Deciding what kind of birds to raise for meat...

[MorelCabin]

Have some questions...
I'm looking for a partridge type bird (for the ease of just stepping on the wings and pulling the feet for skinning and getting entails out of them) to maybe raise this summer. Partridge are just so easy to skin and prep, and I was wondering if you can do quail the same way...or pheasants. Anybody raise these? Are they noisy? Could you get away with raising them in town? Are they less stinky than chickens over time?
I saw this really neat idea for cages too...old wooden hydro reels...you just cage around the outside, and the inside makes for perfect housing. Looks real cute stacked. Can't find the link where I saw them a couple years ago. Someone was using them for real cute pigeon housing.

 

[gettinaclue]

 

[savingdogs]

I'm with gettingaclue

 

[ducks4you]

Have you joined the Back Yard Chickens Forum? That's where the chicken experts are (click on the link on the bottom of this page.)
Go to Forum/Meat Birds ETC
Lots of good advice there. I have Rhode Island Reds, which are "Dual Purpose." I slaughtered my roosters. Their meat was good but they were leaner that I thought they would be. That was disappointing. Check out BackYardChickens

 

[miss_thenorth]

I raise quail. they are easy to raise, and they are not loud, at least they won't irritate your neighbours. They will just think it is another wild bird calling. And their calls are cute. They sometimes chirp like crickets, and the males have a call that is a bit louder, but it is nice sounding. You can step on their wings but then you are missing the leg meat, and believe it or not, there is some on there. They are easy to process--about three minutes per bird. their meat is a little more flavourful than chicken and it is a little tougher, but it is very good. DD and I eat one bird, hubby and ds eat two birds per meal. You will need an incubator but they are easy to hatch out, and they are ready to eat in 8 weeks. Keep some older to get more eggs--they start laying at around 8 weeks. Very easy, and cheap to raise. I think perfect for in town.

 

[MorelCabin]

What kind of quail are you raising Miss North? Coturnix? I looked into those a while back when I lived in the other house...maybe they would be a good choice here...Hmmm I'm going to go research them again:>)

Oh..and how big are the eggs? Bantam sized?

 

[miss_thenorth]

Yes, I'm raising coturnix. And their eggs are smaller than bantams--they are quite small--I think I used 5 to substitute for one jumbo chicken egg (what my girls give me) But they are good. And you get tons of eggs so you can afford to use lots. You'll still have plenty for incubation.

 

[Wifezilla]

I am raising coturnix now too. They eggs are delicious

Not sure about processing yet. I only have 4 and have to build up the population.

One of them does the cricket chirp all the time so we named her Cricket

 

[Bettacreek]

Another for the coturnix bandwagon. I've raised them before, and just bought another set. Mine are 3 weeks old and already up to 3oz. They can be processed by stepping on the wings, but it really does waste a lot of meat.

 

[MorelCabin]

No one here likes the leg parts of anything anyway, so the dog will be well fed:>) How many sq feet does each bird need?