Alternate meat sources after the rabbit

[Tofu]

Oh and I meant to mention crawfish. I have read a few articles on raising them that seemed do-able for the normal homesteader.

emm pinch the tail, suck the head goodness...

[becky3086]

Exactly! lol,

[Bearman202]

I have read a bit about 'aquaponics' and it looks really interesting. You set up your growing stations, fill it with gravel, and run water through it to a fish tank at the bottom of the process. You then plant in the growing stations, (in the gravel, not in dirt) and pump water from the fish tank up through it. The fish waste fertilizes the plants so they grow fine, and the water is filtered by the time it makes it back to the fish tank. Do a search on it.

As for raising quail, I had the same problem with the idea in that it would take three of them to make a meal. As for ducks. they might be okay, but a cousin raised geese and he said you had to retrain them every day....

[becky3086]

Yes I have read about it too. I would love to have a system like that but I have trouble enough handling what I already have.

[manowar]

protein comes in many sources, there are lots of plants in abundance that have lots of protein, look at Trifolium spp (clover) very easy to identify and high in protein.
but for those who love meat, me included(i just like haveing options) i have dehydrated alot of ground beef.
also i do not hunt my property prefering to hunt else where while helping the wild life flourish w/o any pressure. if there happens to be a horde of city folk, my hypothesis is that most will not survive the first year or two then i will hope(not having any prior experience in this area)that things would get back to "normal" what ever that may be
manowar

[Godcopp]

Coming from someone who worked in the aquarium business for years, a 55 gallon barrel would be one of the worst place to raise fish. Barrels are tall in relation to the surface area of the top. The best combination for fish is relatively shallow but with tons of surface area. A 55 gal drum has 415 sq. inches of surface area. A typical 55 gallon aquarium has 624 sq inches of surface area. A small fish pond 10 inches deep, also holding 55 gallons would have 1250 sq inches of surface area. Now why should you care about surface area? Well that's where all the gas exchange happens, O2 in - CO2 out. More surface area = more fish. A great place to start would be a small garden pond, either molded plastic or made from a liner or a horse trough or similar. Leave the barrels for pickles.

[pixel]

frogs for frog legs, crawfish for food, bees for honey, turtles for YUCK lol turtle soup,

[eeyore]

Coming from someone who worked in the aquarium business for years, a 55 gallon barrel would be one of the worst place to raise fish. Barrels are tall in relation to the surface area of the top. The best combination for fish is relatively shallow but with tons of surface area. A 55 gal drum has 415 sq. inches of surface area. A typical 55 gallon aquarium has 624 sq inches of surface area. A small fish pond 10 inches deep, also holding 55 gallons would have 1250 sq inches of surface area. Now why should you care about surface area? Well that's where all the gas exchange happens, O2 in - CO2 out. More surface area = more fish. A great place to start would be a small garden pond, either molded plastic or made from a liner or a horse trough or similar. Leave the barrels for pickles.

What if the barrels are horizontal, cut in half and them on the laid on the side?

[snarlbuckle]

It seems like the combination of a fish farm and greenhouse would work well to match the flow of nutrients. Fish require oxygen and food, and they produce carbon dioxide and nitrogen. The closer you can get to an artificial ecosystem, the less material you have to put in and the less waste is produced. With that in mind, try to find specific organisms that work well together and capitalize on the flow of resources into and out of your ecosystem.