Before a hen goes broody, you should know if she is going to be a good momma. Unfortunately, that means you have to let her go broody to find out. A good brooder will sit on her eggs for about 21 days, hatch them, and care for the chicks after they hatch. A bad brooder will sit on the eggs and kill any babies that are born. If you find out your hen is not a good momma, DO NOT let her go broody! This means when the hen starts showing signs of going broody, you take the eggs she is sitting on. Warning, when taking her eggs, she might peck at you.

Signs Of A Broody Hen

The signs of a broody hen are straightforward. A hen will start to sit on multiple eggs, only getting off for food and water. They stay in the coop and do not venture outside. I start to notice the hens staying inside during the day. Then I pay attention to whether the hen is in the laying box at night or on the roost. If she is sitting on eggs in the laying box overnight, this is a good indication that the hen is broody.

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At this point, we usually move the hen to her own area inside the coop. You do not have to move your broody hen from the box they are laying in if they have protection from the other hens. We always move our broody hen into a smaller coop inside our large coop. This allows the hen to be with the flock, but protects her and her eggs from the other hens. Sometimes the other hens will pick on her, try kicking her off her nest, add more eggs to her nest, or steal eggs. We like to place our brooder’s coop on the floor. Our laying boxes are elevated; therefore, when chicks are born, they could fall out of the box.

Moving Your Brooder

When moving broody hens, make sure to do it at night. We put straw in the enclosed area with a smaller dish of food and water. Next, one of us picks up our broody hen, yes, she does peck at you. The other collected the eggs under her and puts them in her nesting box. Then she is placed back on her eggs. She will move the eggs to where she feels the safest in the new coop.

Let Nature Be Nature

As my mom always says, “Let nature be nature”. When a hen goes broody, she takes care of the eggs. She rotates them, she keeps them warm, and the humidity of the eggs are perfect. The only thing we do is make sure her coop is clean and give her fresh food and water every few days. I am not constantly checking on the eggs to make sure they are at the correct temperature and humidity. Sometimes, the broody hen will eat an egg or two under her. Don’t be alarmed; these eggs are not developed and it is nutrients for the momma hen.

When hens go broody, they only get up to eat and drink. This means they poop on the eggs and sit in their poop. Gross! Right?! It does smell and it is gross, but that is part of nature and part of letting a hen incubate eggs.

Once the hen starts hatching her eggs, the momma hen will keep the chicks under her wings to keep them safe. In the first few days, they will not go far from the momma hen. If she is a good momma, she will protect her chicks and keep them warm at night.

This is very important. If the momma hen takes good care of her chicks, we will let her go broody. If she turns out to be a bad momma, we will take the eggs from her. You don’t want to let a hen sit on eggs for 21 days and then kill her chicks. Yes, it happens.

After all the chicks have hatched out, the momma hen will stay close to her chicks in the coop, but will allow them to be adventurous. At this point, any eggs that are left in the nest are no good. We clean the nesting box and throw any unhatched eggs in the woods. Be aware that these eggs might make a popping noise and smell when you discard them into the woods. This is also normal.

Depending on the flock, we will allow the chicks and momma to be with the rest of the flock. Other times, we take the chicks inside until they can go into their own coop. In the summer, we are more willing to leave them with the momma hen. In the colder months, we bring them inside under a heat lamp. Sometimes chicks like to wander away and freeze. This is what works for us, but every homestead is different.

What is your experience with a broody hen and hatching out baby chicks?

Welcome to Our Wild Journey – Homesteading with Little Feet, Big Dreams, and Endless Love!

Makalia

You don’t decide to homestead to become rich. Sure, there are ways to make money on a homestead, but for us, it was more about freedom. Knowing where our food comes from and how it is raised. If we are able to sell extras from the homestead, that is an added plus. We are frugal and try not to waste or buy unnecessary items.

5 Ways to Reduce Waste

Free Range

Free range chickens or turkeys are a win-win for everyone. The birds are the perfect pest control for the yard, and they get nutrients from sources other than pellet feed. In the summer months, this will save you. If you live in a snowy climate, as we do, in the winter months, the chickens and turkeys will rely more on feed.

Free ranging is not an option for everyone depending on what predators are in your area. That being said, you can give your birds a large enclosed fence area. We did this on our Vermont homestead, we fenced in a very large area that went into the woods. The chickens loved it and the foxes did not go into the fence. We staked the bottom of the fence to the ground to prevent anything from digging under it.

Egg shell

Chickens and turkeys need grit to help them digest food. Egg shells are a perfect source of grit and it gives the birds added calcium. We save our egg shells in a gallon bag. Once it is full, the kiddos crush it into small pieces. Some people like to bake it or let it sit in the sun. We give it to the chickens as is once a week mixed in with the pellets.

