When I clean/dress mine, I don't bother with plucking them. I just pull the skin off. I watched a video on youtube on how to do it and it is so easy. Takes about 3 minutes a bird.My favorite way to cook them is I will lay 6 to 8 birds in a baking pan and sprinkle lemon pepper over the entire birds and add a tablespoon of butter and cook for about an hour at 350 degrees. Very simple and delicious. Another good way is to wrap them in bacon strips and bake. I've use Montreal Chicken seasoning and baked them, BBQ sauce and baked them and even fried them. The only way I don't like them is without any seasoning.
My cat loves them raw and prefers to catch them herself. She gets an occasional one that gets loose. They are always the chicks and she will actually act like a dog and hide what she don't finish and eat it later. So It's safe to say we all like quail.
When I clean them outside and the chickens are free ranging I get surrounded and they steal parts out of the bucket. I put the skin with feathers on it and guts, heads, wings and legs in the bucked I keep the rest of the bird intact. The part of the leg I cut off is at the knee.
I'm doint this backwards.
To kill then I use a pair of sharp household scissors and hold the bird so it can't flop and hold it with it's head down and cup the head off and wait a minute for it to stop moving. Which is just the nerves jerking. I hold it over the bucket till the blood stops dripping then I cut down each side of the spine from neck to tail and cut around to the tummy area. I stick my finger in through the neck area and pull the spine out. Guts and all comes out this way and you may have to do a snip snip around the hip area to release the part you just pulled out. Rinse it and toss it in a bowl of ice water. Then move on to the next one.
Since it's just the 2 of us I bag them in either 4 to a bag or 6 to a bag.
This year I want to gut about a dozen so I can stuff them later. I'm not a big fan of plucking but for these I will.
As far as the eggs. I make deviled eggs, pickled eggs, potato salad, tuna saladScrambled eggs. And the grandsons love to help me peep then so they can pop them in their mouths as I'm not looking. If I had sone around easter I would have dyed some. Maybe the guy down the road has Bob White eggs I can use. Maybe George will lay some of her Mico eggs. I plan to color her and the other broody's for easter. They will get brought in for their next job anyway and will have to have baths before setting up n nests in the house. I want to spray them with that pesticide that gets rid of lice and mites. I don't want any bugs in the house and I plan to spring clean the nesting shelf they used all winter and spray the pesticide all over in the coop after I remove the wood shavings. we have cans and cans of food grade lubricant that I plan to spray on everyhting they stand, lay and sit on. All around the nest shelf, under it and the walls. My spring cleaning needs to be done. Afer the cleaning and spraying of pesticides the birds will be getting sprayed and then bathed. If they're lucky it will take place after easter. If not they will get a special Easter hairdo. Each one will have their own. I want to get some broody's in and set up in their cages so I can give them a make over in celebration of getting some eggs of their own to take care of without another bird stealing them.
Oh here I go. Writing a book again. I didn't mean to hijack this thread. I got carried away and I'm noticing my sleeping pill is working because I can't hardly see what i'm typing and..................well, I need to go to bed.
Good night Everybody.
