An apocolypse herd/flock

[becky3086]

Chickens. I agree they must be dual purpose and go broody and must be good foragers, ducks because they can forage for themselves. I have quail but would not keep them in this type of situation because they require an incubator to hatch the egg, they are also hard to feed (yes you can raise mealworms and other bugs but it takes a lot), I would have to go for the goats and pigs, I don't much like goat milk but I think you could get used to it if it was all you have and both these animals can forage and eat grass. I would definitely want the rabbits. My father raised rabbits when we were growing up on just grass and I know it can be done (we kids had to pick all that grass).
We already have a fairly decent start here as far as gardening goes and fruit and nut trees. We would have to have more space planted though to raise all out vegetable needs. I don't think water would be a problem, we have city water but also have a well, rain barrel and a lake. We could dig a root cellar into the little hill by the house if we had to but I imagine we would find some other alternative.
Have a good bit of food stored that would get us through a little while. Hunting and fishing wouldn't be a problem either. Still, no matter what, I think we would be living mighty slim where food is concerned.

 

[vanilla.exe]

When the shtf, the safest option might be reverting to hunter/gatherers for a time. Assuming it's safe to live in one spot: Chickens obviously, well trained guard/attack dogs (no more need for socializing your pups around other people.), a horse for transport, maybe a few dairy goats, rabbits for fur, meat, and the cuddle factor, barn cats to keep rodents out of the food. Maybe some trained birds for sending messages if need be.

 

[Cats Critters]

I'd add more variety to my flock to try to help prevent future inbreeding.

Get goats, I would love to have them in the first place, but they would be good for milk and if needed meat.

Expand my garden more, get seeds I can save (heirlooms), one of those compost bins that spins to get faster compost, gutters and rain barrels, and a worm bin for compost for the garden and protein for the chickens.

Something wooly for clothing, my first choice would be alpacas, followed by yaks, and lastly sheep.

Learn how to knit or something with said wool.

Build hives to keep the bee swarms in, we have a wild hive in a building on our property from which we have given away several swarms.

Horses, mules, or donkeys to ride.

Maybe pigs

Fencing for all said animals and gardens, with extra if need for later.

More guns (I only have a 22, a bb-gun, and my brother deer rifle here) get some of mine from my dad's at the least and lots of ammo.

More dogs to scare people off and to guard livestock.

Make sure the cats stick around to eat pests.

Add fruit trees (we just have wild, "cooking" apples) and add more berries.

Learn how to can and canning supplies.

Brick oven, a root cellar either possible in our basement if possible, and a smoke house

 

[chickeechickeechickee]

Wow. That's easier said than done when used to going to grocery/departement stores. Look how people do it in contries/areas that don't live on the grid. Cows are very usefull. The cow provides milk, the bull tills the fields. The cow dung is used for firtilizer, and when dried can even be used like firewood. Cow urine is even scientifically proved to be antiseptic. Cows are so usefull that in some places the older cows that cannot provide milk or till the fields anymore are protected, not eaten. Chickens are good for firtilizer too and eating the bugs. Sheep eat grass and can provide wool. Cats eat rats that could eat yer food supplies. But where would you be thinking of locating? Might want to find animals that survive well in those areas. And animals that will help harvest the crops or atleast can be kept away from eating yer crops cause depending on the size of yer family, you might have to grow a lot of veggies, legums, rice and wheat if there was no store to by it at or you had to store up cause of impending winters or monsoons.

 

[KBlue]

I would definitely do dual purpose chickens, dairy goats, and a heritage pig variety (perhaps Mulefoot). Maybe a horse for transport and plowing. A large veggie garden and several fruit trees. I honestly wouldn't do much more than that because if it does happen, you will have to protect it all from looters that didn't plan ahead. If you are spending your days patrolling everything, you won't get a lot of work done. Once that initial hysteria dies down, then I'd start to expand a bit and fill in any gaps that I find that I have.

 

[centrarchid]

What about a tri-purpose cattle breed such as American devon. Decent milk and meat production even on poor quality pasture plus make great oxen. They have horns that enable some counter to predators.

Otherwise choices gonna have to be a function of local climate and land qualities. Not all breeds suitable for all locations. I would also need horses (base Arabians or Mustangs) because my descendents are gonna need mobility for trade and likely tribal warfare. This is not a me generation issue.

