You’re prepared for the worst, but what about reality?

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HoLeChit

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Not trying to knock on you guys who are preparing for the next mad max fury road, but what about what is going on right now? Specifically, within the city? I’m moving from mustang to Edmond, staying in a regular city lot. Watching food/energy prices gives me the willies. I would really like to try and pad my losses with all this crap going on. I have maybe 3-6 months worth of food, but I don’t want to store food for the fall of civilization, I want to be prepared for the sake of my pocket book. If it were 2-4 years in the future and I had bought my 20-30 acres and such I wouldn’t be concerned and could go about farming, everything would be ok. But right now living in a standard city lot is my reality. What can I do to offset things/build myself a bit of a safety net? I’m on a fixed income at the moment, so I don’t have a ton of wiggle room. I’ve been considering getting 4-6 chickens (Edmond allows that many for my size lot if I’m not mistaken), maybe starting a garden. This spring I would also like to start beekeeping. But given my little plot of land, and my finances, my options aren’t great right now. Aside from stocking up on a few staples, I don’t have much desire to hoard a ton of ridiculously inflated groceries.

what do you guys suggest? Keep a half dozen chickens, start a few raised beds and a beehive? Am I looking at spending more money that I will likely save?

what about quail? They’re plenty tasty, produce eggs, and from what I heard take up little space. While the husbandry techniques would be different, having a few quail would be super handy next year, as I’m getting a hunting dog and would need some good training aids.
 

2busy

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First off bees are expensive. I've been bee keeping for 8 years. You can buy honey cheaper than you'll produce your own. Having bees is a never ending learning experience.
Coturnix quail are super easy to raise. You'll have to incubate the eggs as they have been domesticated so much they hardly ever set on their eggs .They don't fly but rather hop and flutter. You can catch them with your hands .
You can grow a lot of food in a small area if you don't have restrictions in your neighborhood.
 

dennishoddy

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One of our members said that raising ducks for eggs is better/easier than nasty chickens. Some other members bought eggs from her and commented they were very good to eat so that is my contribution on that part.
I think she raises quail as well.
Another member has family that raises quail for eggs and maybe meat? I got some of their eggs. Loved them fried although they were tiny.
 

Jason Freeland

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I haven't done it myself, but have heard that you can buy bulk food from the Latter Day Saints church. Not overpriced and good stuff. I checked once a few years ago and they had an OKC office at the time.
 

radarmonkey

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Double check for any HOA rules at your new residence. Just because the city allows some domestic livestock you could still be violating your new neighborhood's covenants. Trust me, you don't want HOA "Karen" knocking on your door. (These are lessons I've learned the hard way by moving to Edmond in '03) Most parts of older Edmond do not have HOA covenants.
 

swampratt

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Quail do not eat much and you need to eat them at 6-8 weeks old just like a chicken or they begin to get tough.
Not much meat on them either and mine quit laying 3 weeks ago and will not lay another egg until spring.

I do not know if it is the cold or if it is the lack of sunlight.
Chickens will lay all through the winter if you have a light on early in the morning until you go to bed.

Quail do not eat as much but not laying and feeding them through the winter will kill the save money factor.

I got chickens because store eggs gave me the craps.
Aldi eggs do not do that to me neither do Braums eggs.
Aldi eggs are cheaper than I can get my chickens to lay them.

Roosters will eat until all the food is gone DO NOT get one of those if you wish to save money on eggs.

Build a good box that you can't fit a finger through anywhere to house the quail or coons, snakes or other critters will get them.

Chicken coop. Bury the chicken wire deep also as rodents will tunnel under it.
I have 2x4 and 2x6 boards buried around my coop with wire stapled to it and oiled the wood so rodents have a very nasty and hard time getting under it.
I also have foot hold traps around the yard that catch unwanted critters.

If you want quail you can have mine.
I was going to eat them or give them away and the reason is it will be cheaper to buy new ones in the spring than feed them until then.
I will probably not get any then either.
Just more chickens if I need more eggs.
 

