Finding, Growing and/or Breeding Food

[eightyduce]

As it is Easter, I thought I would write about the Incredible Edible EGG and the factory that produces them, the chicken. These feathered friends are fantastic in the post zombie apocalyptic world. They can be kept in a relatively small area, eat almost any and everything put in front of them. Chickens produce a continuous supply of fresh food via the eggs and meat. Chickens are great for insect and small pest control and are great early warning systems. Last but not least the waste product (chicken poo) will add nutrients to your soil for farming creating a healthier garden.

I like the Bantam breed of chicken, they come in all colors and sizes to suit a wide variety of uses and tastes, the roosters are friendly to humans, will fiercely protective of their flock against wild predators, even large family dogs, and you (depending on feed, age of the chicken, and season) can get from 1 to 4 eggs a day from each chicken (Roosters excluded). So if you can imagine having a half dozen or so of hens and a rooster or 2, your food quality and supplies will grow.

Chickens don’t lay eggs for the first 6 to 7 months of their lives and don’t need a rooster to stimulate the laying process. After about 2 years the hen’s egg production will begin to drop off, making the hen more valuable as a main course than egg producers. A Bantam hen once butchered is just perfect size for a dinner for two (Cornish hen style).

Things to remember:
1. Do not name your chickens (it’s hard to eat the family pet)
2. Start with quality stock (professional breeder)
3. Provide shelter and an area to roam (Chicken coop)
4. Store-bought feed designed for the purpose of egg production
5. or - let them eat a free range diet in the summer and give them your table scraps year round
6. Clean out the chicken coop or pen at least twice per year
7. Age the chicken manure in your compost heap for one full year, then add it to your garden soil
8. Eggs are great trade items (can be frozen safely outside their shells)

If you want to keep your continuous food supply safe make sure you have a few roosters in the hen house. Chickens will lay eggs without a rooster but there will be no chicks (chickens) without the man of the coop doing his job.


What are you going to do to extend your survival food supply?

[Faran Brigo]

I've had chickens, actually. They're relatively easy to take care of as far as livestock goes, but it's still not quite as easy as it sounds. Good idea though.

Food for thought. Hmm... I remember crows in movies pecking zombies without being affected. Think chickens could peck zombies as well? would the meat be edible if they did?

[Zombie_215]

Food for thought. Hmm... I remember crows in movies pecking zombies without being affected. Think chickens could peck zombies as well? would the meat be edible if they did?


Chickens usually shy away from people when they walk towards them. At least that is what the chickens did when my family raised them.

[Faran Brigo]

I meant more in the sense of using neutralized zombies as chicken fodder actually

[Evil Pug]

Hmm... I remember crows in movies pecking zombies without being affected. Think chickens could peck zombies as well? would the meat be edible if they did?

Zombie Chickens!

http://www.poultrygeistmovie.com/movie/synopsis/ :lol:

[eightyduce]

During WW-II, Korea, and Vietnam U.S. soldiers farmed “rats” for the protein and survival. As we all know “rats” are prolific breeders, will eat almost anything, and are sturdy critters that can be raised is a very small cage.

Rat meat is very tasty (yes, I’ve eaten RAT, lots of it) and can stretch the survivors food stores a long way. The hind quarters are the best; they have the largest percentage of meat to bone ratio. I recommend, butcher the rat, harvest the hind quarters, feed the leftover carcass to your breeding stock, and live happily ever after.

To some eating a “rat” might sound a little grotesque but it is better than dying of starvation.

[Darkness]

"Rat, Squirrel, Possum, Snake, Rabbit, Crawdad, Chipmunk or Chicken, meat is meat." :)

[korosukami]

"Rat, Squirrel, Possum, Snake, Rabbit, Crawdad, Chipmunk or Chicken, meat is meat." :)
what's a crawdad?

i would raise cows.. just like 3 of them. there are tribes in africa that survive only with one cow. what they do for food is mix the cow's milk with the cow's blood ad let it coagulate making a good source of vitamin, mineral and food. then when the cow gets too old they eat it

[zmbvan]

what's a crawdad?

It is the spider of the sea...

http://kaweahoaks.com/html/crawdad03opt.jpg

:lol::lol:

[Darkness]

what's a crawdad?

"A 'crawdad', better known as a 'crayfish', is a water crustacean that's related to the lobster, and is similar to prawns and shrimp."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crayfish

[Tripoli]

The MUD BUG was cool. Can you really do the chicken thing?

[fester_hicks]

chickens would be a good way to go. AND you could use them as bait for attracting larger predators.

[DBCooper]

I love this too. . . And don't forget to think of your garden snails... These are good too. . . S-car-go ROFL!

[Lian]

I actually had considered chickens both for their incredible usefulness as a food source but because Chicken :poo: is high in Nitrates and can be used in the manufacture of Potassium-nitrate which is a key ingredient in Gun Powder. I've actually got a little book on Chicken farming sitting around here somewhere.


That little Tid Bit aside if it Fly's, runs, swim's or crawls on this earth it's generally safe to eat. Throw a little Tabasco on it and we got a meal. :drinking:

[Darkness]

"And don't forget, Pig :poo: = Methane Gas." :)

[Lian]

This is true. And Pigs can practically live off Garbage. And there is nothing better than some baby back ribs on the grill. :eat:

[ZombiesArePeopleToo]

To some eating a “rat” might sound a little grotesque but it is better than dying of starvation.

I think we're singling out chickens because of their egg laying abilities. But if we're going to name other animals...I've heard that guinea pigs are awesome. Easy to raise, breed easy, and are healthy.

The only problem with the chicken idea would be the noise, especially with the rooster every morning. Find a way to silence them and you're set.

[Darkness]

"What about other egg-laying domestic-able birds? Are there any that don't make as much noise as chickens?"

[Lian]

Geese make good guard dogs as I understand. Russians used them as a discrete way to guard missile silo's Only problem is they are a lot more greasy than a chicken... :puke:

[ryanzombie]

I suppose ducks could be an option aswell?

