Prepper's Livestock Handbook: Lifesaving Strategies and Sustainable Methods for Keeping Chickens, Rabbits, Goats, Cows and other Farm Animals

It's 2018 so just like everyone else in the world, my partner and I are constantly looking for ways to live a healthier and longer life that is sustainable! We don't want a fad diet, we want the besbt way to eat and live that we can continue for decades to come. This book does an incredible job of giving us the tools and resources to find the best solutions for fresh meat and dairy products. It's the best long-term options! At times, it does feel slightly overwhelming but we do appreciate sustainable animal skills that we can bring to our own ranch! Our Chicken coop has been falling down lately and this book gave us step by step directions to help get the coop up and running again! Sometimes our eggs have gone bad due to not knowing the best ways to take care of them - luckily this guide really helped give us basi info on how we ca npreserve them. Woohoo. The first step to getting farm fresh eggs back on our property! Woo-hoo. This book is full of valuable information including how to protect your animasls. In the past, we've been afraid of what might hurt our babies but this book gave us the confidence to know how to protect thm. Highly recommend it! Very helpful I loved all the images and charts too. The future is here people! Let's be sustainable so the earth stays here with us!

OK true story time here- for awhile I had chickens in my apartment. My single one bedroom apartment. They were tiny chicks, and when they got a little older I let them out on the porch. They can't fly, right? Well sure. But they can walk right over the edge like idiots because they don't really look. This poor chick fell 20 feet down straight into the pool. Thank GOD the peeping started echoing in the complex so we were able to rescue her. She was unfazed once we brought her back upstairs. So yes. I needed this book before all that, but that's neither here nor there. I tell this tale to let you know, if you are considering some chickens (there are so many small home coops in my old town Alameda), do the teeniest bit of research. This book breaks down the breeds for your purpose. For instance, apparently some of the smaller ducks are quiet and ok with an inflatable pool and actually give nearly as many eggs as some chickens. And duck eggs are delicious. I ultimately decided I needed a full backyard, but I plan on passing this along to my pals so they can start out correctly.

This is a great book for anyone thinking about homesteading and raising animals. If we were to have a disaster, what would you be prepared for? This book goes beyond having canned and dry goods. This book is for the TOTAL Prepper! Keeping farm animals means there will be eggs, butter, cheese and meat kept in your food supply. Most of us are not farmers and have no idea what to do if we do not have a market to go to. The author has written this compilation of everything they learned about preparedness and how they put it into practice. They wanted to help avoid some of the problems they encountered. Leigh Tate did not leave anything out. From the 1st Chapter (First Things First), 2nd Chapter (Best Breed for Self-Reliance), 3rd Chapter (Barns, Shelter, and Fencing), 4th Chapter (Forage and Feed), 5th Chapter (Breeding and Pregnancy), 6th Chapter (Blessed Events: Birthing and Hatching), 7th Chapter (Eggs, Milk and Meat), 8th Chapter (Keeping Them Healthy), 9th Chapter (Keeping Them Safe), 10th Chapter (Keeping Things Manageable) and The Conclusion. I am especially amazed at all of the Resources included. Websites for any question that might arise if planning on homesteading.

In retirement, we bought a nice piece of land in Colorado. We admittedly are more city people and have a lot to learn. One of the reasons we like Preppers Livestock Handbook is even though we aren’t planning to raise too many animals, this book let’s us get started and know where we might go in the future. From this book, we realized we could use some of the property’s existing fences and gates, and build as we go. Since we started with chickens, we learned so much from the chapters on Breeding and Pregnancy. This book led us in the right direction as we consider an incubator, along with the supplies we need for the chicks. The organization of the book puts all the information about one animal in one place, and we have marked all the pages on chickens. The easy to understand writing and practical information is just what we needed!

This book is a fantastic primer to the world of homesteading with animals, whatever that might look for your individual household and needs. It’s comprehensive, giving a general overview of everything from breeds to look for, to building your own barns and fencing systems, to birthing and butchering. Many of these ancient techniques are lost to the modern city-dweller, even one with a basic understanding of the natural world. The book lays out in clear language how to create a sustainable system that works for individual homesteads, and the authors are sure to include tips for keeping it manageable.Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in homesteading, whether you raise animals already or are simply curious. It is a great resource for the kind of advice one can only get from those with hands-on experience in the pasture.

I'm not impressed with this book overall. Instead of discussing the needs of each category of animal, the author lumps them all together in most of the chapters and just barely touches on each one. All of the information in the book is easily available on the internet (heck, on facebook). Lots of breeds missing in the discussion of breeds of each type-for instance, muscovy and pekin ducks are mentioned for meat but not rouens?? And not a peep about how messy Pekins are compared to some other breeds. If you're looking for a gift for a young future homesteader (teenage level), you found it. If you're looking for something to add to your library, keep going....

Lots of helpful information for an average person who wants to learn how to homestead with different farm animals and be self reliant caring for them. This book is geared to the beginning homesteader but even those with knowledge may pick up some helpful hints. Leigh has very a resources listed also.