Food scraps for chickens

We do not give food scraps to our turkeys as of now, but we do give them to our chickens. I know you can give scraps to the turkeys, but they are still inside the coop for a few more weeks until we can let them out. Turkey’s natural instincts are to navigate towards the woods where predators lurk, so we want them to get used to us before letting them out.

For the chickens, we feed them anything we do not eat. This is food that is left over on the kiddos’ plates or a snack that was never eaten. Usually, it contains homemade bread, cheese, fruit, and some veggies. Sometimes they get a gourmet meal of leftovers that we are sick of or forget are in the fridge. I don’t give them junk food, because we don’t eat it.

I also stay away from anything that will sit inside the chicken fence, like banana peels or orange peels. This invites animals inside the fence at night. Trust me, we learned this the hard way. We had a skunk family that would hide under our chicken shed and eat leftover scraps at night. It was a nightmare getting rid of the skunks and our German Shepherd learned the hard way that skunks don’t play fair.

Pellet Feed Powder

Are your birds picky like mine and only eat the pellets or corn? If there are any really small broken pieces or pellet dust, they won’t eat it. I take the left over dust from the feed bins and add a liquid to it, making a paste. I prefer to use raw milk or broth for added nutrients.

The broth usually comes from other meals, either an Instant Pot chuck roast or a whole chicken. If I don’t use the broth for rice, the chickens get it. For raw milk, I use older milk that is starting to go sour. If I don’t have milk or broth available, water works too.

Bird poop

We all love chicken poop, only a homesteader would say this. Chicken and Turkey poop is great for composting or in the garden. During the summer months, we create a compost pile that will be used the following garden season. In the fall after garden season, the chickens and turkeys are allowed into the garden to scratch and fertilize it. Some people let their birds in the garden during the summer, but I don’t want to step in poop in the garden or risk them eating our food.

What are some ways you reduce waste on your homestead? Let me know in the comments, I really like to learn new things.

Welcome to Our Wild Journey – Homesteading with Little Feet, Big Dreams, and Endless Love!

Makalia

It’s Milk Time.

Right now it’s spring, well, sprinter really, because some days it’s 63 degrees and some days it’s 32 degrees or colder. You just never know which one you’re waking up to. The cows don’t care either way. They don’t pick the nicer days to have their calves. They just have them when they want, and I bundle up and go outside, cold or not, because that’s the deal. Every new calf is a blessing, and milking is amazing.

No, we don’t milk like most people think you have to milk, because you don’t really have to milk your cow like the system says you should. Remember you’re a homestead not a commercial dairy farm. We milk the cow with nature and what we call milk sharing.

If you haven’t heard that term before, milk sharing is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of separating the calf from its mother and taking all the milk for yourself, you leave them together and share it. The calf eats, you take what you need, the cow stays healthy because her baby is doing a lot of the work for you. I’ve been milking this way on and off for twelve years, and the whole system is built around one thing: my sanity.

The Myth That Keeps People From Starting

Everyone who thinks about getting a milk cow has heard the same warning. You have to milk your cow twice a day or your cow will get mastitis. People say this like it’s settled fact. It isn’t, at least not when you’ve got a calf on her side.

When the calf is with the mother, the cow’s being tended to whether you show up or not. Your job isn’t to replace the calf. Your job is to work alongside the calf and take your share. That’s what makes milk sharing manageable for a homestead family that’s already got a hundred other things going on.

Why We Don’t Pull the Calf at Birth

I’ve seen homesteaders follow the commercial model. This is where the calf is pulled of the mom at birth or within a few days, the cow’s milked out, and the milk gets bottle fed back to the calf. I’m not saying that’s wrong. I’m saying it’s not how we do it.

When you pull the calf away from the mom at birth, you become that calf’s mother. Someone’s needs to feed the calf three or four times a day at the beginning, then twice a day after that. The calf doesn’t bond with the mother, and the cow doesn’t keep her innate mothering skills to protect the calf. Plus, you have to milk the cow twice a day to keep her production from dropping just to feed the calf, and you. That’s a lot of work that nature didn’t intend to happen.

Yes, the calf will be friendlier toward you because it genuinely thinks you’re its mother. Some people like that. You’ve replaced the cow’s instincts entirely though, and the whole system falls apart the moment you can’t be there.

We want the mother to stay the mother. We want her instincts working as nature intended. If something happens and we can’t get out to the barn, that calf is fed, and the mom stays healthy. Nobody goes hungry and nobody gets sick. That’s the foundation we’re building on, and it changes everything about how manageable milking a cow actually can be.

This is how we start our milk sharing, once a calf is born.

The First 72 Hours

Once a calf is born, we watch it for the first 72 hours to make sure it’s getting enough colostrum. The first 24 hours are the most critical. Colostrum is what builds the immune system and gives the calf its start. If something goes wrong and the calf isn’t drinking, you’ll need to find colostrum from a neighbor or use a powdered form from the store, but our first choice is always to let the mother feed the baby directly.

