Homesteading Adventures with Feathered Knechtions - An Urban Journey

Hello, I'm Kelli Knecht. I operate a small business we call Feathered Knechtions (pronounced connections), and this is how our passion project began!

During the "Corona-pocalypse," many of us started to reconsider our food sources and supply chains. We live with my in-laws, who initially were not keen on having chickens in the backyard. However, as uncertainty grew, they agreed to keep a few chickens to brighten our days and eventually provide us with eggs. Like many others, we started with chickens, which sparked our curiosity about what else we could achieve on just 1/10th of an acre within city limits.

This led to a deep dive into Pinterest and extensive research on maintaining productive, healthy, and happy chickens. One day, while browsing Pinterest, I stumbled upon an article about coturnix quail, highlighting several reasons why they are an excellent choice for city dwellers limited by space and city regulations. I posted in a local homesteading group to learn more about these quail and found a local breeder who offered us a hands-on lesson in processing quail for meat (I highly recommend learning FIRST and on someone else's birds if possible—visit our website www.featheredknechtions.com to sign up for our newsletter and get updates on our upcoming class schedule). We took home the meat and eggs, tried them both, and decided we enjoyed them and were comfortable processing the birds for meat. This discovery led us to purchase 50 coturnix quail chicks from that breeder!

A few of my friends and me at Quail Con 2022 at Myshire Farm in Ohio.

Initially, we never intended this to become a business venture; our goal was simply to raise enough birds to supply meat and eggs for our family of six. However, as people began asking if they could buy birds, meat, and eggs from us, and even requested us to hatch chicks for them, Feathered Knechtions was born. We bought an incubator to start hatching our eggs, began attending farmer's markets, and eventually started teaching classes and offering hands-on meat processing courses.

two of my dearest quail community friends from left Aaron Guidroz (Guidroz Family Farm-Louisiana) and Brent Buchanan (Zero G Quail Farms- Colorado) and then there's me.

I'm incredibly grateful to our neighbor who taught us how to process these birds for meat and shared their knowledge with us. We now dedicate much of our time to passing on that knowledge and doing the same for others.

Before the 'Corona-pocalypse,' we never imagined that we, as city kids, could process an animal for meat (we've never even been hunting), but challenging times reveal strengths

you never knew you had.

I hope you'll join us as we 'city kiddos' learn to live more naturally and become more self-sufficient within city limits. Remember, you are far more capable than you realize, and we are going to do this TOGETHER. You are not alone on this journey.

with love

Kelli

*For more of my non-blogging shenanigans you can find me on the YouTubes at  Feathered Knechtions Homestead - YouTube 

All the members of the American Coturnix Breeders Association in attendance at Gulf Coast Homesteading Convention 2025 in Louisiana.