Snip their wings so they can't fly, make a small pond area with maybe an island so they can nest and your set. You can eat the eggs and meat and duck is deliscious! lol

[DBCooper]

From what I remember ducks are noisier than chickens. I also don’t thing zombies will be attracted to natural animal noises like a roster crowing.

[jim96sc2]

I'd rather just use rabbits. Quiet, eat stuff, breed like, well, rabbits. :lol:

[DBCooper]

Rabbits are ok I guess. . . I for one will not like waiting 6 to 9 months for my first meal of rabbit stew. I will be eating eggs and use them to cook additional meals in 6 weeks after my chicks hatch.

[Lian]

Farming is going to be the easiest and most reliable source of food by any means though. We're all gonna have to find our green thumbs if we plan to get enough food together to survive the winter.

[DBCooper]

Gardening is a great idea. . . Seasonal but the food can be canned for later use. The hole thing is seasonal and take lots of work.

[Darkness]

"This thread is about meat. We already have a thread about basic survival that includes a discussion about gardening. Please keep on topic. Thank you."

[Lian]

Yes ma'am. :)


Thought that just popped up for me. Fish farm. Most fish require little in actual care, they grow fairly fast, and are nice and tasty. Not to mention they eat those pesky mosquito eggs before they hatch, reducing the chance they can spread disease, especially potentially a zombie virus.

[Darkness]

Yes ma'am. :)


Thought that just popped up for me. Fish farm. Most fish require little in actual care, they grow fairly fast, and are nice and tasty. Not to mention they eat those pesky mosquito eggs before they hatch, reducing the chance they can spread disease, especially potentially a zombie virus.

"I like that thought." :)

[apso1871]

Yes ma'am. :)


Thought that just popped up for me. Fish farm. Most fish require little in actual care, they grow fairly fast, and are nice and tasty. Not to mention they eat those pesky mosquito eggs before they hatch, reducing the chance they can spread disease, especially potentially a zombie virus.

I once had an agriculture teacher tell me that for every pound of food a catfish eats, he can gain 3 pounds of mass. I dont see how its possible, but he was always pretty reliable.

[Darkness]

"Now that is interesting. I know goldfish will keep growing if given the room and enough food, I wonder if all fish are that way." :think:

[mattifikation]

Another source of easy, daily protein would be to get a goat.

Goat milk?

[13hollowpoints]

Maggots are a good source of protein. They can also be used to clean festering wounds. Just use any old corpse you happen to have lying around, let the flies land, and in days start scooping out lunch by the handful. And no problems with wanting to name them.

[Lian]

Could probally make a nice stir fry out of em. :drool:

[DevilsRain]

Chickens are cute and taste like chicken too. . .

I am cool for school! lol

[Longrifle]

CHICKENS? What a great idea!

[JakAttak]

CHICKENS? What a great idea!

not quite have you been around chickens? they are loud stupid and messy... did I mention stupid.

[Faran Brigo]

Many people have talked about gear but I think not many have talked about the real essentials, food and water. So here goes it, if you have something to say about that.

Anyway the idea of the thread started with a discussion about preserved vs fresh food, so...

"I have been doing exactly that, living off of ramen for years."

Like you just said, you use (relatively) fresh foods ocassionally, this supplies the vitamins that the junk food doesn't provide. If you lived EXCLUSIVELY off Ramen (for example, you're more likely to also have canned fruit and other non-perishables) this is the nutritional value of your average instant dehydrated ramen:

Carbohydrates 65 g
- Dietary fiber 2.4 g
Fat 17 g
- saturated 7.6 g
- monounsaturated 6.5 g
Protein 9 g
Thiamin (Vit. B1) 0.7 mg 54%
Riboflavin (Vit. B2) 0.4 mg 27%
Niacin (Vit. B3) 5.4 mg 36%
Folate (Vit. B9) 147 μg 37%
Iron 4.3 mg 34%
Potassium 120 mg 3%
Sodium 1160 mg 77%

Percentage is of daily intake recommended. Any other vitamin that you need that isn't there would be depleted, in months or weeks depending on the vitamin. Notice it doesn't even have vitamin C which is practically omnipresent, so if indeed you've been "living off ramen" and you don't have scurvy, you're a medical miracle.

[Behemoth]

Well as i said, gardening is all very well & good, but i reckon you would need at least a month of food to avoid detection from zeds, military, looters. So working in your garden is out, you would need to stay put or carry supplies with you, tins are heavy so consume them first, dried foods should keep you going untill the scene becomes quiet. I doubt if there would be any real health issues however i do feel that the boring diet would effect ones moral.

[Faran Brigo]

Good point, forgot entirely about how unpleasant it would be to eat non-perishables all the time. I didn't say non-perishables are all bad, I'm saying supplementing them with fresh food is very important for many reasons.

It's better for your health, it will extend the duration of your supplies, it will give you something to do so you don't go mental, and it's a good step towards self sufficiency.

As for the health effects of a junk food only diet, just google it, it's been widely researched, there's a reason why the health authorities are constantly talking about the need to move away from junk and fast food and it's not because they moonlight as farmers.

[Behemoth]

Well if you're refering to the morgan spurlock film, that was to do with the fats used in the processing of the meat & the refined sugar they used in their drinks. I think that a little bit of pigging out won't hurt you, but in the us & uk people live off that stuff & that's where the problems begin. Most of the people i know are fed up with me saying that the levels of crime & the morons we have roaming our streets is down to the food they eat, i however stand by this ( impossible to prove i know ) so the most harm a bad diet would do is damage your brain, maybe tis is how the zombie outbreak will start.

[Faran Brigo]

I was talking about actual research, not Spurlock's shockumentary. The kind that they carried out by feeding groups of lab rats fresh bread and non perishable bread and the "processed" breat rats fell ill and died in less than two months. Of course, they did that in the 50's, before fortified flour, but it illustrates my point nevertheless.

[Behemoth]

I don't know what non perishable bread is. Do you mean that dried stuff? Well experiments on rats are all very well but the rats didn't have a choice, eg lets say a person was just eating meat, fresh meat from hunting in the woods, that person would be in as bad a state as some one just eating chocolate bars, the key here is balance.