Unless we see a problem with the bag getting too full or showing signs of warmth, which can indicate infection, we leave things alone for the first three to four days. Sometimes up to two weeks depending on what else is happening on the homestead. Our Dexters are usually fine during this window. The calf empties enough that the mom isn’t in distress. We do choose to take some colostrum from our heavier producing moms after the calf has eaten at a meal, allowing us to store colostrum for our homestead or a neighbor if there is a problem. Yes, our colostrum has saved other farmers’ calf, because they can start feeding it pretty quickly. I’m not taking milk for us at that point. I’m just making sure she’s not in pain and we have a little extra in the freezer.

Any colostrum I milk out in those first 24 to 48 hours I save in the freezer. It’s pure yellow colostrum. I don’t drink it, though many people seem to be buying colostrum powder to add to their smoothies.

We freeze the milk in mylar bags. Our process is simple. We fill larger mylar bags with a quart of colostrum. Before sealing we set them upright in the deep freezer, let them freeze overnight, then vacuum seal the bags shut once the milk is solid. Trying to seal a bag full of liquid colostrum is a mess I learned this the hard way. If you’re using glass instead, leave at least two inches of headspace and freeze without the lid on so the jar doesn’t crack. I’ve found half gallon jars seems to crack more often and I need to leave four inches or more of a headspace. I freeze the glass jars without the lids on. You can do this with plastic jugs too.

The frozen colostrum gets offered to other farmers or homesteaders in the area who might need it for a calf in trouble. Getting it from a real cow beats the powdered substitute every time.

Week One: Getting Established

When the calf is about a week old, I start going out to the barn after the calf has already eaten in the morning to milk. People think you have to milk at 4 or 5 in the morning. You don’t, I don’t, and I never will. Whatever schedule you set, your animals will adapt to it. I’m usually out between 7 and 9, and I check the calf’s belly first to make sure it’s not hollow or indented, which tells me the calf hasn’t eaten.

Once I know the calf has eaten, I milk all four quarters but not completely out. I want the calf to have the ability to get a little snack between feedings if the mom allows.

During this period we also separate our milking cows and calves from the main herd. They have their own area with fresh pasture, hay, water, and cover. It keeps them trained for milking and makes the morning routine predictable.

During these first several weeks I’m milking every single morning. We’re establishing the supply, getting the cow used to the routine of us milking alongside the calf eating, and building trust between her, the calf, and me. Our older cows get back into the routine of milking very easily. New cows, take a little longer to get them into the milking groove.

Weeks Three Through Five: Starting the Separation

Somewhere between three and five weeks old, depending on the calf and the cow, I’ll go out in the morning and there’s no milk for me to take. The calf has eaten it all. This means we need to do two things. Separate the cow and calf at night, and get the mom’s milk supply up for both calf and us.

By this point the calf is starting to nibble hay and grass. It’s not dependent on milk alone anymore, though milk is their main food. At night we move the calf into a large run area right next to where the cows come in and out. It’s roomy enough for two full-size cows with space to spare, and the calf has hay, water, and can still touch its mother through the fence. They’re not completely isolated from each other, but the calf cannot feed.

In the morning I milk out part of two of the four teats. As the cow makes more milk at the morning feeding we take more of the milk from the two teats. The calf eats from the other two teats. Yes, sometimes at the same time as us, and sometimes after us, depending on the calf. We do this until the calf is about four or five months old, when we will empty the two teats.

The calf is with the mom in the field and barn throughout the rest of the day eating, whenever it chooses.

If the calf is a heifer, this is also when we start getting her comfortable at the stanchion. Not because we’re planning to milk her necessarily, but because a cow who’s been handled and trained is easier to work with and easier to sell to someone else who wants to milk her. It takes almost no extra effort at this stage and it pays off later.

Our Setup: The Stanchion

We use a milk stanchion, which is a structure the cow walks into with a head gate that closes loosely around her neck while she eats. It keeps her steady, keeps me safe, and keeps the calf from getting in the way once they’re old enough to fight me for the pail. In front of the cow there’s hay, and depending on the cow, sometimes molasses.

I milk our Dexters by hand, because to me it’s faster than getting the milking machine out, using it, and cleaning it. Plus, as I get older milking seems to keep my hands moving.

Hand milking has a real advantage in milk sharing because I can feel how much milk I’m taking and how much I’m leaving. I can see and feel how the calf is eating, and interact with the calf easily. After twelve years I’ve gotten good at knowing when to stop.

We Don’t Milk Every Day

For the first two weeks while we’re establishing the milk supply, yes, I’m out there every morning. After that, there are days we skip. We take one day off a week on purpose. It gives everyone a break, human and animal both. Sometimes life is happening and we can’t get out to milk. Plus now that we are looking at downsizing what we do to see children and grandchildren not in our area, we have a little more freedom to visit, and not worry about milk. The calf and the cow handle those days together on their own. That’s the entire point of milk sharing. The calf is the backup, the insurance, the partner in this system.

