What small animals are easiest for a beginner homestead?

Hi everyone,
I’m new to keeping animals and I’m trying to decide what would be easiest to start with.
I’m considering chickens, rabbits or ducks, but I don’t want to start with something that needs more time and work than I can manage.
Which small animals have been easiest for you? I’d especially like to know about feeding, cleaning, housing and winter care.
Any advice for a beginner would be greatly appreciated!

How much time and work can you manage?

I would start with chickens because we started with chickens.

Depending on the breed you pick, it might be possible to have both meat and eggs.

If you look at shelter first, then rabbits might be a easy for you.

Time wise feeding might be the same for all that you mentioned depending on how many you pick.

I find chickens to be an easy livestock option to begin with but with a caveat. A lot of the 'busy' work with chickens is front loaded. I would high recommend taking the time to not only learn as much as you can about chicken husbandry but in designing and creating their living spaces. There is not one correct way to raise chickens so it is important to consider HOW you would like to raise them. Deep bedding vs poop boards, raised coop verses one that is at ground level and many other considerations.

I'm a fan of overbuilding compared to minimum requirements per bird. My coop could probably house a few dozen more birds than it already does and their enclosed run is spacious for when I can't be outside with them while they free range.

Chicken chicks grow fast. I recommend to folks considering them to already have your coop ready to go before getting the chicks because you might be as surprised as I was when they started putting on size. I have three 'generations' of hens so far all on the original blueprint that I designed and still have space to expand if need be.

Now that I have the hens and the run/coop, besides a quick five minute check every day they have everything they need to last them roughly a week at a time. I refill their food/water/supplements on the weekend and do a total coop cleanout maybe twice a year. No health issues so far!

I think it depends on your space and the situation.
In our urban setting we have a lot of feral cats, so our chicken space would have to be entirely enclosed.
That means I could have a garden or chickens, but not both.
So I have rabbits instead. They also eat up all my garden/kitchen waste and give me free fertilizer in return.
They need to be fed and watered, nails clipped and fur brushed every so often. Check for ear infections in the cold/wet season. They like to go out and play in the run every so often, they like things to gnaw on. They really take very little effort and are hardy, they chase the cats away when they're out in their run, and I've had next to no problems with illness.

Great that you are considering carefully what you would enjoy / be able to manage before you dive in.

In the spirit of letting the animals do as much of 'the chores' as possible, having chickens on deep litter bedding underneath elevated rabbit enclosures creates a partnership that makes fantastic compost for you. Instead of thinking which one animal to begin with, it might be helpful to begin with this pairing.  This is how my farm's rabbitry has been set up. Having the chickens turning the wood shavings (actually I use shredded cardboard most of the time) in the deep litter, continually  mixing in the rabbit manure turns the potential of a smelly maintenance task for you of cleaning/removing manure into the benefit of compost you can use on your homestead. Joel Salatin says the clucking of the chickens seems to provide a good backdrop of sound that calms the rabbits.

There are classes Joel teaches about chickens / rabbits and this combination which he calls a 'Raken' house at his channel and website
https://www.youtube.com/@farmlikealunatic
https://www.farmlikealunatic.com/
and plenty of YouTube examples where people have implemented it in their own way.


Joel's Polyface Designs book gives a clear description of how to implement.

Good luck with the selection process for whatever you decide, and let us know how it goes!

I’d probably start with chickens, but get the housing sorted before bringing any home. In my experience the everyday care isn’t really the difficult part once you have a good setup. A secure coop and run, easy access to clean water, somewhere dry for feed and a plan for winter make a huge difference.

I’d also start with fewer birds than you think you want. It’s much easier to add a few later than discover that your first flock is already more work than you expected.

Id start with chickens or ducks. If you haven't raised alot of critters before you will underestimate how easy it is to get attached to them. Its easy to say now that you will butcher the cute fuzzy rabbit but then youl care for them and there offspring for a few months and now you have pets instead of livestock. Chickens and ducks are a easy way of getting experience and eggs for the table. Plus its easier to learn the mental thing of butchering a animal you have fed and bonded with on a angry jerk of a teenage rooster then a docile sweet doe the kiddos named snowball. That or start with Cornish cross chickens for meat, If you try to put off there last day they get to big and its painful to me to watch them waddle around on painful joints.

If yield of food is in your equation, start with chickens.

I'd have to say racoons, though deer are also very easy around here.

I think Muscovy ducks are probably the easiest meat animal.  

They go from hatching to full size in about 6 months.  They will hatch and raise their young with no help from me.  In a lot of situations you can feed them for free.  

In the summer, if you just have a mud puddle, the ducklings can live happily on the insects that come to the puddle.  

It seems to me that ducks use far less grain than chickens.   They also are easier on their habitat.  If you don't have enough paddocks to move animals around in yet I think ducks are a good start.  

I love rabbits too but they seem to be always getting out of their paddock.   Otherwise they are very easy and can be almost free to feed.

If you want chickens for eggs, I would get a gentle breed that does not fly much, the buff orpington is nice and no trouble.

I think the main thing is to start really small with the fewest possible animals.  That way it will be easy and delightful.


Good luck!