Little help, soon to be quail owner, help me learn to raise them!

[p4PaDuck]

Hi guys I’ve been on BYC but can almost never figure out how to make a thread. Anywhoo! We are getting quail soon! And not gonna go into detail but for eggs to help with allergies and a family member with high cholesterol. Few questions.

Is it true that quail eggs lower HDL cholesterol? (Aka the bad kind?)

Also any tips and tricks with the day to day things like easy dirty bedding/poop removal, lower the amount of mess from food and water?

Any bedding advice/ alternatives to mesh floor?

How big should the mesh be? 1” 1/2”?

And last but not least how many quail for a family of 5 that eats eggs every other day?

Thanks in advance!!

Bonus points for pics of setup and quail!!!!!

 

[Nabiki]

Welcome to the world of quail!

Quail eggs aren't necessarily lower in bad cholesterol, but they are higher in good cholesterol. Preliminary research shows that they MAY help with allergies, but there is still a lot of research to be done.

I keep my quail on the ground, so I just hoe the poop under every two to three weeks and move them about once a quarter. If you keep the food and water on a brick or something, there is less mess, but never none.

As I said, I keep mine on the ground, so they don't have wire floors at all. If you do you mesh, you want 1/2" hardware cloth, and you want to make sure that nothing can reach up from underneath them to pull toes and feet off. EVERYTHING likes to eat quail.

1/4 cup equal one large chicken egg. This is about 4-5 quail eggs. Coturnix quail lay very regularly, so you will want to use that to calculate how many hens you need. If you just want eggs, you don't need males.

Here are some articles that may help you:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/categories/quail.32/

Here is my setup:

 

[MyParadiseFalls]

F

 

[Susan Skylark]

Lowering bad cholesterol via diet isn’t very effective in most cases though eating more fiber does seem to help, even if you eat less ‘bad’ cholesterol your liver can and will convert other molecules into ‘bad’ cholesterol so unless your liver is on board, dietary therapy is limited (I have genetic high cholesterol and can eat nothing but oats and flax and good fats but I’m still 100 points high). This is not a good reason to get quail. If you are allergic or sensitive to chicken eggs, quail can be a good option but if it is eggs in general (say albumin) then it will still be an issue.

The good news is you don’t need a reason to have quail. I hatched my first batch back in march and have been addicted ever since. It takes 3-5 quail eggs to equal one chicken egg so you’ll need to do the math for your families needs. They are also seasonal layers so you’ll need supplemental light for eggs in the winter. I bed with pine shavings inside the garage and sand outside in the hutch. We scoop the sand daily and cover the hutch before rain with a tarp. Pine shavings last 2-4 week (1 bird per square foot) just add fresh bedding to wet dirty spots as needed. Use a water bottle or nipple system for water or it will be a disaster. Feeders should have holes that the birds have to stick their heads in to eat it they’ll waste a ton of feed. But we love ‘em! Enjoy!

 

[p4PaDuck]

Welcome to the world of quail!

Quail eggs aren't necessarily lower in bad cholesterol, but they are higher in good cholesterol. Preliminary research shows that they MAY help with allergies, but there is still a lot of research to be done.

I keep my quail on the ground, so I just hoe the poop under every two to three weeks and move them about once a quarter. If you keep the food and water on a brick or something, there is less mess, but never none.

As I said, I keep mine on the ground, so they don't have wire floors at all. If you do you mesh, you want 1/2" hardware cloth, and you want to make sure that nothing can reach up from underneath them to pull toes and feet off. EVERYTHING likes to eat quail.

1/4 cup equal one large chicken egg. This is about 4-5 quail eggs. Coturnix quail lay very regularly, so you will want to use that to calculate how many hens you need. If you just want eggs, you don't need males.

Here are some articles that may help you:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/categories/quail.32/

Here is my setup:

Thank you soo much!!!!

In your personal experience, when can you sex males from females when feather sexing? Wild type jumbo coturnix quail.

 

[p4PaDuck]

Lowering bad cholesterol via diet isn’t very effective in most cases though eating more fiber does seem to help, even if you eat less ‘bad’ cholesterol your liver can and will convert other molecules into ‘bad’ cholesterol so unless your liver is on board, dietary therapy is limited (I have genetic high cholesterol and can eat nothing but oats and flax and good fats but I’m still 100 points high). This is not a good reason to get quail. If you are allergic or sensitive to chicken eggs, quail can be a good option but if it is eggs in general (say albumin) then it will still be an issue.

The good news is you don’t need a reason to have quail. I hatched my first batch back in march and have been addicted ever since. It takes 3-5 quail eggs to equal one chicken egg so you’ll need to do the math for your families needs. They are also seasonal layers so you’ll need supplemental light for eggs in the winter. I bed with pine shavings inside the garage and sand outside in the hutch. We scoop the sand daily and cover the hutch before rain with a tarp. Pine shavings last 2-4 week (1 bird per square foot) just add fresh bedding to wet dirty spots as needed. Use a water bottle or nipple system for water or it will be a disaster. Feeders should have holes that the birds have to stick their heads in to eat it they’ll waste a ton of feed. But we love ‘em! Enjoy!

Thanks. For the cholesterol, does it work even a little bit?

The thing is… I just need a reason to get quail. Doesn’t have to be good!

 

[p4PaDuck]

Welcome to the world of quail!

Quail eggs aren't necessarily lower in bad cholesterol, but they are higher in good cholesterol. Preliminary research shows that they MAY help with allergies, but there is still a lot of research to be done.

I keep my quail on the ground, so I just hoe the poop under every two to three weeks and move them about once a quarter. If you keep the food and water on a brick or something, there is less mess, but never none.

As I said, I keep mine on the ground, so they don't have wire floors at all. If you do you mesh, you want 1/2" hardware cloth, and you want to make sure that nothing can reach up from underneath them to pull toes and feet off. EVERYTHING likes to eat quail.

1/4 cup equal one large chicken egg. This is about 4-5 quail eggs. Coturnix quail lay very regularly, so you will want to use that to calculate how many hens you need. If you just want eggs, you don't need males.

Here are some articles that may help you:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/categories/quail.32/

Here is my setup:

What do you do with the quail when you plant vegetables?

Where do you move them or do they get eaten?

Do you have quail roosters? What do you think about them?

 

[Nabiki]

Thank you soo much!!!!

In your personal experience, when can you sex males from females when feather sexing? Wild type jumbo coturnix quail.

Feather sexable, especially pharaoh (wild type) can be pretty reliably sexed at about 3 weeks.

 

[p4PaDuck]

Feather sexable, especially pharaoh (wild type) can be pretty reliably sexed at about 3 weeks.

Sweet thanks! What other color varieties are feather sexable

 

[Nabiki]

What do you do with the quail when you plant vegetables?

Where do you move them or do they get eaten?

Do you have quail roosters? What do you think about them?

I have 9 garden beds, 4 of which are occupied by quail. When I harvest, I move quail on to the harvested bed. I leave the bed they just left for a couple of months to compost down, then plant. They rotate through my beds.