When you’ve got a calf on the cow, the cow’s being taken care of whether you show up or not. You get the benefit of fresh raw milk without the whole thing collapsing the moment something goes sideways on the homestead.

When We Stop and When We Start Again

We milk up until around January, sometimes a little longer sometimes a little shorter, depending on the weather. We live in cold country and I don’t enjoy milking when it’s below freezing. Our cows are bred in July and deliver in April and May, which means if we stop milking in January the cow gets a solid three months where she’s not milking and pregnant at the same time. That matters for her health and for the next calf.

All calves stay with their mothers for at least six months. We don’t let any calf leave the homestead before that. If we sell a calf from one of the milkers, we stop milking that cow when the calf goes. After six months, the weaning timeline depends on the calf. Heifers we wean at seven months if the bull is still in the pasture. If there’s no bull around, or the calf is a steer, we go to nine months. That gives the cow three good months to rest before the next calf arrives.

I have one cow who starts weaning her calf herself around six months. She gets antsy and doesn’t want to be milked anymore. When she weens her calf, she weens us off too.

We don’t have winter calves by design. Yes, we could have cows freshen (calve) twice a year for year round milking. We preserve what we can, go without fresh milk once it’s gone, and then sprinter arrives and we start again.

The Point of All of It

You’re homesteading because you want real food and peace of mind, not because you want a new full-time job that never takes a day off. Milk sharing is how we get fresh raw milk without the milk owning us. It works because we’re working with the cow and calf instead of replacing one of them.

If you’ve been on the fence about a milk cow because you’ve heard it’s too demanding or too complicated or you can’t possibly do it unless you’re out there twice a day every single day, I want you to hear this. It doesn’t have to be that way. Figure out what works for you and your animals.

Try It and Tell Me How It Goes

If you’re starting your first milk share this spring or you’ve been doing this for years and do it differently, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. Every homestead works it out a little differently. The more we share what actually works, the easier it gets for the people just starting out.

Welcome to Our Wild Journey – Homesteading from the Other Side of the Hill, Where Downsizing Opens the Door to Freedom, Travel, and Endless Love!

Janet

Think Before You Buy

You may think purchasing new chicks every year is the smartest and easiest way to have chickens on your homestead. Have you considered the vaccines their parents received?

It’s very easy to go online, choose the chickens you want, order them, and wait for the chicks to arrive by mail. Did you know that the majority of chicken hatcheries in the United States belong to the National Poultry Improvement Plan (NPIP)? That means your chicks come from vaccinated breeding stock, whether you know it or not.

Most U.S. hatcheries vaccinate their breeding flocks and do not need to disclose this on their websites. Before buying chicks from a breeder, ask them what vaccinations their breeding flock receives. Ask them whether they keep their breeding stock outdoors or in cages. Ask if the eggs are vaccinated. This is called In-ovo vaccination, which doesn’t need to be disclosed either, because it’s given through the eggshell before the chick hatches. So technically, the chick hasn’t received a vaccination because the procedure happens before they are considered chicks.

You want birds that thrive in nature, not in small cages, and are healthy for you to eat, eat their eggs, and reproduce them.

What Hatcheries Vaccinate For

In late 2024, we emailed five different hatcheries and discovered that they vaccinated breeder chickens for the following diseases. Some hatcheries vaccinated for all, while others only vaccinated for some. They all said they align with the NPIP program, which is a voluntary government program, sort -of.

According to the USDA participation is voluntary, but all flocks must first qualify as “U.S. Pullorum-Typhoid Clean” to access additional program benefits. More importantly, the vast majority of U.S. states prohibit the entry of any poultry shipments except those designated as Pullorum-Typhoid Clean , which means any hatchery selling birds across state lines essentially has to participate to stay in business.

Please note, according to the NPIP website and USDA, the Avian Influenza (HPAI) vaccination started rolling out in 2025 and will continue through 2026.

The rest of the vaccines I could find are as follows. Many of these vaccines are live vaccines.

• Mareks: a viral infection.

• Bursal or IBD Vaccine: for a viral infection.

• Newcastle/Bronchitis: a live-virus vaccine supposed to protect chickens against both Newcastle Disease and Infectious Bronchitis.

• Avian encephalomyelitis (AE): supposed to protect chickens from the disease caused by the Avian encephalomyelitis virus.

• Fowl pox: a live virus vaccine used to prevent Fowl Pox in chickens, typically administered at 8 weeks or older, with some sources recommending 12–16 weeks.

• Pigeon pox: a virus.

• Laryngo: a vaccine used to prevent laryngotracheitis, a respiratory disease.

• Salmonella vaccine: used to reduce Salmonella in the digestive tract.

• Bird flu vaccine: designed to protect against the avian influenza virus, specifically the H5N1 subtype.