[Faran Brigo]

Not really, the person eating just meat would be much better off than someone eating only chocolate. Meat has almost everything that you need (some things in excess), chocolate just has some vitamins, sugars and fats.

I mean bread from an actual bakery that will go bad in a couple of weeks as opposed to say, twinkies or sunbeam bread, which they treat with chemical additives to bleach the flour, calcium propionate to retard spoilage, etc. The same holds true for canned food since the heat from the processes will decompose or denature some nutrients in the food. How much depends on the type of food and the type of process used.

How balanced can a tin and dry food diet be anyway?

[Dave Of The Dead]

Yes, I must be a medical miracle. If you really think about it though, people have lived on less than that for centuries. Workers lived on bread and beer as they worked on the railroads, people in Asia lived off of 2 bowls of rice and some sea weed every day for their entire lives. So living off of Ramen or MaruChan and the occasional dried raisins or canned peaches is quite pleasant compared to some.

[bandits1]

http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/8498/flintstonesvitamins1mu1.jpg

[Faran Brigo]

Yes, I must be a medical miracle. If you really think about it though, people have lived on less than that for centuries. Workers lived on bread and beer as they worked on the railroads, people in Asia lived off of 2 bowls of rice and some sea weed every day for their entire lives. So living off of Ramen or MaruChan and the occasional dried raisins or canned peaches is quite pleasant compared to some.


Or you just didn't take into account that you don't actually live solely off dehydrated ramen and ocassionally eat either vegetables or meat, thus providing you with the nutrients that are not in non-perishables.

If you really read (and not just think) about it, that's not a good comparison since people in ancient ages didn't have a varied diet, but their food wasn't processed or chemically treated either. Just FYI though, I'd like to know where you're getting that info because even peasants in antiquity did have the ocassional chicken, pork or fish or supplemented their diet with wild game or forage. Bread for instance was frequently whole grain as opposed to white (mostly starch carbohydrates), beer was fresh (no refrigeration, even though pasteurized it will eventually spoil) and richer in vitamins (particularly B complex) than today's beer since it was frequently stout, not lager, it also had a higher calorie content. Seaweed to date is used in nutritional supplements and is mineral rich (particularly potassium).

It might surprise you, but all of those are healthier than dehydrated ramen, in fact they're healthier than many modern staples (read the labels sometime) and keep in mind that even so, the old lifespan was relatively short, and people did weaken due to poor nutrition (Some historians debate whether this made medieval european populations more vulnerable to epidemics, in addition to the lack of sanitation and safe water supplies of course). Seamen for example also fed on biscuits and grog for months and they survived, but they frequently developed scurvy, so while you might not die it will not be a pleasant situation either.

Bandits: Tongue in cheek, but true, supplements will come in handy.

[Hitman]

the Vikings made their long voyages with the help of sourkrout to fend off scurvy .

as far as small game is concerned , you will starve to death in short order from eating just that . squirrls , rabbits ,cats , and other small critters have almost no fat or other nutrients . eating the stomach contents of rabbits will help to a small degree .

canned goods (esp canned yourself) is what will pull the human race through the first winter. and every one after that .

[Faran Brigo]

what's sourkrout?

Yeah, I know, I said they supplemented their diet with it not that they fed exclusively off game. I think few people can live off the wild only. Non-perishables are a must, but they're not good as your only source of food, is what I'm saying.

[Hitman]

I really suck at spelling sometimes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauerkraut

[Faran Brigo]

Thanks. Yeah, I'm a bit concerned about the health risks part, but this should work.

[bandits1]

...Bandits: Tongue in cheek, but true, supplements will come in handy.
Vitamin supplements would be on my short-list of things to "borrow" from the first market I raid. A few big bottles of a good multi-vitamin, a few of calcium, and few of vitamin C.

It may not always be possible to get three well-balanced meals a day whilst running for your life from hordes of flesh-eating zombies, and suppliments will help offset the lack of nutrition caused by having a Snickers bar for breakfast/lunch every day.

[mattdettorre123]

Here is a link to my nutrition thread at H23, good site.

I am a chef by trade and hold a degree from Johnson and Wales. This thread is just how to understand basicly what you need to eat and whats good for your body

How to eat in the PAW (http://www.tacticalunderground.us/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10033&p=178331&hilit=how+to+eat+in+the+paw#p178331)

[mattifikation]

Cheeseburgers (http://gizmodo.com/350091/cheeseburger-in-a-can-is-both-the-best-and-worst-thing-ive-ever-seen)

Problem solved. (Just kidding of course)

[Faran Brigo]

Here is a link to my nutrition thread at H23, good site.

I am a chef by trade and hold a degree from Johnson and Wales. This thread is just how to understand basicly what you need to eat and whats good for your body

How to eat in the PAW (http://www.tacticalunderground.us/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=10033&p=178331&hilit=how+to+eat+in+the+paw#p178331)

Useful, thanks. More after I'm done reading it.

[Tripoli]

Fresh animal flesh is good. I also think having the skill to preserve food is, just as good!

[DevilsRain]

I have rabbits, does this count?

[mattifikation]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/lifestyle/green/chi-cc5rabbit20080821093148,0,5970604.photo

Survival Rabbits is affirmative.

[Darkness]

"Something to ponder, it's said that a person can live for quite a while, in the woods by just having berries, water and slippery elm bark. Think about it." :)

[kiltedninja]

I just got done eating a chicken sandwich. I'm taking those with me when ZDay comes.

[the_velociraptor]

Hmmm...

What'd the OP get banned for?

Anyway, in paranoid events, zombie chickens would be a pain in the arse to eradicate. >_> And the eggs... well. Don't you have to prepare them to be edible?

[Zombiequest]

I'd like to hear more of this......

[mattifikation]

Eggs aren't that hard to cook. You can cook them in an empty fruit can with a candle, if you're patient.

[Bob]

Eat them raw?

