Eggs from your poultry will make survival so much easier after the SHTF. Photo Source: The Prepper Project
Why Should Preppers Keep Poultry?
There are several reasons poultry are great for preppers. They are smaller and easier to house and feed compared to most livestock. They can also free range for much of their own feed quite well. If you keep poultry you’ll have protein in the form of eggs and meat for your survival table. You can save the down from butchering to stuff pillows, comforters, and jackets if we run into a long term survival situation. Having your own birds around will also provide entertainment, which could come in handy when there aren’t any sitcoms on the airwaves.
When you talk about poultry, most people think of chickens. They are the most commonly kept birds, but there are others that can make great livestock for families that are prepping for economic collapse or other SHTF scenarios.
Top Poultry Picks
All of these birds have their own merits as survival livestock. Depending on your situation, you may want to keep some or all of these poultry to help keep your family fed post SHTF.
Chickens are the best layers and will provide several eggs a week for your family. Photo Source: The Prepper Project
Chickens
Chickens are the best egg layers of all the poultry. One or two eggs will provide a nice meal for a lone survivor, along with some vegetables. A freshly butchered chicken will make a big pot of soup to feed quite a few people, or it can be roasted to serve a family of 4 to 6 very easily.
Chickens can be a bit noisy, so if you are prepping in the suburbs where they are restricted you’ll have a tough time keeping a covert coop. To raise your own chicks, you’ll need several hens and a rooster. The best breeds of chickens for preppers will hatch and raise their own young, as well as forage for their own food.
Heritage turkeys can raise their own young, an important feature of survival livestock. Photo source: Wikimedia (author Martin Pettitt)
Turkeys
Heritage breeds of turkeys, such as the Bourbon Red, Narrangansett, and the domesticated wild turkey, will raise offspring and forage for their own food if allowed to free range. These are not the bulky, broad breasted birds that the grocery stores sell for Thanksgiving. Those behemoths are unable to mate naturally or fly up into trees. So choose a heritage breed that can raise their own young, and has better camouflage from predators for your survival flock. They will have the added advantage of being able to fly up and roost in trees for the night to prevent predation.
Turkeys lay eggs much larger and higher in nutrients than chicken eggs. However turkeys will not lay nearly as many eggs each year compared to chickens and most are laid in the spring, when turkeys naturally raise their young.
Guinea Fowl are odd looking birds but make a good source of meat. Photo source: Wikimedia (author – Steve from Washington D.C.)
Guinea Fowl
These odd looking birds from Africa are excellent foragers and will clean up the ticks and other pests around your survival retreat. That’s a huge bonus when there’s no doctor or meds around to treat Lyme’s Disease. Guinea fowl will sound the alarm when predators are close by and have been known to attack and kill snakes and rodents. They roost in trees at night to avoid predators, but will become fairly wild and hard to catch when you want to butcher one for a meal. The best idea is to train them to roost in a coop at night where they will be protected. The hens do a much better job of raising their young if they are penned in until their keets are old enough to fend for themselves. Their eggs are smaller than chicken eggs, but their ability to obtain almost all of their feed from the wild makes them a good bird for survival. Harsh winters can be pretty tough on them, so you’ll need to provide shelter and some feed in the winter.
Geese
Geese make very good guardians for your other livestock. When they sense an intruder they will set to honking an alarm for the whole world to hear. This is good if you want to be alerted to danger, but maybe not so good if you’re aiming for a covert survival retreat. They will also deal out a generous dose of whoop ass on any unarmed intruders, possibly removing a nice chunk of butt cheek in the process. A pond or other body of water will keep them much happier and they will gladly mow your grass all day, supplying their own feed. The Emden and Toulouse are good breeds for guarding your property, while the Pilgrim are friendlier and quieter. Most geese will only lay 30 to 45 eggs each spring. You can steal the eggs from their nest and put them under a broody hen or duck to encourage the goose to lay more of their large, delicious eggs. Geese live for a long time and one breeding trio will raise quite a few youngsters for meat each year.
