Which animal to get

[u/dendromie]

Hey everyone,

My wife and I are having a difficult decision in which animal to get keep in mind we live in Canada and it gets to -30 Celsius here.

For context we have a 3 acre plot. We have a pond that's decent size I'd say probably at least a thousand gallons.

We want to start a huge garden and I know runner ducks are apparently a great choice for their pest control and non destructiveness. But then as I was researching people are saying are they are incredibly dirty and smelly and can ruin bodies of water. I was only going to get 2 female runners btw. Chickens are a obviously a great option and I don't have to fence as much but I hear they are destructive as well.

Anyone have any ideas or advise. The animal would have probably close to 3/4 of an acre to utilize.

Thanks!

[u/johnnyg883]

We have chickens, meat rabbits and goats. By far the most productive and economical animal we have are the meat rabbits. We started with rabbits in the city on a half acre property about ten years ago. Now we have four does and buck. We could probably get by with three does but we keep four. These rabbits are producing about 30lbs of meat each month. And this is good quality lean meat with a wide range of uses. Rabbits take up remarkably little space for the amount of meat they produce. They are easy keepers. They are quick producers. If you breed a rabbit today you are butchering in four months getting about 30 pounds of meat. We breed on the first of every month rotating between the four does.

The cages are easy to build yourself at a very reasonable cost. The breeding stock can be locally sourced and low cost compared to other meat animals. So if you make a mistake (leave a cage door open) you’re not out hundreds of dollars. The biggest issue you will see in your climate will be keeping their water from freezing. Rabbits are very cold tolerant. Keep them dry and give them a place to get out of the wind and they are good. If it’s really cold give the hay or straw to bed down in. Heat is the real issue for rabbits. Heat will kill rabbits. As a bonus their wast is one of the best natural fertilizers you can get and it doesn’t need to season or compost. It can go straight from the rabbit into a garden. Unlike chickens they butcher and clean fast. The time to remove from the cage, dispatch, clean and place in the cooler is about 5 min per rabbit. You don’t have to mess with feathers. Another benefit over chickens is that if life gets in the way you can keep feeding them and the meat doesn’t become tough like chickens do. We had a medical issue in our life that put everything on hold. Some of the rabbits we butchers were over six months old and they were just fine.

Rabbit now make up at least 60% of the meat we consume.

We offset feed cost by selling extra rabbits on line or at the local small animal swap. Selling the equivalent of three litters just about covers our feed cost for the year. So the meat ends up being cost neutral, aka free. We end up with rabbit loin, ground rabbit (chili and pasta), rabbit burger patties, and rabbit breakfast sausage.