What livestock are you keeping when SHTF?

on our 3 acres we free range chickens,ducks, geese (watch dogs),turkeys. recently added 2 goats lamancha doe and nubian buck, they were doing the nasty so we may have some crossbreeds this spring. Pair o pigs. yummy bacon.

 

At the moment I'm living on a moderately sized suburban block, and the only livestock I run presently are composting worms....not very edible in themselves but a delicacy for chickens, that are very edible, and they make great compost, which the fruit and vegetable garden turns into very tasty and nutritious food.

I have in the past kept a breeding team of white leghorn bantams (1 rooster and 6 hens) which produced all the eggs needed for a family, with some for for giving away.

In a survival scenario I would give serious thought to keeping snails.....they would make good protein food for ducks and, with appropriate preparation, are quite edible as escargot to go! Bandits may steal your sheep, cattle, and other eminently edible livestock...but I couldn't imagine many...unless they were cordon bleu cooks, stealing your cache of snails.

On acerage, I'd stock dams and creeks with fish, edible frogs and yabbies ( I think you may call them crawfish??)

If growing a garden...also think of aquaponics....grow fish as well as greens.

When planning for long term sustainability...think outside of the box that others may be confined by...it may just give you the edge to survive a little longer than others may.

 

Thank you. I had not even thought about snails and other things like that. I feel like an idiot for not thinking of it.

What type of creepy crawly you cultivate would probably depend on what thrives in your zone and region of the country.

 

my friends and i have a couple of working cattle ranchs around us and we have planned with them as doing so basic tradeing of the land around us as a livestock grazing and in turn some beef here and there for letting them use the land

plus a couple of people have allready set some other livestock like chickens and horse for use as after the event

 

Excellent ideas chelloveck!!! Aquaponics is for sure something I’d personally like to pursue…. someday. I’ve checked into it a little bit and found others already raising Tilapia in greenhouses.
[FONT=&quot]For folk in the US… slug and maggot farming might be easier and more productive, [/FONT][FONT=&quot]So, You Want to Be an Urban Chicken Farmer? Read This First. - Dallas Restaurants and Dining - City of Ate[/FONT][FONT=&quot]. I know… I know…. maggot farming sounds worse than it really is and you’re probably thinking I’ve lost it. The species is Hermetia illucens and Americans could pretty much “farm” our own maggots year round, [/FONT][FONT=&quot]http://blacksoldierflyblog.com/bsf-bucket-composter-version-2-1/[/FONT][FONT=&quot]. It’s native to North America. Nothing but the best “home grown” delicacies for my chickens… tee he. Yabbies must be our crayfish. That might be a little tricky in the US... we've had some problems with [/FONT]<cite>Orconectes rusticus </cite>[FONT=&quot](Rusty Crayfish)[/FONT]<cite>,</cite>[FONT=&quot] the most common species previously used as bait throughout all of the US and Canada. It's now prohibited in many states but they can still be found "making it on their own" and they're definitely plump and tasty. Really glad you brought up the out of the box ideas. [/FONT]