There are groups writing articles and touting how wonderful these vaccines are for keeping flocks healthy. To me a vaccinated flock is a weak flock. The more you vaccinate, the weaker your animals become because they can’t fight off anything that comes their way.

Their bodies are depending on medication instead of survival of the fittest. You want strong birds that can take care of themselves and not get sick naturally. Most hatcheries only keep their breeding birds for one year. You, with the exception of meat birds, will keep your layers and breeders for several years.

Remember your health is what you eat.

There are some places that don’t vaccinate their chicks, breeders, or the eggs. Look for a chicken preserve and ask them directly what, if anything do, they vaccinate their chickens.

Incubating Your Own Chicks

A better idea besides buying baby chicks is incubating your own. Or get them from someone you know who incubates their own.

Ideally, the cheapest and best way to incubate new chicks is by letting your chickens do it on their own. This means you need a broody hen, one that will sit on eggs and hatch them without your intervention, sometimes without your knowledge as well. This isn’t always possible, and it gives you less control over your flock. The other option is usinto use egg incubator.

An egg incubator puts you in charge. You must have a mature rooster for every eight hens that are laying eggs. This ratio ensures the eggs will be fertilized. The best time of year is when the weather isn’t too hot nor too cold for that breed. Most breeds do well fertilizing between 40 and 80 degrees.

Incubating Cons

There are two cons to owning your own incubator.

The biggest con of incubating your own chicks is the cost of a good incubator that incubates 24 or more eggs with little work from you. Sure, you can purchase a cheap incubator or make your own. We’ve done both, and neither has lasted long and the ratio of hatching was low. The cheap ones make hatching more difficult due to the manual work you need to do.

The second con, you might get addicted to hatching out way too many chicks. In this case, lend your incubator to a friend, or sell the chicks.

Another option is to find someone who will incubate your eggs for you while you save your pennies for your own incubator. You may not get your eggs hatched exactly when you want, but you will get new chicks that come from cleaner stock.

The Pros: Freedom

Freedom. That is my number one reason for incubating our own eggs. You decide when you want more chicks, what breeds you want, and whether you want any vaccinations for your flock at all. You get to stop the insanity of medicating birds that should be strong enough to take care of themselves.

You also control what your breeders eat, which matters more than most people realize. If a hatchery feeds their birds genetically engineered feed, your chicks carry that with them even before they hatch. With your own flock, you know exactly what they eat.

Swap fertile eggs with a friend and you add new genetics to your gene pool without spending a dime on outside stock. There are no surprises about shipping costs, no worrying about a hatchery running out of your breed, and no risk of a supply shortage. You are in charge from egg to hatch.

Having and using a chick incubator gives you freedom for your chicken meat and eggs. Now go save your pennies and create some outstanding chickens to add to your food freedom.

I’m off to check my baby chicks.
You can use the same incubator to hatch out quail, duck, and turkey too.

Welcome to Our Wild Journey – Homesteading from the Other Side of the Hill, Where Downsizing Opens the Door to Freedom, Travel, and Endless Love!
Janet

When I started, the internet wasn’t a household name yet, and homesteading wasn’t a movement anyone was talking about. It wasn’t in the news, it wasn’t on anyone’s radar, and it certainly wasn’t part of my vocabulary. All I wanted was clean, healthy food when I was pregnant with my first child.

Back then, baby food manufacturers would send free food and formula coupons to anyone who signed up. You’d start receiving them before your child was born. That was their strategy, getting new mothers hooked on big food business before they ever had a chance to ask questions.

I took those coupons to the grocery store and started putting free jars of baby food into my cart. I was thinking ahead. Then I hit the meat section. Have you ever actually looked at meat in a baby food jar? Turkey with potato starch and a list of additives I couldn’t explain. I put back every jar because none were pure food.

That was the moment I knew I had to do better, for my baby and for myself. There wasn’t a movement to join, and most people looked at me suspiciously when I questioned what was in my food.

Before you figure out what you can raise, you need to know why you want to raise it. I wish someone had walked me through that question before I got started. It would have saved a lot of time, money, and frustration.

Define Your Purpose for Raising Meat

My why started in a grocery store with a jar of turkey that had no business having potato starch in it. Your why will be different from mine, and that’s how it should be.

Be honest with yourself. Why do you want to raise your own meat? Is it cost? Knowing what your animal was fed, how it was housed, whether it was vaccinated? Better quality? More control over your food supply? Whatever your reason, write it down and own it.

If you don’t know how you want your meat raised yet, start with what you know you don’t want. That’s a purpose too, and it’s a good place to start. Plus, make sure you actually like eating the meat you’re planning to raise. You don’t want to invest time and money into raising an animal only to discover that it didn’t help your food freedom purpose.

Buying Local

Before you ever raise your first animal, find a local farmer or grower who raises meat the way you would. You’ll need that resource while your own animals are growing out. Plus, if raising your own isn’t possible right now, that connection will gain you locally raised healthy meat.