[mattifikation]

Once upon a time we had a thread on food. It must have been on the old US&D and be gone now, because all that remains is "survival chickens," and you can't live on chicken alone. So, I think it's past time we start a new conversation on how to feed yourself in the ZPAW.

If you're okay with a nomadic lifestyle, you and your group could get by hunting and gathering for food. With the significantly reduced human population, overhunting and overgathering probably wouldn't be a huge problem as long as you stayed mobile. However, you'd have to know how to track animals and have a good knowledge of what plants are edible. Also, there would never be a *real* guarantee of finding a meal, and you'd always have to be on the lookout for Zack.

If you'd prefer to be stationary, you could raise livestock and grow a garden. You wouldn't have to worry about finding your next meal, it would always be right there waiting for you. You could even stockpile. The downside there is that if you were driven out of your base, you'd be in a bit of a rut. You'd also need to have a pretty solid defense of your farmland... the standard barbed wire electric fence and "posted" signs aren't going to keep out the undead.

And of course, there's always raiding. Probably the easiest and most surefire way to find food is to look for the left-behinds of others or to simply take it from people who can't stop you. Stores would probably be pretty empty, but many houses and abandoned vehicles would have stockpiles from panicked buyers in them. Most of those buyers would be long gone - dead, or zombified. The downside is that this food would have a shelf life, and eventually it would expire.

What's everyone's thoughts?

[Darkness]

"And we still do. You just didn't look hard enough." ;-)

"This thread isn't just about Chickens. It's about finding food, making food, scavenging food, growing food, etc."

[mattifikation]

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought this thread was just about chickens. Because, ya know, it's called "Survival Chickens." Which is why, in my post, I specifically acknowledged that we have a chicken thread but stated that I wanted a more inclusive discussion about food.

Anyone looking for a discussion about eating anything other than chicken is going to look at the thread title here, and just move on.

[Darkness]

"Not if they take the time to read the discription in the Index." ;-)




"There, I changed the title for you. Happy now?" :) :lol:

[kiltedninja]

I wanna find seeds for Barley, hops, find out where the hell yeast comes from, grow wheat, and start brewing beer and Whisky. Aside from that, tobacco seeds would be worth it imo.

But on to food, I'd like to say that I'd remain nomadic, but I'd like some guarantee that I can get some food, maybe have a settlement like a Native American village, that we can just pick it up and move it.

I'd also like to grow potatoes, kill deer, and grow grapes.

I can ferment wine, my grandpa and I are fermenting some now, in his basement, he's saving it for my 21st birthday. He grows grapes.

[mattifikation]

Yes, much better! :-)

[Noc]

I think potato would be a good food to grow, hearty, full of carbs.
But i think vegetables would be very important, because it would take alot of effort maintaining a chicken farm unless you lived on a big rural property.

[mattifikation]

I really thought you said "full of crabs" at first glance.

[kiltedninja]

I live twenty miles away from hundreds of acres of farmland, Oregon is a great place to grow stuff. I'd have to find seeds for all the stuff I want to grow, but that would be the hard part. My brother worked on farms in Montana and Ohio, he's familiar with growing stuff, I learn quick, so we could have at least a small farm.

[mattifikation]

I wonder what would happen if I just bought a crapton of organic seeds for plants that grow in the area right now and just started planting them all over the place in the woods around here.

Surely animals would eat most of the plants, but I would imagine some would survive, right?

[Darkness]

"Not a bad idea. Tons of editable food will grow wild, and return each year on it's own." :think:

"Just look for perinnal(sp) type seeds. Those reproduce themselves each year." :)

[mattifikation]

I imagine there's laws to consider to protect the ecosystem... I'd have to make sure and only use plants native to the area that wouldn't be considered a problem, I guess.

I don't think roses would be bad. In some species, rose hips are packed with vitamins and are one of the highest plant sources of vitamin C. I picked that up somewhere and that comprises the extent of my gardening knowledge... :lol:

[Darkness]

I imagine there's laws to consider to protect the ecosystem... I'd have to make sure and only use plants native to the area that wouldn't be considered a problem, I guess.

I don't think roses would be bad. In some species, rose hips are packed with vitamins and are one of the highest plant sources of vitamin C. I picked that up somewhere and that comprises the extent of my gardening knowledge... :lol:
"I could teach you. It's one of my minor hobbies." :)

[DarthJoe8]

"Not a bad idea. Tons of editable food will grow wild, and return each year on it's own." :think:

"Just look for perinnal(sp) type seeds. Those reproduce themselves each year." :)

Perennials grow back each year from the same plant, annuals are only one year and you need them to go to seed and then replant them the next year...or let them drop their seeds and they should take the following year...:drinking:

I've had tomatoes reseed themselves, they turned into weeds....:loon:

Someone mentioned potatoes, those are really easy to grow, I've grown them by accident in my compost...:lol: all you need to do is cut them up and plant-em, they'll do the rest. :)

[Darkness]

"Tomatoe Seeds are so small and wet, that they have to be dried first before replanted, or they will just rot away." ;-)


"You have to be careful with Potatoes. If you don't rotate their fields, you will kill the ground. They drain the soil."

[DarthJoe8]

"Tomatoe Seeds are so small and wet, that they have to be dried first before replanted, or they will just rot away." ;-) Yeah, I've dried seeds before, like peppers and cucumbers but these tomatoes seeded themselves. I had soooo many tomatoes one year that many "rotted " on the vine...:-( and the next spring I had to pull some...

"You have to be careful with Potatoes. If you don't rotate their fields, you will kill the ground. They drain the soil."

Great point!! I always rotate my plantings and I companion garden as well condition the soil. :)

My veggie garden is on the small side, 16x12. I have a strawberry patch, blue berry's, raspberry's and black berry's, grapes, concord and I forget..:lol: 2 peach, 2 Macintosh, 2 granny smith and 2 cherry trees.

Various flower beds, bulbs and perennials and I'll be starting an herb garden this year. :) It keeps me out of trouble...:drinking:

I have to fence in all my gardens because if it's not the deer it's the damn bunnies...:x They ate my entire crop last year. :cry:

[mattifikation]

How would you keep the bunnies out in ZPAW?

