Does anyone else have to deal with this sort of reaction from people, when they find out you raise q

[yardraven]

These are my little ones ... The one in the far left is a jumbo ringneck pheasant...

Ain't they the daftest looking things when they're chicks,but scope out the very top on the cute scale

 

[yardraven]

I feel a big smile creep across my face when they forget that I'm an ugly giant with giant hands, as they stampede over me to see what i have to eat in my hand. I have about 150 and i can't sit up, or shift my weight if i have a treat. I can feel 100's of these tiny feet exploring every thread of clothing if i have anything tasty. It's the same if i turn over some soil "worms-----yippee". If they were the size of Dodo's I'd be extincted too.

 

[azer]

[COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] [COLOR=B42000] [/COLOR] This is the same Chinese in order of growth. Day 1 to 66. I have a similar prejudice here. People look at me with horror when i say you can eat the eggs. Even after i load them up with the benefits of quail eggs. I keep Chinese & Japanese Quail.

I love the color.. i have 3 pairs in separate pens.. and they lay an egg 3 times a month..

 

[azer]

My quail hens started to lay.. at 6 weeks...i have 1roo 4 hens i started to incubate the eggs..

 

[Haida]

While we don't have quail yet (probably my next venture in a few years, meanwhile I'll been lurking here) we do have chickens, turkeys and emu (only 6 months old). I get some of the oddest responses. I'm getting used to that "how are you able to kill and eat something you raised" thing... beginning to look forward to getting it.

But it's so surprising to me that no one knows what an emu is! Everyone goes "what is that, like an ostrich?" like... well, not really... "can you ride it?" no! My grandfather-in-law asked me if they could fly!

Most people ask what our plans are for them, and I keep telling them for breeding purposes. Grandmother-in-law asked if I planned on eating them, and I said no, just their offspring... her jaw hit the floor and she squealed "WHAT do you mean YOU are going to eat their babies?!?" I thought it was funny.

I can't get over how cute and TINY baby quail are!

 

[yardraven]

I love the color.. i have 3 pairs in separate pens.. and they lay an egg 3 times a month..

I have about 100 Chinese & 50 Japanese. Eggs litter the ground. The Jap's ain't big enough to eat, so it's the egg value. I sell 12 eggs for $1.70. With the money i get from chicken eggs, it pays for all the food for 24 chickens as well as the quail. In the last couple of weeks i found a restaurant on the Island that want's quail eggs. Bloody typical , the season is all but over. As soon as the days get shorter the eggs stop, and i can't afford to scope out artificial lighting since they're kept outside, though i do provide a heat lamp for the cooler nights. The days in the UK are only about 9½ hrs long in the winter, and even then it's fairly dim from thick cloud cover.
You say your's lay 3 times a month, do you have them inside ? In warm light conditions with plenty of space you should get 1 a day from a mature bird (about a year). Of course just because you have a female there are no guarantees they're layers. Overcrowding, too small a habitat, to large a habitat, not enough cover, wrong food etc ! Having said that you could keep a dozen in a matchbox and get 144 eggs a day, there's no sense to it sometimes. Sometimes the norm defies any explanation when the unexpected happens, and anything can and will happen. Put a small enclosure in your aviary for them to keep warm and sheltered! They'll use it in the summer to escape the summer heat, but put a heat lamp in there during the winter and your just as likely to find them at the other end frozen in a feathery ball. It's not the lamp they're frightened of, it's a follow the leader thang-----mental.
You can get some beautiful combinations with the colours once the breeding takes off.
Later

 

[yardraven]

They're madder than a bag of spider legs lol

 

[Shan30]

I love having this conversation with people who are adamant about not hunting or raising animals for meat because it cruel.

I simply ask them if they have ever seen a feed lot or a battery farm. If not I am happy to show them the lovely environment in which their supermarket food is raised. That is cruelty.

Personally I feel better knowing my food basked in the sun and played in the grass.

 

[yardraven]

Couldn't agree more. Get them to take the PEPSI challenge with shop bought and BYC-chicken.
Unfortunately for me , my kids have named all my birds. When i say we are having a chicken for dinner they expect it to be sat at the table with a knife and fork.

 

[azer]

I love having this conversation with people who are adamant about not hunting or raising animals for meat because it cruel.

I simply ask them if they have ever seen a feed lot or a battery farm. If not I am happy to show them the lovely environment in which their supermarket food is raised. That is cruelty.

Personally I feel better knowing my food basked in the sun and played in the grass.

Amen!!!