 

[perchie.girl]

Another thing to consider is Community. Some have spoken about going feral living off the land for a time.... Guarding your "Stuff" Crops livestock etc. I believe this would be necessary only in order to get yourself to a place where you can form a community. Possibly people on the fringe who dont have established farms.

Where ever you set up your self sufficent self its important to establish a network of people to help share the burdon. I am not talking Communal living but cooperative living where a single person may die but cooperative people share skills and fill in the gaps. forming a bartering nexus....

For instance there will be some with excellent animal husbantry skills but reallly suck at gardening.... Me for instance. Maybe in this instance I would deserve to Pass on. But I would have other things to offer the community in barter. like some engineering skills. And knowledge of harness and how to make it.... And how to get water out of the air. At least till I pass on. I am 56 arthritic and walk with a cane. I couldnt run or hunt or gather food and probably wouldnt last more than a couple of years without medication.

Though I dont think it will come to that. We will go off grid for a time but within about five years repairs to the infrastructure will be back to what it was 80 years ago. There will be some cores of technology which will survive and redevelopment will come from those cores. What arises from that will be very interesting indeed.

 

[dawnwinds58]

I got this one in my newsletter and was scanning through some of the replies. One stood out that I thought could use a heads up. Bulls do not till fields, oxen do. Bulls will kill you, livestock, and anything that irks them. They are NOT normally nice animals. The amount of testosterone pumped through them makes them undependable emotionally. Oxen have lost the two items necessary for being bulls which makes them a dependable 'work engine' and can be butchered to eat if worse comes to worse.
Case in point: My best friends father lost a milk cow who had just had a bull calf. It slept in his room; he hand fed it; mothered it and raised it up to a full grown bull. It followed him around so dependably he started laying sacks over its back to carry, no halter, no lead, just following 'mommy.'
One day he went out to feed stock and collect eggs. No one thought anything about him being gone so long. Occasionally he'd walked down to the pond and just sit enjoying the quiet and sunshine. By late afternoon no one had seen him so they went looking. They found him in the barn paddock with his 'pet' bull. He'd apparently been gored by the bulls horns repeatedly in a vicious attack. There were multiple wounds, his body was shattered by the bulls weight, and the bull's skin was covered with blood to his shoulders. Shreds of tissue still hung from the tips of his horns. He would walk over to the body, nudge it, then walk away again. It was like he didn't remember doing it.

They buried their father; the bull was shot and killed.

Bulls should NOT be kept unless you KNOW what they are like and take proper precautions. You never go near one alone. There is NO SAFE bull. When they have a fit, it takes lives, even if they are as gentle as kittens afterwards. It is always in them to have rages. It isn't meaness on their part, it is the way they are made.

Not preachin' just making sure you have all the information to be safe. It pays to know.

 

[Cass]

I didn't read the whole thread, but I am one of the people who feels that society is going downhill, and fast.

What I would want to survive it's collapse is Land and Books.

And all the rest of the stuff you all meantioned.

 

[dawnwinds58]

Now wait a minute! You wouldn't want to leave music behind would you? I collect books of all kinds, if the land doesn't make it neither will we, but having a totally silent world would be awful!! My family would have to listen to me singing all the time. That's cruel and inhuman punishment. *shivers*

Oh on the stock to keep, I chose chickens, geese, heritage hogs (staying away from the genetically meddled with production breeds) and goats. They all will forage for their own survival. Anyway, you can't eat a whole cow at one time and if you don't know smoking and salting, you'd lose a lot of your money's worth to spoliage. Then you have the large volume of land tied up in raising enough feed to take everything through a long winter. That's every year along with food to take you and yours through winter.

All food for all stock and total family must be dug for, planted, cultivated, harvested, stored/canned, and preserved till the next spring cycle starts. If it all goes to hell in a handbasket, I'd opt for village life with like-minded people helping each other. Then one could be the hay maker, another getting the meat smoked to go a year, another could be weaving, and another making shoes. See what I mean? No one can do it all.

We've gotten used to not asking for help or offering help to each other. People may have lived by the same neighbors for years and not know but a couple of people. IF, all the doomsayers are right, and IF we end up back in the pioneer days, pull a village together, help each other, and stay alive.

*chuckles* I'm training mine. I have 5 kids, their spouses, and 15 grandchildren. All I ask is for them to build their OWN hut and leave mine alone!!!