First, what meat CAN you raise? Pork, chicken, turkey, quail, rabbit… Honestly, the possibilities for home-grown meats are just about endless. What is allowed, on the other hand, may not be. For example: most cities have some sort of ordinance that does not allow residents to have a cow or a rooster. I can’t tell you what is legal where you are; you’re probably going to have to do some internet research to find the laws that apply to your specific situation.

Local Legality

Start with your state. Check for state-level laws for livestock. As of writing this, I’m unaware of any states in the US banning the stereotypical farm animals, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. And, if you’re wanting to grow something unique like bighorn sheep, you’ll need to make sure it doesn’t require a permit or isn’t classified as wildlife.

Next, look into your county. Counties do have their own ordinances on what is and is not permitted. Be prepared to read the actual legislation; don’t just trust a local law firm’s website–they aren’t always completely accurate.

Then, check your municipality, whether it’s the town, city, or some other local governing body. If your property is outside their limits, you most likely don’t have to follow their rules. However, many places have a provision that actually expands the city’s jurisdiction to a mile or two outside their actual city limits.

If you’re in a position where the county government and city government are the same thing (hello Hampton Roads, VA), your property should be zoned in some form of “rural” or “not-rural.” The two different zones will have different regulations.

Deed Restrictions

Finally, double and maybe even triple check your deed restrictions. Many properties have restrictions on them that have transferred from owner to owner for decades. These land-use stipulations can often be removed, but how to do that depends on who placed the restriction in the first place. Head on back to the search engine of your choice and get to sleuthing.

Now that you know what you’re allowed to own on your property, you need to start somewhere. If you ignore every bit of advice I have to share, this is the one piece to take to heart:

START SMALL.

I cannot stress this enough. If you’re new to this, pick ONE species to raise. Just one. Give it a few months before you add another. I don’t care if you’re a stay-at-home spouse with thousands of disposable dollars, no kids, and no responsibilities. Start with one type of animal.

I don’t know a single successful farmer (market or subsistence) who started by jumping into animal husbandry feet first with a sink or swim mentality. It’s a recipe for disaster, because each animal comes with its own requirements, challenges, and a steep learning curve. There is no amount of research, no number of YouTube videos, no stack of books you can read that will ever give you the same level of knowledge as hands-on experience. This is the hill I will die on: start with one.

Ok, that was aggressive. Which one?

Now we’re back to personal preference. I won’t tell anyone, “Just raise the easiest animal!” Easy isn’t universal. So Will and I put together a chart that gives our take on the farm animals we have raised, and you can do what you will with that information:

Animal	Good Stock	Good Feed	Feed : Product Ratio	Feed Price	Minimum Space	Return on Investment	Veterinary Needs	Home Butchering
Egg Chickens	Common	Common	Varies	Low	Small	Immediate – 8 Months	Low	Simple
Meat Chickens	Common	Common	Good	Low	Small	8-12 Weeks	None	Quick and Simple*
Turkeys	Common	Common	Okay – Bad	Medium	Small	12-16 Weeks	None	Simple
Egg Ducks	Common	Uncommon	Good – Bad	Low	Small	6+ Months	Low	Complicated
Meat Ducks	Common	Uncommon	Good	Low	Small	6-12 Weeks	None	Complicated
Muscovies	Uncommon	Uncommon	Great	Low	Medium	12-16 Weeks	None	Complicated
Geese	Rare	Uncommon	Good	Low	Medium	18-20 Weeks	Low	Complex
Pigs	Uncommon	Common	Okay	Medium	Medium	7-18 Months	Some	Long and Complicated
Milk Cows	Rare	Common	Okay – Bad	Medium	Large	Immediate – 3 Years	High	Long and Arduous
Beef Cows	Uncommon	Common	Okay – Bad	Medium – High	Large	6 Months – 2 Years	Some	Long and Arduous
Milk Goats	Rare	Uncommon	Good – Bad	Medium	Medium	Immediate – 6 Months	High	Long and Complicated
Rabbits	Common	Common	Good – Okay	Medium	Small	6+ Months	Low	Quick and Simple
Coturnix Quail	Common	Rare	Great	High**	Extra Small	8+ Weeks	None	Quick and Simple*

Good Stock

The first column of information is about how often you might come across decent stock for the animal in question. Most poultry is pretty easy to find. Just do a google search and several hatcheries will pop up. We’ve used Cackle and Murray McMurray with good results. It’s a bit harder to find stock that’s truly worth the money when it comes to pigs and cattle, and downright difficult to find high-quality milking animals.

