Help me determine how much food is enough for Quail

[Mumpy]

My friend and I decided to build a couple of 40' Flight pens and raise some Quail this year for dog training, hunting and to sell the remaining quail to hunting preserves. I feel we are feeding them too much, I do not believe they should be going through as much food as they are going through.

I was wondering if anyone else has like 25 - 50 Quail and could give me an amount of food you go through per week. This would help me determine how much food our 400 Quail should be going through.

Thank you

 

[funsized72]

you should wait for more experienced people but i THINK for 50 birds a 50 pound bag would take about 2 weeks.

 

[grousebum]

I figured my coturnix were each eating 0.5 lbs of feed a week while growing (a 50 lb bag of feed a week for 92 birds plus some wastage). It seems like they have slowed down now that they are fully grown. If you have bobwhites I'm sure they are different.

Dave

 

[Mumpy]

Hmmm, so if 50 Birds = 25lbs per Week and 300 Birds would equal 150lbs per week?

Man I hope that's wrong because that's like exactly the amount we're going through and I feel that is ridiculous amount of food.

 

[dc3085]

You should always feed poultry and fowl freely. They will not overeat to the point of causing themselves health issues as long as they are only getting the proper food plus what they're foraging, and not extra treats. Typically when you feel like you're burning through feed it's due to waste at the feeders. Are the birds wasting a lot? what type of feeders are you using?

BTW if you've got them in a flight pen you should be providing some digestive grit as they will be finding things on the ground like bugs and seeds that are not water soluble like GB food.

 

[Mumpy]

Our flight pens are off the ground 4' so they're not finding things on the ground. I think they are wasting some and the rest is just what it is.

 

[TerraLinda]

This sounds like a right amount. My 20 adult coturnix quails go through a 50 lb. bag in a little over a month. They scatter a lot of feed, but since they sit on aspen wood shavings, they also peck some feed from the bottom of the pens.

 

[Mumpy]

Wow, this makes me a sad panda. I mean the numbers just don't add up to the point of where this is even remotely cost beneficial to raise these quail.

So basically selling flight conditioned quail at 22 weeks of age. = 5.5 months

150lbs of Feed per week = 600lbs per Month

600lbs x 5.5 = 3,300lbs / 50lb bags @ $15.00 per bag = $990.00 in Feed

300 Flight Conditioned quail @$4.00 per quail = $1,200.00

That's $210 which I didn't add the cost of gas to pick up the feed each month.

 

[hobo fred]

Hey at least you know now maybe you can try to get 5.00 dollars a bird

 

[dc3085]

try elevating the feeders 4-5 inches above the floor of the cage so the birds have to reach up into the feeder to get food. This should eliminate most waste.