Quail and Rabbits

I've been watching a homestead family - Living Traditions Homestead - and I'll tell you they really teach you a lot of good information on growing your own food - they have a 9 part series on raising rabbits and also have a series on raising quail - they go into the details so that even if you don't have any experience you could start raising these food sources - the one on quail shows how to process and cook quail - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUbRPphQuWY - kinda wondering if I should start raising quail after watching their videos -

My first thought without even looking at the video is, how much meat are you getting from a quail. Rabbits are fine and dandy but have to be housed and cleaned properly to keep down disease. By the time you buy food/grain how far are you ahead?

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Originally Posted by Gilroy

My first thought without even looking at the video is, how much meat are you getting from a quail. Rabbits are fine and dandy but have to be housed and cleaned properly to keep down disease. By the time you buy food/grain how far are you ahead?

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Quail eggs, but again they'd be quite small.

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Originally Posted by Gilroy

My first thought without even looking at the video is, how much meat are you getting from a quail. Rabbits are fine and dandy but have to be housed and cleaned properly to keep down disease. By the time you buy food/grain how far are you ahead?

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Yes I agree with you - chickens are much more practical - you can let them roam around and get free food and they give you eggs - I guess the quail are something you can eat in only a six weeks and I don't think they eat very much - and it is something different to eat - and they are easier to kill - for some reason certain things are easier to kill without feeling sorry for killing it - I don't think twice about killing fish - and birds are easier to kill - but some animals are now that easy -

I had two dozen pheasants at one point and beside the cool factor wouldn’t do it again. For me anyways living in the North I can get all the grouse or rabbits I need. I might get chickens once I retire.

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Originally Posted by Deer Hunter

I had two dozen pheasants at one point and beside the cool factor wouldn’t do it again. For me anyways living in the North I can get all the grouse or rabbits I need. I might get chickens once I retire.

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X2
Chicken and rabbits are the ticket for survival.
My Mom made living running a smalls scale chicken farm-have quite experience with them.
My Dad would make some side money after retiring-would raise rabits,half would sell for the cost of investing into the next "generation "of rabbits,half would be consumed by them-us.
That is how i learned skinning/field dressing rabbits.........

Then-for variety-goat and pig.
That is more then enogh.If one do not want to buy feed,al 4 can be fed by grazing ,or cutting hay simple ways ,for rabbits.
Goat will actually eat up the "house"given chance.....
We called goat-the poor mans cow.Milk,meat-no shelter,no feed.

Of course-one will need time for them to grow the nature's way,but they will be the true BIO food.

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Originally Posted by Deer Hunter

I had two dozen pheasants at one point and beside the cool factor wouldn’t do it again. For me anyways living in the North I can get all the grouse or rabbits I need. I might get chickens once I retire.

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LOL I had a neighbour besides me up north, actually an American guy from Pennsylvania and he raised a few dozen pheasants on his place and after they were grown up he released them hoping they would take in the wild. I saw them a couple of times in the bush for a week or so
but they did not last long between the foxes, coyotes, hawks and owls. Tough spot for birds unless they are street smart.

Problem with raising quail is you sure get sick of pickled eggs real fast

Well the reason for raising these animals besides providing food for you now is you have food when TSHF and there is a real shortage of food - one of the advantages of having a rural property - imagine living in a big city and all of a sudden you can't go to the store to buy food - and let me tell you something - things are not getting any better so being prepared is a good idea -

One thing with rabbits they reproduce real fast and in no time you have a lot of them -

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Originally Posted by Gilroy

LOL I had a neighbour besides me up north, actually an American guy from Pennsylvania and he raised a few dozen pheasants on his place and after they were grown up he released them hoping they would take in the wild. I saw them a couple of times in the bush for a week or so
but they did not last long between the foxes, coyotes, hawks and owls. Tough spot for birds unless they are street smart.

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Haha, I ate them all……except one that managed to fly away.

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Originally Posted by JoePa

I've been watching a homestead family - Living Traditions Homestead - and I'll tell you they really teach you a lot of good information on growing your own food - they have a 9 part series on raising rabbits and also have a series on raising quail - they go into the details so that even if you don't have any experience you could start raising these food sources - the one on quail shows how to process and cook quail - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUbRPphQuWY - kinda wondering if I should start raising quail after watching their videos -

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Quail are jerks, they will attack each other and try to get into their brains.

The best thing about quail though, they are hardy, I have not lost one to sickness in the years I have had them.

One good thing about having these small animals is that you can kill one whenever you want to have something to eat and not need to preserve any - when you butcher a large animal you end up needing to preserve the portion that you don't eat in a few days - so you need to can, freeze dry or freeze the left over meat - not so with a rabbit or chicken or other small animal - something to consider if things go south