Good Feed

The next column is for finding good feed. Anything branded “all-flock” is terrible. There aren’t two species on this list that have the same nutritional needs. Avoid all-flock feeds like the plague and get your animals some feed that was designed for them.

Feed : Product Ratio

The Feed : Product Ratio basically amounts to how many pounds of feed you put into that animal in order to get a pound of product out of that animal. In our experience, pound for pound muscovies and quail take the least amount of feed. Egg chickens are the only one on the list that we decided to label as “varies” for this column because there are hundreds of breeds and crosses for egg chickens and their laying productivity ranges from extremely poor to phenomenal.

Minimum Space

The Minimum Space column is just that: minimum. Yes, you can raise 3 egg chickens in 6 sq ft, and you can raise a pair of feeder piglets in a 16′ x 32′ pen. Should you? Probably not. Does it work? Sure, but the smaller the space you keep your animal in, the more veterinary issues you’re likely to have.

Return on Investment

Your Return on Investment timeframe will vary depending on what breed you keep and how old the animal is when you purchase it. Dairy cows are the best example. If you buy a Holstein bottle baby, you won’t be able to get milk out of that cow until she’s almost 3 years old. If you buy her when she’s already an adult, in milk, and used to being milked daily, you’ll start seeing the return literally the next day.

Veterinary Needs

Veterinary Needs for farm animals are usually emergencies, and therefore it’s generally the breeding stock that actually gets to know the vet. With some animals, it’s more cost effective to replace the stock than it would be to have a vet take a look at it.

Farm life is full of hard truths. A responsible farmer is going to humanely cull a sick 2-week-old Cornish X chick. She isn’t going to take that bird to the vet and pay $100+ to render it inedible and continue paying to feed it for a natural lifetime. However, you can take it to the bank that the same farmer is going to have a blank check ready if her best milk cow needs an emergency IV of calcium the day she drops a new calf.

Home Butchering

We almost left the last column off this chart entirely. In the end, we decided that it’s just as easy to explain our opinion here as it was to explain the Return on Investment column: basically, how you go about it is going to dictate the result for you. For example, if you choose to skin a 6-week-old pekin duck, it’s a very quick, relatively simple process. However, if you want whole duck in the normal fashion with skin on, the carcass must be plucked. Even industrial plucking machines struggle to remove all the feathers from waterfowl. They have to be waxed and/or touched up by hand.

Our rule of thumb with the Home Butchering column was going with the norm. If you’re going to butcher 50 meat chickens, you’re probably going to get some sort of plucker–which immediately makes meat chickens one of the easiest, fastest animals to butcher at home.

You probably did a bit of reading and watching when you were trying to figure out what species you want to start with. Now it’s time to really dig into the nitty gritty. Read several blog posts of success stories and failures. Listen to both the people that recommend that animal and those who will never raise it again. Remember what I said earlier: no spoken or written word is going to give you what your own experience will. The research process will give you a decent idea of what you may be up against, though, so don’t skimp on this step.

Before you purchase a farm animal, you need to have the appropriate set-up and a general understanding of that animal. Avoid impulse buying livestock whenever you can. Don’t beat yourself up when it happens, though. We’ve all done it. Experience is the best teacher.

At the time of writing this, I’ve probably lost somewhere in the neighborhood of $2,500 on impulse purchases. Prime example: I bought a pair of 2-year-old open (not bred) dairy cows in 2020. Finally sold them for less than I paid two years later after they broke out of the paddock for the umpteenth time without ever getting an ounce of milk out of them. There was also the breeding group of show quality lemon blue modern game bantams that I bought at a chicken swap simply because they looked ridiculous. We did not, do not, and don’t plan on showing poultry…ever. Yes, I paid show-stock prices.

Mistakes Happen

If you ignored the advice from literally every single knowledgeable person in this industry and already have the animal in question before you even have a pen set up for it…the best I can offer you is this: you’ll live. That animal might not, but you will get a second chance. Hang in there. If a farmer with more than a couple years’ experience tells you that he’s never had a death on his farm that he could have prevented, he’s lying. Bless his heart. Do your best with the situation you’re in, not the situation you could have had.

By the way, I am not guaranteeing that your animal will die. I just want you fully prepared for that outcome. If you’re new here, we don’t sugar coat reality. Animal + inexperienced caretaker + insufficient housing = bad news.

Do your research. Build a pen. Then go shopping.