do you want your dog to be - Very
8. How protective - Extremely
9. Maintenance & Grooming - Low
10. Climate - Hot weather

Drum roll..... The Belgian Malinois with a 99% match this time.  Runner ups were:

1. Australian Cattle Dog - Interesting dog
2. Pembroke Welsh Corgi - too short and harry for me
3.  Beauceron - Interesting multi-purpose dog
4.  Canaan - Interesting hardy, primitive dog breed
5. Labrador Retriever - this is perhaps the most common dog suggested

So now I tried the American Kennel Club (AKC) selector tool.

1. Zip Code
2. House
3. Two kids and one dog
4. Going on an adventure
5. Two of 9 on the noise scale
6. Super Tidy on house keeping

The suggestions were ok for someone wanting a little house dog, with one exception, a German Shorthaired Pointer coming up a second time from two different web sites.  This is a hardy, energetic, hunting dog, good with older kids.

IAMS,  suggested a Boerboel A what?  yea, that is what I said.

Another site with a comprehensive list of questions: https://www.selectadogbreed.com offered a Bullmastiff as the best option.

The site: DogTime suggested several dogs of interest, including a Canaan, and Belgian Malinois.

The Pedigree site suggested a Blood hound, Bulldog, Bullmastiff, Doberman, Mastiff and several others.

The dogs that come up frequently and look best to me are:

1. Belgian Malinois
2. Canaan
3. Pointers - the German Shorthaired Pointer and a regular Pointer
4. Bullmastiff

After all this research, I'm still not sure what the best Prepper Dog is.  It is important to go look at the dog breed you are considering and spend time with them before making a decision.  Look at their behavior and living space;  do they dig holes and chew things up; do they bark a lot?

Use this post and these resources to narrow your options down, and then go look at your top choices to help make a final decision.

Good Luck!

Resources:
American Kennel Club (AKC)
Animal Planet Dog Breed Selector

For additional information see the following links:

Blog Table of Contents

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Prepper Livestock - Rabbits

Rabbits can be the best prepper livestock if you live in the city where "livestock" like chickens or goats are prohibited but "pets" are allowed.   Rabbits are good breeders and vegetarians eating grasses, plants, and hay. They produce some of the cleanest, healthiest meat (white) there is. Many rabbits can be raised in open bottomed pens and pastured to get their own natural food (grass). The most common rabbit breed used for meat production are New Zealand whites.  Some of our links below talk about other breeds.

In our Prepper Handbook  sustainable food plan chapter, three doe rabbits and one buck will feed us 4 pounds of lean healthy white meat every week or 208 lbs per year. Four weeks after mating, rabbits give birth to about 5 to 8 kits, which can be processed for eating in about 8 – 10 weeks. 

Ideally you would stagger breeding the does about 4 weeks apart which provides a steady supply of young tender rabbit for eating.  Two does and a buck, fed commercial food, can raise 180lbs / year of meat; I would figure about half to 2/3 of that for free range rabbits.

In the wild, there can be up to 3 to 5 rabbits per acre. However, I estimate that a fertile one acre pasture with good grass and strips of sorghum planted about 20' apart could sustain up to 10 rabbits.  Some of the sorghum would need to be harvested in the summer and saved for winter. 

We could raise 5-8 rabbits from 1 buck and 1 doe on 1 acre every 12 - 14 weeks and eat a 4 lb rabbit every second or third week. This would be your best place to start after you had a few chickens. and Basic Preparations in place.

Add a second doe and a second acre to raise 10 to 16 rabbits every 12 - 14 weeks to eat a rabbit almost every week. 

Add a third doe and a third acre to raise 15- 24 kits with 4 breeding rabbits (28 total) to eat a rabbit or more every week. Any extra rabbits will be great for barter.

The important thing is to get started now; don't wait!   

For additional information see the following links: 
Prepper Livestock
Blog Table of Contents 
Mother Earth News on Raising Rabbits
Raising Rabbits on pasture 
Omlet - source for rabbits and more
Complete Sustainable Living Plan

 See similar topics by clicking on the labels below

Prepper Livestock - Goats

When Christopher Columbus sailed from Cadiz in 1493 for his second voyage, he carried everything needed to colonize the New World including dogs, cats, chickens, horses, donkeys, cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats. While we should expect to need no less, there are a few that are perhaps more essential and practical than others are are.

After storing food and water, calculating your garden food requirements and saving your seeds, look at eggs, chicken, rabbit, goat, cows, pigs, fish, etc. to be sure you have enough meat to eat. Goats are the most popular red meat around the world, especially in poor countries that live more sustainable lives. They are small (easily consumed before spoiling), hardy, can eat most anything and provide milk and meat. Once there is no feed store, goats will come in handy.

