Hello everyone!

[Jessflur]

Hello everyone!
My husband and I just bought our first home in Louisiana and I'm hoping to turn the 5 acres into a little homestead I grew up as a crazy horse girl in Ukraine and miss having fresh food and animals. I wish I could adopt all the BLM mustangs but I have my heart set on some haired sheep (I really like painted deserts), a variety flock of chickens/duck, and maybe some rabbits.

I'm holding off on getting animals for the first year to learn the land and climate more, but I'm excited to read and learn about other's experiences.

 

[RR Homestead]

Welcome to the forum! Hope you'll stick around. Kudos to you for holding off on getting animals to learn the area and climate. So many people don't do that. Can't wait to follow you're journey.
If you get a chance put Louisiana in your profile so people can offer more detailed help for your location on other threads you create.

 

[SageHill]

Welcome to BYH !!! Congrats on your first house and acres!!
Good idea holding off on so much to learn the land and climate. BUT --- you could get a few chickens to start - heck right away even. Besides, chickens are known as the gateway farm critter!

 

[Jessflur]

Welcome to BYH !!! Congrats on your first house and acres!!
Good idea holding off on so much to learn the land and climate. BUT --- you could get a few chickens to start - heck right away even. Besides, chickens are known as the gateway farm critter!

I like where your head is at! I need to build a coop and run first (I really like "chicken tractors") but I hope I can get those started asap! I was also thinking about raising chicks so I could have chickens I could handle easily.

Welcome to the forum! Hope you'll stick around. Kudos to you for holding off on getting animals to learn the area and climate. So many people don't do that. Can't wait to follow you're journey.
If you get a chance put Louisiana in your profile so people can offer more detailed help for your location on other threads you create.

Thank you so much and thanks for the tip!

 

[SageHill]

Get chicks now - it's actually a good time to get them. I started mine in the house in a Rubbermaid type of bin with a heat lamp. Works great for a couple weeks then they get a little odiferous . There's lots of ways to house chickens - @fuzzi has a lot of pics of what she does. Chickens are her thing.
This is what I have done - while I'd love to let mine free range it's not a good idea because of the number of coyotes here. I've lost a lot to coyotes at our first place and since have become the Fort Knox of chicken-dom. Just 4 chickens here and that's plenty for two of us for eggs.

DH ("dear hubby") built it. The screened sections are two squares so it's "modular" and can be reconfigured if necessary. The screen is hardware cloth.

 

[RR Homestead]

Watch out for chicken math..... or goat math.... or sheep math.... or dairy cow math..... Awe heck. Just give in and buy 50 of everything and get it over with quickly. Don't ask me how I know this math so well. Better yet don't ask my better half or you'll learn the truth
If you don't know what chicken math is think of your favorite snack and how you just can't stop at 1
Seriously though, chickens are a great place to start and it is the perfect time to start them. Not a super hard learning curve either other than keeping them protected and the temps right.

 

[Baymule]

Howdy Neighbor! I'm in East Texas between Lufkin and Crockett in a little nowhere place down a dead end dirt road. LOL I'm on 25 acres and I raise Katahdin hair sheep. Since you are new to all of this, I suggest that you read the forums on sheep. There is tons of information in past posts and you can learn a lot that you haven't even thought of. That's what I did while I lived in town, for 5 years until we retired and moved to 8 acres of loveliness. Then my husband passed away and what did I do? I sold the farm. Then I bought a bigger one...... so I could have MORE SHEEP!

Back to you..... yes definitely get chickens, they are wonderful creatures. You can order from a hatchery or buy at the feed store. Have fun with it and order different breeds and colors. You will have a feathered flower bouquet! And use hardware cloth, never chicken wire. Any predator can rip chicken wire and kill your flock.

@Blue Sky has Painted Desert ewes with a Racka ram. She can give you some insight on the breed. Popular hair breeds are Dorper, Katahdin, Painted Desert, American Blackbelly, Saint Croix and maybe a couple more.

Go to the sheep forum, Birthing, Weaning and Raising Young Sheep, scroll down to Baymule's 2026 Lambing and start reading. I tried to provide a link, but this is a Dell laptop and it doesn't copy and paste. It is press ctrl and c at the same time then press ctrl and v and it rarely works, is stupid (or maybe I am) and I'll never have another Dell again.

What part of Louisiana are you in?

 

[Blue Sky]

Welcome to the site and to the South. Along with learning about the climate you will need to learn about the wildlife. There are insects and reptiles that can be problems. Feel free to ask questions.