I got quail, do you have quail?

[bfrancis]

Kahlertm, brought up a good discussing factor that I've seen in other post too, but we can talk about it again....hope those folks come over here and throw some input too.

What are all the uses for your quail and even by-products? Here on our little farm we try to live and grow everything as naturally as possible. In doing that there have been some creative ways in recycling and hope to have has little waste as possible. Some these techniques will work on your small farm or even in urban settings as well where cots are allowed.


Let's start with an egg, or a hundred, you put in the incubator and wait 17 days and all of a sudden you have popcorn! I mean little fuzzies running around everywhere.

What do you do with all the egg shells and dude eggs? Ours go into the compost.

Currently, I brood the first week in a back room in the house, then to the outside brooder. I do this for several reasons but mainly it's easier to watch for any heat fluctuations and general health of the chicks...I don't mess them...hands off approach, they are "babies" and over sensory to the chicks can cause undue stress and even death. But what kind of bedding? I use equine pine pellets for all my chicks for several reasons:

1) They do absorb more, both odor and moisture. A big cause of death is the bedding gets wet or saturated and that cause the chicks to get damp and they will get the chills...and die.

2) Quail Lady says they smell good too. When you raise cots for the first time you will soon discover they stink and you don't want that. Regardless is you have 3 or you have a 100 chicks...cleanliness is a must.

3) "Splay leg" is caused from having a surface too slick for the chicks to properly get a footing and they damage/hurt their hardening skeletal structure. With pellets, it gives them a firm, yet good footing under them. I can literally count on 4 fingers how many chicks I've had that had "splay leg", and it was due to a birth defect or how it was situated in the egg prior to hatch.

4) What do you do with the bedding after it is soiled? Pine pellets break down very easily and quickly, so right into the compost! Flakes take years to break down properly to create good usable dirt. Plus the absorbency level for quail poop is nil to none.

(I could do whole thing on compost alone, but since this is quail talk, something to look into for healthy fruitful gardens and a way to not fill your trash can)


Coming up, "7 weeks later and what do I do with my adult birds?"

 

[bfrancis]

Hi 7L, QL, and Model_A_Tractor!

Quail Lady brought up some very good points...quality not quantity...and cull hard.

To have a good healthy flock, even though they may be cute, culling is a good practice. "Why would you ever want to cull?", you ask. Any birth defect you see on a bird could potentially be passed on to its offspring, which is bad. If you didn't like it the first time, you're not going yo want to see it replicated 100's of times. Another reason would be if a bird or chick is ill, sometimes the most humane thing for that bird is cull as well as the health of your flock. You don't want a "nasty" taking a foot hold and wiping out your entire flock over night. Keeping the healthiest birds also mean they would be the most resistance to types of infections...not saying don't do preventive maintenance, just you'll be keeping a stronger constitution type bird for your breeding program.

Quantity is determined what you can safely house, (their safety, not yours), brood, raise, manage, and afford to feed. With some people's schedules and life styles, it is perfectly Ok to keep a couple females together as pets. For others maybe a dozen birds for home use egg consumption. Maybe that is all the room they have to place a housing unit of some sort, regardless of an elevated hutch style pen or nice aviary along a back perimeter fence. Or it could have in the hundreds. Point is, know your goals and only keep what you can manage from your time, expense, and most importantly health of you flock.

It is very important to known for how healthy your birds are, how awesome they look, and how clean the pens are, verses being known for having the most, but the most "ragged, emaciated, looks like something the cat wouldn't even drag in" birds.

Great points! Keep'em coming.

 

[bfrancis]

I have browns and whites. I have culled all my other colors to focus on the "splits".

when I started I scoured the country and did my research.

found the biggest browns, in Kansas, from fatdaddy and my whites came from JJ and a lady named Miss Ruth.

interestingly, Miss Ruth got her whites from GQF many years ago, her quail had never been to Texas...

I hoping for some Fat Daddy specials in the soon time. Right now I've only got the "normal" sized birds...they sure are pretty though...One day, many years down the road, would like to create all the colors I have now on the larger frame birds...don't think they'll get to ginormous like some, but hoping to bring about some size to the color palate I got.

Appreciate any input you have for our little discussions here.

 

[Stellar]

Also neck kinks can be a brooder situation. Keeping brooders taller to avoid head boinks is a plus. I stopped putting lids on the tanks since the bird would boink and the neck started curving. At first I thought there was a vit. deficiency there but if that was the case many birds. Since the breeders are on high quality feed this is not the case.

So when brooding these birds, do watch out for head boinking, sometimes it does help with the culling though

My whites came from the lab at Oregon State University. We got them delivered from Texas and Georgia. Two lines. The professor I worked with called them Texas A and Ms, although the original originals were browns. They were large gourmet birds. By crossing the whites with browns they got larger overtime and that is what I have now. I brought 10 birds here to FL when I graduated and that was my starter flock of whites. I had to back cross recently since I made a mistake and brought in a line and it shrunk a generation. Culled the generation and now back on track. I have 140 nice TAMS/Jumbo Whites that are in the 11 oz-13oz in this generation. Hoping that the next generation outweighs this one. Reds are getting there. It's hard to separate the three genes in those guys. Got some nice large graded eggs in the incubator and hoping for a good hatch to share the lines with others.

As with culling, it is the best practice to get what you want. Some lines are more lethal than others, genetic anomalies can pop up overtime. The only issue I have been having is the birds getting too heavy to move. I have been trying to change this by decreasing the protein intake and fat just a tad. As long as we are getting 26-28 percent it's all good. The 30% ration is pretty good but the seeds do add in some other vitamins and minerals and the bird's plumage look phenomenal. And that thistle seed is really helping with egg production and sexually activity in the birds. Every egg that has been placed in the incubator have been fertile, not all hatch due to lethality but still the boys are really doing their jobs.

