New to ths whole thing....yet another newbie thread

[sajimnkim]

Greetings. I read all the threads on newbie stuff I could find. I read most of the sticky threads. I've seen so much YouTube stuff, that I've personally supported a good number of channels (while neglecting my own....).

So, as with anything, I may have over studied this whole thing. I owned chickens previously, by trading for them. Never expected to actually own them, but hey, sometimes the push is just right to not actually make you fall over, but instead gives you the kinetic energy you need to go. They were fun, but several moves caused us not to have any for a while.

We bought this place with enough land to specifically have chickens, and have been here 4 years now....with no chickens. We did get a dog though; she is a beautiful Irish Setter, which of course loves birds. The proposed chicken yard is surrounded by dog yard, both fenced. Not wanting to feed the dog naturally, has led to the non-purchase of said chickens.

That leads me to quail. I have a 1.5 car detached shop on the property. It's been great for hobbies and storage. As the apocalypse has now begun ;-), I may be late to the party as usual, but I have cleared out about 30-50 square feet in the shop to house quail. At this point I have nothing but an idea of yummy eggs, fresh meat, and maybe a small business, but mostly just a small home quail farm idea. I've also taken the last year or so since beginning to think of all this, to finally get my family on board with the idea, mostly. They did like the chickens when we had them.

I do have a small budget to start ($400 US), so I won't be buying any GQF stuff, or even the very nice looking Hatchingtime cages that would seem to fit perfectly into what I want to do anytime soon. I am quite handy though, and can build a house if I needed to.

OK Internet, flail away with your best advice. I'm in Richmond, Virginia.

How did you get started small?
I would be open to mail order, but Lord knows I don't need 1000 eggs to start with! Where do I buy hatching eggs?
What incubator, turner, and brooder did you use when you were first starting and there was no cash to invest?
Where does everyone find all their used stuff? (I've searched Craigslist a ton, and come up empty, unless I want to have a 3 day road trip.)
What breed will survive if I decide to get bigger and keep them outside?
After spending hours on YouTube and the net, with tons of information......where does one actually start?

Thanks.

 

[Alwaysfowlplay]

I’m also new so not sure I can be of much help. My eggs are on Day 2 in the incubator lol. But I got a magicfly incubator on Amazon, I was between that and a Brinsea mini II advanced. But I could fit slightly more quail in the Magicfly without a special insert and it was half the price with pretty good results so I went for that. I ordered eggs from Kansas City Quail Farm, they had good reviews and I had seen them recommended with people having good hatching rates. They were packed wonderfully, eggs ship out the week after you order them generally. You can order as little as 15 eggs and they have multiple types, priority shipping is included. I ordered 15 eggs and I’ll be happy if I get a roo and a few hens out of it, just so I can continue to breed and incubate more. We are building the cages from Coturnix Corner on YouTube that have roll away bottoms so that the eggs come to the front for easy collection. You could look into making your own incubator, people have great success and it can be very cost effective.

 

[Quailobsessed]

I haven't actually bought eggs from here, but a lot of others have had success with Myshire Farm.

 

[mdees88]

How many eggs do you want per day?

Jumbo coturnix quail is what you want. Myshire farm is one of the better places to order hatching eggs. James Marie Farms bloodline birds are good birds but ordering directly from them tends to be quite a hassle.

That is a relatively small budget considering you're starting with nothing but it is definitely enough to get started, especially if you're handy. And you can really see if quail are for you without dropping a grand on them.

Cages: If kept indoors you will want battery style stacked cages with roll out egg trays. You will have to remove the dropping trays and clean them very regularly. I would build freestanding cages so you can take them outside and hose them down periodically. You should be able to build a battery style stacking cage for less than $200, probably closer to $100. My first cage was built with a metal pan to catch the droppings and I intended to keep it in my shop. Well that lasted 1 week, lol. quail are poop machines and I got tired of the smell and continually cleaning the dropping tray. So I moved them outside and have no regrets.

Here was my first cage design...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/diy-quail-cage-1-0.1231344/
If you keep them outside you can build one level cages and let the poop drop on the ground, much lower maintenance. Quail are very cold hardy and keep well outside. In the 90+ degree summer heat I give them water pans to stand in and cool off. I mist them with the water hose occasionally too.

Feeder: Biggest expense of keeping quail is feeding them. Quail are messy eaters and most feeders waste 1/3 of the feed you put in them. Having a good feeder will save you money. A good no waste feeder for small battery cages can be made out of a tupperware container and some pvc 90 degree elbows. The only issue with this feeder is it is inside the cage so it reduces the floor space. Here's a video of what I'm talking about.

I found a couple designs online and combined them when I built my feeders. They work great on single level cages but I'm not sure they would work in stacked cages. Here's what I use....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/diy-no-waste-quail-feeder.1232052/
Water: If keeping them outside chicken nipples are the way to go. If you have a lot of freezing weather the nipples will freeze up even if the water supply is heated, so I've heard. Some people use horizontal nipples and I heard they do not freeze up if the water supply is heated, I bought some but haven't tried them yet. I use vertical nipples and they are fed from a 2 gallon bucket. Inside the bucket is a float valve connected to a water hose. This way I have an unlimited water supply and I never have to add water. I explained how I built my waterer in my cage build....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/diy-quail-cage-2-0.1231366/
If keeping them inside, I think a lot of people use the cups and they are gravity fed by a bucket. You can use the same float valve in the bucket to keep it topped off but if the valve leaks you will leak water out of the bucket into your shop. Probably best to manually fill the bucket periodically.


Incubator: Keeping the budget in mind I think the best idea would be to buy a used forced air styrofoam incubator and use it to hatch your first couple batches of birds to get your egg layers going. You will need a separate thermometer hygrometer to verify the accuracy of the one in the incubator. You can also build an incubator using a cooler for very cheap, usually around $80, most expensive part will be the egg turner.

