the best animals for self sufficiency

[BDG]

I have chickens and rabbits. Really easy to look after. Let the chickens out in the morning, make sure they have food and clean water, check the birds over with a glance to make sure they have not been attacked / injured.

Check the rabbits, make sure they have clean food and water.

Later on in the day I will spend a bit more time around them, make sure chicken house is good, have a look at what the chickens have been up to - mine free range all day in my garden - they have ate my spring greens - I am in the process of creating a run they cannot get out of, have to clear a bit of ground of what is on it.

Rabbits I give any spare veg to and handle them. If they are not handled, they will not want to be handled.

As for pests and diseases, worst would be rats, don't have a problem though as I store the food in secure bins away from the stock. Unless I had a notifiable poultry disease, I would likely separate a sick bird and nurse it. If it did not look like it was getting better I would break its neck. Same with the rabbits.

Food - well, the rabbit gets rabbit mix, I pay £8 for 15kg, could get pellets cheaper I think. The chickens are on pellets - £6 20kg and corn £7 20kg. They also get stuff out of the garden - rabbits and chickens love any greens and as the chickens range they eat insects and god knows what else in the compost.

Post SHTF the chickens would have to range for everything - would need a lot more land for them than I have at the moment, but there is plenty of land around me doing nothing. Rabbits can survive on very poor foodstuffs. I would try bringing in if they kept condition and it was not too time consuming, otherwise I would seek to warren them.