There’s been a lot of buzz (and wrong information) about the FDA’s new Veterinary Feed Directive, so I wanted to address it here.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, the US Food & Drug Administration released a Final Rule (regulations that will be codified into law) that removed certain antibiotics from the market, namely, antibiotics that livestock yards and industrial chicken farms put in feed and water.
(Full disclosure: I worked for the Food & Drug Administration for about 10 years prior to starting this blog)
There’s been a lot of twitter on the internet that over-the-counter injectable antibiotics will be removed from the market, and advice out there to stock up before it’s gone.
A lot of backyard chicken owners and livestock owners are worried about whether they will have access to antibiotics after the rule takes effect in January.
After reading the Final Rule and the guidances FDA issued, I formed a different opinion about how the Veterinary Feed Directive effects backyard chicken keepers and farmers.
Here’s my thoughts (and how I’m preparing):
I’d like to hear from you!
What do you think of this new law? Leave a comment below!
Maat van Uitert is a backyard chicken and sustainable living expert. She is also the author of Chickens: Naturally Raising A Sustainable Flock, which was a best seller in it’s Amazon category. Maat has been featured on NBC, CBS, AOL Finance, Community Chickens, the Huffington Post, Chickens magazine, Backyard Poultry, and Countryside Magazine. She lives on her farm in Southeast Missouri with her husband, two children, and about a million chickens and ducks. You can follow Maat on Facebook here and Instagram here.
A Cluckin’ Good Time is a Facebook Live Stream Show that I’ve developed along with my friend, Mindy Young of Farm Fit Living.
We talk about homesteading, kitchen hacks, chickens, goats, livestock, and pretty much anything that we think of. Lots of audience participation!
A Cluckin’ Good Time airs Sunday nights at 7pm EST/6pm Central. You can view the show anytime – we leave it up on the FrugalChicken Facebook page for you to enjoy!
In this week’s episode, we discuss:
Our Thanksgiving plans (including Mindy’s recipe for simplifying pumpkin puree so it makes holiday pie making a snap)
Why it’s important to learn from every livestock experience
Our personal opinions on free ranging (and whether we free range our flocks)
Maat van Uitert is a backyard chicken and sustainable living expert. She is also the author of Chickens: Naturally Raising A Sustainable Flock, which was a best seller in it’s Amazon category. Maat has been featured on NBC, CBS, AOL Finance, Community Chickens, the Huffington Post, Chickens magazine, Backyard Poultry, and Countryside Magazine. She lives on her farm in Southeast Missouri with her husband, two children, and about a million chickens and ducks. You can follow Maat on Facebook here and Instagram here.
We could have bought one on Amazon, I’m sure, but I like to use materials on the homestead, and thanks to a large barn fire on our property, we have plenty of materials to scavenge.
Since quail don’t roost, they lay on the ground to rest or lay their quail eggs. The wire floor lets their manure pass right through to the ground; otherwise, you will have to clean their cage frequently.
Quail are about as clean as chickens, and their manure can easily lead to dirty eggs.
You can place a container below the quail hutch to grab their droppings, which you can then compost into a rich fertilizer.
In the winter, I do add straw to their coop near the door so they have some place warm to sit and to reduce drafts. Our quail also live in a greenhouse during the winter so they aren’t too cold.
When designing your quail coop, there’s some rules of thumb to keep in mind.
First, plan on 1 square foot of space for each quail, so keep this in mind as you build your quail hutch. Ours is able to house 12 quail, and we currently have 9 in there.
You will also need a roof and some sort of wind break or way for your birds to get out of the elements.
Your hutch will also need a door to insert food and water or to remove a quail in need of care, and some way to clean it out if it becomes dirty enough inside (this is less of an issue with a hardware cloth floor).
The frame was created by first cutting the 8-foot 4×4 posts in half to create the legs. That way 4 legs that were 4 feet tall.
Here’s the deal:
When it come to wood, I’ve learned that it’s sometimes cheaper to buy a longer piece and cut it myself.
If you’re concerned your poultry might try to eat the wood (chickens might, quail typically don’t), then make sure you’re buying untreated or heat treated wood.