Seventy percent of the red meat consumed in the world is goat AND they can provide wholesome milk for a family. Goats can forage for food better than any other livestock and can reproduce every 6 to 12 months. For this reason, they are highly recommended as the best sustainable food supply source. They are also very mobile and can browse on the move if you are traveling, bugging out on foot, or living a nomadic life style. They are also great for bartering with.

It takes about 3 – 8 months after birth for the kid (baby goat) to be ready for butchering. The gestation period is 150 days or 5 months. Under ideal conditions, healthy young does can produce one, occasionally 2 kids per year. Older does produce 2 – 3 kids per year. A doe will continue to produce until about 10 – 12 years old. So if you want to eat one young goat per month, then you need 6 to 12 does in theory, possibly as few as 6, but have  extras to be safe and for barter. A goat will dress out at about 50% of their live weight. For example, a 100lb live goat each month will yield about 50 pounds of meat, or 11 lbs / week.  With chicken, this would be enough meat for 1 adult providing you have a good prepper garden. With six to twelve does and a buck to breed them, you can raise a 100 lb young goat to process each month, and probably more.

An alternative plan is to raise the smaller Nigerian Dwarf goats. Instead of having 6 large 120 pound Boer goats, have 12 small ones (60 lbs) and raise one (possibly 2) each month giving you about 30 pounds of meat per month or 1 pound per day for your family to eat, sell or trade. Nigerian Dwarf goats make good “pets” (smile) if you live in the city. Note some cities prohibit livestock, but allow “pets” that are named. You would need a city security plan to protect your livestock during hard times.

Most meat breeds like Boers (above, the most common US goat), Spanish, Fainting, and Pygmies and occasionally Nubian (most popular dairy goat) will breed all year around. In this case, you can breed one doe each month to have a regular supply of young goat (kid) to eat. They can be bred at 6-8 months of age when they reach a typical adult weight. Boer, Nubian & Nigerian Dwarfs are known to have multiple births, i.e. 2 kids at a time. Spanish goats and a New Zealand breed called Kiko are the hardiest, lowest maintenance & best foragers. These Kiko or Spanish goats are what I would want if I could only have one type animal and was on the move (nomadic). I'd lean toward Boers for a secure stationary retreat in a secluded area.

Dairy breeds are seasonal breeders, like deer, and have a limited breeding season, usually from about Aug. to Dec. The does will come into heat every 21 days and the bucks will stay in rut during the entire breeding season. These are slightly less suitable for Prepper livestock and maintaining a steady supply of food, although you can raise more (~12+) during the breeding season and process one each month as needed.  This means you must be feeding a lot more goats and for a longer period of time than birthing a new one each month and processing an older one (4-8 months old) each month.

Pygmy goats are small and good to eat. Nigerian Dwarf goats are small and good milk producers. After a few laying hens, this is what I would get if I lived in the city.

 

Goats consume about 4.5 pounds of grass or hay per day per 100 pounds of body weight. For example, a 100 lb goat would eat 4.5 lbs of hay and a 50 lb goat would eat 2.25 lbs (4.5÷2) of hay per day. In addition to hay, goats also need to eat some brush and feeding a little grain is good. You should plan to feed one pound of grain per day per goat. Keeping six goats on three acres of land should be sustainable, but they should be rotated to different 3 acre pen every 30 days. Considering this three does and three kids, we can expect to produce about 120 to 240 lbs of meat per year or 10 to 20 lbs per month. Note that a buck is also required for reproduction.

While a great sustainable food source, goats will eat anything and everything and can be a nuisance, especially if you don't have a good fenced area. But that is not a show stopper; just don't let them get in your garden.

For additional information see the following links: 
Prepper Livestock
Blog Table of Contents
Complete Sustainable Living Plan 

Prepper Livestock - Chickens

Chickens are low maintenance, versatile, forage for food well; provide regular eggs for breakfast and meat to eat.  For that reason, I recommend that chickens be the first livestock you start with, followed by goats

Most feed stores sell them, so get a few immediately. There are a number of hatcheries listed in the Prepper Handbook Appendix under Recommended Resources. If you live in the city, give your chickens names, so they are classified as “pets” rather than livestock but avoid roosters that crow and disturb neighbors. If you ever need a rooster, most people who raise chickens have a few to spare.

To raise chicken for food, each adult needs four (4) hens for eggs and for meat, one rooster and breeding hen plus 16 young chickens in one week age increments. This will provide eggs for breakfast each day and a 2-4 lb chicken dinner once per week.  A flock of 22 foraging chickens per acre is fairly sustainable except possibly in the winter.  An acre will easily keep 50, but you will need to feed them.

This means you need about 1 acre per adult to raise enough chickens and be sustainable  These are estimates based on good land conditions and adequate water supply, which is essential. The actual sustainable carrying capacity of your land will depend on many factors such as rainfall, fertility, length of growing season, rotation, etc.   

