Just out of curiosity I compiled together all of my costs so far (not including gas to and from breeders homes) with me starting and raising quails.
I've been seeing a lot of people interested in raising them and im SURE theres cheaper ways to do it than I did, and deffinatly more expensive ways to do it than I did. But I thought that my "findings" may give someone a good idea and I wanted to share.
*My first shipment of Coturnix Pharoah hatching eggs was $20 total only about 30 hatched outof the 150 eggs I got (several were cracked from shipping in foam cartons).
*My second shipment of coturnix Jumbo hatching eggs was $18 total all came to me well and I hatched I think 18 of the 20.
*Then we drove down to a breeders and picked up several different colored coturnixs (jumbos and pharoah sizes) for $60 total which came with free eggs--- I forget how many hatched, but not many because of incubator complications, I ended up with 6 birds.
*Culled several males out of the hatching egg batches and enjoyed for dinner.
Bought a 6 compartment hanging wire pen for $50 total.
Got a free large rabbit hutch
Spent about $40 in wire and other misc. cage items
Adult feed so far has been around $63 worth
Chick feed has been around $40 so far
Bedding around $50
This is NOT including several other things, like incubator, turner, gas as mentioned above, cleaning materials for the brooder, brooder lamps, brooder itself etc. Also not to mention that coturnix are feed wasters, and I KNOW they've more than likely wasted an amt of a complete 50lb bag of feed already lol.
=around $341 dollars.....which in reality it was more than that so far.
and so far off of my waiting lists for 20+ eggs for $20 and half of that being what I can actually take away from it. I will expect around $130.
So that's $130 towards more quail feed, more quails, and shipping material
SO!
I KNOW it CAN be possible to make a profit off of your coturnix, but if you plan to I advise gluing yourself to Craigslist.com to find a lot of bargains to start out in.
I personally work with my birds for the joy of raising them and working with genetics AND eating their eggs and meat!
s The reward of suppling them to others is nice too.
I don't expect and dont see how I will be making a profit myself but to those of you who attempt it, maybe a little bit of what I've done above will give you an idea of how to make it more cost effective (im not meaning i did it cost effective i KNOW i could have found cheaper ways).
I reccomend not using free feeding containers to feed your birds where they can kick and flick the feed out. I feed my birds directly on the ground in their main pen... however they STILL manage to kick a good deal out per week. I am considering putting about an inch to a two inch cover on the floor of their enterance into their inner shelter area so that they can't flick it out to the wire below. In my hanging pens I am planning to cover their feed with a cover and cutting a hole in the top so the coturnix can only feed out of a small hole....and since I'll only have 5 birds per pen I can see this working to help hold in feed better from these little food wasters! LOL!
I wil be spending a good deal of money to get water bottles per pen here in the spring as I think that would make it easier during watering.
As they LOVE to spill and bathe in their water
Straight wire flooring from brooder to adult stage edits out the bedding factor but i personally like to let the babies not be on wire but that's just me so I don't mind the extra money into bedding and litter supplies.
If you have cats....I personally benifit from having cats. Their litter containers second as water containers for the quail. I no longer use litter in the containers as I buy "stall dry" for both my quails and my birds....works great as kitty litter even if it's dusty
. Cat food is a great added protien source (kitten food ground up daily for chicks is great, adult cat food once a week for adult quail is great too as well as other protien sources like boiled eggs and bugs).
Well if anyone else wants to add their costs so far, and other Dos and donts that they have found share and share away!
This is kind of a boring post but I was just thinking about costs so far and wanted to share incase it's anything interesting to anyone else
I've been seeing a lot of people interested in raising them and im SURE theres cheaper ways to do it than I did, and deffinatly more expensive ways to do it than I did. But I thought that my "findings" may give someone a good idea and I wanted to share.
*My first shipment of Coturnix Pharoah hatching eggs was $20 total only about 30 hatched outof the 150 eggs I got (several were cracked from shipping in foam cartons).
*My second shipment of coturnix Jumbo hatching eggs was $18 total all came to me well and I hatched I think 18 of the 20.
*Then we drove down to a breeders and picked up several different colored coturnixs (jumbos and pharoah sizes) for $60 total which came with free eggs--- I forget how many hatched, but not many because of incubator complications, I ended up with 6 birds.
*Culled several males out of the hatching egg batches and enjoyed for dinner.
Bought a 6 compartment hanging wire pen for $50 total.
Got a free large rabbit hutch
Spent about $40 in wire and other misc. cage items
Adult feed so far has been around $63 worth
Chick feed has been around $40 so far
Bedding around $50
This is NOT including several other things, like incubator, turner, gas as mentioned above, cleaning materials for the brooder, brooder lamps, brooder itself etc. Also not to mention that coturnix are feed wasters, and I KNOW they've more than likely wasted an amt of a complete 50lb bag of feed already lol.
=around $341 dollars.....which in reality it was more than that so far.
and so far off of my waiting lists for 20+ eggs for $20 and half of that being what I can actually take away from it. I will expect around $130.
So that's $130 towards more quail feed, more quails, and shipping material
SO!
I personally work with my birds for the joy of raising them and working with genetics AND eating their eggs and meat!
I reccomend not using free feeding containers to feed your birds where they can kick and flick the feed out. I feed my birds directly on the ground in their main pen... however they STILL manage to kick a good deal out per week. I am considering putting about an inch to a two inch cover on the floor of their enterance into their inner shelter area so that they can't flick it out to the wire below. In my hanging pens I am planning to cover their feed with a cover and cutting a hole in the top so the coturnix can only feed out of a small hole....and since I'll only have 5 birds per pen I can see this working to help hold in feed better from these little food wasters! LOL!
I wil be spending a good deal of money to get water bottles per pen here in the spring as I think that would make it easier during watering.
Straight wire flooring from brooder to adult stage edits out the bedding factor but i personally like to let the babies not be on wire but that's just me so I don't mind the extra money into bedding and litter supplies.
If you have cats....I personally benifit from having cats. Their litter containers second as water containers for the quail. I no longer use litter in the containers as I buy "stall dry" for both my quails and my birds....works great as kitty litter even if it's dusty
Well if anyone else wants to add their costs so far, and other Dos and donts that they have found share and share away!
