Ultimate Guide to Hobby Farm Animals (Paperback)

Learn everything a hobby farmer needs to know about farm animals!

• 7 popular farm animals — beef cattle, chickens, ducks, goats, pigs, rabbits, and sheep — with extensive sections for each, including information on breeds and varieties
• Detailed how-to on the care, handling, feeding, health, and safety of each animal
• Breeding methods, breeding cycles, caring for pregnant females, caring for baby animals, and raising young animals
• Troubleshooting tips for potential problems and warding off diseases, parasites, and predators
• How to capitalize on your livestock's output by selling eggs, milk, meat, fiber, and feathers
• Revised edition vetted and updated by Dr. Mark McConnon, DVM, hobby farm professionals, and veterinarians for the most up-to-date information available on the market for shelter, care, health, medicine, nutrition, behavior, marketing, and profit

What's a hobby farm without a small flock or herd (or several)?

A single, information-packed volume with everything a small-scale hobby farmer, breeder, or homesteader needs to know about farm animals, this updated and comprehensive manual to selecting, caring for, and breeding livestock provides the expertise of five seasoned hobby farmers, each of whom has real life on-the-farm experience with the animals discussed.

Whether you're contemplating adding a small herd of sheep or goats to your existing hobby farm, or you've always wondered about the benefits of raising Angora rabbits or Muscovy ducks, this must-have resource provides the guidance and helpful hints you need to begin a herd or flock and expand your pens and fencing.

With exhaustive detail, the authors — five experienced hobby farmers and writers — share the wisdom and knowledge gained from years of animal keeping for pleasure and profit. In 384 information-packed pages, you'll find complete coverage of chickens, ducks, goats, sheep, beef cattle, pigs, and rabbits, including the shelter, facilities, special needs, advantages, and challenges of each, as well as how to feed balanced nutrition at all life stages.

You'll learn a responsible animal raiser's healthcare plan, including vaccinations, health clearances, common illnesses, and first aid, find advice on selecting the right animals for your particular farm, lifestyle, and aspirations, and learn how to best handle and work with your animals. Also provided are strategies for marketing and selling your animals' meat, milk, eggs, fleece, or feather down, plus overviews on the animals' history, their typical behavioral traits, personal anecdotes, and more.

This revised edition includes updated information across all topics for the most complete and up-to-date insight in hobby farming, from shelter, care, health, and medicine to nutrition, behavior, marketing, and profit.

Get the comprehensive guidance you need to welcome new livestock onto your farm and into your life, with Ultimate Guide to Hobby Farm Animals!

Sue Weaver has written hundreds of articles and ten books about livestock and poultry. She is a contributing editor of Hobby Farms magazine and writes the "Poultry Profiles" column for Chickens magazine. Sue lives on a small farm in Arkansas, which she shares with her husband, a flock of Classic Cheviot sheep and a mixed herd of goats, horses large and small, a donkey who thinks she's a horse, two llamas, a riding steer, a water buffalo, a pet razorback pig, guinea fowl, and Buckeye chickens.