Besides the obvious answer of eating them. Hehe.

[mattifikation]

Here's a survival chicken. Yum, yum:

http://ibored.com/2009/04/canned-chickens/

[kiltedninja]

That's what the .22lr was invented for Matt, to kill rabbits.:)

[Slayer]

I think this is a topic not discussed nearly enough, despite the fact that Food and Water are the most basic and necessary things for survival, not just in the Zombie world, but any world and situation. What are the ideal foods for long term storage? What is the best food to be portable in a backpack when your on the move? What's the most cost effective or cheap store-able food?

I personally find Canned Goods to be a good choice, there are canned meats, canned vegetables, fruits, and soups. They are cheap, acquirable at any grocery store in bulk, and if kept in cool dry conditions, will last quite a long time. Canned goods might be heavy, but generally a 72 hour supply on a backpack isn't that heavy.

Thoughts?

[DocTongue]

Canned or Dried goods, most definitely.
Smoking or salting meat would be good as well.

Can't beat good old fashioned MREs for when on the move, or stockpiled in a secure location
Beef jerky and a 5 pound bag of GORP for when you're on the trail :)

[CAVU45]

Canned goods might be heavy, but generally a 72 hour supply on a backpack isn't that heavy.
Thoughts?

Isn't that heavy? 72 hours worth? That's the equivalent of 3/4 a case of the old C-Rats and that's assuming two meals a day. Three meals a day and it would be a case. Those things were a bitch to carry, even when stripped down.

[bandits1]

If the mods are going to merge these two very important topics, they should also modify the title to read: "Food" so everyone knows it's a catch-all thread.

[DarthJoe8]

How would you keep the bunnies out in ZPAW?

Besides the obvious answer of eating them. Hehe.


I would so love to roast those bastards!! :eat: Nothing is a pest in the ZPAW, it's all food!! :drinking:

[Darkness]

"Rabbit is yummy." :)

[mattifikation]

Will a 1000 fps pellet gun take a rabbit? Because if rabbits are yummy, and I'm starving...

[Bob]

I had a friend who learned to shoot a bow so he could harvest ducks from a municipal pond.

If I was going after rabbits I would use a trap.
Back years ago animal control would lend you a live capture trap for feral cats and or rabbits.
My dad got one from them several times.

[mattifikation]

We have skunks and rabbits in the area pretty hardcore, and I know what I'd catch in a trap with my rotten luck.

[kiltedninja]

We have everything in this area from cats and rabbits to coyotes and feral dogs. And I mean in the city I saw a coyote sniffing around the garbage cans of some apartments near my house a week ago.

Rabbits, squirrels(Viking for bite-sized, I'm positive), there's lots of chickens in the area, and who could forget the deers?

[Noc]

Living in a small coastal town, there is hardly any 'long life' food. Like survival/military type rations that can be bought. So finding food after a couple of moths, while possible, wont be a fruitful venture most of the time.

We have quite a big nursery with a big store of all manner of seeds, and I have a vegie garden in my backyard, so I could survive for a decent while on grown food.

I don't know how to breed animals, I suppose if I got "me sum chikiins" I could breed them and eat eggs, and on christmas eat a roast chicken. :D

We also actually have ALOT of rabbits in my town, aswell as foxes. So if I could catch / kill them I could have a good source of food, but I'm no hunter.
Also, out the back of a lake near my town, in thick scrub there are wild pigs, but unless I had a .308 and dogs I wouldn't wanna take those big mothers on.:scare:

Really but they are some biiiiiig pigs.

[slayer1222]

i am in a big town but we get alot of foxes and loads of people including me next door have rabbits i keep snakes and lizards so there is aalot of meat there i know how to breed alot of stuff o ye and there are tons of sheep,cows and horses on a field a 5 min run from me

[Raeven]

Uhhhmmm, Zombies may not exsist YET but they will...

[Bob]

Build some traps, there is plenty of information on the internet.
Bait several areas and look at the tracks to see what is getting the food.

The problem with breeding rabbits is fleas.
I have lived next door to people breeding them twice and the damn fleas have been horrendous.
If a looser moved in next door to me and started breeding rabbits something would die.
Hopefully it would be the rabbits.

[DarthJoe8]

Also, out the back of a lake near my town, in thick scrub there are wild pigs, but unless I had a .308 and dogs I wouldn't wanna take those big mothers on.:scare:

Really but they are some biiiiiig pigs.


No need for all the fireworks!! :guns: Better to be silent and not draw zacks attention to you. I've hunted wild boar with my longbow, wooden arrows and a two bladed broadhead. :drinking: Just don't miss and wound them, that might piss them off...:scare:

[neoanderson9318]

Or you could just raise pigs... The're really easy to take care of. :)

[Bob]

Yea but the neighbors might not appreciate pigs.

[mattifikation]

Eat the neighbors.

[DarthJoe8]

Or you could just raise pigs... They're really easy to take care of. :)


"Raising" pigs would be near impossible in a ZPAW, think about what goes into raising just a single pig. All of that while Zack is moseying around... :loon:

Now "sneaking" around silently hunting pigs or anything else for that matter is a much more plausible scenario imo...:think:

:drinking:

[mattifikation]

It depends on where you are.

If you've got your own massive tropical island, or an isolated region of some other kind, you could probably live a fairly normal life other than popping the occasional drifter zed in the brains.

[DarthJoe8]

It depends on where you are.

If you've got your own massive tropical island, or an isolated region of some other kind, you could probably live a fairly normal life other than popping the occasional drifter zed in the brains.


:loon: :lol: Only in the "perfect ZPAW world. :lol: :loon:


:drinking:

[mattifikation]

Isn't that the best kind?

[kiltedninja]

I heard neighbor is tasty.

[Darkness]

"Now ,now, guys, No Eating The Neighbor, not only is it against the rules, it's murder on the digestive system." ;-) :lol:

[Dark Comic]

Does this mean I have to get rid of my stockpile of Soylent Green?

