Help talk me into quail (for meat)

[DemeterAD9]

I have chickens, a pair of ducks, a couple Jake turkeys so what's next? Quail (Coturnix) of course! These would be for meat and maybe if they are nice and easy to work with I can save a small breeding group for the future. I'd likely be ordering hatching eggs. Anyone have good results with shipped quail eggs or do they have a harder time with shipping due to their smaller size?

I hear they are pretty easy to keep once you get the hang of things so I'd like to hear what others think about them. Are you glad you got quail? Was it worth the time and money to raise them? Was it difficult to keep the chicks going or was it as easy as raising chickens? I live in MI so how cold/heat tolerant are they (would an outdoor enclosure be okay for winter)?

What makes a quick and easy setup? Where do you keep their cages? I have a couple rabbit hutches I could fairly easily adjust and make a small cage for them but I'm not sure how much space they'd actually need. If the rabbit hutches aren't big enough then it likely wouldn't be all that hard to make a simple cage out of some wood (we have plenty) and hardware cloth right?

Of course this is all hypothetical, I'm not sure if I will even try quail (yet) but it certainly is something to think about doing if I get time between my chicken plans.

 

[Nabiki]

I would recommend starting with the articles on quail here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/category/quail.32/

That being said, I started with quail because I lived in suburbia where chickens were regulated pretty heavily. I also didn't really have much space. I raise them for eggs and meat, and since I don't like how commercial meat producers keep their animals, I choose to raise mine in more spacious and comfortable homes than commercial breeders.

While there are plenty of wrong ways to raise quail, there are a lot of right ways too. I don't consider them that hard, but they aren't chickens.

 

[Nabiki]

I forgot the most compelling argument for them as meat. They're delicious!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8AKDZ9NpcmGRSF-6vcvoL3OP2K-laGvu