BREEDING FOR PRODUCTION...EGGS AND OR MEAT.

[ejcrist]

What is considered a reasonable price for ground pork? (It's been so long since I've bought meat in the grocery store!!!)

- Ant Farm

I've been getting it at Wally Mart for around $5 a pound. Look for the stuff that's marked down and nearing expiration. One time they didn't have any so I went with ground beef but of course it was a little pricier.

 

[GabrielBane]

Speaking of pigs.... We get three Yorkshires tomorrow and I have absolutely no clue where I'm going to get the freezer space for them.

 

[DesertChic]

what Isa javelina? And I wasn't aware that the US pork was safe to feed raw. That's good to know. Although I still flinch a little at feeding raw pork. I feed my dog and cat a raw food diet but never pork.

I'm not a vet or anything - you can search online to ease your mind - US domestic pork is free of trichinella. But you can get all sorts of other stuff from eating or feeding raw any type of meat, so I can't comment on that. I'm just talking about trichinosis and whether you need to cook really long and really done.

A javelina is a smallish feral pig-like critter. They dig up the ground in big patches and can be really destructive on one's land...

- Ant Farm

Yep...pig-like creature in appearance, but it's actually part of the rodent family. It's pronounced have-UH-leenah. They get HUGE and can way well over 100 lbs, and they're amazingly destructive creatures. We've had a few customers bring their nearly totaled cars into our shop after running into a Javelina on the road. In more than one case the Javelina just walked off after doing thousands of dollars in damage to the front of the car. That said, I know people who've nearly domesticated them to the point where they can pet them without incident. I know other people who hunt them.


Here's a couple photos of them:

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote: Thanks - I'll look into it.

Speaking of pigs.... We get three Yorkshires tomorrow and I have absolutely no clue where I'm going to get the freezer space for them.

Yeah, my freezer if kinda full right now. I know I'll have more chickens to put in there this spring, so I'm trying to eat my way through...

- Ant Farm

 

[DesertChic]

How many chickens you got?????

The hatch that will happen next week puts me over 100. I've got a lot of culling to do.....

 

[ejcrist]

what Isa javelina? And I wasn't aware that the US pork was safe to feed raw. That's good to know. Although I still flinch a little at feeding raw pork. I feed my dog and cat a raw food diet but never pork.

I haven't worried too much about feeding raw meats because they also eat every mouse that comes into the run, as well as every cockroach they can catch, and just about anything else that walks or crawls. I'm sure most of those critters carry far more unsavory things than ground meat from the store. Also bear in mind chicken that isn't well cooked is very detrimental to people but I've seen chickens eat other chickens/chicks, uncooked of course, and there wasn't any bad effect. Also my birds always manage to get chicken poop everywhere including the feed and water and it also doesn't seem to negatively affect them. I keep everything as clean as I can but whenever I come home from work I always have to clean the fouled water, etc.

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote: And this is what they will do to your land:

Quote: 1400 lbs for two months is 700 lbs per month. You have 70+ chickens right now, right? (Pre-hatch). So.... you use ~10 lbs of feed per chicken per month?

(I'm trying to recall how much mine go through a month per chicken, but I bet it's close to that - I just have fewer chickens.)

- Ant Farm

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote:
Yep -it's funny - I remind myself of this every time I'm cleaning out the waterers. Not that I wouldn't give them fresh water, but it's so funny that I refill with clean water, and they want to drink form the dirty poop filled puddle on the ground instead...

- Ant Farm

 

[GabrielBane]

I had no idea Javelina were actually rodents! So interesting!

 

[FaerieChicken]

I don't think you get it from moose. But yes, bear meat. You have to cook it into submission - really well done, to kill all the larvae in the meat. Ugh. I read a travel story once of someone traveling in the arctic (a long time ago), and they killed a polar bear for food (they were starving, and also this was pre- endangered issues). They described the meat as being visibly riddled with cysts (with the larvae in them), almost like swiss cheese. Yuck.

I don't know how often folks get trichinosis from bear meat, mind you. It's just that when they DO get it, bear meat is a common source.

- Ant Farm

Doesn't the Trichinosis worms kill the animal at all, I mean how long would these thing live in the bear, or any animal for that matter, reproducing so much. I would think the animal would become sickly, or succumb to the lack of muscle mass if that is what the worms are eating!