[Darkness]

Does this mean I have to get rid of my stockpile of Soylent Green?

*Darkness bops her Husband.*

"Hush!" :lol:

[bandits1]

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/9673/soylentgreen07.jpg

[Bob]

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2581/soylentgreen8927665.jpg

[Darkness]

"Okay, moment over, lets get back on topic now, please." ;-)

[neoanderson9318]

"Raising" pigs would be near impossible in a ZPAW, think about what goes into raising just a single pig. All of that while Zack is moseying around... :loon:

Now "sneaking" around silently hunting pigs or anything else for that matter is a much more plausible scenario imo...:think:

:drinking:
You don't understand, do you?

I live in the middle of NO-WHERE! I'm on a 200 acre farm. My nearest neighbor is over half-mile away... The closest thing to a "town" or "city" to me is about forty miles.
And besides, raising pigs is very easy. How do you think it'd be "nearly impossible"?

[DarthJoe8]

You don't understand, do you?

I live in the middle of NO-WHERE! I'm on a 200 acre farm. My nearest neighbor is over half-mile away... The closest thing to a "town" or "city" to me is about forty miles.
And besides, raising pigs is very easy. How do you think it'd be "nearly impossible"?

Now being in "no mans land" could make the difference. :think: But what about the feed required to raise hogs? You'll have to plant and harvest feed for them, that just seems like a lot of work for little reward....Hell if you're harvesting feed for pigs you'd be better off using that feed for yourself. :eat: I just think that if you let them run wild and hunt them as you need them it's less that you have to do and more time to spend on other zpaw survival endeavors...:drinking:Like making beer!! :drinking:

[neoanderson9318]

Pigs will eat anything, including the grass and dirt in the field that they're in. Plus, you just save all of the food scraps that you don't eat, and then feed it to them. I've seen pigs eat absolutely everything. Except for brussel sprouts.... Hm... I wonder why...

[Bob]

In the ZPAW I doubt there are going to be many scraps to give the pigs.
Now if they would eat Zed they might be useful.
Other than that I suppose you could feed them the recently deceased raiders that died by means other than Zombie bite.

[neoanderson9318]

I'm not so sure I'll be eating melon rinds, egg shells, chicken bones, etc etc...

And by the way, pigs DO eat human. AND there is no trace of the human after the pigs are done with them. The pigs will eat everything, bones in all.

[Bob]

Duh
Why do you think I brought it up.

[mattifikation]

Is eating your neighbors against the rules if something else kills them?

[Darkness]

Is eating your neighbors against the rules if something else kills them?

"I'll have to think about that one, and get back to you." ;-) :lol:

[Bob]

This is going to be on the ragged edge of the rules but I am not trying to push things, this is a honest question.

Ok you have a pen full of pigs.
There appears a large quantity of dead non-zed.
If you feed them to the pigs then eat the pigs are you a cannibal?

[mattifikation]

No.

Circle of life. Everything eats everything, once you follow the line.

[kiltedninja]

I'm gonna vote no. Pork chops are my favorite.

[Sammo909]

Do not question the sanctity of bacon.

And on topic, does anyone know the lifespan of domestic chickens? I'm wondering if a few chooks would be enough to keep a person in protein or if there should be breeding as well as laying stock.

[Darkness]

"About eight to ten years, Sammo." :)

[Bob]

Bob is a hard old man but he doesn't think he could be the one to prep this high protein pig food.

[neoanderson9318]

No, that would NOT be considered cannibalism. Lol. If you feed chickens dog food, would that mean you're eating the dog food?

And by the way, even if it was, I would still eat it. Pork is too good. :eat:

[slayer1222]

because of being in the uk i am limited on what i can get but literately across the road from me is a park but it has a small woodland area and there are tons of rabbits and birds and i am planning on getting a pellet gun for hunting rabbits and birds anyway so there is one possible way to get food and i also know how to make rabbit snares so i dont have to sit around.

[LV426]

I'm surprised that no one mentioned this but what about container gardening. This is handy in places where you have limited space but would be especially good if you wanted to roof top garden. I really don't want to be on the ground all that much in the event of a ZA so I'd rather stay high and unbitten.

Raised bed gardening and container gardening is very useful and can produce quite a lot of food. In fact you can raise over 100lbs of potatoes in one large plastic garbage can.

As long as the dirt is at least 16 inches deep you should be able to grow quite a lot of vegetables and even some fruits like strawberries and grapes. In flower pots you can grow herbs and spices that will provide good nutrients and some can be used for medicinal purposes.

Rubbermaid storage containers are the best. They are durable and come in sizes large enough and deep enough for most plants to grow. Everything from tomatoes to squash can be grown in containers.


Also I know some of you mentioned chickens but ducks are also a good source of eggs and meat. Domestic ducks can't fly away so you wouldn't have to worry about them escaping. They can forage for their own food with just a bit of supplement. In the event that you wanted to set up rooftop farming you could always cover the rooftop in question with top soil and then spread out wheat seeds. The wheat grows fast, you can have edible wheat grass in just a week and this can be used to feed yourself and any livestock that you may wish to keep.

Of course this would be a long term endeavor but if you had found a secure place then perhaps hauling dirt to a rooftop would be a good idea. Depending on the size of the rooftop you could have a fairly decent food production site. And if you were concerned about being taken over you could set up several rooftop gardens as back up since they would need very little maintenance depending on weather and type of plants and animals you were keeping. Setting up a rain collection system for irrigation is fairly simple. I use one for my garden and ducks in the backyard and I rarely need to use the house water for anything.

[detpat]

get some wool and braid yourself a sling [real sling not a wrist rocket] and pick your ammo from the local creek bed. with practice it even makes a good weapon.

[DuffyZfan]

Hey new to the forum here, but i've read alot of the threads (kind of an interest, I've always been fascinated by the chance of a zombie apocalypse and would love to experience it almost).
Anyways, for survival, i know alot of non-perishable carbs and fats would be available, but this wouldn't really help keep your strength up. You'd wear down slowly from lack of protein. I regularily use protein shakes for work outs and think these would be considered a helpful survival tool. They're high in protein and all u have to do is add water. there's also full meal replacement protein mixes. The powders are in large containers so they're convienient. I don't think i'd want to be dependant on them but they'd help.

