My name is Amy and I live in the state where the sun rarely shines more than 10 minutes at at time, otherwise known as Western Washington!
As a kid we lived on 10 acres in CO. We had horses, chickens, ducks, goats and turkeys. When my dad brought the turkeys home they were tiny little things and as an eight year old I fell in love. I asked if I could name them to which my dad responded with "they already have names." I innocently asked him what their names where to which he replied "Thanksgiving and Christmas" and no the story did NOT have a happy ending lol I quickly learned that animals named after a holiday or food where not pets.
Fast forward many years and I am now older with children of my own who also have learned that animals named after food are not pets, they however were taught this long before any fuzzy's were brought home.
We recently moved out to a more rural area and we rented the place we did because when we looked at this place we found out that the owner had a lot of land that they then divided up into three parcels and put mobile homes on. When we asked about the possibility of having some small farm animals we were told no horses or cows, the rest is fine. When we really pressed and asked detailed questions he said "your neighbors have goats and chickens, it really is fine with the owner." We are only on .5 an acre so we have to think small and cannot have a lot of animals.
We started gathering resources to add chickens, ducks and possibly rabbits (as food sources for us and our dogs/cat). We were going to go last weekend to get the new babies and we were so excited. Then I thought I heard a coyote howl. The next day when I came home from work my husband told me that he saw the coyote I heard the night before. I asked him where he saw it, thinking he was driving and saw it and he said nope, saw it right in the open 5 acre field right next to our house. We are now rethinking how we will arrange areas and protect any animals we get from predators!
Fingers crossed we can get this figured out this week and have babies next weekend!
As a kid we lived on 10 acres in CO. We had horses, chickens, ducks, goats and turkeys. When my dad brought the turkeys home they were tiny little things and as an eight year old I fell in love. I asked if I could name them to which my dad responded with "they already have names." I innocently asked him what their names where to which he replied "Thanksgiving and Christmas" and no the story did NOT have a happy ending lol I quickly learned that animals named after a holiday or food where not pets.
Fast forward many years and I am now older with children of my own who also have learned that animals named after food are not pets, they however were taught this long before any fuzzy's were brought home.
We recently moved out to a more rural area and we rented the place we did because when we looked at this place we found out that the owner had a lot of land that they then divided up into three parcels and put mobile homes on. When we asked about the possibility of having some small farm animals we were told no horses or cows, the rest is fine. When we really pressed and asked detailed questions he said "your neighbors have goats and chickens, it really is fine with the owner." We are only on .5 an acre so we have to think small and cannot have a lot of animals.
We started gathering resources to add chickens, ducks and possibly rabbits (as food sources for us and our dogs/cat). We were going to go last weekend to get the new babies and we were so excited. Then I thought I heard a coyote howl. The next day when I came home from work my husband told me that he saw the coyote I heard the night before. I asked him where he saw it, thinking he was driving and saw it and he said nope, saw it right in the open 5 acre field right next to our house. We are now rethinking how we will arrange areas and protect any animals we get from predators!
Fingers crossed we can get this figured out this week and have babies next weekend!
and Welcome To BYC! TwoCrows gave you some great links to get you started on your projects. X2, predator proofing carefully from the start is one of the best things you can do. You might look into electric fence as perimeter fencing or poultry netting, they tend to be helpful with coyotes. You might also like to check out the BYC Ducks forum and Other Livestock forum for rabbit into, and the BYC sister site BackYard Herds has a whole section on rabbits also. 
