Sheep / Laying Hen recommendations

5 posts
Tue, 01/09/2018 - 17:20 #1

Member for

6 years 10 months
fazeraus
Last seen: 01/18/2021 - 09:22
Joined: 01/09/2018 - 16:59

Sheep / Laying Hen recommendations

Interested to know if anyone has recommendations on sheep and laying hens (eggs). Am looking at setting up small farm (around 45 acres) and wanting to setup small organic eggs and sheep (meat). 

 

For chickens we are looking at : Isa Brown / Rhone Island Reds.

 

For Sheep we are looking at Damaras or Dorpers. 

 

Would you recommend anything different. Essentially we are looking at lowest upkeep but also still delivering quality eggs / meat for sale.

 

Thanks again for great forum! 

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Wed, 01/10/2018 - 21:49 #2
greggy
Last seen: 03/09/2019 - 21:43
Joined: 10/07/2017 - 02:38

Am no expert....

 

Isa Browns lay a lot, but have a limited laying life, so you may want to look at carious factors.

 

Dorpers and some other sheep are lower maintenance, but will depend on the land somewhat too, you can find a lot of info by reading online, some people do not like dorpers because they say they are like goats, but, if they have food, they will prob be fine.

 

So yeah, it will depend on the land and what you want to do exactly.

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Wed, 01/10/2018 - 22:08 #3
fazeraus
Last seen: 01/18/2021 - 09:22
Joined: 01/09/2018 - 16:59

Hi Greg,

 

Thanks for your reply. Are you running a small / large farm atm? Would love to know more about other peoples experience with mirco farms with hens / sheep. 

 

Doing a heck of a lot of research at the moment. Trying to soak it all in and make the right decisions. ;) Thanks for your advice. 

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Thu, 01/11/2018 - 14:33 #5
greggy
Last seen: 03/09/2019 - 21:43
Joined: 10/07/2017 - 02:38

Yes, very small, would not call it a farm, I think of farms as being thousands of acres :)

 

Have Dorper, Merino and Goats.

 

Have Isas, Leghorn and another that I forget, on another property I have Isas, Australorp, Sussex and a few others. Isas lay daily if they are happy, but they do not lay for that long, others are approx every other day most of the time, but keep in mind, we do not have that many chooks, and I am def learning, but it does not take long to get a grip.

 

A lot of animals tend to follow the pack, so if you have poor fencing and poor feed & have one or two who like to look elsewhere that is when you will have a prob, as whole mob of almost anything will follow, cattle are different, they are big and can just do what they want if hungry or wanting to mate.

 

They all require slightly different managing, fencing, pasture etc, but you could run many things together or mix them, again depends on what goals are, money you have, fencing, soils and pasture etc

 

Plenty of good info, so much good material out there, some things you may need to pay people for if you want to shortcut the time :)

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Thu, 01/11/2018 - 11:51 #4
admin
Last seen: 11/13/2024 - 10:09
Joined: 02/28/2011 - 14:19

Hi Fazeraus,

Thanks for the question. Below is a link to an article we have written on ''Choosing chicken breeds suitable for small farm use" which you may find helpful.

http://farmstyle.com.au/news/poultry-choosing-chicken-breeds-suitable-small-farm-use

Regards,

Charlie

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