[kiltedninja]

So as I was sitting here eating some leftover soups mixed together, I got to thinking, could I eat shit like this every day for the rest of my life? Think about it, could you personally live on an unbalanced diet of whatever the fvck you can get your hands on?

What about this, could you eat the same thing for all three meals, for a week straight? A month? I lived on mashed potatoes and top ramen until I moved out of my mom's house two months ago because that's all that I had to eat. So how about you? What would you personally look for when running a raid on a grocery store, as well as the previous two questions.

I think I could, simply because I'm used to it. I'd look for stuff like spam and instant mashed potatoes, pasta as well, I'd murder a good pasta. Coffee is another one I'd look for.

[Redneck]

Think about it, could you personally live on an unbalanced diet of whatever the fvck you can get your hands on?
Yes, with all the random stuff I eat, I think I would be fine.

What about this, could you eat the same thing for all three meals, for a week straight? A month?
That would be hard for me, but you could change it around a bit to make it better. cheese on the mashed potatoes, or gravy, something like that.

What would you personally look for when running a raid on a grocery store, as well as the previous two questions.
booze, and sodas, you can trade for the other stuff.

[SWAT Zombie]

cans of baked beans. they last a long time and they're supposedly very good for you. i think thats what alot of people ate when travelling for long distances (well probably not canned tho) in the old west. or is that just in movies? either way they're a good source of nutrition and energy. i'd get sick of them very quickly but in a ZPAW i'm sure i'd be happy with whatever i could get my hands on.

[Satariel]

You CAN eat the same stuff for a week straight. You won't like it, but you probably won't have much of a choice. Food will become a very valuable possession for each and every survivor. There will most definitely be some that will die of starvation.
Also, the longer you survive, the less food options you'll have, so you'll probably end up eating stuff that expired quite some time before, then hunting (small animals mainly, or large game if you know how to hunt properly). My plan involves eventually reaching a forest roughly 160 Km from where I live for exactly this purpose.

[mattifikation]

Taste fatigue is a real, but unexpected threat. It becomes possible to quickly grow so tired of eating the same thing after awhile that your body will literally begin rejecting it as food. Once you reach that point... well, if you don't have something else to eat, you're no better off than if you had nohing at all.

[Satariel]

The hunger will probably surpass the taste fatigue. I bet that if you give a starving African child a year-supply of any single food, he won't come back bitching about taste fatigue, but he'll eat it for every single day of that year.

[mattifikation]

Taste fatigue, and its ability to wreak havoc on your nutritional health, are also severely underestimated. I imagine it would get so bad that after awhile, you might be able to will yourself to swallow the food but you wouldn't be able to keep it down. :puke:

[ZombieGore]

Luckily I've been poor my whole life so i've gotten used to taste fatigue...lol

[mattifikation]

Tell me about it. Lately I've been learning what goes with rice and what doesn't, and I've discovered the upside of keeping a good variety of hot sauce on hand for the ramen noodles.

[ZombieGore]

Tell me about it. Lately I've been learning what goes with rice and what doesn't, and I've discovered the upside of keeping a good variety of hot sauce on hand for the ramen noodles.

Ya dude...if you ever go to fast food places...save the sauces...

[kiltedninja]

I've been eating so well lately compared to before I moved. Even then, it's not any sort of high class, just better than before. Taste fatigue is why I asked the question of 'could you eat the same thing for a month straight?'

[JimiVengeance]

i think theres a LOT more work to this subject than most of you are considering...the focus on that would take away from the other aspects of survival:drinking:

[ZombifiedBrendan]

Well, While everyone else is eating eggs and a chicken every now and then, I'll be living the relative high life and eating two minute noodles during the zombie apocalypse.:)

[Sammo909]

I can and have eaten the same thing (almost) every day for a year, when I was a student at TAFE I had the same lunch five days a week but literally nothing but the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner? I couldn't do that.

'Taste Fatigue' you called it, Matt? Interesting.

One of my favourite foods is a meat pie, give me one and plate full of veg with mashed potatoes and I'll eat until my stomach's sore but give me just two meat pies and halfway through the second one I lose all appetite and if I try to force myself to eat it I find it difficult to swallow and if I push it further I almost start to feel sick.

I guess this means when the proverbial hits the fan I'd better keep a good variety of tinned foods or starve with a loaded pantry.

[mattifikation]

I found the term in an article about stocking up food for emergencies. I can't find the article again now. =/

[Bob]

I hate eggs.
Chicken is ok but I hate eggs.
I also will not eat box Macaroni and cheese.
Nor will I eat cheap hotdogs.

[mattifikation]

I was looking at some milk earlier and I decided I can't afford milk right now. I would really like some milk though. When I was thinking about it, I began to think about how much it would suck to live in a milkless world. I love milk. And a few minutes ago, somebody sent me a message saying they were out of milk.

It made me realize something: Milk is important. Water is boring and lame and boring, but milk is milky and smooth and delicious. Legend has it that with a bit of entry-level alchemy and a few extra ingredients, you can even turn milk into chocolate milk.

But cows are big and fat, and take up a lot of room. Perhaps this is why we tend to refer to morbidly obese people as cows. However, unlike morbidly obese people, cows eat hay. You can't just throw biomass at cows and watch it rapidly vanish into their throat holes. You have to grow hay - in fields which could be growing regular food - for the big, fat, stupid cow.

But what about goats? Now, I've never had goat milk. But I have had goat milk fudge, and honestly, I think it tastes better than regular fudge. Goats are smaller than cows. Goats can be raised in smaller areas than cows. We don't refer to morbidly obese people as goats, which means that goats have never really developed a reputation as being a negative influence on the health care system or the tides. And goats are known to eat just about anything, which means we can go back to throwing whatever biomass is available to them. And we can grow something in our fields besides hay. Like eggplants. I think. What exactly is an eggplant? I'm not sure. I'm drifting from my point.

