The numbers I post is used for egg comercial farming. I bet in US chickens that producing eggs for retail stores do not have a run and living in a limited spase. I am sorry but I did not find any books about quail keepeng at home.
From the book i got thay say if the roo is older then hen you will have more hens and if the roo is yanger then a hen you will have more roosters. If somebody incubating eggs regularly maybe you can try I am not shour if it is true or not . I think it's worth a try.
Sorry for the mess in the backround. This is the cage I am working on now it is 21 x 30 and it is devided on 3 sections 21 x 10 so I will move my quails in it and will separete them by femelies 1 roo and 3 hens in each sec.
Thay says for egg production hens alone 100 to 120 hens per sq meter that is about 3ft x 3 ft cage and for haching eggs 70 birds. 1 rooster for 5 hens.
I am sorry I don't have 40 years of experience all i got is books for comercial quail egg farming. I will try your way and see what will better work for me. Thankyou.
I am do not know where you get the roomors about 1 sq ft per quail if you I am Ukrainian and have read tons of different books about quail FARMING and thay all says 13 sq in per bird. Now if you keep them as pets or to train a dog than you can do whatever you think is the write size and lok good...