Muscovy Ducks will raise several clutches of ducklings each year and make excellent mothers. Photo source: Wikimedia (Author – Christian Jansky)
Muscovy Ducks
Of all the ducks on the market, the best survival breed is the Muscovy. These quiet birds do not need a pond or lake. Unlike most ducks, they make excellent mothers and will raise several clutches of ducklings each summer. Their meat and eggs are delicious and have less fat than most ducks. They are good at supplying their own feed during the summer and will happily rid your retreat of mosquitoes, flies, and other pests. Muscovies are very good fliers, so be sure to clip their wings or hand feed them to train them to stick around. They are a rather odd looking birds but their meat tastes so good, you’ll be glad to have them around.
A flock of pigeons can be had for free, if you can attract and trap them. Photo Source: The Prepper Project
Pigeons
Yeah, you read that right…pigeons are a great bird to keep in a post apocalyptic world. First of all, many people will be caught without any livestock when the SHTF and nice, fat chickens will be really hard to come by. So what’s an unprepared survivor to do? If you can attract a small flock of pigeons to your survival retreat, trap them, then keep them caged in their new digs for a couple of weeks, they will stick around and provide you with eggs and meat. You’ll need to provide them with grain and water during this adjustment period, but after that they will forage for all of their feed! If you want to get started on pigeon keeping now, you’ll need a dove cote for housing them. A dove cote is basically a small coop with holes for the pigeons to come and go. Usually they are built up high in the hay mow of a barn, for example. The birds will need nesting boxes to build their nests and lay their eggs. It’s also a good idea to provide fresh water in the winter if everything is frozen. You may want to have a little extra grain to keep them plump during the winter too.
Pigeons are small and one bird will feed one or maybe two people, in a pinch. So you’ll want to keep a nice sized flock if you are depending on them as a staple of your diet. They lay two small eggs in each clutch and will raise the young pretty quickly, then start on another clutch. If you steal the eggs to make your survival breakfast, they’ll lay more.
But Lisa, I Live in the Suburbs…
Fear not, there is a bird for you! Urban and suburban preppers who are interested in poultry, but are prohibited from keeping them may be able to ‘fly under the wire’ with a small flock of quail. These small birds are quiet and easy to keep in a cage. They begin laying at an early age and can be dressed for a gourmet survival meal. Their eggs are small so two can be used to replace one chicken egg. Keeping them in a basement or garage is possible without anyone being the wiser. Bugging out with them might be an interesting challenge, but hey, you could always eat them if you get stuck in the ‘burbs for a while.
You can also try your hand at raising pigeons, but be prepared for complaints from the neighbors!
Prepping with Poultry
Having flocks of poultry on your survival retreat will allow you to eat eggs and meat year round if you prepare ahead and take care to provide their necessary requirements. A sturdy coop is a must to prevent possums, raccoons, fox, mountain lions, and other predators from stealing your birds at night. Allowing them to free range during the day will help provide them with the protein and nutrients they need to survive, but it is not without risk. Hawks and eagles will be happy to take a nice fat bird off your hands, and will come back once they find easy prey. Check out Dave’s article on Feeding Chickens Without Buying Feed.
Keep your poultry penned up until they are old enough to forage with the rest of the flock, or they will disappear pronto. Keep some grain or other goodies on hand to call them back to the coop at night, unless you want them to be wild and roost outside at night. In northern climates they will fare much better in a coop during the winter, at least at night. Clipping their wings (just the feathers) will prevent your birds from flying off in search of new territory, but it will also make them more vulnerable to predation. Feed crushed egg shells back to your flock to help recycle the calcium they need for continued egg production. You will need some grain for the winter in cold climates and a little corn will help to heat up their bodies. They will not lay in the winter unless you trick them into thinking the days are longer with a light in their coop. Several solar powered lights might help.
Learn how to raise your poultry and butcher them for food while it’s still easy to replace them. One mistake can wipe out most of your flock, so having some real world experience under your belt before you’re in a survival situation could save your life someday.
0 comments:
Post a Comment