Worldwide, goat milk is actually more popular than cow milk. It's also easier to digest, and it doesn't require homogenization. I'm not sure what that word means, but it sounds like a pain in the ass to do. Goat milk even provides more calcium than cow milk. And more phosphorus, which is also healthy as long as you don't consume so much that you glow or catch on fire. I don't think you can successfully ingest enough of any sort of milk to make that happen though, except for maybe alien milk. It provides more protein than cow milk, also. All of these facts combined can only mean two things:

1. When Popeye is done eating a can of spinach, he washes it down with goat milk.
2. I like Super Nintendo.

Anyways, here is my conclusion. I think that getting some goats to siphon off their delicious nipple juice would probably be a good idea, once you've settled down into a defensible position and you aren't constantly on the run from zombies. Let your brother-in-law deal with the cow (that's right, chump, I just took a dig at your sister.)

What say you?

(Edited to change a few things around.)

[hotlead]

I dig it :clap:.

[ZombieGore]

I was looking at some milk earlier and I decided I can't afford milk right now. I would really like some milk though. When I was thinking about it, I began to think about how much it would suck to live in a milkless world. I love milk. And a few minutes ago, somebody sent me a message saying they were out of milk.

It made me realize something: Milk is important. Water is boring and lame and boring, but milk is milky and smooth and delicious. Legend has it that with a bit of entry-level alchemy and a few extra ingredients, you can even turn milk into chocolate milk.

But cows are big and fat, and take up a lot of room. Perhaps this is why we tend to refer to morbidly obese people as cows. However, unlike morbidly obese people, cows eat hay. You can't just throw biomass at cows and watch it rapidly vanish into their throat holes. You have to grow hay - in fields which could be growing regular food - for the big, fat, stupid cow.

But what about goats? Now, I've never had goat milk. But I have had goat milk fudge, and honestly, I think it tastes better than regular fudge. Goats are smaller than cows. Goats can be raised in smaller areas than cows. We don't refer to morbidly obese people as goats, which means that goats have never really developed a reputation as being a negative influence on the health care system or the tides. And goats are known to eat just about anything, which means we can go back to throwing whatever biomass is available to them. And we can grow something in our fields besides hay. Like eggplants. I think. What exactly is an eggplant? I'm not sure. I'm drifting from my point.

Worldwide, goat milk is actually more popular than cow milk. It's also easier to digest, and it doesn't require homogenization. I'm not sure what that word means, but it sounds like a pain in the ass to do. Goat milk even provides more calcium than cow milk. And more phosphorus, which is also healthy as long as you don't consume so much that you glow or catch on fire. I don't think you can successfully ingest enough of any sort of milk to make that happen though, except for maybe alien milk. It provides more protein than cow milk, also. All of these facts combined can only mean two things:

1. When Popeye is done eating a can of spinach, he washes it down with goat milk.
2. I like Super Nintendo.

Anyways, here is my conclusion. I think that getting some goats to siphon off their delicious nipple juice would probably be a good idea, once you've settled down into a defensible position and you aren't constantly on the run from zombies. Let your brother-in-law deal with the cow (that's right, chump, I just took a dig at your sister.)

What say you?

(Edited to change a few things around.)


I cracked up through this whole thing lol...I love goat milk...it has a sweet taste to it...amazing...

[Noc]

'could you eat the same thing for a month straight?'


Yes. I've just been on 'holidays' to Kuta, Indonesia and besides alcohol all I ate for 3 weeks was nasi goreng. Don't even want to think about eating it now, but if my life depended on it I know I could eat it.

It wouldn't be healthy but 'taste fatigue' probably wouldn't be that big of a deal...I don't think.

[Sammo909]

Lotta stuff about milk

Don't forget that goat's milk is more acceptable to people who can't drink cow milk, it still contains Lactose but for some reason people with an allergy to cow milk can still stomach goat milk.

[kanUsurvive]

I think in a world over run by zombies or some other kind of mega disaster. That caused the worlds population to be very low. If all you had to eat was one thing. I don't think taste fatigue would matter. You would depend on it to save your life. I think the taste fatigue thing just comes from people now days having a wide variety of food to eat. Basically we are spoiled. Like somebody else said give a starving African child the same thing to eat everyday and he will be happy.

[mattifikation]

Taste fatigue probably evolved as a way to make sure the body was getting all of the nutrients it needs. No one food provides everything the body needs to survive long term. It's not just a result of being spoiled or getting used to variety, it's hard coded into our DNA.

You folks do realize that if you throw up everything you eat because you're physically sick of eating it all the time, you don't get any calories or nutrition from it, right?

[Zombie Cerebral Cortex]

During the zombie invasion, what would be your renewable food source if you had one?

With water and fishing, how would you deal with the zombies infected blood and such running off into the water? This could have some effect on your food.

The same goes to farmers, what if the blood started to soak into your crops?

It would be nice too if you could name how you would stop these events from occuring.

[CAVU45]

The farther one sets up from what used to be civilization, the less likey one would be to run into those problems. Digging a well can take care of the water problem. Fencing around fields can stop any errant zed from getting amongst the crops. But much would also depend on the strain of disease or infection itself. How long would the infection, microbe, disease, virus...last outside the human body?

[Zombie Cerebral Cortex]

Yeah, pretty simple.
I was just worrying about rain possibly spreading the thing around.

[Bob]

Way back springs and wells were poisoned by throwing dead animals in them.
I suppose a zombie would accomplish the same thing.
A high enough number of them would ruin a lake.

[CAVU45]

Good point!! I'd forgotten about that. It could be very possible. All the more reason to dig your own well and boil the water.

[shhhzombies]

I wonder... So you can boil fresh water with high sodium content to extract salt as apposed to mining it, but could you rig something like a old fashioned still over the pot you were using to boil the salt out of the water to catch and condense the steam back into clean water? I would think that the temperature required to convert the liquid into a gas would kill most viral and bacteria threats, if not all, but would it remove any non living chemical contaminates?