Quail are not chickens!

[BastyPutt]

I wanted to throw this up here for anyone who, like me, a few months ago wandered to this forum and made a knee jerk decision that I needed to add some quails to the "farm" here.

I made an assumption "I've raised chickens for years! This should be a walk in the park." ....... wrong. In most things it may be nuance, but it seems like at every turn I want to make a progressive change of some sort, and when I look into it, it is a different procedure than it would be with a chicken chick. The entire life cycle and general purpose of a quail is different than a chicken - having realistic goals is important.

Don't get me wrong, I am really enjoying them. But had I not stopped myself multiple times to this point (and they are only two weeks old) I would have easily killed the whole covey (not a flock ) I almost think it would have been easier to not have raised any poultry prior than to have some established habits.

Do thorough research and make sure you assume you have no knowledge of anything prior to, and also that you have set goals for what you want out of them.

 

[Theorrin]

I wanted to throw this up here for anyone who, like me, a few months ago wandered to this forum and made a knee jerk decision that I needed to add some quails to the "farm" here.

I made an assumption "I've raised chickens for years! This should be a walk in the park." ....... wrong. In most things it may be nuance, but it seems like at every turn I want to make a progressive change of some sort, and when I look into it, it is a different procedure than it would be with a chicken chick. The entire life cycle and general purpose of a quail is different than a chicken - having realistic goals is important.

Don't get me wrong, I am really enjoying them. But had I not stopped myself multiple times to this point (and they are only two weeks old) I would have easily killed the whole covey (not a flock ) I almost think it would have been easier to not have raised any poultry prior than to have some established habits.

Do thorough research and make sure you assume you have no knowledge of anything prior to, and also that you have set goals for what you want out of them.

same with me when i got guinea lol

 

[BastyPutt]

same with me when i got guinea lol

Yeah, I suppose I didn't learn my lesson with guineas I absolutley despise them, but despise even more how much I need them here in terms of bug control. Love hate to say the least.

 

[Nabiki]

Thank you for saying this! I have said this so many times in my head. I'm glad that you're taking the time to learn about them.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Thank you for sharing this. After having raised chickens for 12 years now, along with raising other poultry (for a year on some, many years on others) such as geese, ducks, turkeys, and Guinea fowl, I've been seriously tempted to get into quail and know someone who may be willing to get me started. The person has gone over some of the basics of quail with me, but I'd like to hear some of the hard things you've learned from raising yours. (Maybe it'll help be decide if I should really take on a few of those adorable birds with males who make awesome sounds. )

 

[BastyPutt]

Thank you for sharing this. After having raised chickens for 12 years now, along with raising other poultry (for a year on some, many years on others) such as geese, ducks, turkeys, and Guinea fowl, I've been seriously tempted to get into quail and know someone who may be willing to get me started. The person has gone over some of the basics of quail with me, but I'd like to hear some of the hard things you've learned from raising yours. (Maybe it'll help be decide if I should really take on a few of those adorable birds with males who make awesome sounds. )

Sure, I'd be happy to.

First and foremost is the gender structure. Aside from fertilizing hens, a rooster has no earthly purpose to the covey. A chicken rooster can provide protection, establish a pecking order, etc. a quail rooster is similar to a drone honey bee, they just exist in order to further the species.

At most the you can have one rooster to 4 hens. If the ratio is less, they will overbreed and can even kill the incredibly valuable hens.

With those two things said, you can generally either get hatching eggs, or straight run chicks (hard to find). So we will assume 50% are roosters. Of that 50%, you can only keep 25% if you want a sustainable covey. In the event you hatched 100 quail (w/ the 50/50 assumption) this leaves you with around 60 quail in your covey, and 40 roosters that you or someone else will butcher, or that you will feed out the rest of their short life.

The moral of the first story - you must be okay with butchering and eating your quail, or know someone who will. And before you think you can, finding someone to buy the roosters on Craigslist is just as difficult. It isn't like an ornamental chicken rooster. Anyone who you would think would buy them, most likely has a lot of their own to deal with.

- next - you can't just easily crack an egg. You need a special pair of scissors.

- they can "fly" at 2 weeks old. Your brooder MUST be covered. I spent an hour and a half this weekend chasing a dang cortunix quail for what amounted to 3 miles, until I finally caught it, after it jumped out of the brooder.

- you need to grind their food, or make a mash of it for atlesst the first week. We lost 2 birds to not grinding.

