Caged indoor quail

[jack2u2]

I am building a 10x12 building to house my quail. They will be kept in all wire cages. I will need to deal with lighting during the winter. Is there a preferred wattage requirement? Trying to decide on screening or some type of windows for year round. Thoughts?
Thanks!

 

[goldhunter2]

I used to have my breeders in a colony on the ground so its a little different then yours it was a 12x12 horse stall with a 4x6 wire cage out side and I used a 40 or 60 watt regular white light bulb in all those breeder pens, all light fixtures where in the ceiling about 14' off ground, My birds where laying year round (5watt red lights would be better if close to birds)

 

[dc3085]

This thread has a lot of info about proper artificial lighting.

 

[Jacey R]

I have my quails in the house and light their cage with a regular floor lamp that you would put in a living room. They are quite active and seach lays an egg every day, so I don't think you need anything too fancy to keep them happy.

 

[Ohana Nena]

I have my quails in the house and light their cage with a regular floor lamp that you would put in a living room. They are quite active and seach lays an egg every day, so I don't think you need anything too fancy to keep them happy.

I am looking into raisin quails indoors for meat and eggs. We live in an apartment/condo so no neighbors around us. What is the best type of housing and how many should I start with? Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[JaeG]

I am looking into raisin quails indoors for meat and eggs. We live in an apartment/condo so no neighbors around us. What is the best type of housing and how many should I start with? Thank you in advance for your help.

Quail are very dusty birds so think about if you can deal with that indoors. They can be quite smelly too due to the high protein food they need so it depends on how sensitive your nose is too. I found fermenting their feed cut down on the smell a lot. I prefer solid bottomed cages as wire needs to be kept scrupulously clean to prevent bumblefoot.

You will need an incubator and brooder as Coturnix don't incubate their own eggs - it's been bred out of them as it has been for production chicken breeds such as Leghorns. You'll also need a couple of grow out pens, or more depending on how often you want to be growing them up to butcher. Sometimes you need to split up the males from females at around a month old when hormones start kicking in.

They are lovely, docile little birds (for the most part) that make great pets.

 

[MainelyQuail]

You can look at some of my videos on youtube to see how we do it.

 

[Ohana Nena]

Quail are very dusty birds so think about if you can deal with that indoors. They can be quite smelly too due to the high protein food they need so it depends on how sensitive your nose is too. I found fermenting their feed cut down on the smell a lot. I prefer solid bottomed cages as wire needs to be kept scrupulously clean to prevent bumblefoot.

You will need an incubator and brooder as Coturnix don't incubate their own eggs - it's been bred out of them as it has been for production chicken breeds such as Leghorns. You'll also need a couple of grow out pens, or more depending on how often you want to be growing them up to butcher. Sometimes you need to split up the males from females at around a month old when hormones start kicking in.

They are lovely, docile little birds (for the most part) that make great pets.

THank you!

 

[purslanegarden]

I am looking into raisin quails indoors for meat and eggs. We live in an apartment/condo so no neighbors around us. What is the best type of housing and how many should I start with? Thank you in advance for your help.

If you want eggs, I've heard the nutritional ratio is about 3 quail eggs is equivalent to 1 chicken egg (but adjust accordingly if you have another ratio that you agree with more). So depending on how many chicken eggs you might like to be eating on a daily or weekly basis, calculate that for the estimated number of quail females you'll want, and then the general ratio of 1 male to 3 or 4 females will then give you how many males you'll need. That number then gives you the amount of space and feed you'll need, etc.

As for the eggs to hatch out, I usually expect about a 50-80% hatch rate, and then maybe after that, another 5-10% might die as babies, in my experience. This includes they get trampled on by the others for sheer numbers, or they can't get food/water as often as they need before you noticed they are too weak (and get trampled on). Other times they may develop mobility problems (splayed legs, eg) and you may not want to keep them around to adulthood since they'll depend on you pretty much for their care.

However, this number of how many will survive to adulthood doesn't need to be too much of a worry if you are producing eggs regularly. In other words, even while you have one batch of eggs in the incubator, you are constantly getting more eggs, and over a short period of time, you will have plenty of eggs to eat, hatch, or count as losses after they hatch.

 

[Ohana Nena]

If you want eggs, I've heard the ratio is about 3 quail eggs is equivalent to 1 chicken egg (but adjust accordingly if you have another ratio that you agree with more). So depending on how many chicken eggs you might like to be eating on a daily or weekly basis, calculate that for the estimated number of quail females you'll want, and then the general ratio of 1 male to 3 or 4 females will then give you how many males you'll need. That number then gives you the amount of space and feed you'll need, etc.

As for the eggs to hatch out, I usually expect about a 50-80% hatch rate, and then maybe after that, another 5-10% might die as babies, in my experience. This includes they get trampled on by the others for sheer numbers, or they can't get food/water as often as they need before you noticed they are too weak (and get trampled on). Other times they may develop mobility problems (splayed legs, eg) and you may not want to keep them around to adult hood since they'll depend on you pretty much for their care.

However, this number doesn't need to be too much of a worry if you are producing eggs regularly. In other words, even while you have one batch of eggs in the incubator, you are constantly getting more eggs, and over a short period of time, you will have plenty of eggs to eat, hatch, or count as losses after they hatch.

Thank you!!