Happy Friday friends! If you follow along my instagram you saw that we just celebrated one year of farm house living. Since we moved we have added many animals to our original girls only flock. We now have roosters, turkeys, ducks and guinea fowl as well. Today I want to share which have been my favorites and not so favorite to raise. I will add pro’s and con’s to each one so you can better understand where I am coming from. If you are considering adding one of these to your flock please read carefully! I hope my post helps you out.
#1 Chickens
It might be obvious but my absolute favorite farm animal to raise is chickens, specifically pullets (females). Growing up my Dad raised chickens and quail but I did not truly start appreciating them until I raised them myself in the city. I started out with four pullets and have quickly added more to my flock. I love everything about them- how spunky they are, their unique personalities, their delicious eggs, how easy they are and how they quickly become a family pet. Here are my pro’s and con’s for anyone considering chickens.
PROS
- Farm fresh eggs daily.
- Fun personalities.
- Depending on the breed can be very friendly and outgoing.
- Relatively easy and affordable to raise.
- Eat bugs, ticks and small snakes in yard.
- Stay in fenced area.
CONS
- Smell bad.
- Can die easily (disease and/or predators).
- Can destroy your garden.
- Can be loud- even the ladies with their egg song!
- If not contained, will poop everywhere.
#2 Quail
My second favorite animal to raise has been quail. These birds are SO easy to raise compared to all the other poultry and waterfowl. They are like having a tiny pet bird that gives you delicious eggs to eat! As long as you don’t have too many, they are easy to keep clean and don’t smell too bad. Also, they make very little to NO noise whatsoever. The males can be noisy if kept away from females but other than that they are quiet. They are an excellent option if you live close to your neighbor or maybe live in an HOA that does not allow other farm animals. I have really enjoyed raising quail and hope to always have a few on the farm.
PROS
- Delicious eggs daily.
- Tiny and easy to care for.
- Make very little to no noise.
- Fun to watch play in their coops.
CONS
- Only live 2 years.
- Cannot be taken out of their coops (will fly away).
- Can be mean to each other if don’t have the correct male to female ratio.
- Can be very stinky if have too many.
#3 Turkeys
This summer I added two turkeys to our mixed flock. I initially bought them thinking they were Midget Whites (a bantam breed of turkeys) but it turns out they are Royal Palms. Honest mistake by the breeder as they look very similar as chicks. Nevertheless I am happy with what we got because they are incredibly sweet! I would say out of all the farm animals turkeys are the most outgoing and social. They don’t like to be picked up but if you have to grab them, they will let you without biting. To me they act like curious little dogs and I love it!
PROS
- Very friendly, not known to be aggressive.
- Beautiful, large birds.
- Don’t forage so will not destroy your gardens.
- Funny, cute personalities.
CONS
- Go wherever they want (hard to contain).
- Loud and chatty.
- Giant poop.
- Eat a lot of feed.
#4 Ducks
This might surprise a lot of people but ducks are actually towards the bottom of my list. Yes they are absolutely adorable and I love my flock BUT they were quite the learning curve for me. Ducks are extremely messy, which I had a hard time with. As ducklings they would destroy their brooder and now as adults they destroy their water bowls. Also, because of the way ducks eat, they get food everywhere. If you can get past the messy part like I did, ducks are a lot of fun to raise. I came very close to getting rid of them but I am glad I didn’t. I love the way they waddle and walk in a straight line. They are also so much fun to watch when it rains because they love the mud and playing in puddles!
PROS
- Ducklings are the absolute cutest.
- Eat bugs, mosquitos and snails.
- Friendly, never aggressive.
- Fun personalities.
- Not as delicate as chickens so tend to live longer.
- Do not destroy gardens like chickens.
CONS
- Messy, messy, messy.
- Require water for their bills so water must be changed daily.
- Can be loud.
- Did I mention, messy?
#5 Guinea Fowl
We added guinea fowl to our flock around the same time we added the turkeys. We started with four but lost one to an owl attack. We decided to get some because they are excellent tick control (known for being the best out of all the fowl) and to alert us of predators. We always heard they were loud but thought by only having four it wouldn’t be too bad. WRONG! It took a few months but once they got comfortable free ranging these little weirdos roam everywhere and anywhere and make a ton of noise. Our neighbors also got five guineas from the same breeder and sometimes they will all gang up and make a ton of noise. The hardest part for us has been how much they roam free. Since they can fly pretty high they can get to any place on the farm. We will see how they do in the Spring and Summer but we sadly have grown to not like raising them.
PROS
- Excellent tick and bug control.
- Alert if predators are near.
- Weirdly cute.
- Funky personalities.
- Do not forage so will not destroy gardens.
- Not aggressive.
CONS
- LOUD! Even just 1 vocal guinea makes a ton of noise.
- Go wherever they want (hard to contain).
- Scare easily.
- Like to roost in trees at night.
- Hard to train to sleep in coop.
#6 Roosters
Last and definitely my least favorite animal to raise is roosters. When we lived in the city we were not allowed to have roosters so this past Spring was our first time raising them. Since I hatched all our chickens this year, I ended up with a good bit of roo’s. I slowly got rid of them but decided to keep a few to see if they could take care of my flock. Our alpha rooster, Frenchy, sadly become very aggressive towards us. When he attacked my 4 year old is when we immediately re-homed him. I tried all the “tricks” but nothing worked with him. I did end up keeping a bantam cochin, Walter, but even he jumps at me from time to time. But since he’s a bantam he’s not scary and easy to handle. In the big coop we kept one lavender ameraucana, Doug, to take care of the flock. So far he has never been aggressive but I am sure it’s just a matter of time. Hopefully he will prove me wrong!
PROS
- Protect their flock.
- Beautiful birds to keep.
- Will mate with hens and provide chicks in Spring.
CONS
- Can be very aggressive.
- Grow spurs that can hurt you.
- Can over mate with hens.
- Should only have 1 per 8-10 hens.
Okay my friends that is my line up! I hope that you found this blog post helpful. If you have any specific questions about any of the animals I raise please feel free to email me or leave a comment below.
XO
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