Need to cull 11 quail But wife won't let me.

[Champion]

I have 11 to many boys and I'd like to eat them but my wife sees them as pets... anyone have any advice that could help me change her mind? Also this will be my first time butchering anything so I'm a bit apprehensive about it myself.

 

[quailkids14]

Good luck. We are hatching georgia giant bobwhite quails. Maybe if you explain to her that they are raised as food because they are naturally a wild bird. And if you are not going to eat them they should be released into the wild where they can be food for another animal. I have explained to my whole family that we are raising the quail as a food. We will eat the meat of males if there are too many and the eggs from the female's that we will not be hatching.

 

[Bryam]

Well, it sounds like a good plan! No reason to keep so many males! Hatch several more males than females seems to be very normal when raising birds, chickens, quail, etc.

 

[Invision]

Bacon wrapped mmmmmhhmmm good.

Just tell her their going to kill each other anyways. May not be for a while but when the mating starts going down they will get mean...

 

[Champion]

Thanks everyone, I told her they won't survive in the wild and it would be more humane to cull them ourselves. She has seen them fighting with her own eyes so she knows we can't keep them.

She agreed to let a friend of ours Butcher them. I gave him the birds and told him to give me the meat from 3 and he could keep the other 8 for his trouble.

Next time I want to do it myself because we are missing out on a lot of meat by letting others do it. She still says she will not eat the meat but I'm hoping she will change her mind after she tries some.

 

[quailkids14]

I have read that quail meat is alkaline and can hear cure or at least help symptoms of many diseases.

 

[James the Bald]

If you want to process your own birds, click here. There are 2 videos that are to the point.
James

 

[James the Bald]

I have read that quail meat is alkaline and can hear cure or at least help symptoms of many diseases.

Don't tell me that.... I'll start having them for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
James

 

[Sid Post]

Confusing livestock with "pets" is a problem that often comes up because people aren't clear about why they are buying their animals and generally haven't done their research about the animals and breeds in question.

In your case, too many males in one "cage" will fight and kill each other so, do you want to dispose of their dead bodies or eat them while they are still tasty?

Or, do you want to become a bird "hoarder"?

All it takes is a bunch of cages to keep them separate so they don't kill each other.

How any "pet" quail does one really need anyway?

No offense intended but, I see this issue pretty frequently with hobby farmers/ranchers and suburban'ites. Oh, its cute (kittens, birds, goats, etc.).... Can I keep him/her? Months later, what to do when they are causing problems?

It is just like watching a Disney movie and running out to buy that Dalmatian or whatever fad pet is on the big screen. It rarely ends well.

I showed steers in high school. I never had any illusion they would die of old age in a nice serene pasture. Sure, I treated them like pets, brushed, washed, walked, etc. them everyday. I carried warm buckets of water to them in the winter and many other similar things to make their lives better. When the show circuit ended for them, they were butchered. No if's and's or but's about it. They were livestock, and not breeding stock at that. My heifers made it to the pasture though and lived a good quality of life (as long as the gave birth to calves

). The "soft hearted" in my family could choose not to eat meat but me, I loved every bite of my "pet" steers because I put the effort in to making them the best tasting beef I possibly could.

 

[Champion]

The quials are kept in a room of my barn, it's a pretty big area with wood shavings. (using the deep litter method) I am doing a 3:1 female to male ratio and had 11 to many. I never intended for these to be my pets but I do care about them.

My wife just can't stand the thought of butchering anything even though she has no problem buying chicken from the grocery store.

In the end the birds were culled and she even tried some of it.