We bought raw milk and beef from a local farmer for years before we raised our own, and it taught us more than any book could. You learn what to look for, what questions to ask, and what standards matter to you. It also puts clean meat on your table now, not months from now. Finding a trustworthy local source isn’t settling; it’s part of food freedom.

Try Things and Learn as You Go

Once you have your why, start researching what animal you want to raise first, not your entire plan, just your first one. Talk to people online and in person who are already doing what you want to do. Investigate different breeds within the species you want to raise, too.

I learned that the hard way.

I was living on a city lot when I raised rabbits for meat, a food I’d never even eaten before. I got a cage with two compartments, three rabbits from who knows where, and a library book, in that order. The rabbits were supposed to be two females and a male. They were two males and a female. I put them all together, thinking I’d figure out what to do before things got out of hand. I never did. The hutches looked like a massacre, and no babies survived past a few weeks. When I finally sorted out what had gone wrong, I couldn’t bring myself to harvest any of the breeders. I gave all three away and went back to gardening.

That experience kept me from raising my own meat for fourteen years. I stopped looking for how I could raise my meat. I waited until I had land to try again because I didn’t know any better. I didn’t know there were animals I could have raised wherever I was living. I didn’t have to wait for land.

When Purpose Meets the Property Line

The animal you have in mind may not fit where you live right now. That doesn’t mean your why is wrong. It means you need to figure out how to raise other meat.

The reality is that the space you need depends on the animal. Even beef doesn’t require 50 acres. There’s more within reach than most people think.

Remember, livestock are animals that depend on you. Like any animal in your care, you have to be able to feed them and clean up after them regardless of your setup or the weather. Meat animals are not pets. If you’re wondering whether you can eat an animal you’ve raised yourself read the article below.

Meat Animals to Raise

This list isn’t an exhaustive list of animals to raise. They’re just the meat animals I’ve personally raised or helped raise on other homesteads.

The amount of space you need to raise an animal depends on how you’re going to raise them, if you depend on your own land for feed, and if you’re feeding grain. The less land you have, the more inputs you need. We believe in providing enough room for animals to move freely between the outdoors and a shelter, except when weather prevents it, then we keep the animals safe inside. We also ensure animals are never over crowded.

One note before you get into the animals. If you’re planning to use a butcher facility for any animal, call them before you bring your animal home. Wait times in many areas run a year or more.

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Quail

Quail are one of the best kept secrets in small space meat raising. Most places do not classify them as agricultural livestock, which results in little to no regulation and no permits. You can raise them discreetly in barns, backyards, and basements.

Coturnix quail are the most common starting point. They incubate in 18 days, are ready to harvest in as little as eight weeks, and start laying eggs around the same time. Standard Coturnix finish between three and five ounces, while jumbo varieties finish between 12 and 15 ounces. Most varieties of quail do not incubate their own eggs. For more meat freedom, you’ll need to invest in a small incubator.

They thrive in a ratio of five females per male. Research cages that give you the right height and space for these birds. You’ll need about 1 to 3 square feet per bird. Your cages need to either be about 6 feet tall or more, or very short, 8 to 12 inches. Quail fly straight up when startled and will break their necks at an in-between height.

Feed a high-protein game bird feed, not a standard layer feed. Layer feed is too high in calcium and will prevent chicks from hatching.

Three to four quail eggs equal one chicken egg in size, but ounce for ounce they carry more protein, iron, B12, and riboflavin.

Rabbits

You can raise rabbits almost anywhere with the right setup. They aren’t classified as agricultural livestock, so regulators do not oversee them.

Decide what breed you want, how you want to raise them, and what you want to feed them before you bring any home. Choose between a meat rabbit or a dual-purpose rabbit, which is usually meat and fur. Two camps exist for housing: cages or colonies. We ran a hybrid setup, keeping bucks in cages and does in colonies of two, which gave us control over breeding and population. For feed, there are die-hard pellet people and pasture people. We did a mix on this as well.

Plan on about 10 to 20 square feet per doe in a colony, which allows you to have kits with ease. In a cage, about 8 to 10 square feet. They grow to butchering maturity around 10 to 16 weeks depending on breed, feed, and the size you want.

Poultry: Chickens, Ducks, Turkeys, and Geese

Raising poultry for meat is a great starting point. Check your zoning rules about poultry and specifically chickens. Many towns, suburban neighborhoods, and cities allow 4 to 6 hens with no roosters. Free range chickens are not an option in most towns, that must be in coop at all times. Know your local rules before getting started.

Chickens, ducks, turkeys, and geese all need shelter, water, and feed. You might be able to let your chickens run free, or you might need a coop and run. Another option is using chicken tractors, where you move the poultry around inside them. You can build a chicken tractor tall enough for any of the poultry.

If you’re raising ducks, you don’t need a pond, but the ducks need access to bowls of water throughout the day and night.

