Raising Quail

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Does anybody here raise quail? If so, what kind of pen do you keep them in and how long does it take to raise a set for butchering?

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), January 06, 2002

Answers

Hi r.h., I raise coturnix quail. Takes six weeks from the time they hatch until they are full grown laying fertile eggs and ready to eat. Pretty trouble free,I feed mine chicken layer mash and cracked corn and use my old rabbit cages to raise them in. Mine won't set on their eggs so I just put the eggs in the incubator with the chicken eggs and take them out when they hatch,a couple of weeks in a cardboard box with a light and they go in the cages with the rest of the quail.Around here a dressed quail is the same price as a live quail ($2.00)needless to say I sell mine live. If you have a cheap styrofoam incubator you're in business,Takes 17 days to hatch. Daryll PS. I sell fertile quail eggs for $5.00 a dozen including postage in the USA,if interested e-mail me

-- Daryll in NW FLA (twincrk@hotmail.com), January 06, 2002.

Please tell us more about quail, ie do they taste good and are they easily dressed. Plucked, or skinned ? Thanks!

-- BF morris (chelone@cci-29palms.com), January 06, 2002.

Hi BF, They clean like a small(very small)chicken,I skin mine. The taste is excellent and it takes two to make a meal for me, one for my wife. Mine are so tame they climb all over my arms when I'm filling the feed trays. I tried releasing some last year to see if they would breed in the wild,there is still a small covey in the brushy area of my farm. I don't think they are increasing in number but who knows. I love the sounds they make trying to find each other. The ones I released still come to the area where I feed them but not as often as they did at first. There are a couple of places that release them and then let hunters pay to hunt them and train their bird dogs. Hey to each his own. Daryll

-- Daryll in NW FLA (twincrk@hotmail.com), January 06, 2002.

Hey Daryl, How are the quail when it gets hot? How do you protect them from the heat in Summer? I'm in the Mojave desert and wonder about hot weather affecting them. Thanks!

-- BF Morris (chelone@cci-29palms.com), January 07, 2002.

Hi BF, I use the empty feed sacks and put them on top of the cages for shade. It gets in the high 90's here,I mean to hot to breath, but they do fine. It seems the hotter it gets the faster they grow and the more they eat and drink. The rabbits get a big box fan,but they stop breeding for about a month in July. The quail just keep on laying their eggs and I keep hatching them out. I wish my chickens were that productive. Daryll

-- Daryll in NW FLA (twincrk@hotmail.com), January 07, 2002.


Wow Daryll, I'm glad you responded. I've eaten wild quail and just love them. I don't have a birddog, so a quail dinner is few and far apart. I believe I will get me a incubator and give it a try. I'll order my first set of quail eggs from you when I get everything set up. Thanks for the information.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), January 07, 2002.

r.h. and Daryll, Thanks for asking the question and thanks for all the answers. Me and my husband were talking just last night about maybe learning to raise quail, because I am allergic to a lot of commonly eaten meat, and I was wondering about quail. Just the info we need.

-- vicki in NW OH (thga76@aol.com), January 07, 2002.

Hi Vicki,I find my quail far more productive than either the chickens or rabbits,but all of them together make a good mix for food and profit. The quail are by far the easiest all around meat animal that I've tried. There is a chinese restaraunt that buys fresh quail eggs for 25 cents a piece but it is a 40 mile round trip,hardly worth the gas unless I'm going to town anyway. My chicken eggs only bring a $1.00 a dozen. Go figure. Daryll

-- Daryll in NW FLA (twincrk@hotmail.com), January 07, 2002.

Hi Daryll; I agree with Vicki,thanks for the Q&A.I live in the East Coast of Central Fla.I tried to hatch Bobwhites a year ago.I bought them from reputable guy in Ga. It was my first time (borrowed a good incubator (with fan and turner).Only about 5 out of 50 hatched (I assume that the humidity was to high or to low,another issue).Do your quail get the same size as bobwhites ? You do not have a problem using layer mash and corn ? I was told I had to buy Game bird starter (%28 protien and expensize).They do not "paste up".I am interested in trying again. It seems that alot of people here are interested in this topic.Do you have any more info to share (photos of your setup or web page)? Thanks Ourfarm

-- Ourfarm (Ourfarm@noaddr.com), January 07, 2002.

Hi again,Bobwhite quail are a whole different animal,they take six months to mature to egg laying size(and eating size). They tend to fight and kill each other if caged to close together. I tried them, to much feed for what you get and never had much luck hatching them out. They are a little bigger than the ones I raise now but just not worth the extra time and feed. For a lot of information just type "raising quail" into your search engine,huge amount of info. Yes I have a web site- http://www.webspawner.com/users/twincreekfarm/ . I still don't know how to make a hot link but you can copy and paste the address into your address bar and hit enter. I have to say they are the most trouble free animals I have tried here and the most profitable except for the redworms,who sit under the rabbit pens and are happy eating rabbit turds. I usually keep between 25 and 100 birds according to the demand. 50 pounds of layer mash and 50 pounds of crack corn will last from 1 and a half to 2 months in the winter,longer in the summer. Never had any trouble with them pasting up from the feed and rarely have any fatalities(except for dinner).I do put a little straw in the cages for them to hid in, seems to keep them happy. The quail pretty much pay for the chicken and rabbit feed,so it all works out. Well got to get off the puter and take care of the animals.I'll check back in in a couple of hours. Daryll

-- Daryll in NW FLA (twincrk@hotmail.com), January 07, 2002.


