How many quail should I get?

[Pet Duck Boy]

How many coturnix quail should I get to have a somewhat decent supply of eggs for 2 people? We haven't bought the cage yet, but it will be a some what large rabbit cage. Wire bottom.

 

[Prettiest Frog]

6 gals give me 5-6 eggs a day.

 

[UmbraVulpis]

It takes 4-5 coturnix eggs to equal one chicken egg but they tend to lay every day unless you change something. You should be able to figure from that how many quail you need.

My dad was bragging for a while about the 20 egg omlette he made for two people to eat.

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

How do you tell male from female? I was just at my feed store, and they had around 8-10 quail. There were light colored ones and dark/maroon colored ones.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Hard to sex quail! We have the Jumbo Brown Coturnix. They are fairly easy to sex after about 3-4 weeks of age. Females have spotted chest feathers and males have a golden brown solid color on their chest.

 

[Prettiest Frog]

The girl's lay eggs and the boys try to climb on the backs of the girls. Otherwise, with some types of quail, it's a coin-toss at best.

 

[UmbraVulpis]

Assuming they are browns and golds rather than a harder to sex color, these should help.

Golden with female on left and male on right:

Brown with male on the left and female on the right:

My brown male put up a fight so he's looking a bit scruffy, but you can still see the rusty color fading down.

 

[Boyd]

Quote:
she's dead on m8

Artificial light will get them to lay 365 just like chickens. Just be prepared to replace them every 2-3 years if you do this................

 

[Prettiest Frog]

I do have one gal prone to laying double-yolkers, and she tends to only give me 2 eggs every three days, while the rest give me an egg a day. She's young yet though, so she'll probably grow out of it.

 

[CoopCrazy]

Quote:
ON the pics above you can see the dark dots on the females breast.. I would get a few extras and process the smallest , they are divine and a great way to get into processing your own animals...