Ignorant about Quail, Why do people have them, hunting?

[shelleyd2008]

I would say all of the above except releasing to hunt, I have coturnix and they aren't good hunting birds. A lot of people in my area get the eggs to make pickled eggs with, a pint of pickled eggs sells for $5 here.
Personally I don't eat the birds, and I can't eat eggs, but I do raise them for others to eat/raise to eat.

 

[shelleyd2008]

Quote:
Trying to eat a button quail would be more trouble than it's worth, there really isn't much to them. However, coturnix and bobwhites get at least 3 times bigger than buttons and are very useful for their meat...especially since coturnix 'grow out' much quicker than chickens do.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Quote:
Trying to eat a button quail would be more trouble than it's worth, there really isn't much to them. However, coturnix and bobwhites get at least 3 times bigger than buttons and are very useful for their meat...especially since coturnix 'grow out' much quicker than chickens do.

What she said. for mya family of 4, I cook 6 quail. One for me and dd, two for dh and ds. Nine weeks ( a week to lay eggs for a new hatch) and I have 10 meals ( I hatch out 60 at a time) Can't grow out a chicken in that time frame. Although i do raise chickens also.

 

[pascopol]

I raise quail cause their eggs are delicious, more nutricious and to me better tasting than chicken eggs, on the top coturnix is the fastest growing and fastest laying bird. 8-9 weeks from egg to egg, or from egg to table.


Also I raise coturnix quail, chukars and now bobwhites, because their meat is delicious, nutricious and super duper gourmet meal every time. Also it is affordable (if you raise them).

 

[miss_thenorth]

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I would hav eto respesctfully disagree that quail eggs are more nutritious, unless you pasture raised them. Then I would say they would equal chciken eggs. If all quail are eating is bagged food, they would be comparable to grocery store chicken eggs. I prefer chicken and duck eggs for eating, but if I have a surplus of quail eggs, I usually pickle them, and they really are good that way.

 

[pascopol]

You can disagree, the more disagreement on this board the better discussion, and learning experience for others.
Given same nutrition feed wise Coturnix eggs are more nutritious than chicken eggs, and you do not have to pasture coturnix to improve quality of their eggs, some greens will do as an addition to commercial food, just like with chicken.

Duck eggs are grear for baking, I raise ducks but use their eggs for baking only since they contain twice as much cholesterol than chicken eggs, coturnix have LESS cholesterol than chicken eggs.

So leaving taste aside since it is highly subjective, coturnix eggs come as awinner for health oriented consumer.

In some cultures coturnix eggs are considered having healing qualities besides obviously being a gourmet delicacy.

Also coturnix hens have 33% better food conversion for egg production that gallus domestica hen:

http://www.essortment.com/all/coturnixquail_rksp.htm


No matter how you cut it coturnix quail comes out as a winner.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Quote:
Quoted from the link you provided:

Coturnix eggs are nearly identical in taste and nutritional quality to chicken eggs. Coturnix hens, however, need less than two pounds of feed to produce a pound of eggs. Chickens need almost three pounds of feed to make that same pound of eggs.

While chickens may, and I'm not disputing this as I'll take the website's word for it at this moment, I can verify that they are comparing feeding quail bagged food AND feeding chickens bagged food only. While I agree that quail will eat 2 lbs to produce an lb. of eggs, I seriously disagree that a chicken, in the spring/summerfall months eats 3 lbs of food to produce an lb. of eggs. I know this for sure, since that is about how much food I feed my 30 birds a day. The rest they obtain from foraging. (which costs me nothing)

And since it is apparent that they are comparing feed-raised quail eggs to feed-raised chicken eggs, the quality and taste are similar. However, studies have bee done to prove that pasture-raised chicken eggs are much more nutritious than caged eggs. Just look up the reports, Mother Earth News is a good place to find one of their studies.

That being said, I still say chicken eggs are much more nutritious, given you pasture raise your birds. If you keep your birds in cages,then by all means quail eggs would be a good subsitute.

Duck eggs, while being good for baking, are also great for eating, since in my family, we prefer the yolk to the white, and duck eggs have much more yolks than whites.​

 

[pascopol]

One can argue "ad nauseam" superiority of one kind of eggs over the other.

Fact is that assuming that if all disputed above species are fed similar diet, coturnix eggs come out superior since they contain less cholesterol than both chicken and duck eggs.

Ducks eggs contain almost double of cholesterol of a chicken egg. And unfortunately almost all of it (cholesterol) is in yolk.

But who would eat whites only?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
I'm so glad you asked this- I had been wondering too! I was thinking, wow- they want a hundred quail to go look at in their lawnchairs?
I admit I like to sit and watch my almost a hundred chickens!

 

[Denninmi]

Quote:
I'm so glad you asked this- I had been wondering too! I was thinking, wow- they want a hundred quail to go look at in their lawnchairs?
I admit I like to sit and watch my almost a hundred chickens!

Just remember, though, that 100 shipped eggs often will only yield somewhere between 25 and 50 live chicks. That is one reason to "overbuy"