Living off site

Hi, welcome to BYC! Just a word about the rental goats? Not sure what that means. Goats are very picky about what they eat and are not the lawn mowers that everyone thinks they are. They will eat certain stems of grass, but not down to the ground...leaving patching grass fields. They will always eat the bushes you don’t want them to eat, and make sure you read up because there are many bushes and trees that are poisonous to goats. Also...goats are VERY complicated animals...and I don’t recommend them to anyone that doesn’t have the time, or energy or dedication to give them the true care they need. There are specific minerals, and they only like certain feeds, certain hays, need shots all the time, get lice, the list goes on. So, even ‘renting goats’ might not be what you wan5 to do...because, after you dedicate the time and energy needed, you’ll surely fall 8n love with them! As the6 have the best personalities and are wonderful animals...that every true farmer would love. Just do a ton of research!! :). And, your ducks will love the ponds!! I’ve had up to 51 ducks at one poin5 on our farm....they are a riot. Luckily have not lost many to predators. Just make SURE you get the right ratio of drakes to females...that is the key!! Otherwise the fighting will get out of control!! I hope I didn’t scare you!! I just wanted to offer you some advice from my farming experience. All of which has been wonderful! Congrats on the new land...it sounds like a dream!!

Thank you. We definitely aren’t purchasing goats at this time for ourselves. It’s a specific program that we pay a goat farmer to bring their goats to our property. The goat owners manage and care for the goats themselves daily, although we are free to visit them and play with them while on our property, but they are brought to your property to eat invasive plant species common here in the Midwest. It’s so thick right now that it is choking out the mature trees and preventing new growth. It’s detrimental to our woods that we manage it one way or another. We have done a lot of research on the program and several state parks in our state use this method, as well as the one our property stems off from. They have been using them for about 5 years now, with much success, to control the invasive plants. They are less damaging than a brush hog machine and much less time and money than manually chopping and spraying harsh chemicals over the 15 acres that it is choking out. But yes, we won’t be responsible for them ourselves, the owners are. And they inspect the property first to make sure it’s a fitting situation, and so far they seem to think ours is..? I hope this summer proves to be good for us and the goats & their farmers as well.
Thank you for the duck information!! Very helpful to know! Wow! 51 sounds like such a blast! I am beyond excited to get to the phase when we can have them.
 
I’m dying to start raising ducks and I’m wondering if anyone raises animals but doesn’t live right on site? It’s about 15-20 minute from our current home (in an HOA which doesn’t allow any backyard livestock.. period - I’ve tried). our plan is to be out there nearly every day, so my question is; would I be able to have ducks successfully in that situation?

Sounds like you are going to have a very nice place to raise your ducks. I, too, live on a lake and have raised ducks and geese in the past. Right now, I only have chickens. Anyway, to your question, I would agree with the others and suggest you wait until you live on the property before you get your flock of ducks. IMHO, ducks and geese require more hands on work than chickens and I don't think I could leave my ducks unattended for a day or two.

Having said that, yesterday I had to go out of town so I just made sure my chicken feeder and waterer were topped off. I only have to refill my 3 gallon waterer and 5 gallon chicken feed bucket once every ~10 days. In theory, I could leave my birds locked up in their Fort Knox coop for a week and not worry about them (except for collecting eggs). In fact, for about 6 weeks this winter, the chickens just stayed inside their coop and never had any interest in going outside in the cold, snowy, chicken run. So keeping them locked up in their coop, safe from predators, for a few days would not bother me at all.

If your duck shed was big enough, and safe from predators, you might be able to set up a system where the feed and water supply could last a number of days without your intervention. But I would not let the birds outside and expose them to predators without someone there to check up on them throughout the day. It might be possible to care for ducks that way - locking them in the shed when you are not there. But all other things considered, I think it might be best to wait until you move on the property and can tend the ducks every day.
 
Sounds like you are going to have a very nice place to raise your ducks. I, too, live on a lake and have raised ducks and geese in the past. Right now, I only have chickens. Anyway, to your question, I would agree with the others and suggest you wait until you live on the property before you get your flock of ducks. IMHO, ducks and geese require more hands on work than chickens and I don't think I could leave my ducks unattended for a day or two.

Having said that, yesterday I had to go out of town so I just made sure my chicken feeder and waterer were topped off. I only have to refill my 3 gallon waterer and 5 gallon chicken feed bucket once every ~10 days. In theory, I could leave my birds locked up in their Fort Knox coop for a week and not worry about them (except for collecting eggs). In fact, for about 6 weeks this winter, the chickens just stayed inside their coop and never had any interest in going outside in the cold, snowy, chicken run. So keeping them locked up in their coop, safe from predators, for a few days would not bother me at all.

If your duck shed was big enough, and safe from predators, you might be able to set up a system where the feed and water supply could last a number of days without your intervention. But I would not let the birds outside and expose them to predators without someone there to check up on them throughout the day. It might be possible to care for ducks that way - locking them in the shed when you are not there. But all other things considered, I think it might be best to wait until you move on the property and can tend the ducks every day.
Thank you!! This is great to know! I’ve definitely come to the realization I was getting ahead of myself. I can’t wait to get started when we move out there full time.
 
Thank you. We definitely aren’t purchasing goats at this time for ourselves. It’s a specific program that we pay a goat farmer to bring their goats to our property. The goat owners manage and care for the goats themselves daily, although we are free to visit them and play with them while on our property, but they are brought to your property to eat invasive plant species common here in the Midwest. It’s so thick right now that it is choking out the mature trees and preventing new growth. It’s detrimental to our woods that we manage it one way or another. We have done a lot of research on the program and several state parks in our state use this method, as well as the one our property stems off from. They have been using them for about 5 years now, with much success, to control the invasive plants. They are less damaging than a brush hog machine and much less time and money than manually chopping and spraying harsh chemicals over the 15 acres that it is choking out. But yes, we won’t be responsible for them ourselves, the owners are. And they inspect the property first to make sure it’s a fitting situation, and so far they seem to think ours is..? I hope this summer proves to be good for us and the goats & their farmers as well.
Thank you for the duck information!! Very helpful to know! Wow! 51 sounds like such a blast! I am beyond excited to get to the phase when we can have them.
Oh, wow, that’s cool to kind of ‘rent goats’ ...never heard of such a thing. I foresee you getting hit by the bug! Goats are very addictive! They will steal your heart and your brush!! :love :lau
 
Oh geez. They do nibble you, but it’s no big deal! Some you can train not to . The key is to be careful how you feed them from your hand. They get too greedy and will bite too hard if you have a ton of ducks. Try to feed from both hands at once or have a feed bucket near you, then they won’t be too aggressive
 

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