Corturnix or Pharoah are extremely easy to raise. I enjoy eating the eggs, but find the meat not to my liking. They are beautiful little birds and if you are able to keep them at a constant temperature of at least 70 degrees with about 18 hours of light a day, a hen will lay almost daily, year round, although this will burn a hen out pretty quickly. I usually kept them in rabbit cages with a hen to rooster ratio of 3-1, but I have built a circular flight pen out of wire covered in the netting which is made to keep birds out of your garden. I used about 6 t-posts and any old wire I had laying around, draped the netting over the pen to the ground and did a quick sewing job where ever the netting overlapped another piece. The only problem I found other than a lower production was that the birds were leaner, being able to fly around and having a little room to run. I lived in N. Central Texas and had no problems with heat.

-- j willis (jwillis@louish.com), January 07, 2002.

Hey Daryll how long do you let them lay before processing?

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), January 07, 2002.

I live in the city limits in S FL- some neighbors keep chickens-I would like to try quail - are they quiet? Are they happiest in large flocks or just a few at a time? Your post has really picqued my curiousity.

-- Mitzi Giles (Egiles2@prodigy.net), January 07, 2002.

Hi r.h., It varies. I sell a lot of them live and only butcher what we are going to eat. Usually keep them for a couple of months and then get rid of the ones that aren't producing. I have them in five different cages so when it's time the cage with the lowest egg averages goes to market or the supper pot. I try to never let the flock get below 25 birds. I guess some of them make it for about 6 months or so. My wife has several that are over a year old but they are pets and they still lay eggs. I guess the average would be about 3 months unless I have a high demand for eggs. Daryll

-- Daryll in NW FLA (twincrk@hotmail.com), January 07, 2002.

Hi Mitzi, Well let me see, I've kept as many as 30 in a 2 by 3 foot rabbit cage with no problems. They are social animals so I wouldn't want to keep one by it's self. As for noise,no problem they whisle to each other in the evening and chirp at danger. Louder than a rabbit much quieter than a chicken. Daryll

-- Daryll in NW FLA (twincrk@hotmail.com), January 07, 2002.


Hi Daryll, How about some incubation tips?? How did you set up your incubation system? What temperatures? This is a fun subject, thanks again! Brad

-- BF Morris (chelone@cci-29palms.com), January 07, 2002.

Hi Brad, Well it is a hova-bator incubator with a fan, cheap $39.00 at the farm store. I set it at 100 degrees,put a piece of cheese cloth over the wire grate(keeps the tiny guys from falling through the wire.)A plastic coffee cup with a couple of paper towels stuffed in it,wet the towels,then every week pour enough water in the cup to wet the towels. I don't turn the eggs, I use a piece of 2 by 4 and put it under one side of the incubator in the morning then put it under the other side in the afternoon and remove it at night and leave the incubator level until the next morning. Repeat every day. I take them out as they hatch(after they dry) put them in a card board box with a light (and food and water). After about two weeks they go outside to the regular cages,4 weeks later they are ready to start laying or become dinner. If I left anything out let me know. Daryll

-- Daryll in NW FLA (twincrk@hotmail.com), January 07, 2002.

Thanks Daryll so much for all the information.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), January 08, 2002.

Well everyone, Darryl has answered all your questions so well that all I can really add is my experience raising them (coturnix). They are wonderful. I purchase stock from Ideal Poultry to get started, and save good breeder trios from them. They taste wonderful, make the cutest little eggs, which hard-boiled and pickled are lucious and will delight anyone you give them to as a gift. I had a terrible experience with eggs from a different company - finally gave up and bought day olds from Ideal. You can tell the males from the females at only 2 weeks. One caution - we first raised them in town, and I did get complaints from neighbors due to the males' very loud crowing. So, breeders can be noisy - but, the males don't really start crowing until just before it's time to slaughter anyway, and even then, they sort of have to practice at it first. So for those where noise would be a problem, just don't keep breeders. I recommend you get 25 your first time. Also, I always feed them Purina brand Gamebird Starter to slaughter (6 weeks), and any saved off for breeders get fed the Purina Gamebird Breeder feed. More expensive but worth it I think. Oh, also, we live in Southern Nevada, no humidity but our days get to 115 or so, and I actually felt they did better in the heat than the chickens. We now have to actually use a swamp cooler in our barn (or all the chickens would die of heatstroke), but prior to getting that in, the quail did ok - no direct sun, any water dripping to keep the soil cooler helps. Good luck.

-- Katie (homesteader@accessnevada.com), January 08, 2002.

Glad I found this discusson, I just got my first batch of eggs and hatched 21 quail, now are three weeks old. Have any of you built breeder cages? I'm raising mine here in the chihuahuan desert along the Texas/Mexico border. BC

-- BC (desertdweller44@yahoo.com), January 09, 2002.

BC: Congratulations! I raised my breeder trios in all wire rabbit cages which I sunk down a couple inches into sand. You can scoop out the old sand easily and refill with fresh - I have found this to be a great medium for them, I too live in the desert so humidity and its sister problems aren't really a factor. Our place is literally all sand, natural sand, be sure to use Play Sand if you try this in another area. For watering I used those metal water bases that screw onto mason jars, set up on a block. They did fine.

-- Katie (homesteader@accessnevada.com), January 10, 2002.

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