survivability of livestock

[Ferret]

I hope it's okay to leap in here, as I'm very new. We have kept various livestock from pigs to rheas as well as the more usual poultry etc.

Starting with poultry - dead easy to look after, provide eggs, meat and feathers. Have a tendency to forget to live. I swear the phrase " bird brain" was concocted by a poultry keeper. Having said that I have sewn up a hen with fishing line after an incident with a local dog and she lived to lay a shed load of eggs so they aren't all bad.

Rheas/Ostriches - don't even think about it, they make hens looks like huskies. They break their legs (die), fall over from shock (die) or just die. The eggs and meat may be delicious but they are not worth the effort.

Pigs - I am (was) a pig fan. I have loved pigs all my life. Then we got Bella and Bessie. Small pigs are cute, big pigs are MASSIVE. I hate to think what a big pig who hasn't been fed for a week or so is like. I have watched our pigs lift the latch with their noses then break down a door to get to the feed bins. They are very clever and they can be very viscious, there is no "I am full" gene for a pig. If they want it they will get it and like rats they will chew and gnaw till they get what they want. Great animals if you can contain them, not something I would want in my garden if i were short of food.

Goats - another soft spot of mine. Like the pigs they are houdinis, unlike the pigs they don't have a vicious bone in their bodies and they are good for milk too as long as they are in calf.

Sheep - hmm I can't speak from great experience. Such sheep as I have had to look after have been relativel low input IN THE MODERN DAY. If there is no antiseptic or antibiotics I wonder how many of the breeds we have easy access to would survive lambing. They are also dead stupid, this is both good (easy to herd) and bad (if they go off on their own they are usually a goner)