A Quail Daydream

[artbykarenehaley]

I need to get this out of my system! Maybe I need to write about it.

I have been wanting to raise Coturnix quail so badly lately. I already know all the quail math, and I am aware that I don't really have the funds right now to build enough pens large enough for big egg or breeder flock, and that if I also wanted to do recurring quail for meat I'd need space for grow outs too.

I will admit part of it is cuisine curiosity. I want to taste the eggs and meat.
Okay, fine, that won't be hard to fulfill because there's a quail guy near me in Keiser. Five bucks per quail and five bucks for a dozen eggs seems pretty reasonable.


But would it get it out of my system?? I don't think it would... I want to raise them myself from chicks, keep pretty varieties, enjoy the daily routine of egg collecting and talking to my birds, reap the benefits of adding the manure to the compost...

I'm on the verge of biting the bullet.

Here's what I have going for me.
I have a big brooder.
I have a heat plate.
Waterers and feeders.
I have almost all the supplies to build a little hutch style cage for about ten hens and two roos. I even have most of the parts already cut from when I was going to start this project earlier this year.
I have the incubator, quail egg rails for the turner, and a place to run it.

All I really need is fertile eggs,
Feed,
Sand,
A couple pieces of lumber to put the rest of the hutch together,
and the time to put the hutch together.

 

[artbykarenehaley]

The varieties I want are anything feather sexable, especially the golds, egyptian fee, and the roux, and I really like Rosetta tux but want to start with something a little easier to tell males and females apart. But I really would be happy with any quail to be honest.
I plan to start with jumbos from the place in Keiser and then order the feather sexable variety mix from Myshire Farms.

 

[Chookchicken]

I know this probably won’t help with getting it out of your system, but I’d say that if you have enough money and are in the right place you should go for it. Quail are curious little creatures, they are sufficient egg layers, and along with that I’ve always found Quail rarely destroy plants. My Quail ended up making themselves a garden with seed that feel out of the bowl and grew all over their coop. They never pulled the plants up, they more just ate the tip.

 

[Isadora]

 

[HipMystic]

I would do it
Then again, I always have been a bit impulsive

It sounds like you’re pretty well prepared for them already, maybe you could start out with adult birds and go from there? You could always get just a group of hens or a breeder set for eggs, and expand when you’re ready

 

[Aquira]

If you do go for it, hopefully you enjoy them. I ended up getting rid of my Coturnix.

 

[artbykarenehaley]

I would do it
Then again, I always have been a bit impulsive

It sounds like you’re pretty well prepared for them already, maybe you could start out with adult birds and go from there? You could always get just a group of hens or a breeder set for eggs, and expand when you’re ready

Haha I feel like I'm prepared, but to be honest I am prepared for babies and not adults, I need to build the permanent housing. I think I've got a project for today

 

[artbykarenehaley]

If you do go for it, hopefully you enjoy them. I ended up getting rid of my Coturnix.

Were they too noisy, stinky, expensive to feed?

 

[HipMystic]

Haha I feel like I'm prepared, but to be honest I am prepared for babies and not adults, I need to build the permanent housing. I think I've got a project for today

That’s one good thing about eggs, they give you a few weeks to get adult housing ready

If it makes you feel any better, my first quail eggs were an impulse buy, I got 4 dozen for 50¢ each at an auction. - I had no housing, no brooder, and I didn’t even own an incubator at the time

 

[artbykarenehaley]

That’s one good thing about eggs, they give you a few weeks to get adult housing ready

If it makes you feel any better, my first quail eggs were an impulse buy, I got 4 dozen for 50¢ each at an auction. - I had no housing, no brooder, and I didn’t even own an incubator at the time

I bought button quail eggs on eBay before I got a decent incubator, my husband saw the homemade incubator my son and I were trying to build and he said "you want an incubator for your birthday?"