How many quail do I need for meat?

[Thorn_shrike]

Hi everyone! I’ve been keeping chickens a little over a year and recently I’ve been thinking about keeping quail also. Not together…separate housing. I know the basics of care, but my question is how many do I need for a family of 3? How should I start? It would be okay if we had extra, I could sell the extra meat and eggs to friends/family.

I’d like to have enough for one meal a week, sometimes two. I don’t really want to do a yearly cull and keep them in the freezer. I would much rather go out and grab a few as needed right before cooking.

Does anyone already have a successful setup for a situation similar to me that can offer some advice? I just don’t know how to start to get into the flow of it all, if that makes sense.

 

[igorsMistress]

One or two per person per meal is fairly average I think. They are small and it really depends on how much meat you eat.

 

[Nabiki]

One quail is about a USDA serving of meat (4 oz). I've eaten as little as one quail per meal and seen a guest devour as many as six (they are delicious).

 

[spookyevilone]

We used to plan for 2 quail per person per meal, and we did a 40 egg hatch per month with a goal of getting at least 24 chicks to hatch/mature but if I had to do it again, I'd do a hatch of 60 every other month with a goal of 48 hatch/mature because hatches/brooding every month is a lot more work than it's worth. You need to build in a failure rate, because quail chicks like to find new ways to just perish, and adult quail aren't much better.