Cost of feed vs amount of meat

[Eris]

I'm wondering if the cost to feed the quail is worth the small amount of meat you get? Any thoughts?

 

[syble]

the thing that always catches me up on this question/debate is that the comparison isn't quite fair. chicken for example an average person might eat 1-2 breasts for example. which will out weight quail, but quail seams like average portion is 1-3 birds.

With that notion, i can assure you that my cornish X will eat more then 1 bag per bird by freezer time. quail not so much. So in that sense, quail seam to win for me.

 

[7L Farm]

Its the quality of the meat you know fillet Mignon. You pay for what you get.

 

[Fat Daddy]

Quote:
If you dont enjoy the quail themselves, I dont know if the "cheap meat source" would work out. But I dont know a soul that raises quail that does not just really dig the bird its self. I mean dont get me wrong, I enjoy spank'n a bird or 4 on the grill like non-other. But I also truly enjoy most every aspect of raising these birds. Figure it as a hobby with many benefits....

Just think about it, a hobby you set eggs your stock produced. Then a short time later the fuzzy butts hatch!! They grow out, molt and get their adult plumage and start make'n all the different "quail noises"... Then its time for freezer camp and whole process starts all over again...

Hell, even if I did'nt get to eat'em in the end, I would still pay to raise'm. But maybe not so many!!! Bill

 

[_Randall_]

When I sit down to a helpin' of Bobs..........Yes

365 days a year of fillin' waterers, feeders, gathering eggs, movin' batches from brooders to pens, then to other pens every week or two, gettin' the checkbook out at feed store more and more as the end of summer nears.......uummmm..........well............. I plead the fifth!!!!

 

[diggerduck]

Haven't even eaten quail one yet, but I can tell you this; hands down the best egg I have ever had. I am just now starting to hatch them so we will see how the eating thing goes.

 

[MobyQuail]

I just stared at some numbers, for my simple ops feed bill, not including incubators, pens, etc., I am now figuring $3.36/lb for processed Quail from here on out, after all the sunk costs, my time, feeders, waterers, etc. it is ~4 cents per day per bird until 42 days old. will let you know the more exact numbers in about 2 weeks...

 

[Eris]

model_A_tractor, I would really like to read that information when you get your figures. Thank you.

 

[MobyQuail]

well, lets see. I posted this somewhere before, my adult birds cost me about .04 cents per day to feed. but I am hobby farming, not buying bulk feed, etc.

so going by those numbers, I figure a chick raised for 42 days to lets say 8 oz, does not on the average, eat more than an adult bird.

I suppose we could designate a 50-100 LB bag of feed for this next brood for 6-8 weeks and see how much feed we go thru in 42-56 days. that will tell us all we need to know. lets say- 12-18 birds raised on X amount of food, live weight at 6 wks and 8 wks and then processed weight at 8 wks...

I am unsure of a ratio of live bird to processed bird, hopefully, someone more experienced than me may have those #s... for our formula. and we can fill in that variable sooner than later, to arrive at our answer of price per lb. of processed Quail.

 

[bigjohn]

When calculating the costs, be sure to deduct the cost of eggs that you would have paid at the supermarket and now you get for free! That might help the 'per pound' costs.