Consolidated Kansas

[MarcAustin]

Don't discount the prowess of a LGL - livestock guard llama :



To those of you with the rabbit factories - what are rabbits used for the backyard farm world ? Are they just pets? You're not eating those cute little bastards are you ?? (I need aa intro to rural life mentor . . . volunteers ?)

 

[Candace69]

just reading some about the gardens and such, got my greenhouse going before I went to the hospital! Thank goodness....., but wanted to say guys remember, I know they are getting in plants right now, but as nice as it is right now we are not past the frost danger. I am keeping mine in my greenhouse, for at least another month. We've had beautiful/weird weather; but we can still get cold again. Just hate to see work get frozen. I did find this link with the last frost dates:
http://www.victoryseeds.com/frost/ks.html
http://www.almanac.com/content/frost-chart-united-states

 

[MarcAustin]

Revolution Mama Ranch has them here in Lawrence.

You live in Lawrence ??

 

[Candace69]

RABBITS - YES, for meat and pelts here. Rabbit is awesome good for you!

 

[MarcAustin]

I have a hard time eating attractive animals.


NOT an LGD, but good entertainment! :

 

[Hawkeye95]

You live in Lawrence ??

nope, south of Wichita! Oooh... I just meant, here in Kansas-- not across the country.

RABBITS - YES, for meat and pelts here. Rabbit is awesome good for you!

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! awwww, poor little Thumpers! I couldn't do it. I could eat chicken, though! LOL

I have a hard time eating attractive animals.


NOT an LGD, but good entertainment! :

Awwww, he is a super cute little dog! I've got a shih tzu and a little 5 pound Pomeranian. Both of which would be the bait, not the guards.

 

[Ivywoods]

Candace-I guess I have to agree with Danz on this. Our dogs do not stay with the goats. They don't even go in the goat pen. However, you cannot say these dogs are not LGD's. Ours guard from OUTSIDE the herd. They patrol our whole place. They patrol the perimeter. They not only have kept the goats safe, but they guard my free range chickens which are in a completely different area than the goats for the most part. They guard the whole place. There's no doubt in my mind that if a stranger did anything to one of us those dogs would protect us, too.

We live in a heavily wooded area surrounded by a lot of corn fields, and we have seen and documented on trail cams some of the numerous predators here. Numerous bobcats, tons of coyotes, raccoons, possums, skunks and two separate people saw a mountain lion coming out of the finger of trees toward the west side of our place the fall before we moved in. In spite of all the predators, we have NEVER lost a single head of livestock to a predator. Generally, like you said, they work together. If one patrols farther away from the home place one tends to stay close. They have their favorite places to watch, smell and keep cool. They are on duty 24-7. But they never stay with the goats or chickens all the time. They are however, LGD's. I couldn't sleep at night without them.

 

[Trish44]

Hawkeye, this gal I was taking about with the Cream Legbars & Swedish Flowers is in KS, she's aways away from me, but in the State at least.

Danz, the egg that cracked went bad & I had to remove it from the incubator, it was starting to smell, so I'm afraid that one wasn't going to hatch. I put a new egg in there to replace it. I sure hope at least some of my eggs make it to hatch. This definitely is a learning experience this time. Before when I had an incubator it was more for fun than anything else & I didn't worry about it that much. If they hatched they did & if not oh well. But this time I really want them to make it! I indicated to my DH today that I wanted to stop at your place on the way up to KC on Sunday & he just kind of looked at me like what else. I'm already picking up a rabbit in KC before we leave there & a rooster in El Dorado on our way home. I think he was afraid I was going to tell him that I was stopping to get something else & he would have hit the ceiling.

If anyone is in the market for a beginner incubator, small ones, there are 2 or 3 on the Poultry Swap right now for sale.

Well all of my eggs just left a few minutes ago with my best egg customer, she is taking them to work with her to sell to her co-workers bless her heart. I just put a picture of my rainbow egg basket on my ad on Craigslist too last night & I have another new customer who is now in line for the next eggs. Yay! if I keep getting regular customers maybe I won't have to worry so much about getting more chicks. I got to thinking that by fall I will have quite a few hens laying with the new ones I'm getting next month, but then I will have hens going through their first molt too, so maybe the new ones will fill in while the older ones get through that. Hopefully that's how it will work anyway.

