Hi there.
We are in the Pee Dee Region of South Carolina. We are what I call, gradual homesteaders. We have chickens (bantams and standard). Our neighbor has guineas which frequent us. You definitely want guineas if you have ticks. Bantam Chickens are prolific breeders. They are small, but make a nice meal. We usually eat our bantam eggs and sell the larger eggs. Our best laying hens are Rhode Island Red, Red Sex-Link, and Olive Egger.
Some tricks we've learned for chickens are:
1. Instead of buying calcium/ oyster shell to increase egg production, save your eggshells. We rinse ours right after using, dry on sink ledge, then place in a gallon size bucket (no lid or they will mildew). Once the bucket is full, I crush them. I just put a paper towel over the top (because the egg shells are sharp) and crush down with my hands. Spread over a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 250 F for 30 minutes. Then just spread to chickens.
2. To hatch Guineas, collect eggs and place under brooding chicken. The chicken will hatch the eggs and raise the guineas. Guineas are horrible mothers. You will have more success with a Chicken as the mother.
We are also raising rabbits. The best meat rabbits are New Zealand, Rex and Flemish Giant. We have a New Zealand Doe and a Rex/Flemish Giant mix Buck. We have bred them and have a nice mix of rabbits. We are on our 2nd litter and just had a litter of 10 that will be ready to go in early April. If you want to breed them, you would need to get the doe and buck from different family lines. (You can't breed brother and sister). Even though you might just be raising them for meat, you may want to handle and pet them frequently. We've found it makes it a lot easier to handle them when they are tame.
Between our neighbor and us, we could spare some chickens and guineas and we will have rabbits ready in April if we are not too far from you.
