Butlers, A&M, Jumbo Pharoh???

[Wolf-Kim]

If I had to choose one, I would go with the AM. We get a good amount of meat from ours and they are mature and ready to go at 6-7 weeks. Where as I think the bobwhites take 4-5 months to mature.

I think if you are looking for a good meat and egg bird, then I would go with the Coturnix(AM) just because you can go through several generations in the amount it takes for one generation of Bobwhite.

But you will get a larger meat yield per bird if you use bobwhite. I don't have experience with Butlers. I plan to have some, but I don't have the space just yet.

-Kim

 

[shelleyd2008]

Do a search for pop57. He has jumbo browns and A&M eggs all the time. I believe he charges $.25 an egg, plus shipping. I am getting 120 mixed order from him as soon as I remember to pay him for them, so he has plenty!

I wouldn't buy 'big' quail eggs from ebay. I had some A&M's I hatched from ebay eggs that weren't any bigger than my pharoah quail. I think they may have been smaller.

ETA: The jumbo brown 'chicks' I hatched from his eggs have been bigger than my pharoahs for a few weeks, they are about 6 weeks old now.

 

[bigjohn]

The A&M birds are really nice and big. I still have hens that lay eggs everyday in the this cold temp and no additional light. They are amazing. I guess the Purina gamebird feed is good to them!

Last July, I butchered 25 - six week old birds since they were all cocks and making a huge noise in my quiet subdivision. They were tender and delicious and I was told by an avid Quail hunting (bobwhite) friend that they were the best quail he had ever tasted.

Hopefully I will be able to keep them quiet enough to make it to 10 or 12 weeks this year!

Oh, and my raised garden looks like it will be doing very well this year with all of that quail poop in the soil. Can't go wrong with a few quail around!

I have raised other 'pharoah' quail and bobwhites in the past, but the A&M's are the easiest, best eating, and quickest meat available for cheap.

 

[emsevers]

I got in contact with pop57 and it looks like I'm going to be able to get some A&M's. That's what I landed on. I'm actually really excited. That's the bird everyone has been recommending to me from the beginning so I thought I better take everyones advice.

bigjohn - how loud did they get? I live in a small town in a subdivision. They are probably a little more tolerant here than in a bigger city but I was just wondering how loud they really got.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
if you check out my "educational post" you can hear them for yourself in my vids. They're no where near as loud as a rooster crow. Their peeps are very similar to chick peeps, and their yelks are about the same loudness of a kitty giving a friendly "meow", the roos crow (also on my post) is a garbled noise....and it's' not very loud at all as long as you dont keep too many roos you shouldnt have a problem with noise (but 1 roo per 5 hens tops...and no less than 3 hens per roo or the hens will get beat up).

 

[emsevers]

I read in a lot of peoples ads on ebay that they had 1 roo to 2 hens. I was wondering about that because I had read that they can get mean.

If I'm wanting to keep some of the A&M's to have eggs for hatching how many do you think that I should keep? I really only want enough to keep a supply going of meat. I was thinking 6 hens and 2 roos. Or should I keep more hens? Also will I have to get some from other bloodlines if I want to hatch out their eggs or would they be ok if I get all my eggs from the same person. I'm talking like inbreeding and stuff like that. I don't know how things work in that area.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
well always remember that once the hens start you'll get around 6-7 eggs a week!

However with 2 roos and 6 hens, i'd personally say keep 10 hens to those 2 roos to make it even and give the roos enough hens that they can both breed and not fight over or with. So imagine that if each hen lays an egg a day, that's 10 eggs per day for 6-7 days.....that's a loooot of eggs

So i'd say with 10 hens, and if you put those eggs in the bator just think how many birds you could butcher in less than like 11 weeks (counting incubation period and 6-8 weeks of growing).

 

[emsevers]

Thanks so much. I am getting so excited!!!. I have 10 dozen eggs coming now. That is going to be soooooo much fun. Last hatch I started with 30 and out of the 20 that developed I got 15 babies and I thought that was a lot. This is going to be overwhelmingly awesome. I think I will take your advice and keep the 10 hens to 2 roos. I like having more eggs anyway. I can always eat what I don't hatch. I was thinking of trying to pickle them. I always make homemade gift baskets for christmas with all the stuff I've canned throughout the year and I thought that would be a good addition.

 

[ShadyGlade]

You'll love pickled quail eggs. The whole reason I had to get quail was because I tasted pickled quail eggs! Until then I really couldn't understand why people liked those little tiny noisy birds.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
I've never had pickled quail eggs buti cannot WAIT to try them!!!

As for noisey lol! I have 4 in the house and the roo barely crows, and the only time they make a clammer is if the roo is stalking a hen

LOL! Now when they'r eall hungry my outside ones yelk until i pour them food down.