Chickens are good foragers and will eat many table (and garden) scraps as will a hog or guard dog.  But you should grow some sorghum grain for feeding your chickens so figure another 1/2 acre per adult to do so. You can use hen scratch as seed, and it is good to plant seed bearing grains and grasses in your chicken pen such as wheat (winter & summer varieties), rye, oats, sun flowers and sorghum.

As a guide it takes about 15 lbs of feed to raise a white egg layer pullet (from chick to first egg), an estimated 18 lbs of feed to raise a brown egg layer pullet (from chick to first egg) and approximately 10 lbs of feed to raise a Cornish cross broiler to 7 weeks of age. When a standard size chicken (example: Rhode Island Red hen) is at 6 months of age it will consume 1-1/2 lbs of feed weekly. 

Without ample foraging space, figure on feeding 4 laying hens 6 lbs of feed per week.  Our breeding pair will need 3 pounds per week and our 16 chickens for eating will require 21 lbs per week for a total of 30 lbs per week. They can forage for this in the summer, but will need some feeding in the winter, depending on your location. Supplementing their foraging will increase your productivity in both eggs and weight gained on your meat chickens. You should experiment with this now to determine what works best for you. For a host of good information, here is a good site to visit: http://chickensforbackyards.com/aboutus.sc

This plan is  for 1 adult having eggs for breakfast and eating a chicken each week.  Figure about 1/2 this for children  For a discussion on what is the best breed of chickens see our blog post.  

If you want to eat one chicken per week, then you put one egg in your solar powered incubator each week. Then every second or third week put an extra egg in the incubator to be safe. Or any time one of your chicks dies, put an extra egg in the incubator. They will hatch in 21 days and about 70 – 80% should survive and grow to maturity in about 16 to 18 weeks and be great to eat. Eat the roosters first and use the young hens to replace your 3-4 year old hens, eating them.

For your 80 - 100 watt DIY Solar power 48 egg incubator, you will need three - 100 watt solar panels and four 100 amp hour 12 volt deep cycle AGM batteries and a 12 VDC to 120 VAC 1500 watt inverter to convert battery power to household 120 volts of alternating current (VAC).  Your alternative is to have chickens breeds that go broody, but you can't hatch one egg per week like that. Ideally you have both an incubator and broody hens.

Raising more chickens will provide additional meat, eggs and even breeding stock for barter with others who may need livestock. If times get really bad, this could make you a target of robbers who want to steal your food supply.  In such case, you will need to maintain security to protect what you have.  Our posts on Urban Security and Country Home security can assist you.

Either way, fresh eggs and fried chicken can't be beat.

For additional information see the following links: 
Prepper Livestock
Blog Table of Contents
Complete Sustainable Living Plan  

Prepper Livestock

For millions of years, humans were nomadic, surviving as hunters and gatherers. Once we learned to domesticate animals and plant gardens, we could settle down, stay longer in one area and sustain larger populations. Our ability to raise livestock and garden are essential to our survival today no matter how good you are at Wilderness Survival.

When Christopher Columbus sailed from Cadiz in 1493 for his second voyage, he carried everything needed to colonize the New World including dogs, cats, chickens, horses, donkeys, cattle, pigs, sheep, rabbits and goats. While we should expect to need no less, there are a few that are perhaps more essential and practical than others are are.

After calculating your garden food requirements look at eggs, chicken, rabbit, goat, cows, pigs, fish, etc. to be sure you have enough meat to eat each week. Goats are the most popular meat around the world, especially in poor countries that live more sustainable lives. They are small (easily consumed before spoiling), hardy, can eat most anything and provide milk and meat. Once there is no feed store, goats will come in handy. 

Here are some sample Prepper meal ideas to plan for:

Breakfast - 1-3 Eggs every day because they are healthy and easy, then bread, rice or potatoes alternately; 8-12 ounces (per adult).  Also meat like beacon, sausage or ham; 8 to 12 ounces.  Add fruit when available.  Protein, fat and carbs to provide energy for the day.

Lunch - Two vegetables from your garden; 8 to 12 ounces each, then bread, rice or potatoes, then meat of some type that varies from day to day either in type, or recipe (8 to 16 ounces).   Add fruit when available.

Dinner - Two vegetables from your Prepper Garden (8-12 ounces), then meat of some time that varies from day to day either in type, or recipe (8-12 ounces).

Here is our list of livestock covered in the Prepper Handbook (in detail, including feed requirements) with links to the ones covered here:

Bees

Best Chicken Breed

Chickens

Cows

Fish

Goats

Pigeons

Pigs

Rabbits
Dogs 
Horses
 

For additional information see the following links: 
Blog Table of Contents
Complete Sustainable Living Plan 
Step by Step Prepper Plan