ChattyCathy wrote:
> Dave Smith wrote:
>
> <snipped for space>
>
> Sounds like you had a good day... and yes, those auctions are
> interesting to say the least. But please bear in mind that although the
> prices sound cheap, you'd have to slaughter any livestock you bought
> there yourself - or if your local municipality rules and regulations
> don't allow that, you'd have to (pay?) somebody else to do the
> slaughtering for you... Not to mention the feed costs that you'll incur
> until as time as the slaughtering takes place.

There are places around that slaughter and butcher. It costs, but not a
lot. There is even a place where you can take chickens and other fowl
for slaughter and dressing. If you can get a small lamb you can use it
for a lawn mower for a few weeks while it fattens up. I am not a bog fan
of goat, but they are cheap to feed, and at a buck a piece you don't
have a lot invested. If you slaughter them young, as lambs are, there is
not a lot of money involved.



> IME, goats are quite good 'escape artists' if you don't have a really
> strong pen - and they'll eat almost any vegetation they see. I've seen
> the damage caused when some goats 'got loose' and wandered into a
> friend's garden... you don't wanna know.

That is right. I have a friend whose pigs got out and destroyed a
neighbour's nice garden.


> We actually have a rather large bona fide goat pen on our property -
> built by the previous owners. Trust me, Alcatraz could take some
> security tips from that pen ;-)

Yep. They can climb up and eventually break down a sturdy wire fence.
The guy behind me had three buffalo that escaped. They knocked the fence
right down.



>
> However, we don't use it as such because we eventually decided against
> keeping goats ourselves - but Dad did some building alterations and
> turned the feed storeroom contained therein into a coop for our
> chickens to sleep in at night... By day the hens scratch around happily
> in the yard part of the pen; keeps (most) predators out. <g>

My neighbour wants to get some chickens to free range. His biggest worry
will be the coyotes that are quite plentiful around her. The guy who
lived there before used to have free range chickens. One night he was
out mowing his back lawn. The chickens were out there enjoying all the
bugs uncovered by the mowing. The neighbour on the other side alerted
him to a coyote who was hiding behind his wood pile watching him and the
chickens.