...I wish cortunix WEREN'T so sweet!!

[simplyscrambled]

I now have 13 wonderful little quail in my converted rabbit cage. And 7 are male. Which means I'm going to have to get the courage to process the 5 or 6 'extra roos' and since I believed from reading that they weren't as personable as chickens, I would have an easier time as a first time processor. WRONG! The darn things are just so cute. A couple of the boys have almost jumped into my hands when I'm feeding/watering/adding sand to their sandboxes. I have a chair set up right in front of the cage so I can watch them...they're much tamer than I thought they would be! They're less skittish than the young chickens I hatched a few weeks earlier than them!

I'm seriously tempted to just sell them over craigslist and be a not so self-sufficient omnivore!

 

[saddina]

Hmmm, does thinking about yummy quail dinners help? I'm processing some sparebirds tomorrow, and I'm thinking tamales not bob the rooster.

I do understand though, it's easier to process the annoying ones.

 

[monarc23]

so where did you read that they weren't like chickens? Whoever said that mustint have spent even a second with their coturnix. It's one of the reasons i love them so much. They make me laugh at least once a day with something silly they do....

like look at my hen Panda yesterday...I just reciently moved all my tuxedos to my largest pen...well... she is greatful for it I guess haha because now she runs out to the outside of the pen when she sees me and todays he brought me out some peice of boiled egg I had offered them about an hour before in her mouth she kept coming to where i was at the cage and showing it to me it was so darn cute (ignore her scalped/scarred head mean roo no more):::

but yes, like i was saying whoever you read that from is a doo doo head

I have and always will call them Mini Chickens

 

[quailbrain]

I would move that chair

away from the extras. I could never watch them then harvest them. I hope when my chicks are big enough i still have the courage. I ate their first egg so that was a step. I have heard you can eat button quail eggs but never tried one! so I was worried I couldn't them either but it was good so that helped.

 

[calgal98]

It isn't so difficult once you get started. I usually de-head 6-8 before I start processing. I ended up skinning however, as to pluck takes a long time. Especially if you have lots to do. I'll have about a dozen more to do before I finish culling this large group.

 

[simplyscrambled]

I wish you were closer Calgal, I think it would help to see someone do it. One of my plans is to actually go buy quail at the grocery store to try it first...

So you behead them and drain the blood, then on to the next one?? I think I only have maybe 5 or so hens. So many roos! I guess that also means I can only keep one roo, not two, with so few hens. This puts a serious kink in my self sufficiency if I can't process the darn things! Sigh....

Well, Monarc, I heard that since quail were skittish, and can't be held and don't sit on you, and things like that, that they were more 'wild' than chickens.

No one wrote about the cuteness factor! I find quail much more entertaining to watch.

You're right, quailbrain. I'll just have to watch the hens, not the roos!

 

[laputa]

Quote:
That's exactly what I did! I could sit there and watch them forever.

I am already addicted to run home every evening after work to check them out.

I think I made the right decision to not hatch again but to buy hens straight. I have eaten quails bought from supermarket plenty of times in the past, and loved them, but I know I would feel very bad if I have to put a healthy one down for eating.

I would say definitely no chair sitting in front of your quails if you plan to eat them, or sell them and let someone else do it.

 

[calgal98]

I use a sharp pruning shear to do the deed. It breaks the neck and then I either pull it off or cut it off. I hold the bird until it stops fluttering and then move on. A poultry shear would probably do the job too, but the hook on the p shear helps place the head.

 

[Akane]

You guys must have different quail from what I got.... I was glad to butcher those annoying birds and decided not to keep any of that line. They were definitely calmer than buttons but still rather psychotic and completely suicidal.... They managed to kill themselves or each other left and right no matter what I did. They needed padded cells being fed food and water one drop at a time. Otherwise they kept finding some way to die in, under, or on top of every feeder or waterer and when I finally kept them from doing that just bashed themselves into the sides or top of the cage until several dozen died of heart attacks and brain damage. I had some seriously insane coturnix and they are all in the freezer now.

 

[QuailKeeper]

game shears work well. i think you can buy just the shears, but for sure they come in a game processing kit.