- you must have something to keep them out of the food, or they will kick it out in a matter of
Minutes. This includes the typical chick feeder with the holes on top. Never seen anything like a quail throwing that food out. A mayo jar with holes drilled in it, and 1" pvc elbows is what I finally came up with and works good. Similar to a chicken port feeder.

- they are really difficult to monitor for any kind of ailment. With chicken chicks they are very telling when something is wrong because they just kind of walk around. A quail is like a bolt of lighting. We had one that somehow got a small string around its foot. Even within the brooder, I started getting dizzy trying to catch it. When it walked, it limped a bit. But at full speed it was difficult to differentiate from the rest.

- and last but not least is the habitat. I am going to be doing an aviary and it is absolutely nothing like a chicken coop. I see why a lot of folks settle on battery type cages. Furnishing the aviary is night a day. Id comment more, but I'm still trying to figure it out.

 

[Lacy Duckwing]

Sure, I'd be happy to.

First and foremost is the gender structure. Aside from fertilizing hens, a rooster has no earthly purpose to the covey. A chicken rooster can provide protection, establish a pecking order, etc. a quail rooster is similar to a drone honey bee, they just exist in order to further the species.

At most the you can have one rooster to 4 hens. If the ratio is less, they will overbreed and can even kill the incredibly valuable hens.

With those two things said, you can generally either get hatching eggs, or straight run chicks (hard to find). So we will assume 50% are roosters. Of that 50%, you can only keep 25% if you want a sustainable covey. In the event you hatched 100 quail (w/ the 50/50 assumption) this leaves you with around 60 quail in your covey, and 40 roosters that you or someone else will butcher, or that you will feed out the rest of their short life.

The moral of the first story - you must be okay with butchering and eating your quail, or know someone who will. And before you think you can, finding someone to buy the roosters on Craigslist is just as difficult. It isn't like an ornamental chicken rooster. Anyone who you would think would buy them, most likely has a lot of their own to deal with.

- next - you can't just easily crack an egg. You need a special pair of scissors.

- they can "fly" at 2 weeks old. Your brooder MUST be covered. I spent an hour and a half this weekend chasing a dang cortunix quail for what amounted to 3 miles, until I finally caught it, after it jumped out of the brooder.

- you need to grind their food, or make a mash of it for atlesst the first week. We lost 2 birds to not grinding.

- you must have something to keep them out of the food, or they will kick it out in a matter of
Minutes. This includes the typical chick feeder with the holes on top. Never seen anything like a quail throwing that food out. A mayo jar with holes drilled in it, and 1" pvc elbows is what I finally came up with and works good. Similar to a chicken port feeder.

- they are really difficult to monitor for any kind of ailment. With chicken chicks they are very telling when something is wrong because they just kind of walk around. A quail is like a bolt of lighting. We had one that somehow got a small string around its foot. Even within the brooder, I started getting dizzy trying to catch it. When it walked, it limped a bit. But at full speed it was difficult to differentiate from the rest.

- and last but not least is the habitat. I am going to be doing an aviary and it is absolutely nothing like a chicken coop. I see why a lot of folks settle on battery type cages. Furnishing the aviary is night a day. Id comment more, but I'm still trying to figure it out.

Thank you so much for all of this information! It is very helpful!

 

[eddie_van_quailen]

Thanks for writing this! Great information for anyone considering quail as an alternative to chickens. They are definitely not just quieter, smaller chickens! I started with coturnix because CA Valley quail are my ultimate goal and coturnix are a bit more beginner-friendly. But thankfully I knew going in that they have very different needs than chickens. And the complex rooster problem is why I have not started incubating yet... my fiancé and I have started discussing it, but I'm still hesitant, because you're absolutely right it's a different level of flock (covey) management responsibility.

 

[Oob Child]

I got quail because I live in coastal Sydney and didn't have space for chickens! Although quail seem to be a bit dumber, i still enjoy keeping them. I keep them for pets and for eggs, but they haven't given me any yet as they are only 4 weeks old. I currently have three, two females and one male, but I'm planning on getting more!

 

[BastyPutt]

I got quail because I live in coastal Sydney and didn't have space for chickens! Although quail seem to be a bit dumber, i still enjoy keeping them. I keep them for pets and for eggs, but they haven't given me any yet as they are only 4 weeks old. I currently have three, two females and one male, but I'm planning on getting more!

We have a small farm stand here, and the quail population is zilch in our area. We are super excited to offer quail eating eggs. That and generally adding another sustainable food source here is a very exciting prospect.