MarcAustin, cute dog! I have two little ones that stay in the house myself besides the two LGDs outside. And yes, some rabbits are meat rabbits, I have Chinchilla rabbits for one breed & they can be used for meat as well as pets. The other breed I have are Mini Rex & they're much too small for eating, they're just for show & pets. When I told my friend, who would have a zoo if she could afford it, that I was going to raise meat rabbits she said oh no she could never eat any of her animals or chickens, they are all pets. I told her that no chickens are not pets here, they're here to lay eggs & when they get done laying eggs they become dinner. She thinks I'm horrible.

 

[Candace69]

Candace-I guess I have to agree with Danz on this. Our dogs do not stay with the goats. They don't even go in the goat pen. However, you cannot say these dogs are not LGD's. Ours guard from OUTSIDE the herd. They patrol our whole place. They patrol the perimeter. They not only have kept the goats safe, but they guard my free range chickens which are in a completely different area than the goats for the most part. They guard the whole place. There's no doubt in my mind that if a stranger did anything to one of us those dogs would protect us, too.

We live in a heavily wooded area surrounded by a lot of corn fields, and we have seen and documented on trail cams some of the numerous predators here. Numerous bobcats, tons of coyotes, raccoons, possums, skunks and two separate people saw a mountain lion coming out of the finger of trees toward the west side of our place the fall before we moved in. In spite of all the predators, we have NEVER lost a single head of livestock to a predator. Generally, like you said, they work together. If one patrols farther away from the home place one tends to stay close. They have their favorite places to watch, smell and keep cool. They are on duty 24-7. But they never stay with the goats or chickens all the time. They are however, LGD's. I couldn't sleep at night without them.

I never said Danz's weren't lgds

; my opinion differing on her was the need of more than one, but the wandering issue I talk about is when they wander and are found 3 or 4 or 10 miles from home; there is no bond, they cannot guard from that distane. They're not bonded to stock or to stock/place. I love Danz's LGDs, that's why I told her I wanted one (and got one)!
But the way I say it with LGDs Livestock dogs can be bonded to be a farm type LGD where they care for EVERYTHING and the place, or specialized, where they are strongly bonded to one particular stock. I have raised them as both. But whether it is fowl, goats, sheep, horses, whatever type of stock, they need to have a bond where they do not wander, yours from the way you describe don't wander as I am describing wandering. hope that makes sense!

 

[checoukan]

Candace-I guess I have to agree with Danz on this. Our dogs do not stay with the goats. They don't even go in the goat pen. However, you cannot say these dogs are not LGD's. Ours guard from OUTSIDE the herd. They patrol our whole place. They patrol the perimeter. They not only have kept the goats safe, but they guard my free range chickens which are in a completely different area than the goats for the most part. They guard the whole place. There's no doubt in my mind that if a stranger did anything to one of us those dogs would protect us, too.

We live in a heavily wooded area surrounded by a lot of corn fields, and we have seen and documented on trail cams some of the numerous predators here. Numerous bobcats, tons of coyotes, raccoons, possums, skunks and two separate people saw a mountain lion coming out of the finger of trees toward the west side of our place the fall before we moved in. In spite of all the predators, we have NEVER lost a single head of livestock to a predator. Generally, like you said, they work together. If one patrols farther away from the home place one tends to stay close. They have their favorite places to watch, smell and keep cool. They are on duty 24-7. But they never stay with the goats or chickens all the time. They are however, LGD's. I couldn't sleep at night without them.

Yes, Ivy does live in a very rural area. We do to, but our LGD's stay with our goats. We have a paved road in front of our house, and the cars just zip by, It is terrible. So our dogs were raised inside the pen, so that is where they stay, that is what they know. BUT, I have seen Casper flat foot jump the fence after a coyote that was in the pasture to the west of the goat pen, he took care of it, jumped back in, and came up to me. Wagging his tail just happy as can be. I don't know why they don't get in the yard. They just don't, I left the gate open, and they just looked at it and walked back to the goats, never bothered to come out.