advice for a novice please?

[twhudson]

Last summer I raised some courtnix quail. I ended up raising about 100 all summer. I bought eggs and then hatched some of my own eggs. I tried selling the eggs and adults in my area but there was no interest so I just grew them up and processed them. I would like to raise some more but I found that they were kind of pricey (at least for me) because they wasted so much food. So, with all of that said, can you help me with a few questions.

1) what type of feeder can I use where they will not waste so much feed?

2) I ordered Jumbo cortnix, but they only grew out to be about 8oz. I read so often about folks having 12-14oz quail. Where can this type of big bird be obtained? If I hatch my own eggs from these birds, will the size of them eventually go back to the 6-8oz size?

3) I read somewhere that some folks add cat food with high protein so the quail grow bigger faster. Any truth to this?

Thanks for reading and any help is wonderful.

Jim

 

[SamG347]

Well you would be hard pressed to order chicks or eggs from anywhere that advertises BIG birds and get consitantly big birds. It took me a good while of hatching...raising...culling...and hatching..raising...and culling birds to finally get a good number of birds that had the traits I wanted to breed for big birds. There are a few on this forum that still have some of my original stock. Gloria aka Uglyduck has good stock...and I forget who else on here has my birds. I no longer have any of my Jumbos and really miss my original flock. And as for the feed wasting....you could put whatever feeder you use in a tupperware/rubbermaid tray that is shallow enough they can easily get in and out of...but still deep enough to catch feed.

 

[Wifezilla]

I only have 4 quail. 3 are fine with the feed, and then there is one goober who throws it EVERYWHERE. I had a chick feeder and placed a tupperware lid under that. While it kept her from wasting as much, the other birds would then scratch in the tray and throw it all over the room. I finally got some parakeet feeding cups that I could attach anywhere on the bars. I put them up high enough for them to reach, but they have to stretch to get to the bottom of cup. It has slowed my wasteful girl down quite a lot.

At least all that wasted feed wasn't really wasted. I just found half the wild birds in the neighborhood going through the compost area where I was dumping out the quail's tray

 

[deerman]

Trouble buying eggs, people start with jumbo and start breedig them, think all are jumbo. Need to be big birds, not all from these will be large birds. Cull all small birds only save eggs from breeders 14oz and larger. Like the A & M, jumbo need to be 14oz birds , and not all the offspring will be no matter what people call them. Myself I think the name should only be used for birds in that weight.

Same thing going on with the bobs. Jumbo, Butlers, Giants. then people think every egg hatch is that name SORRY those small ones are no bigger than the normal bobs,.


This is one reason I buy adults, alway weight the breeders, if they dont weight up just cull or sell as a normal... The WEIGHT are what these names should mean!!!!!!!!!!!


Dog people wouldnt call a 20lb dog a teacup just because both parents were........

 

[JJMR794]

Maybe It Was A Jumbo Teacup?



Lol--- Sorry Deerman, I Cldnt Resist!

 

[deerman]

Quote:

Guess if it was a color, people may get it right.

Replace 14 oz with white
relace 8 oz with brown.

Now breeding the white, throw a few brown, but we dont cull them,but keep breeding them before long most will be brown, would it be ok to still call them white. After all they came from whites. Now even making my mind hurt.

 

[ugly ducky]

Thanks, Sam for the compliment. I have to agree that not all birds hatched will be BIG. We cull the smaller birds before we place the breeders together. Only keep the ones that measure up to the size you're after. I find the toughest, and probably most important is getting the big males. Each male has a bigger influence on your stock than any specific female, so those boys need to be right up there in size. As for feed, we feed a 28% Gamebird Starter, and nothing else, and don't let the birds run out of feed or water. There are other variables that can influence growth, but if the genetics aren't there, you don't have a chance.