Then down the road a ways, if you like the quail and have people wanting to buy them you can build or buy a used cabinet incubator. A cabinet incubator would be ideal for the extra egg capacity, if you decide to start selling some quail. You can buy used ones for around $300 but you can build them for fairly cheap. Again the most expensive part is going to be the egg turners. Should be able to build one for around $150 but I still recommend buying a used GQF cabinet down the road if you stick with the quail.

Brooder: I built a couple brooders out of 55 gallon totes from home depot and they work well. I have about $50 in them. I am currently brooding 40 quail in each. They are now 1 week old. I do a deep litter method and add shavings to it several times a day. 40 is a little tight to get to 2 weeks old, 20 each is pretty ideal. You can build a brooder similar to your battery cages with 1/4" wire floor and a dropping pan. Since you'll already be cleaning dropping pans in your other cages you can do the same with it. Here's how I built mine and you can use the same bulbs and dimmer switch in a wooden brooder with a wire floor....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/diy-storage-tote-quail-chick-brooder.1247747/

Facebook marketplace and craigslist are good sources for used stuff.....

 

[sajimnkim]

Sooooo....can you do the whole process outside? If I want to keep the shop for humans? Other than hatching and brooding?

 

[mdees88]

Where do you live? What kind of predators do you have? You can definitely keep them outside. Just have to deal with predators, freezing water supply, extreme heat, etc. If you're going to keep the outside I would recommend not doing stacking cages so all the poop can fall on the ground...

 

[sajimnkim]

Richmond VA, as per the OP. I've owned chickens when I lived just north of ATL, GA.

Yeah, I guess I just have to go do it.

 

[awscwi]

How many eggs do you want per day?

Jumbo coturnix quail is what you want. Myshire farm is one of the better places to order hatching eggs. James Marie Farms bloodline birds are good birds but ordering directly from them tends to be quite a hassle.

That is a relatively small budget considering you're starting with nothing but it is definitely enough to get started, especially if you're handy. And you can really see if quail are for you without dropping a grand on them.

Cages: If kept indoors you will want battery style stacked cages with roll out egg trays. You will have to remove the dropping trays and clean them very regularly. I would build freestanding cages so you can take them outside and hose them down periodically. You should be able to build a battery style stacking cage for less than $200, probably closer to $100. My first cage was built with a metal pan to catch the droppings and I intended to keep it in my shop. Well that lasted 1 week, lol. quail are poop machines and I got tired of the smell and continually cleaning the dropping tray. So I moved them outside and have no regrets.

Here was my first cage design...

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/diy-quail-cage-1-0.1231344/
If you keep them outside you can build one level cages and let the poop drop on the ground, much lower maintenance. Quail are very cold hardy and keep well outside. In the 90+ degree summer heat I give them water pans to stand in and cool off. I mist them with the water hose occasionally too.

Feeder: Biggest expense of keeping quail is feeding them. Quail are messy eaters and most feeders waste 1/3 of the feed you put in them. Having a good feeder will save you money. A good no waste feeder for small battery cages can be made out of a tupperware container and some pvc 90 degree elbows. The only issue with this feeder is it is inside the cage so it reduces the floor space. Here's a video of what I'm talking about.

I found a couple designs online and combined them when I built my feeders. They work great on single level cages but I'm not sure they would work in stacked cages. Here's what I use....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/diy-no-waste-quail-feeder.1232052/
Water: If keeping them outside chicken nipples are the way to go. If you have a lot of freezing weather the nipples will freeze up even if the water supply is heated, so I've heard. Some people use horizontal nipples and I heard they do not freeze up if the water supply is heated, I bought some but haven't tried them yet. I use vertical nipples and they are fed from a 2 gallon bucket. Inside the bucket is a float valve connected to a water hose. This way I have an unlimited water supply and I never have to add water. I explained how I built my waterer in my cage build....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/diy-quail-cage-2-0.1231366/
If keeping them inside, I think a lot of people use the cups and they are gravity fed by a bucket. You can use the same float valve in the bucket to keep it topped off but if the valve leaks you will leak water out of the bucket into your shop. Probably best to manually fill the bucket periodically.


Incubator: Keeping the budget in mind I think the best idea would be to buy a used forced air styrofoam incubator and use it to hatch your first couple batches of birds to get your egg layers going. You will need a separate thermometer hygrometer to verify the accuracy of the one in the incubator. You can also build an incubator using a cooler for very cheap, usually around $80, most expensive part will be the egg turner.

Then down the road a ways, if you like the quail and have people wanting to buy them you can build or buy a used cabinet incubator. A cabinet incubator would be ideal for the extra egg capacity, if you decide to start selling some quail. You can buy used ones for around $300 but you can build them for fairly cheap. Again the most expensive part is going to be the egg turners. Should be able to build one for around $150 but I still recommend buying a used GQF cabinet down the road if you stick with the quail.

Brooder: I built a couple brooders out of 55 gallon totes from home depot and they work well. I have about $50 in them. I am currently brooding 40 quail in each. They are now 1 week old. I do a deep litter method and add shavings to it several times a day. 40 is a little tight to get to 2 weeks old, 20 each is pretty ideal. You can build a brooder similar to your battery cages with 1/4" wire floor and a dropping pan. Since you'll already be cleaning dropping pans in your other cages you can do the same with it. Here's how I built mine and you can use the same bulbs and dimmer switch in a wooden brooder with a wire floor....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/diy-storage-tote-quail-chick-brooder.1247747/

Facebook marketplace and craigslist are good sources for used stuff.....

Great info for us newbies! Thanks alot!!

 

[Joe q]

Loudounberry Farms in Leesburg Va. also sells day old peeps and fertile eggs