How many should I buy?

[veggiecanner]

I am using rabbit cages too. They are working pretty good.
If you have the rabbit water bottles they can use those too. We had to wire over the feeder holes and buy chick feeders for them though.
And if you want to hatch eggs you'll need an incubator.

 

[smilingmama]

I have thought about hatching this year but I'm not sure I will be ready to handle the babies until next year. I think I need to start researching incubators soon so I know which ones are good.

 

[veggiecanner]

In that case you don't need a male.

 

[puckerr]

When i went to buy my chickens i bought 6 chickens and i ended up with 5 hens and 1 rooster

 

[James the Bald]

Hi. My husband and I are planning on buying 3 day old baby quails. We are hoping to end up with 4 females and 1 male. How many babies do I need to buy to get what I want? What do you do with the extras quails? We are trying to take care of our family of 3 with our own little family of quails. This year we wanted to start with one group and next year we will add some more. Thank You!

SmilingMama, Welcome to the Quail forum on BYC.... You do realize that this is a "loaded" trick question? I've been watching this thread and waiting for an opportunity to reply...I have read the entire thread so far, and you don't want to hatch any eggs; only eggs for eating. With that said, I agree with VeggieCanner; you don't need any males if all you want is unfertilized eggs for cooking/baking/frying/omletting etc,. The reason that I decided to raise quail is that I wanted eggs for their health value, and the meat for the satisfaction that there won't be any "additives or growth hormones" in my quail. Here is my experience with quail: I hatched 18 eggs and ended up with 2 males and no hens and recently hatched 15 eggs and ended up with 2 hens, losing one to a cat. You don't mention if price is a consideration for your purchase, so I would purchase a dozen chicks and hope that you end up with at least 4 hens. The others can be turned into this:

Good luck!!

 

[smilingmama]

I planned on just getting females but was told my females would be happier if there was a male. If it doesn't matter I am perfectly fine with all females this year. Next spring we are building a much larger area for the quail with a run. When we do we will be raising them for meat and eggs. We were going to wait until next year to start but we figured we could start with one group this year and figure things out so next year (hopefully) it will be easier with quite a few more. The 3 day old babies are being sold for $1 each so I'm not real concerned about price. I'm more concerned about where to house the extra since we only have one hutch set up right now. I found a post on here about using rubbermaid storage tubs and we have quite a few of those so I think we will be ok between the hutch, tank and the tubs until my husband learns how to prepare quail. We are really excited to raise them from babies so I really was just wondering how many to get since we won't know the sex for a few weeks. I measured our hutch yesterday and it is actually almost 9 square feet. I'm glad because I felt bad for Squishing 5 in 6 square feet.

 

[smilingmama]

Thank you for helping get an idea of how many chicks I should buy.

 

[Sycamore27]

I planned on just getting females but was told my females would be happier if there was a male. If it doesn't matter I am perfectly fine with all females this year. Next spring we are building a much larger area for the quail with a run. When we do we will be raising them for meat and eggs. We were going to wait until next year to start but we figured we could start with one group this year and figure things out so next year (hopefully) it will be easier with quite a few more. The 3 day old babies are being sold for $1 each so I'm not real concerned about price. I'm more concerned about where to house the extra since we only have one hutch set up right now. I found a post on here about using rubbermaid storage tubs and we have quite a few of those so I think we will be ok between the hutch, tank and the tubs until my husband learns how to prepare quail. We are really excited to raise them from babies so I really was just wondering how many to get since we won't know the sex for a few weeks. I measured our hutch yesterday and it is actually almost 9 square feet. I'm glad because I felt bad for Squishing 5 in 6 square feet.

If you intend on saving any of the birds you get now as breeding stock later on I would go ahead and keep a male for them, it can be harder to introduce one later when you are ready to breed them. However if you don't intend on using these for your breeding stock they don't really need a roo, especially if you don't end up with more than four hens it can really just be stressful for them to have a male kept with them.
You should be fine keeping the babies together until 5-6 weeks no matter your sex ratios, after that if you have way too many roos things can get ugly. However, if you're getting browns this is about the time behavior starts confirming coloration and you can be sure of sex though you'll probably have an idea by 3-4 weeks old once you learn what to look for. If you only have 1 or 2 extra males you may be able to keep everyone together until harvest time for your extra males, especially if you plan on under stocking that 9sqft cage. Keep a close eye as they hit that 5 week mark and if you see chasing or fighting start go ahead and split the males you aren't keeping. Rubbermaid totes are a good idea for temporary housing or brooders too.

Cheers,
Jessie

 

[smilingmama]

If you intend on saving any of the birds you get now as breeding stock later on I would go ahead and keep a male for them, it can be harder to introduce one later when you are ready to breed them. However if you don't intend on using these for your breeding stock they don't really need a roo, especially if you don't end up with more than four hens it can really just be stressful for them to have a male kept with them.
You should be fine keeping the babies together until 5-6 weeks no matter your sex ratios, after that if you have way too many roos things can get ugly. However, if you're getting browns this is about the time behavior starts confirming coloration and you can be sure of sex though you'll probably have an idea by 3-4 weeks old once you learn what to look for. If you only have 1 or 2 extra males you may be able to keep everyone together until harvest time for your extra males, especially if you plan on under stocking that 9sqft cage. Keep a close eye as they hit that 5 week mark and if you see chasing or fighting start go ahead and split the males you aren't keeping. Rubbermaid totes are a good idea for temporary housing or brooders too.

Cheers,
Jessie

Thanks! This was helpful!