what kind of livestock can you actually fit into one acre of Farmland well quite a lot actually for those of us just starting out or limited by space one acre is a pretty good amount to start off with and don't think that because the space is small in comparison to commercial farms and the massive cattle ranches that it won't be productive enough to sustain you you just have to be smart about how you utilize your space and what you put on that plot stick around till the end because we have some extra tips on making
the most of that one acre for your livestock here is our list of the most productive animals for one acre that you should consider looking into for your land and as always we start at the smallest of our food producers and work our way up to the largest bees don't need much space and if you're situated close to other Farms especially fruit producers or next to a forested area you don't even need to plant anything to supply them with all of the flowers they need to get producing now bees aren't exactly the most popular option
for the small scale or the large scale for that matter and that's because they are ranked as one of the most difficult animals to keep alive keeping bees is almost like science Colony Health Hive maintenance how to keep them happy enough to avoid swarming providing the right amount of nutrition winter care the list is long but as much as it is a challenge for newcomers to bee keeping it has a habit of making their Keepers proud and maybe a little obsessive about their little winged honey makers have you ever heard a horse owner talk about
his love for his e wines or a gardener talk about their spring blooms it's kind of like that where no one else really gets the obsession but for those of us who are in it man it's just so satisfying there are tons of styles of hives too depending on how much time you want to spend on bees so don't discount this totally if you have limited time it also helps that the payoff is huge extra bonus there isn't a lot of produce that can compete with the price of honey per pound who knew the smallest
farm animals could arguably bring in the most profit compared to their size out of all of them Quail on the other hand are some of the easiest animals to keep alive out of all the livestock and they actually want to be crammed up against one another no seriously if you don't have enough quail in a coupe they droop and even die from loneliness before we domesticated them flocks of hundreds of quail move together through the grass keeping together as closely as possible and they still need that claustrophobic flock life today as cramped as it sounds
you should keep at least one Quail for every square foot of space to put that into perspective that's one Quail for a Patch the size of one of your bathroom tiles and that's not even squeezing them in makes me claustrophobic thinking of being a quail myself so for the optimal amount of animals to comfortably fit into a space Quail stands out far Above the Rest they're pretty economical with feed too you can grow what you need for them but feed needs to be made fine enough for their small beaks to be able to eat it
and their eggs need to be incubated indoors but it's their productivity and ease of care that makes the effort of chipping down their food and breeding them worth it it's very hard to kill a quail they might be small but these little guys are very disease resistant and your mortality rates are incredibly low they can be slaughtered at 8 weeks and hens lay an egg every day during peak season that's comparable to the best egg laying chickens Quail meat and egg eggs go for more per pound than chicken meat and eggs do which is a
little perplexing since Quail are cheaper to keep in the long term than chickens are even if you're buying their feed rabbits are a popular option for a reason like chickens and pigs they can eat just about anything and you can certainly keep them fed with what you can grow and with your kitchen scraps barely costing you a scent after you've bought your first breeding Pairs and have their cages set up they are the cheapest animal to care for on our list no doubt about that and with their incredibly fast breeding well you'll never not have
enough bunnies to sell you can raise them in cages rabbit tractors or colonies depending on how you want to utilize your space rabbit meat is easy enough to find a market for and if you have a specialty breed and some good connections then there's a place for their fur in the fashion industry too cold climate places like Russia Canada Japan and Northern Europe prefer rabbit fur to line the insides of their coats not for the statement but for its practicality the manure is sellable too if you really want to get as much out of them
as possible or save money on buying amendments for your garden chickens are the gateway drug of the hobby farming and the farming Community almost all of us got half a dozen chickens for our backyard and before we knew it we had 100 Birds two turkeys and where did these goats come from and more eggs than we could even give away in Spring and there's a reason for it chickens for all that they are cheeky and entertaining they are also super productive easy to keep alive and happy and most of all they're cheap to feed with
a small patch of high protein and lysine grains growing maybe a worm farm and plenty of kitchen scraps you can feed a heck of a lot of birds for very little and there's never a shortage of buyers for organic chick chickens or eggs this is the market that is the easiest to navigate on an acre if you don't allow for free ranging you can keep a few hundred that's more than just a side hustle at that point just don't go too wild because they can eliminate grass quickly if not moved often enough and you are
going to need grass for the animals to come Ducks aren't far behind the chickens their meat and eggs sell for more but that's offset somewhat by the need to supply them with swimming space you can't keep quite as many per square foot as you can Quail or chickens and even though they are relatively healthy they aren't as much so as the other birds are ducks are also loud so they aren't the best option if you've got Neighbors in close proximity but now it just seems like we're trying to talk you out of keeping ducks and
that's not the case at all it's just that they are more of a supplemental side hustle than they are a main source of income okay before you jump on us in the comments about keeping goats in small spaces hear us out yes almost all of the goat breeds are rambunctious naughty cheeky and absolutely don't do well being penned never mind being crammed into small spaces but not the Nigerian dwarf or pygmy goats they are your only option for keeping goats on a single acre and it's been done plenty of times before that was exactly what
they were bred for after all and as small as they are they're very productive when you compare their produce per pound and UE e will give three quarts of milk a day and it's of great quality their meat goes for more than your average goat and they're sweet gentle and prefer the company of Their Own Kind so they can and should be kept together they are the perfect goat to keep for a homesteading or family setting will you be making as much with their milk and meat as you will for the prolific rabbits and chickens
probably not but they will supply the household and give you the option to get at least a supplemental income from them their milk can be turned into yogurt cheese and soaps and if you really need to get all you can from them their hides can be worked into high quality Leather So a good amount of product for half the size and a fraction of that fiery temper before we leave you here's some tips on making the most of your one acre rotational grazing moving animals in paddocks allows grass and forages sufficient time to recover this
can significantly increase your forage amount of animals you can sustain and improves the quality of your soil which has tons of other secondary benefits design a multi-functional layout plan your homestead with multi-purpose spaces for example use raised garden beds that also act as compost bins use chickens to turn that compost bin and feed them or integrate Ducks into your garden to help with pest control and fertilization when you get creative sky is the limit use permaculture principles apply permaculture design principles to create a sustainable system this includes placing plants and animals in a way that
they support each other like planting nitrogen fixing plants near heavy feeders search companion planting to find tons of information in this area unfortunately cows didn't make our list you can keep a single milking cow for the home that's very feasible for one acre but cows prefer to have at least one friend and we are looking for animals that can provide the most income for you in the long run similarly you can raise up to half a dozen sheep if most of that acre is open for them to graze on it won't be enough to fill
their nutrition needs so they'll need supplemental feed from you but sheep are a very relaxed livestock to rear specifically for your own freezers needs but for the high value animals that can give you a steady income sheep cows and pigs require a little more room and forage or have you done it successfully if you have please let us know in the comments below or do you think we've missed an animal or two you know the drill like comment and subscribe so you don't miss any new uploads and if you like this video why not have
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