Safety is of key importance to a homesteader. You must protect yourself and your food from weather, predators, and thieves. Safety may include you and your animal’s shelters. It may be a fence to keep prying eyes and predators out. It may be a gun or other weapon that protects you from invaders of the human or animal kind. Safety must be considered for all items on your property. To be successful you have to protect what is yours. If you lose too much food to predation or inclement weather you will not survive. Unless you have a backup of canned goods kept safely in your home or root cellar.
If you decide to keep livestock or fowl on your property for food you must provide safe places for them to sleep and eat. Something to keep an eye on them while you are sleeping or away is a good idea as well. many things will provide protection for your animals. A dog, donkey, peacock, guinea fowl, and other animals do this naturally. Click below for links to stories about these animals and how to protect your live food sources.
Safety
Reduce Vet Fees
Safety & Weapons
There are times on a homestead that you may have to defend it. This may be at some future date in the zombie apocalypse. It could be a case of animals attacking you or your animals. There are new crossbreeds of coyote and wolf. These are dangerous feral animals that hunt and kill in packs. They are extremely intelligent and can jump 8-foot walls. People are always a danger, especially when times are tough and you have food and water and they do not. These are all worst-case scenarios and you may never have to face any of them. But as a homesteader, you must be prepared for all eventualities.
Along those lines, you have to think in terms of uses for weapons. If you have limited space and storage you might think of a multipurpose weapon. For example, you might be able to use an ax or hatchet. These can be used as protection from animals and humans. They can also be used to cut and split wood and kindling for fires. These tools can be used to dispatch fowl that you may be eating for food.
A gun is a tool of defense and it can be used for hunting. There are handguns, rifles of different caliber, as well as shotguns. These can be used for defense against animals and humans. They can also be used for hunting for food on and off your property. Lastly, they can be used to dispatch farm animals. But be sure you can legally fire a weapon on your property. Please follow all federal, state, and local regulations for firearm use. Remember your neighbors as they can be your advocate or your enemy. How you behave usually defines how they react to you.
Guard Mules
Protect Your Chickens
Gun Laws by State
New Concealed Carry Law