Jumbo plump fat juicy tender tasty quail

[SandraMort]

Can you tell I'm hungry? LOL! I'd like to grow some quail in the spring and have some questions.

- If I get chicks, can I let them go broody and hatch their own? WILL they go broody, or do I need to buy an incubator?

- What is the most cost effective way to set up an outdoor cage/pen for them? They seem to need a lot of square footage, given that you have to enclose it, but everything I'm seeing sounds like people use less than the recommended amount. I was thinking maybe one of those hoop style coops near my garden for them, then using a nice thick layer of wood shavings along the bottom.

- How many M:F do I need? How closely do I need to track the population, or can I just let them breed at will and occasionally go in, weed out some males to process and let them continue doing what birds do when left to their own devices?

- Do I want coturnix jumbos, A&M 'white' quail, or something else? If I have more than one kind, will they make mutts? Can I put button quail in the same cage for fun?

- WHat else do I need to know, having raised them already, that I won't necessarily see online?

- How pleasant would sitting in a chair in that coop be, just to hang out? WIll they be dive bombing me or just being mellow or what?

- How friendly/aggressive are quail?

- Can they share a coop with other birds? Say... scovies or guineas?

Edit, as I thought of something else - How early in the season can I put them outside? How cold hardy are they?

 

[ButtonQuailBoy]

- If I get chicks, can I let them go broody and hatch their own? WILL they go broody, or do I need to buy an incubator?

No they most likely won't go broody

- How many M:F do I need? How closely do I need to track the population, or can I just let them breed at will and occasionally go in, weed out some males to process and let them continue doing what birds do when left to their own devices?

I think it's a trio (2 females and a male) they'll probably kill eachother if they're is too many males and not enough females...

- How pleasant would sitting in a chair in that coop be, just to hang out? WIll they be dive bombing me or just being mellow or what?

not sure

...they're pretty calm (that's why people like them as pets)

- How friendly/aggressive are quail?

Not very agressive maybe scared...but they are friendly and personable...

- Can they share a coop with other birds? Say... scovies or guineas?

nope...

 

[lowcountrypoultry]

On the broody thing, it all depends on the breed, most quail wont go broody at all.. the only one I have ever seen go broody when they arnt wild is the button quail, but those arnt good to eat... too small.

5 females to one male is the most you can go with assured fertility.

I would say any type of Coturnix, that includes A&M.

Coturnix are very calm, but Bobwhite can be agressive some times.

I would not let them share a pen with other poultry, just because of the size difference.

Hope I helped!


-Austin

 

[monarc23]

^^ Austin said it perfectly

You can keep 1 male and 5 hens in a 2' by 2' pen with no problems. So I guess what you could do is figure that sort of spacing out doubled, trippled or quadrupled for more.

You could deffinatly sit in with coturnix quails (if that's what you pick) some will get spunky and play but other than that they wont scratch you up, but they WILL playfully peck at you but it hurts nothing like a chickens curious peck does.

If you haven't please check out my post on coturnix quail info and care it gives a good just of info on care and such.

Link is below in my sig

hope this helps some!

If you pick Coturnix, go with JUMBOS (which include A &M---but you can get them in brown and golden as well)...the pharoah size (wild type size) is too small you don't get much meat...least in my personal oppinon. By the way A & M are coturnix...this seems to be a confusion amung many people but they are the same thing just a different color (pure white...to white with brown splotches).


The jumbos are the size of a large pigeon....a pharoah is the size of a robin.

 

[SandraMort]

Yes, I knew that, but I didn't know if they were small or jumbo, thus the separation. Also, I'm not sure about the meat flavor.

Did you answer if they crossbreed or can be kept together? I didn't see...

Quote:

 

[SandraMort]

One male and five females in four sq feet, then? And do you need to keep it AT those numbers? Can you sex identify them early enough to know whether to put them in a mixed pen for breeding or in a male only to raise for meat? This sounds like a fabulous idea and I even have a place for the cages, once I figure out what kind to build.

 

[monarc23]

Quote:

lol they won't cross breed because you can't "crossbreed" the same breed that's just called pure bred breeding. So yes a jumbo can breed with a pharoah they aren't cousins, they're "siblings" if that makes sense. Basically that'd be like asking if a yellow lab can breed with a black lab..ofcourse they can they're just a different color

...just like jumbos (a & ms including) are just a different color and bigger.

I'd suggest for eating to get jumbos, bigger eggs and bigger flesh

They are all delicious though!

 

[SandraMort]

Gotcha!!! Any suggestions on housing for larger numbers? I don't see much point in raising under 50 if they're more than one per serving... If they're 5 per 4 sq feet, I'll need a fairly large cage (coop? aviary? quailhouse?) for 50-100.

 

[SandraMort]

And how do you decide between A&M and the traditionally colored dark meat quail if you haven't eaten quail before?

 

[monarc23]

Quote:
Well, the breeder I got several from just last night, had breeders upwards of 40 birds in long "runs" the runs were (guessing here) about 4 foot long by 3 ft wide, they were raised off the ground with slide out poo trays. Her only problem with that many birds was she had too many males in with a small ratio of females so there was birds with bloody heads...that's not exactly Ideal ofcourse or nice to the birds--she wasnt sure how to sex them and I taught her how so now she should be working out her quail problems in no time. They had tons of room in this set up adn i'dlove to raise birds in something like that someday. So it's deffinatly important when breeding time comes around if you aren't sure of the sex, sex them when they start calling and mating, because by then no matter what color the birds are you'll know the male by his call, and if he has a swollen bum ( a very obvious swollen bum-- you can see it on my post) and if white foam comes out the vent that's males....i'd still deffiantly suggest 1 male per 5 hens in any set up even in collony breeding that way you insure fertility while not having too too many males.

I deffiantly suggest keeping them off the ground, or you'll have to worm them. Everyone says they do better off the ground so I personally go along with what they say but if you want them on the ground go for it just look into a good wormer.

By the way, just 30 hens could give you more eggs than you know what to do with, and if you're all for incubating, you'll have more chicks than you know what to do with in no time as well.

30 hens in 2 weeks during egg laying (---if you keep them under lights in warm enclosures they will lay evey day all year long if not they will lay from march to september-october) will give you 420 eggs. If you set half of those in the incubator, 18 days later you'll have more chickies than you can deal with and 6 weeks later you can eat those!

Ya nkow how they have that saying about rabbits? well i bred and showed rabbits, they are NOTHING prolific like the coturnix quail is! LOL!