Pigs

Pigs are the most expensive animals on the homestead to raise. Feed, infrastructure, and butchering costs add up fast. Even if you feed your pigs hay or have them on pasture, they need feed to grow.

There are many different varieties of pigs you can raise. Small heritage breeds, such as the American Guinea Hog, take about 13 months to raise and weigh around 125 pounds. Larger heritage and faster-growing pigs, such as Tamworth, Berkshire, and Yorkshire, take between 6 to 8 months to raise and can weigh up to several hundred pounds.

Whatever breed you choose, have your infrastructure, fencing, and butchering plan in place before you bring one home. They can be raised in a box stall, on acreage, and even a fitted garage.

Rumen Animals and Feed

We are a grass-based homestead. Meaning our ruminant animals, such as goats, sheep, and cows don’t get grain. They thrive on grass and hay. Any treats we give are in the form of timothy alfalfa cubes, vegetables, and fruit from the garden. We believe it’s healthier for the animals, and much less money for us. Do your research to decide for yourself.

Goats and Sheep

Goats and sheep are both rewarding animals to raise for meat. You can raise them together, but there is one critical thing you must know before you do. Goats require copper in their mineral supplementation. Sheep do not. Copper is toxic to sheep at the levels goats need. Keep their minerals separate and their herds separate if at all possible.

Goats are browsers by nature. If there isn’t lush grass, they will eat brush, brambles, and weeds, making them excellent for clearing overgrown areas. Make sure you have good goat fencing, either permanent or temporary, to keep your goats and land safe.

Sheep are grazers, which means they eat through the lush pasture. Do your research on diet and breeding for both animals. You do not want to crossbreed. It doesn’t happen often, but it’s usually not a pretty outcome.

Beef

Two camps exist when it comes to raising beef. Grain-fed or 100% grass-fed and finished. Grain finishing gets an animal to weight in about 18 months. Raising one on grass takes about 28 months.

Many distinct breeds are perfect for raising for beef. Do your research on size, meat quality, and dual-purpose milk and meat. We’ve raised several breeds over the years, but have chosen the Dexter for their size (about 700 to 900 pounds as a breeder), how docile they are, their dual purpose for milk, and that they are excellent mothers.

Decide how you want your beef raised before you buy your first animal. That decision shapes everything from breed selection to infrastructure and the time from birth to freezer.

Start Where You Are

You don’t need the perfect setup, land, or to know everything to start. What you need is a clear purpose and the willingness to start with what fits right where you are, right now.

Quail and rabbits fit on a back porch or in a basement. Chickens fit on a city lot. Larger animals come when the space and the means are ready. Every step you take toward raising your own food, or finding someone local who raises it the way you would, is a step toward food freedom.

I waited fourteen years longer than I needed to. You don’t have to. Start where you are, do one thing better than you did last season, and gain more food freedom bit by bit.

What’s the one animal or the one step that fits where you are right now?

I’d love to hear where you’re starting.
Janet

I want good, clean food. I want to know where my food comes from and how it was raised. Plus, I want food that is healthy for my mind, body, and soul.

Everyone talks about gardens, raising herbs, fruit, and medicinal plants. What about meat, milk, and eggs?

It is possible to find clean, wholesome, organically raised meat, milk, and eggs raised to your standards today. However, if your goal is to have more control over your food and food supply, raising it yourself is the best way to go.

Acquiring a new animal, whether for the first or hundredth time, requires an understanding of these essentials.

A Few Realities Of Raising Your Own Meat: The Ugly

I’m warning you, this is the ugly part of raising your own meat. There is no way to sugarcoat what I am about to say, so I am just going to say it all.

When you have livestock, you’ll have dead stock. No matter how hard you try, you’re going to lose an animal. Sometimes it’s because you didn’t know what to do, but most times it’s because of something you had no control over.

There isn’t one species we’ve raised that we haven’t lost an animal. It’s disheartening and difficult. If it were easy, I would question my sanity. The hardest for us is when we lose a cow or calf. Mainly because they are a larger animal and we keep them for a longer period of time than we would a rabbit or a chicken.

I’ve had cows for over 20 years now. I didn’t lose one cow for over 15 years, then we lost three within three years. All things we had never experienced up until that point, and made little sense to us or those I knew to call. If any of the situations happen again, I’ll know what’s going on and intervene much sooner. It’s a learning experience, one you will never forget.

You CAN NOT know everything before you start. You will not know everything 20 years down the road either. Experience will tell you what to do or not do, and in all cases you’ll gain knowledge.

As you learn, be mindful, gain resources, and learn from the animals by watching them. Connect with other like-minded people for support and help.

We’ve raised goats and cows for over 20 years now, we still tap into others just in case we are missing something. What happens on your homestead might not happen on anyone else’s, and then again it might.

