Oddbean

For all of you who are interested in more sovereignty but not up for all-out homesteading, have you considered #meatrabbits so that you can grow some of your own protein? They're probably the easiest entry not just to livestock but to growing your own food in general. https://ogden_images.s3.amazonaws.com/www.iamcountryside.com/images/sites/1/2019/02/19082654/raising-rabbits-for-meat.jpg Pros You need very little space Low start up costs Incredible feed to meat conversion You can grow or forage a lot (or all) of their food Kids can do most of the rabbit chores They can mow your lawn (if you're ok with uneven grass height!) You can scale up production very quickly (=nice SHTF potential) Their manure is amazing Butchering is very quick Cons They're adorable, so killing them is not easy!* Not the tastiest meat Not actually a con, but a consideration: they are very lean. You'll want some fat to cook them with. Sausage with rabbit and pork 😋 #foodstr A bunch of us on here ( @Maria2000 and @rev.hodl among others) are growing rabbits, and @jackspirko has had some great episodes on them recently. I'd love to see more folks raising even a small percentage of their own food. It's one of the best revolutionary acts if you're not happy with the current systems. I'm prepping for a small workshop on raising meat rabbits, so would welcome questions! *I often remind myself that if I were eating conventional ag products, I'd be responsible for much more brutal deaths of their wild cousins - but still... not easy #homesteading #permaculture #resilience #plebchain #permaculture

I didn't mention this in the pros, but for those who already have chickens, rabbits integrate really nicely. You can set them up so that their droppings fall onto a carbon source and the chickens dig through and mix it all up for you. Droppings can also fall into worm bins, soldier fly bins, or duckweed, all of which are great for the birds. Cute factor aside, they're way easier to butcher than chickens.

Our rabbits system here at the homestead is one of the most profitable and integrated we've built so far. Because the food for the rabbits is mostly weeds and prunings from around the homestead and they dont the job of growing out cannabis, we essentially get all the meat for free in addition to the revenue from the cannabis seeds. Ask nostr:nprofile1qqst8tznun44qc4h7d68ucl7w0n8z96d4urxvrhhrhrj5uwfw8ka3ycpzamhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuvrcvd5xzapwvdhk6tcal4q44 some rabbit questions so they can put together a great workshop! nostr:nevent1qqs0xhfvutrqpwnmkjms9phzer2rsym2yn0gn7cm42wekk09gk84ndqpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduhsyg9n43f7f66sv2mlxar7v0l88en3zax67pnxpmm3m3e2w8yhrmwcjvpsgqqqqqqs7kx2k5

i'd say guinea pigs and quails are two others that are very good small space users... pigeons too, pigeons are a very common thing i see around here in #madeira in the more spread out, semirural areas pigeons are actually better for the quality of the food, much better ratio of fat, you can literally be starving of fats if you just eat rabbit meat but especially if you can place them in a space where you have something else growing, with protection against them nibbling at it, and throw all kinds of garden waste in there and they'll much most green stuff rabbits are almost ruminants, they eat some of their own poop again so they get more nutrition out of it... and probably there is more fatty varieties of rabbits than others

Yes, fat is important! I would think of rabbits as a (very easy) source of protein and manure and plan to get your fat elsewhere. I don't know anything about pigeons but it's good to hear that they're still common in some areas.