how many quail for family of 4

[chickenjoe]

how many quail should be raised for a family of four

 

[La Mike]

Ok a family of four for what ?
Eating 2-3 quail per person.
Pets as many as you like.
What exactly you have in mind decides what you may need.
Hope that helps.

MIKE

 

[canter6]

About 200. Give or take.

 

[JJMR794]

Quote:
LIGHTWEIGHT!






LOL---

 

[Bettacreek]

We would need more specifics. How much does your family usually eat? For very young kids, one quail would be plenty (maybe half a quail, depending). Some people will eat two, some three, some will eat five. I have never measured out how much meat comes from a single quail.
Second, how often do you plan on eating quail? Once a week, once a month or...? Do you plan to eat eggs as well?

 

[kenman]

Maybe this will help. I have a family of six. Four adults and two teens. So we all eat adult size portions and we love to eat quail. I am raising quail that weigh an average of 10 ounces live weight at processing, usually 6-8 weeks. The size of your quail makes a big difference on how many you need to keep. Anyway, I use 12 whole quail (that's breast & leg and & thigh quarters) per meal, because we also need leftovers for lunches. Now for the math part. I am keeping a dozen hens and 4 males, Coturnix. I have them set up in two 2'X2' rabbit cages, 6 hens to 2 males each. I set 10 days worth of eggs which is around 80-90 each month (that I feel like growing them). If I have an 75-80% hatch rate (usually you can better), you can have 70-80 birds each month, or as I usually figure it, 5-6 meals for us, plus some for mine and wife's folks. I will be setting the first batch of eggs for the new year probably on the first.

 

[Chris100]

Do you harvest any eggs or do you eat all offspring? Do you have to incubate the eggs or do the hens do that for you?

 

[feedman77]

I keep 12 hens. They lay about 70 or so eggs a week when laying good.

They don't go broody so i have incubators. Usually get 80 plus hatch rate.

Quail eggs are about 5 eggs to equal 1 chicken egg.

I will butcher most offspring. Til the last batch or 2 I want to incubate. Then save a set number of hens and rooster. For breeder replacements. Then butcher breeders at about 1 year old.

What eggs are not incubated are eaten. They are a good source of collagen and omega 3.

Do you harvest any eggs or do you eat all offspring? Do you have to incubate the eggs or do the hens do that for you?

 

[Ms Kurtis]

Maybe this will help. I have a family of six. Four adults and two teens. So we all eat adult size portions and we love to eat quail. I am raising quail that weigh an average of 10 ounces live weight at processing, usually 6-8 weeks. The size of your quail makes a big difference on how many you need to keep. Anyway, I use 12 whole quail (that's breast & leg and & thigh quarters) per meal, because we also need leftovers for lunches. Now for the math part. I am keeping a dozen hens and 4 males, Coturnix. I have them set up in two 2'X2' rabbit cages, 6 hens to 2 males each. I set 10 days worth of eggs which is around 80-90 each month (that I feel like growing them). If I have an 75-80% hatch rate (usually you can better), you can have 70-80 birds each month, or as I usually figure it, 5-6 meals for us, plus some for mine and wife's folks. I will be setting the first batch of eggs for the new year probably on the first.

Hi Kenman! Great answer to help a beginner. More and more ppl seem to be interested in raising quail. For myself, I've moved into a small in town house yard not really big enough for chickens plus I can keep the quail isolated from any wild birds. My small Texas town, was going to make me have 10sq ft indoor coop space per chicken, but there are no gamebird rules, so I plan on building the attached smallish hutch. We are two adults planning on eating both the eggs and the meat and I have a Kebbonix 12 chicken egg incubator that I'm chicken hatching experienced with. #1 Question: I found 1/4 inch hardware cloth, but plan calls for half inch. What do you think?
#2 I am ordering 30 eggs from a hatchery and incubating my own. The Kebbonix will probably fit 24 eggs I'm thinking since it's for 12 chicken eggs. (I will keep incubating as I find our consuming pattern)
Attached a picture of the quail hutch. I'll keep large slide in pans beneath and dump into my compost barrel to keep the flies down.
#3. Does this sound like a sound plan to you?
Thank you for sharing your experience with us newbys!