Processing age

[SandraMort]

I know chicken gets tough after a certain age. When does the window for tender meat end with coturnix?

 

[JJMR794]

Nope, Least Ways Not That I Have Ever Noticed

 

[joe125]

There may be a "Flavor" window, but pen raised coturnix don't get Tough.

The first rule of coturnix club is....We don't talk about chicken, duck, goose, Zambian gutter snipe club!!!

Coturnix are coturnix! Nothing more.

 

[SandraMort]

LOL! I was only mentioning the C word because I knew they weren't the same and didn't want to make any assumptions.

What do you mean by flavor window? The reason I ask is that I don't know if I want to keep my quail over the winter. If I start them now and they're born early may, and process my hens in December, they'll be seven months old. Will this be problematic?

Knowing one way or another will affect how likely I am to overwinter the majority of them. My garage gets really cold, so I'd probably have to move the setup indoors for the winter. My sunroom isn't heated, so gets chilly, but the garage may as well be outdoors in upstate NY. But I have only a small space to devote to them, so I don't know if I can keep a LOT of birds inside. (Yes, it's putting the cart before the horse, I just like to have the kinks worked out in advance)

Thanks!!!!
Sandra

 

[joe125]

Quote:

First off, as long as your garage/outbuilding/free standing pens don't get much below 10deg. F. It is not to cold for adult coturnix in the winter. You won't get max egg production, even with lights, but they will survive.

The "flavor" window is more of a visual thing. I have eaten 10 week old birds, and 3 year old birds, and I can't really tell the difference as far as taste goes, but a dime will get you a dollar: some joker on this board will come up with some explanation as to why this age bird, or this feather colored bird tastes better. They probably have pictures to prove it..

I digress....

Coturnix generally taste like coturnix. No matter what age/feather color they are, and they don't really get tough with age.

 

[SandraMort]

Quote:
Yeah, it'll get colder than that where I live. I've got an unheated sunroom, though, which is cold but nowhere near that cold. I think I'll be keeping them in there from the beginning due to problems with the neighbors. It may be legal with a license, but they file enough complaints about my kids' toys (which are definitely legal!!!) that I don't need to give them more ammo against me.

I have eaten 10 week old birds, and 3 year old birds, and I can't really tell the difference as far as taste goes... <snip>
Coturnix generally taste like coturnix. No matter what age/feather color they are, and they don't really get tough with age.

Fantastic, just what I needed to know

Thanks!​

 

[MobyQuail]

1. may I ask, a general age when coturnix quail have attained close to full weight?- opinions please. is there an optimum window for cost/growth of coturnix quail? 6-8 weeks? 12-16 weeks?

note- I am thinking about someone typing a search term into google and being directed to this page, we have alot of good info here.

as there are many factors, and aside from culling, I will be using the judge (scale) to tell us when to send them to freezer camp. I know I picked up one of my 7 girls the other day and she felt like a softball- I smiled, I got hungry.

We have 50 more coming, my friend has a trailer/smoker, the balance that do not make breeder pen are going to be processed and smoked.