Wrangling Animals: My First Livestock Farm

Getting My First Animals

After starting some crop fields on my farm, I wanted to also raise animals for more food variety. I built a grass yard with fences to begin keeping livestock. I decided chickens were a good way to start since their eggs would go well with my crops. I went looking and soon guided a few stray chickens back to my farm using seed.

Getting them safely into the pen took some tricky herding at first as they wandered everywhere! But eventually I got three hens settled into their new home. Hearing their soft clucks each morning made me happy I had expanded into animals.

I made sure they had enough food and water while collecting any eggs to use myself. Seeing them peck around the pen made me smile. Building this daily animal care routine gave me purpose. When I found the very first egg from my chickens the next day, I felt so proud. With patience, my little chicken flock would expand, as would my self-sufficiency.

Making the Enclosures Bigger

Over time, my first three chickens had many chicks, becoming a large, busy flock. I clearly needed more space for all the birds to live comfortably. I constructed a big connected yard onto the existing coop, with extra nest boxes and perches for better egg gathering.

Carefully planning then building secure walls and gates between the two pens took concentration and problem solving. But after many adjustments, I finally admired the finished spacious habitat ready for my whole chicken herd!

When I let them explore the fresh enclosure for the first time, they instantly made themselves at home, pecking around happily. Seeing nearly ten hens wandering the big yard I had worked hard to build made me very proud. I looked forward to nurturing even more farm animals this way.

Adding More Livestock Variety

I knew bringing in larger livestock like cows and pigs would allow me to diversify. So I began planning specialized paddock areas on my land to eventually house cattle and swine. Using sturdy wooden planks, I constructed completely new wide pens . Through great patience working to earn animal trust using food bait techniques.

I finally succeeded in slowly guiding individual stray cattle and pigs that had been wandering near my property to follow me into the customized habitats I crafted just for them. Before long, the snorts of swine and moos of cattle now blended amongst the familiar clucks and coos, this brought tremendous satisfaction.

While clearly still only beginning to scratch the surface of my full vision for a vastly diverse and prosperous farm ecosystem, even these foundational steps brought great reward. Just having that initial trickle of daily eggs reliably rolling in thanks to my healthy chickens alone made all the exhaustive efforts intensely gratifying already.

Conclusion

While clearly still only scratching the surface of my broader vision for an ever-expanding and prosperous farm ecosystem here, even these earliest small steps into livestock acquisition brought great waves of accomplishment and reward. Simply hearing birds clucking, pigs snorting, and cows mooing now erupting daily morning made me burst with purpose and pride.

My ability thus far to construct specialty enclosures and in turn nurture this growing diversity of animals through reliable care felt like another major stride towards truly mastering this expansive world around me. And even just having that initial trickle of farm-fresh eggs made all the prior efforts intensely gratifying.

I could not wait to see both my future flocks and herds alike continue multiplying within their new habitats under guidance and support. This humble start into animal husbandry opened up a new channel of motivation – not to mention future dinner options! With these early successes so far caring for this livestock, I felt ready to continue as a budding master farmer.