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greenKY859
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# Posted: 21 Nov 2014 11:56pm - Edited by: greenKY859
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If you're going to be caring for livestock you have to consider a lot of things; the space your livestock takes, their impact on their environment, their //http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4127/4843212923_fb79be6a27.jpg food conversion ratio, Diseases, etc. I've been researching this topic for a while with my friends who are into sustainable living and what we've come up with seems to be narrowed down to these 3. Chickens, Rabbits, and Fish.
Chickens are Great because they can help fertilize you crops, they don't eat much, and eggs (Need I say more?) Rabbits are great too even though they may eat a little more than chickens; they breed so rapidly you wonder if you will have to worry about getting protein. That is if you can stand to harm something so cute.
Fish on the other hand are a little more foreign to most people usually. I'm not sure why they are so often overlooked, especially since they are affected so little by diseases and even if they are, it is extremely rare they will have any effect on humans. If there is a local fish you like, it is already adapted to your climate and are a lot easier to farm than one would think. There is even a relatively new farming technique that integrates gardening and fish farming into a man made Eco-system. The food you feed your fish nourishes your plants and your plants care for your fish, you could even add plants that your fish enjoy eating effectively reducing your cost for food to nothing!.
I made a little http:http://youtu.be/TjHr6_X1HNM Youtube video of a system I got just for growing herbs in my kitchen. I didn't see anyone discussing Aquaponics and if you've never heard of it you might be able to save yourself a lot of money that you may have spent elsewhere. This changed my opinion on sustainable living completely and a lot more people are going to this method everyday so check it out.
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hattie
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# Posted: 22 Nov 2014 12:49am
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I have never tried this but I recall watching one of those Doomsday Prepper shows and someone on it had a greenhouse. They had a pond in the greenhouse and would catch fish to eat every day. The fish waste from the pond fertilized the plants in the greenhouse. It was quite a sophisticated setup.
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Don_P
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# Posted: 22 Nov 2014 12:51pm
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My wife as an ag tech on a grad students thesis project doing this in the early 80's, I'm sure some things have advanced, his was a very basic setup but it worked well. They dug a pit and lined it with plastic, built a slatted floor over it and a plastic covered hoop greenhouse over that. Benches were on each side with plants in a sandbed. the water from the bottom of the "pond" was pumped into the sandbeds, was filtered by the sand and roots and drained back into the pond. The project was aimed at water poor regions in Africa but worked well at NCSU. They used tilapia and I can remember several frantic evenings with fish floating thinking she had killed them during the learning curve... those things are tough, and quite tasty. The project was a success, keep meaning to do something along those lines here.
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NhLiving
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# Posted: 23 Nov 2014 12:24am
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This is a great concept and i am very interested in trying it. I have seen some people using the big 275 gallon totes and cutting the tops off, using the lower half for fish and the cut off for the garden area. My brother in law purchased the same tank you have in your video, and it works pretty well in their kitchen window. I am curious if anyone else here has experimented with this, or maybe now they will look into it!
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