New to the quail questions.

[joe125]

Quote:
That depends on what you want. If you are raising large meat birds, then keep the largest birds. If there is a particular color, then pick the best of the color you like. Don't over cull roos, and keep some spares if you have the space for them.
Though the younger the bird the more tender they are, but coturnix don't get tough like chickens as they age. There is little difference in a 10 week old and a 10 month old.

 

[TheRealTimShady]

Quote:
That depends on what you want. If you are raising large meat birds, then keep the largest birds. If there is a particular color, then pick the best of the color you like. Don't over cull roos, and keep some spares if you have the space for them.
Though the younger the bird the more tender they are, but coturnix don't get tough like chickens as they age. There is little difference in a 10 week old and a 10 month old.

true!


keep the ones you like, cull the others...that simple

 

[Stellar]

Rule of thumb on my ranch, keep a couple spare males in case of breeding issues, hormonal issues (nasty male), or if a predator gets one. I do this with all my birds. You never know when a second boy may come handy

 

[rittert3]

So quail lady can you keep the "spares" in a cage togather with out to much fighting? Do they need to be where they can't see the girls to help cut back agression or will they just, as jj put it, subscribe to prison loven, and beat each other up anyway.

 

[CapricornFarm]

ok, my turn for a question. Right now I have 24 coturnix from the hatch along , hatched mid Sept. I am building a breeder pen with two compartments, each side is 4'x4'. I figure I will need to get rid of at least a quarter of them since it will be too many males. Do I need more pen space or is this sufficient?

 

[rittert3]

Well by sq footage, if you allow 1sq.ft. per bird you could have 32 (16 in each pen) with the proper sex ratio.

ETA: 1 square foot per bird seems to be the recomended space for adult coturnix.

 

[joe125]

Quote:
Yes, this can't be stressed enough my friend! Especially for small flocks. Anyone can be one nasty roo/hen beat down of a roo/head boinking incident/predator loss of a roo, and be rooless! It can also help with genetic diversity.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Thanks , now what is the proper ratio females to males?

 

[joe125]

Quote:
The text book answer is 1 roo to 4-5 hens, but it can be fudged.

 

[CapricornFarm]

Thanks, so at six weeks I sex them , put the females in the two pens and then figure out what males to keep and cook the rest. Perfect, thanksgiving quail. :-D