Quail are super easy and super cheap to keep. Getting them set up can be expensive, because they have to be completely enclosed with fine-gauge wire to keep them safe, but it can be done inexpensively with some ingenuity and creative salvaging.
Mine are in a 10 x 10 pen I purchased for $130 from a scratch-and-dent chain link place. I improved it with about $20 worth of 1/4" hardware mesh from remainders we picked up at a warehouse closing down. Also, zip ties to attach the mesh. Then a $15 bag of game bird feed lasts for months for only a few quail. You'll go through it faster with larger groups, obviously, but it's still not much.
And they produce eggs like crazy. Very low feed-to-egg conversion ratio.
They're also a blast to hatch because coturnix take only 18 days to hatch and they hatch FAST. Like popcorn, almost, and then they look like big maggots climbing all over each other till they dry. Then they are the cutest birds in the universe--the size of a quarter, and fluffy like an Easter peep. So adorable.
Have fun.
