Breeding Farm Animals

Backyard chicken coops are becoming increasingly popular. Many cities now allow homeowners to have a small number of hens in their yards, so families can enjoy fresh eggs. Building a coop and a...

A young female hog, called a gilt, can be bred (serviced) as young as 8 to 10 months of age. This is true for all methods of breeding, including hand mating, pen mating, pasture mating, artificial...

Bull semen from almost anywhere can be frozen, shipped and inserted into your cow. Cattlemen, beef and dairy, use artificial insemination to improve the quality of their herd. Analyzing the...

A cow's gestation period lasts approximately 280 days, according to pettalk.com. In a little over nine months, the fetal cow grows from two cells to the soon-to-be full-sized calf.

Goats are good at hiding their pregnancies. Even the most skilled farmer can have difficulty detecting whether a doe is expecting, making it rather hard to determine a goat's due date if you don't...

In the United States alone, approximately 27 billion pounds of beef are produced per year. Beef production starts at the cow-calf stage. The cycle from breeding to calving to slaughter takes about...

The signs of imminent labor in animals are basically the same as in humans. Animals normally go through a nesting phase, where they are looking for a place to have their young, and they experience...

King quail are small and can live well with other birds including finches and doves. Due to the very small size of baby king quail chicks, the cage or aviary has to have a fine mesh wire. Many...

Raising game birds like quail or pheasant requires preparation and planning, such as building adequate pens and cages to house the birds. Game birds can be raised and sold to restaurants or kept...

Female goats (called does) will most commonly spontaneously abort during the last two months of their gestation -- earlier abortions during pregnancy cannot usually be detected. There can be many...

Sexing ducks is important to farmers and breeders, whether they are raising ducks for food or pets. Ducks being raised for food must be sexed so farmers know which ducks will produce eggs and...

The first thing you need when raising poultry a place for the birds to live. A pen will allow the chickens to remain caged and safe from predators, but the birds will need a house. Eggs laying...

An egg incubator consists of a container and a controlled heating system. It imitates a mother bird's care by turning and keeping the eggs warm, nurturing them until they hatch. Commercial...

Quail are small game birds raised for consumption and eggs. Popular varieties include the Bobwhite quail and the Japanese quail. Whatever the type you wish to raise, you can start your own...

Quail are a type of small gamebird found wild throughout the United States. Quail are raised domestically for ornamental purposes, as well as eggs and meat. Starting a quail flock by hatching...

The call duck is a small bantam duck breed. The tiny duck, which looks somewhat like its relative, the mallard duck, weighs less than 2 pounds and is typically used for ornamental or pet purposes....

The Pekin is a type of duck breed. Originally from China, it is one of the most widely raised duck breeds in North America for both meat and eggs. The duck has white plumage and an orange-yellow...

Most folks who raise laying hens start their flocks with day-old chicks from a hatchery. This allows them to avoid the expense and hassle of raising unwanted males. As the price of chicken meat...

Selective breeding of cattle presents a vital avenue in producing purebred animals. Cattle, as with all other animals, may not always make the best judgment in determining with whom they mate....

The ability to tell the sex a baby chicken is not an easy process to learn and takes training and experience. The importance of knowing the sex of the baby chicken saves the manufacturer of these...

A healthy population of red worms--Eisenia fetida or red wigglers--will double about every 90 days. You can sell your surplus worms to bait stores and institutional or individual customers. Red...

Red wiggler worms, also called red worms, will happily reproduce if you provide optimal living conditions and expansion room. They usually take about three months after being introduced into new...

Cattle are among the most important animals utilized by humans. Cattle provide meat, milk, cheese, butter, cream and leather, clothing to those who keep them, as well as those who never have seen...

In the wild, an emu will incubate and hatch its own eggs, sitting on and guarding them. They will do the same on your farm, as well --- but you can also remove the eggs and incubate them...

Many people raise quail, whether for eggs, meat, or breeding. Though quail and their eggs are smaller than chickens, their laying patterns are actually similar.

Sika deer originated from Siberia, Japan, China and Taiwan, and were brought to the United States in 1916. They are reddish brown to black and can weigh between 150 and 220 pounds. Sika deer have...

For fertile bird or reptile eggs to hatch, conditions must be optimal. These conditions include a constant, appropriate temperature and steady humidity. Properly built incubators provide these...

Abstain from sexual activity for two to four days leading up to testing. This will reasonably ensure the man is receptive to sexual stimulation and will not have a depleted sample as a result of...

You can hatch fertile chicken eggs and other types of eggs at home in an incubator. You need an incubator to carefully control the conditions for the eggs. The temperature and humidity must be...

There are several different methods by which it can be determined whether or not a cow or a heifer is pregnant. Verifying pregnancy in a cow allows for proper veterinary care to be prescribed....

Geese are wonderful additions to small farms. Raising geese from eggs is just as easy as buying hatchlings or adult geese. Using an incubator increases the odds of successfully hatching the egg....

Shipping hatching eggs is one way to get birds to people who live far away. It's a great way to obtain birds of a given breed at a lesser cost than having birds shipped.

Proper storage of eggs that will be set or incubated is important to ensure the highest fertility rate and hatching success.

One of the fastest growing food demands our planet faces is for fish. Available at nearly every restaurant, fish are a staple item in many peoples' diet. Though the oceans are full of life, and...

There are many types of donkeys. Each has a particular feature to them that makes it unique. Donkeys have been widely known through the years as being great animals for transporting people and...

Many breeders of poultry practice line breeding, and this article explains an effective way to keep a closed flock using a form of line breeding called Spiral Breeding.

Cows give birth and suckle live young like other mammals, usually one calf at a time although twin births occasionally occur. A healthy cow with good nutrition in pregnancy can usually birth her...

Kidding season is an exciting time. Having a kidding kit prepared ahead of time can make the kidding go more smoothly.

Male and female goats should be kept separate until you are ready to breed them. You will then be able to watch for symptoms of pregnancy so that you will know if your breeding sessions were...

The female goat, also called a doe, is pregnant for an average of 150 days. This is called the gestation period. To track the stages of pregnancy and accurately predict the due date, it is...

As the zygote matures, it goes through a series of rapid divisions known as cleavage. The zygote does not put on any additional mass nor does it increase or decrease in size during this period. ...

Homemade chicken incubators can be used to hatch eggs as a science experiment, or to hatch eggs to increase the number of chickens you raise for the table. You can make a homemade chicken...

Learn how to assist a baby chick during it's hatch, for emergencies ONLY!

A rabbit hutch is a dwelling for rabbits. A rabbit hutch made of wire is sturdy enough to keep the rabbit in and keep predators out, and wire does not retain odors. You will need to include a...

Chick embryos need proper heat, moisture and physical movement of the eggs in order to survive to hatching. During its 21 days of incubation, the chick will grow from the size of a pinhead to 1.5 oz.

People see duck eggs at different stages---some infertile, bearing no duckling inside; some cracked and open on the ground; and some from poor-at-brooding mothers just waiting to be hatched....

The gestation period for cattle varies, but usually lasts 276 to 283 days. Calf gender, age, breeds, and multiples are among factors affecting gestation length. Getting cows pregnant once a year...

We started with 4 chicks. They were a day old when we bought them. Each time we went to the feed store we fell in love with more birds. We now have 10 Sex Links, these are layers and meat birds, 2...

Artificial insemination (A.I.) is a fast growing practice on farms big and small. The semen of a bull is extracted and stored in tubes called "straws." One straw is enough to breed one cow. Straws...

How in the world do you get a male alpaca to breed when he is just not into things? I will show you one technique to get the job done. This is the easiest trick in the world and it really works! ...