We then sawed two of the 1×4 planks into 7 pieces, so each piece measured 2 feet long.
Three pieces were meant to support the bottom of the quail hutch, and the remaining 4 became part of the short sides of the hutch.
The left over 1×4 planks that we had not cut yet became the long sides of the frame (where we attached hardware cloth).
To build the frame, we screwed each 1×4 plank to their proper place with 2-inch wood screw, then stapled the hardware cloth over the frame on the bottom and sides of the quail hutch.
In some areas, to give the hardware cloth even more strength, we secured it with nails, then bent the nails into the wood so they formed an even more secure staple (you can buy large staples, but we knew the nails would work and we already had them on hand.)
We also made sure to staple the hardware cloth to the three support beams as well to provide a firm resting place for our quail.
We then created the roof and windbreak using 9-foot pieces of corrugated tin roofing. Again, we used tin because it’s durable and we already had it on hand.
We made sure to let the tin overhand a couple of inches to prevent too much rain water from getting into the coop.
When it come to the top of the quail hutch, we found that the roofing nails went through the tin easier and were less expensive than other nails.
Corrugated PVC roofing works for the roof as well, and you can find it fairly cheap at any big box store.
If your quail will be kept in a garage or shed, or perhaps in your basement, you might choose to use hardware cloth on the top of your quail hutch.
Our door was simple, and we simply cut a square hole in the hardware cloth in the middle of the coop, and secured the opening with a roofing nail latch.
It was simple to do and is effective. This door works for us, although you might choose to do something more formal.
All of our quail are kept in the same hutch because we have a good male to female ratio. If you plan to breed quails, and want to keep the males and females in smaller flocks, you can easily create separate compartments in this hutch by adding hardware cloth between the floor and roof.
You will have to add more doors as well so you can add in the extra feeders and waterers.
All told, we only spent about $50 learning how to build a quail hutch and about 2 hours of our time assembling a nice, serviceable home for our quail.
I’d like to hear from you!
Do you think you’d like to learn how to build a quail hutch? How would you design it? Email me at [email protected] or comment below!
Maat van Uitert is a backyard chicken and sustainable living expert. She is also the author of Chickens: Naturally Raising A Sustainable Flock, which was a best seller in it’s Amazon category. Maat has been featured on NBC, CBS, AOL Finance, Community Chickens, the Huffington Post, Chickens magazine, Backyard Poultry, and Countryside Magazine. She lives on her farm in Southeast Missouri with her husband, two children, and about a million chickens and ducks. You can follow Maat on Facebook here and Instagram here.
Raising rabbits on a homestead for their meat is not for everyone.
Realistically, rabbits are usually kept as pets, and it’s hard for some people who haven’t ever butchered rabbits to make that mental shift towards looking at rabbits as a food source.
But if you’re looking for a consistent, quick, easy source of lean meat, then raising rabbits are a good option for any homestead.
We keep several rabbits on our homestead of varying colors and sizes.
They’re easy to care for, have few needs beyond food, water, clean cages, and a little companionship. Rabbits are easy to breed and make hardly any noise, so they’re perfect for an urban homesteader.
A Note On Laws
Now, first a word about raising rabbits on your homestead. If you plan on raising rabbits on your homestead for their meat, first look at the laws in your state, county, and town.
In some areas of the United States, butchering rabbits for their meat can land you in hot water as our society moves ever further from sustainable farming.
In some of areas of the country, rabbits are considered pets and not livestock. Whether you don’t care or don’t agree with the laws, the bottom line is if they exist, you need to know.
Lack of understanding by neighbors might cause some unwanted legal drama, so first make sure your area doesn’t have any laws that can land you into trouble.
We’ve all seen social media spin out of control when a human violates local laws regarding pets, and you don’t want to be on the receiving end of that particular hammer.
Florida, for example, has laws that protect home butchering. However, I’ve seen many people get in trouble for homesteading when a nosy neighbor decides the animals “aren’t being cared for properly” (read: They object to butchering because they don’t realize that’s how meat is produced).