RickN

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Also I read that Edmond requires you to take a course to keep chickens. We do use a few containers to grow a few things like tomatoes and bell peppers. Wife tried carrots this year but the container was wrong for that. I plan to try zucchini and yellow squash next year if I can. Depends on if I can figure out how to haul a 16 ft cattle panel to make tomato cages on my Toyota Rav4. :rotflmao:

We found it cheaper to just sale shop. Every week I watch the sales that start on Wed at Aldi & Sprouts. When something we use is on sale we buy a little extra and when not, we buy just the basics. We shop Aldi every week because of their low prices on many things then one week we will shop Walmart too, the next week Crest foods. We also shop Sprouts when they have a good sale because most times they are over priced.
 

Forgalspop

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Quail do not eat much and you need to eat them at 6-8 weeks old just like a chicken or they begin to get tough.
Not much meat on them either and mine quit laying 3 weeks ago and will not lay another egg until spring.

I do not know if it is the cold or if it is the lack of sunlight.
Chickens will lay all through the winter if you have a light on early in the morning until you go to bed.

Quail do not eat as much but not laying and feeding them through the winter will kill the save money factor.

I got chickens because store eggs gave me the craps.
Aldi eggs do not do that to me neither do Braums eggs.
Aldi eggs are cheaper than I can get my chickens to lay them.

Roosters will eat until all the food is gone DO NOT get one of those if you wish to save money on eggs.

Build a good box that you can't fit a finger through anywhere to house the quail or coons, snakes or other critters will get them.

Chicken coop. Bury the chicken wire deep also as rodents will tunnel under it.
I have 2x4 and 2x6 boards buried around my coop with wire stapled to it and oiled the wood so rodents have a very nasty and hard time getting under it.
I also have foot hold traps around the yard that catch unwanted critters.

If you want quail you can have mine.
I was going to eat them or give them away and the reason is it will be cheaper to buy new ones in the spring than feed them until then.
I will probably not get any then either.
Just more chickens if I need more eggs.
We are fortunate. Our neighbor across the way has a church member that raises a bunch of chickens and they bring eggs to their church for the members. Every Sunday he brings us farm fresh eggs. I give him $20.00 every month or two to give to his church member for chicken feed. I don't have to fool with those foul fowl.

When I was a teenager there was what we called "The Turkey Farm" a block from our house. They raised guineas, chickens, turkeys and exotic type birds and shipped them around they country. I worked for them a few weeks at 50 cents/hour gathering eggs to incubate and cleaning out the laying coops etc. That was the nastiest worst job I have ever had and I've worked some dirty jobs. The turkeys and other birds would attack me when gathering eggs, etc. I swore I would never raise birds of any kind. There's a reason they are called Fowl......I found them to be foul critters. :)
 

cowadle

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Quail do not eat much and you need to eat them at 6-8 weeks old just like a chicken or they begin to get tough.
Not much meat on them either and mine quit laying 3 weeks ago and will not lay another egg until spring.

I do not know if it is the cold or if it is the lack of sunlight.
Chickens will lay all through the winter if you have a light on early in the morning until you go to bed.

Quail do not eat as much but not laying and feeding them through the winter will kill the save money factor.

I got chickens because store eggs gave me the craps.
Aldi eggs do not do that to me neither do Braums eggs.
Aldi eggs are cheaper than I can get my chickens to lay them.

Roosters will eat until all the food is gone DO NOT get one of those if you wish to save money on eggs.

Build a good box that you can't fit a finger through anywhere to house the quail or coons, snakes or other critters will get them.

Chicken coop. Bury the chicken wire deep also as rodents will tunnel under it.
I have 2x4 and 2x6 boards buried around my coop with wire stapled to it and oiled the wood so rodents have a very nasty and hard time getting under it.
I also have foot hold traps around the yard that catch unwanted critters.

If you want quail you can have mine.
I was going to eat them or give them away and the reason is it will be cheaper to buy new ones in the spring than feed them until then.
I will probably not get any then either.
Just more chickens if I need more eggs.
i think the majik number for chickens is 11 hours of light. they are sensitive to light and you can force molt the hens bringing them back into a laying cycle. the brightness of the light does matter so don't make it to bright. i could be wrong about the 11 hours maybe more or less but it works. i have kept eggs unwashed for over a year without spoilage.
 

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