 

[TwoCrows]

Hi ya'll!

Twocrows here. Can I throw my 2 cents in here?? That is about all I will have to offer, seeing that I really only keep quail for the joy of it.

I started out 5 years ago with 6 Butler Bobwhites I got from a local quail breeding operation up the road from me. He raises Bobwhites, Blue Scale, Mountains, Gambles, Geese, Ducks, and assorted other critters that roam his property.

I know many folks shy away from ground raising quail, but I live in a very dry arid climate, although today it is snowing and it doesn't seem too dry and arid to me at this moment!! Anyway, the lack of too much humidity and moisture allows me to keep my quail in aviaries with little issues with disease. I run a clean operation and have never had any outbreaks of illness due to ground living.

My first 3 pair of Butlers turned into 45+ of them over the next few years and I am now a recovering hatch o holic!! LOL Actually, I would continue to hatch more, but I am out of room!! Right now, they are all kept in a 10'x10' aviary where they peacefully live during the "off breeding season". Come spring time, the killing/breeding season, LOL, they will be paired off with their lifetime mates, into cages that I will set up in a larger aviary. The unpaired boys and girls in a section of their own. The 10'x10' contains brush piles for hiding spots. And they have access to a greenhouse which contains their "coop" for winter sleeping. Although unless it is 15 degrees or less, they prefer to sleep in the aviary.

Their diet consists of Turkey starter, when I can get it, and other assorted greens, veggies, fruits and seeds. A while back, I sold off some of the breeding pairs and I am now down to 31 bouncing Bobs. A few of the original hatched birds are 5 years old this year and I will be curious to see how long this group lives.

This concludes the tour of the "quail section" of Twocrows ranch. Tune in later to see if I am still sane due to the falling snow!!!

Obsessed with birds,
-Leyla

 

[Eyeheartquail]

Very nice! I love the variety. I have about the same minus some roux dilutes and reds that I should be arriving shortly from Quaillady.

Going have to think about this, Pharaoh, Roux Dilute ( pharaoh pattern that's red), Goldens- both Manchurian and Italians, English whites (with spots and pure white), Dark Range or Tibetan, Dark Range Tux, Red Range, Red Range Tux.

I do have a new project color, maybe I'll get some pics up. My wife calls them "Turkey" patterned. The base is Dark Range color with a little of this and a little of that, but has come out to have some distinctive striping in the plumage. Got a tux model too.

Thanks for your kind words Kahlertm, I'm not the brightest duck on the pond...heck even list to the right in big circles most days, but will do my best to help you or anyone out with anything I may know or do here on my little farm.

 

[Eyeheartquail]

Quaillady, What is the difference between the glory gold, gold spangle and autumn amber from italians or manchurians? I saw the newer (awesome) pictures on your site and was curious.

 

[ftlmom]

Hi everyone. I am very new to keeping chickens and Quails. I currently have none but will be getting some point of lay hens in 2 weeks. We have been doing a lot of research and are in the process of planning and building our quail pens and plan on ordering some quail eggs from Quaillady this spring. We are a family of 6 and we homeschool. Being able to learn and prepare for these birds are part of this years science and we have worked hard.
Thank you to everyone for providing so much good info to our family and others who are looking into getting quails. I look forward to learning even more as spring quickly approaches.

 

[bfrancis]

Ftlmom!

Quail are a neat way to teach kids a bird's life cycle...since they have rapid growth rate. They will be a fun addition to your homestead. Any questions you may have please feel free to ask...always ready to help someone be successful in raising quail, especially when kids are involved.

 

[Marty1876]

Going through different posts, Marty1876 and others have wanted a new thread to talk quail. I think that's a great idea. To keep things a little more manageable, we'll be talking about cots except when we're not, lol. Basically all info ideas shared here will be about cots unless you specifically bring up another species.

Disagreements are allowed, but please back up your opinion with something other than "My friend down the road..." or "The guy at the feed store said..." Facts are awesome and maybe we can all learn something new along the way. Experience is a great teacher too. Keep in mind different climates will mean different strategy for raising them...

Great thread! Thanks for starting it! It will be nice to have somewhere other than the internet at large, and a few books, to go to for good, solid, practical information.

And, It will keep me from having to lurk in the old posts, too! LOL

Well, I'm not a big quail farmer, and I have other things too, but my quaill are Jumbo Brown Corturnix, and A & M (jumbo) whites. I've been having to try to get new breeding stock off ebay, but woudl LOVE some good connectioins for NICE BIG quail. I have about 80 birds (breeders, and some feeding up). I have 30 more Jumbos in the bator, and am expecting 25 (supposedly big) white A & M eggs this week. I hope, anyway.... Going into lockdown in 5 days for the fist 30.

I sell live quail and some eggs, locally. I am fortunate to have a few acres on a histric property that has never gotten rid of its farm fowl in 135, so the city accepts them on a grandfather clause, or rather grandmother, in my case. IF they didn't, I'd still sneak them. They are in a room with concrete floor and 2 windows, in the corner of a garage. Sometimes I spread into the barn, but usually just in summer and fall.

Thanks for the cool thread, bfrancis. I'll be a regular visitor, hoping to glean wisdom. I daresay I havn't near as much experience nor time into it as many others, and your collective knowledge will be a gift to the BYC community. (I'm allready thinking about an earlier posts suggestion on different material that composts better than shavings)