I need a system for breeding quail for meat and eggs.

[John Sanders]

I already have an incubator, brooder (plastic tub with mesh lid), and a cage with 3 sections for the birds when get out of the brooder.

I'm starting with 30 eggs. I figure I'll get 2 breeding groups out of that and probably some extra males. I'm planning on growing them out in this pen too.

The other pens I guess I need are a grow out pen for future hatches, but what else? I am going to start with 3 - 5 bird breeding coveys which I have a pen for. I want to keep it small at first but not for too long!!

You guys are very helpful! Just like the chicken people when I started with them. There is too much misinformation on the net to weed through and be sure you got it right.

 

[mdees88]

Coturnix or bobwhites? If coturnix, the ideal ratio is about 4 hens to 1 male. Might could do 3:1 if the male doesn't over breed them, some do 5:1 also...

I'm following to see what others suggest as I plan on hatching my own eggs pretty soon...

 

[John Sanders]

Coturnix or bobwhites? If coturnix, the ideal ratio is about 4 hens to 1 male. Might could do 3:1 if the male doesn't over breed them, some do 5:1 also...

I'm following to see what others suggest as I plan on hatching my own eggs pretty soon...

Yeah. I'm planning 4:1. I'm just wondering what other cages might be needed. I want everything to run smooth and be able to grow.

 

[mdees88]

Depending on how big you get you can never have enough cages. It all depends on how many birds you want to keep on hand at one time. Once you get a grow out pen you should be set for a while I think. 5ft x 2ft - 5ft x 3ft cages are very versatile. Probably wouldn't hurt to have two of them to go with your 3 breeder cages. Or if you only use 2 of your 3 compartments for breeders, you have the one grow out pen, and the third compartment of your original cage for runts, injured birds, or some extra males.

I intend on hatching 30-40 quail at a time probably once every 6-8 weeks (this is if I'm intending on selling them and not keeping all of them myself for meat). I have two 55 gallon plastic totes I use for brooders. I'll put 15-20 chicks in each and they are large enough to get the quail to 10-14 days old. Then I move them out to their grow out pens. I like to separate the males from the females at 2-3 weeks when I can feather sex them. Then I'll grow the males up until butcher age (which as about when I get tired of hearing them all crowing, lol). Then I'll sell a few females and males and that usually covers my feed costs.

At one point I had over 150 quail on hand and I was getting 40-50 eggs a day. That was way more than I liked fooling with for pickling and personal consumption. I ended up selling a bunch of birds to get down where I liked it.

I plan on keeping around 12-15 hens laying at all times for eggs for myself (9-12 eggs per day). Then I can keep around 4 days worth of eggs to incubate and that should give me around 30 chicks.

This is my plan for now, we'll see how it all works out.

Very curious to know how other people are doing it...

 

[John Sanders]

Thank you for reply. Just what I needed to know.