5 Homesteading Youtube Channels for the Aspiring Farmer (2024)

I have always wanted to live in the country.

My family lived on 10 acres for a few years when I was a teenager and I look back on those days with a sense of wonder. Not only did many of my life’s milestones happen there, it was a wonderful place to spend some of my ‘growing up’ years. There was always something to do, whether we wanted to do it or not. Plus, the lessons I learned during that time have stuck with me many years beyond our last days there.

With the world changing due to Covid and having more time on my hands, I found myself looking up chicken videos. The first videos were entertaining enough but soon the Youtube algorithm kicked in. It wasn’t long before I noticed a video on raising chickens on pasture.

That simple topic has led me to watch what must be over 100 videos at this point on the topic of homesteading.

While this might not make me an expert on homesteading, I have learned so much already. The things you can learn from these kinds of videos are as diverse as the number of channels. For example, the topic of pasture-raised poultry has several different takes on it. The variances might range from how big to make your chicken tractor to what kind of birds might do best in them. From what I have gathered, while there are experts on specific topics, most everyone lives by the rule of “Do what works for you”. That’s one of the unique things about homesteading or smaller scale farming in general: you won’t find everyone doing things the same way.

In this article I would like to introduce 5 homesteading focused Youtube channels. These channels stand out to me as ones that the aspiring farmer/homesteader (like myself) can learn a lot from before even day one on the farm. This isn’t to say that these are the ONLY channels you can learn from nor should they be.

Before we move on, there is something to note about the videos from this particular niche of Youtube. I believe they can all be watched to gain motivation and understanding of what having your own farm is like. I would argue that you can learn about anything from Youtube. Learning about farm life is no exception. This is a list of channels that I recommend you watch if you think having their own homestead or small scale farm is your dream.

Austin (Aust) is your host as he shows you the ins and outs of his homestead. Homesteady is the first channel that I came across where the whole focus was what life on the homestead is like. It’s from this channel that I started to learn what a homestead actually is and what it all entails.

This channel is unique in that you can learn not only from videos, but also from their other programs. The Pioneers program and podcast (also titled Homesteady) are great resources. These are usually structured lessons or interviews that teach in a way other than life on the farm vlogs. These sources tend to focus more on a specific topic rather than generalize. This is a more entrepreneurial side of living a modern day homestead life than I have typically seen on similar channels. I truly appreciate this side of the channel and find it unique.

This channel is a wonderful tool for anyone wanting to see what it takes to grow or raise almost 100% of their own food. A special aspect of Homesteady is the focus on raising food that is easier for someone with food allergies to consume. Also, because of that focus, they are one of the only homesteader channels I have seen to have a camel on their farm.

This channel is exactly what I hoped to find as I dived further into the world of homesteading. While there are plenty of videos showing the lifestyles homesteaders live, my search soon grew. I wanted to find out how you do what some of the vlog style videos don’t cover.

A quick search on how to cut hay led me to Pete’s channel, which I still follow. Pete has a no nonsense style that is still very friendly and has many videos on how to do specific tasks on the farm. I especially liked his series on how to make and bale your own hay start-to-finish.

He also has videos detailing how he and his wife managed to start their farm without going into debt. This, as well as many other great money-saving topics covered on his channel, make Pete stand out. I hope that by watching this channel, it will help me make financially sound decisions when we start our own farm one day.

To say that this is my go-to for all different kinds of birds for the homestead is an understatement. Jake and his family moved to the country and have fallen in love with birds to an extent I have yet to see on a different channel. That love of the flock makes for some very interesting content.

Most homesteads tend to have a focus on optimization when it comes to what animal to choose for their farm. However, White House on the Hill breaks that mold. This doesn’t mean that they only get animals because they think they are cool.

This channel is a wonderful place to learn how to homestead, even if the topics are not the typical ones. For instance, one video might teach you how to care for an emu or a mandarin duck instead of a dairy cow. With each new animal you encounter you come out knowing more about that breed than you knew before.

While a large focus of their channel is of the daily work on the homestead, this style is also a good way to see how a certain task happens in real time. This means that they might not put all of one topic in a single comprehensive video. Some of what happens on the farm is shown more as bits and pieces of a story, making it something to follow along with. I particularly enjoyed seeing how they were able to catch a wild bee swarm and later on get honey from the hive.

This is my go to channel to learn about plants. Jessica has a passion for growing veggies and raising chickens that I empathize deeply with. If my garden can be half as prolific as her’s, I will consider myself a great gardener.

Any video where she is talking about her garden, usually in a vlog style as she is walking amongst her crop, Jess will not hesitate to give advice about a particular vegetable as she is harvesting it. I have learned so much just from the little tid bits of knowledge I have gained from enjoying her near daily vlogs.

She also has how-to videos that I plan on diving deeper into when I actually have enough space to do my own garden one day. These videos range on topics from how to save seeds from your garden for next year to what to plant in the fall. In short, there is a wealth of gardening knowledge on this channel that I am excited to one day use.

This channel has to be one to watch if you want to learn about homesteading. Justin covers most of the things that come to mind when you think of what a homesteader actually does. Other channels touch on the same topics, but what makes Justin’s stand out is the focus on becoming self-sufficient.

While this channel is full of farm life videos, there are also many where he meets with others in the farming realm. During these videos, he not only asks questions for the audiences’ benefit but you get the sense that he has a hunger to learn. This definitely comes across in the wide variety of topics found in the channel’s library.

Justin’s channel is also an example of many Joel Salatin’s methods. This channel is a case study on how to scale down many of those methods from commercial sized operations to fit the homestead life. I am always amazed by what Justin and his family are working on next.

Have you been making it through quarantine by watching any farming related channels that aren’t listed here? I’d love to know about them! Just put a ‘response’ below as I’m always looking for new videos to watch.

I hope you all enjoyed this article and have a great rest of your day!