Not every breed belongs on your homestead

When I moved to the land, I knew I wanted milk, meat, and eggs. We’d bought raw milk and beef from a local farmer for years. I didn’t wait or research the animal breeds like I should have done. My first beef was several large Angus cattle. Their size made it difficult for me to handle, and we didn’t need that much meat. Plus, they weren’t true dual-purpose for both milk and meat.

After going through several other breeds of cows, I found the Dexter cow, which is a true dual-purpose milk and meat cow. They were the right size for me to handle and fit our needs.

Plus, we love how docile they are, too.

Raising meat means eating it.

Before you get any animals on your homestead that you intend for food, be honest with yourself. Can you eat the animal? Can you butcher the animal or put it on a truck for someone else to butcher?

This is a mindset in itself. If you can’t do this, think twice about raising animals for meat. You’ll end up with a lot of expensive pets.

We handle this by naming our animals appropriately. Our breeder Dexters have names like Buster, Groovy, Baby Red, Izzy, and so on. Our beef animals are either nameless or we refer to them as quarter pounder, meaty meat, Steakum, etc. We treat all the animals well and keep them friendly, but we aren’t friends. We know where they are going.

We don’t take it lightly that the Lord has given us the responsibility for these animals to raise, and in return they keep us healthy.

If kids are in the picture, be upfront with them from the start about why you’re raising the animal. They understand more than you think. Watching you handle animals as food teaches them something valuable that most kids never learn. Plus, they know the value of where their food comes from.

Should you raise your own meat?

There’s a lot of decision-making when it comes to raising your own meat. If you’ve made peace with the realities from the previous section, you’re ready to look into raising your own meat.

Space and zoning.

What are you allowed to have on your property? If you don’t live in property zoned for agriculture or an area that doesn’t have these types of zoning laws, you better find out.

Most towns allow you to have a certain number of hens. Find out what the laws are so you know what you can and cannot do. They do not classify rabbits as agricultural livestock animals. This means there aren’t any rules about raising them for meat. Butchering animals on your property might be a different story.

Time:

Do you have the time to take care of the animal? You have to make sure that regardless if it’s 105 degrees or -15 degrees outside, your animals depend on you. Yes, you can raise certain animals for meat and avoid the extreme weather. However, time needs to be taken into consideration.

You’ll need time to feed and water them, buy their supplies, and make sure they are safe and healthy. It may mean building infrastructure to keep them safe from predators or weather.

Animals cannot take care of themselves, so you have to. Yes, you can set up some automation, but setting up the automation takes time too.

Always have a backup plan.

If you intend to leave home for days or an emergency arises, who will care for the animals? Depending on your setup, you may not need anyone.

We have family and friends who all have each other’s backs. That doesn’t mean any of us can pick up and leave on a whim. It takes planning and coordination to make sure the animals are covered. When emergencies have come up, we have people we count on and count on us.

Money

Feeding, caring for, and butchering animals costs money. Even if you’re only feeding hay, you have to buy it consistently. If you’re putting up your own hay, add equipment costs and time on top of that.

If you aren’t butchering the animals yourself, expect butchering fees plus transportation costs if you don’t have a way to haul the animal. Before you ever bring an animal home, call around to local butchers. Find out how far out you need to book and what it costs. In my area, larger animals can mean a two-year wait for a slot.

When and Why You Should Raise Your Own Meat?

Raise your own meat when you have the time, land, and means to get started. Before you do, connect with people already doing what you want to do and go see them in person. Look at their setup, ask questions, and listen. Online research begins the journey, but direct experience from another person proves essential.

Raise your own meat if you want control over your food source. Raise it if you want to know exactly how it was raised. Raise it if you want the healthiest meat you can get.

You don’t need everything to be perfect before you start. You don’t need all the money upfront either. You do need the basics in place and a reliable means of income to sustain it.

Getting Started.

If you’re ready, get going. I suggest everyone starts with a smaller animal, especially if they haven’t raised livestock before. Chickens are relatively easy, once they are 5 to 7 months old, you get eggs or meat.

Before you get that first animal or your next animal, create the right infrastructure It doesn’t need to be fancy or expensive. Thing simple shelter and basic fencing to keep the animals safe and healthy. Constantly putting out fires because you lack infrasturcture or a plan is the best way to lose animals, and sanity. Don’t expect to have the perfect setup the first time around. You’ll change things to fit how you grow, what animals you have, and your purpose.

Make sure you have enough feed for at least a month. Do your research on how you want your food rasied. Our homestead starts with grass-fed meats. This means our rumen animals only get hay or grass. No grain. They get treats in the form of alfalfa cubes, apples, carrots, etc. Our poultry is raised on organic grain. We prefer grain without soy, though it’s getting harder to find.

Over the next several weeks I will give you more information regarding raising different kinds of animals for meat, milk, and eggs.

Remember it’s not about raising your food perfectly.
It’s about doing one step better than you had last season.

Janet