While the homestead owner was right under the eyes of the law, they still had to pay for an attorney and replace their stock after animal control seized their livestock.
In Missouri, on the other hand, owners are permitted by law to butcher any animal they own regardless of method. It varies by state. So know your local laws to avoid problems.
(As an aside, I’m not an attorney, just a keen observer. Consult an actual attorney about the laws in your area if you start raising rabbits for meat.)
Selecting Rabbits
The first decision you’ll have to make when raising rabbits on your homestead is which breeds you want.
We raise mostly mixed breed rabbits with Rex, Chinchilla, Wild Rabbit,and New Zealand bloodlines.
New Zealand and Rex rabbits are probably the most popular rabbits for raising on a homestead because of their size and easy going natures.
In our area, people like to eat wild rabbits in addition to more domesticated breeds so we keep a wild-bred rabbit (one that was from a wild rabbit that was tamed).
When you look for rabbits for raising on your homestead, look for healthy animals that are in good flesh and don’t appear ill. You’re best off getting your breeding stock from a reputable dealer who cares about the quality of the animal.
If you don’t have much money to spend, then you can still easily acquire rabbits for raising. Four of our rabbits were given to us by someone who just didn’t want them anymore (raising rabbits for meat wasn’t for them).
If you feel prepared to give a home to a free rabbit and it appears healthy and able to breed then free is a good way to go. You will still have to feed it regularly, so make sure you’re able to bear that financial responsibility before acquiring free rabbits, however.
In this case, patience and time yield favorable results.
If you don’t want to wait, however, you can acquire rabbits for as little as $10 with the average price being between $15 and $20. For pedigreed Chinchilla male rabbits, we paid $12 each.
Feeding Rabbits You’re Raising
Rabbits require little specialized feeding and a regular ration that you purchase at a feed store will work well.
I recommend purchasing 40 lb or 50 lb bags of feed at a feed store. In our area, we can get a 50 lb bag of feed for $10, while at a big box store, they sell 5 or 10 lb bags for the same amount.
We offer our rabbits plenty of fresh vegetables too, and they especially love lettuce, cabbage, carrots, and tomatoes.
We also provide fresh water in large waterers that you can buy at any pet store or big box store.
Housing for Your Rabbits
We keep our rabbits in large cages that we have permanently placed in a greenhouse. The rabbits are able to be outside in the fresh air, but still be out of inclement weather.
Anything is appropriate housing for raising rabbits on a homestead as long as the rabbit has enough room, is out of the elements, has food and water.
Cages must be cleaned regularly.
We use hay and straw as bedding, which the rabbits love because they can nibble on it.
Raising Sustainable Meat With Rabbits
Of course, if your goal is raising rabbits for meat, at some point you will have to breed them.
While we won’t get into breeding too much in this article, large rabbits reach maturity at about 7 months of age.
Female rabbits have a 30 day gestation cycle, and can have litters of 1-10 kits (baby rabbits are called kits) and the average litter size is 6.
Rabbits breed by induced ovulation, meaning when the female is bred, she is then induced to ovulate.
The advantage to this is you don’t need to worry about heat cycles and making sure you mate her at just the right time, like you do with other mammals.
I recommend breeding rabbits with caution because it is easy to become overwhelmed quickly. We try to breed only 1 rabbit every month or two.
We’re raising 8 rabbits as our breeding stock, so unless we keep a strict schedule, we can easily become overrun with rabbits.
Raising rabbits on your homestead as a sustainable source of meat is easy, as long as you keep some of the ideas in this article in mind.
I’d like to hear from you!
Are you thinking of raising rabbits on your homestead? Email me or comment below!
Maat van Uitert is a backyard chicken and sustainable living expert. She is also the author of Chickens: Naturally Raising A Sustainable Flock, which was a best seller in it’s Amazon category. Maat has been featured on NBC, CBS, AOL Finance, Community Chickens, the Huffington Post, Chickens magazine, Backyard Poultry, and Countryside Magazine. She lives on her farm in Southeast Missouri with her husband, two children, and about a million chickens and ducks. You can follow Maat on Facebook here and Instagram here.
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