Hawks.

[Xanatos]

great idea...

is it a lot of trouble to do your own beehive or goat? I would love to incorporate my own little ecosphere and add more variety - I thought about raising tilapia fish as I do have a very small 'pond' with goldfish currently wasting space in it!

 

[rhoda_bruce]

my goat is a small female. I have heard about goats getting into gardens. So far I can't complain about her getting out of her pen. I need to give her a second pasture, because she ate all the small trees, blackberries, weeds, and shrubbery I had wanted her to take care of and now needs more.......she doesn't eat much grass, so the chickens hang out with her sometimes and don't deprive her. They like different things.
The bees cost in the initial investments you make. Equipment, clothing, gloves, hive bodies and such. Then you get the word out and people start knowing you do bees and you phone rings a lot during early spring. The easiest catch is what I call a clean catch. A huge ball of bees ( the size of a football or basketball ) hanging from a tree or building. They are just looking for a place to live, so its easy to catch those. Now if they made themselves a home in a wall.......thats another story. You can get a lot of stings tending to a job like that. Once you are setup, you have to work them from time to time and add hivebodies when their colonies get too big and then give them place to make the honey you plan on taking from them. But once you are established, you have something that will feed you for years, without you needing to feed it. My husband got into it, but he is a more exciteable person than me, so it was discovered that I was the one that could handle the bees better. It is not a bad hobby for someone that has a calm way about them. Read up on it. I learned most of what I know from my husband who has forfeited it over to me.
The bees are in my garden, but I will have to think on a way to protect them from guineas I plan on getting in June.
I can tell you that just as the store bought eggs can't compare to my eggs.....neither can the store bought honey compare to mine.
As far as trouble goes.....well everything I do gives me some kind of trouble. I'm hardheaded and I do a lot of things the old ways.

 

[Xanatos]

does your goat do well on her own? I've read they can get quite odd without another goat around, and how often do you milk her?

 

[rhoda_bruce]

She will be a year old next month. I haven't not mated her as of yet. She is fine but loves company. She plays with the chickens and when we are outside, she calls us over. I need to have her mated soon. I do want to milk her and hope to be able to adjust my time to allow for that.

 

[Xanatos]

theres so much to learn still..I don't know the first thing about mating animals or breeding the chickens etc...I wouldn't know if an egg was fertile or not

 

[rhoda_bruce]

If you have multiple interest regarding self-sufficiency, as I do, you might want to go to amazon and obtain a few resource books. I recommend the Reader's Digest,"Back to Basics" I prefer the yellow, older version rather than the green younger version, but they are both awesome, and John Seymore's "The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live it."
Given enough property and know-how, there is no telling what you could accomplish for yourself with the skills you could learn in those 2 books. Discipline is the ticket.

 

[kathyinmo]

I have had a hawk kill 2 of my silkies this week. One each day, two days in a row. The second day I thought they were safe, but the hawk went INSIDE the door of the coop and got one. It stood right at the door eating her, as I approached.

My chickens are now all locked up tight, until this dang hawk leaves the area. I will get netting over the run this weekend.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I think you will like it. It is the cheapest project I did with my chickens and has given me many, many hours of resting easy. We ziptied the net in place once we had it positioned.

 

[bad]

Good luck. I have lost 8 to hawks in the last 2 months. I finally had to totally not free range my laying hens. They now have a totally inclosed outside pen. The hawks do not however seem to mess with the game hens that are free ranging in the yard.