Quail giveaway or harvest

[410farmer]

I’ve read that it takes around 2.5-3.3 pounds of feed to get a quail to slaughter size. I pay .36 cents a pound for feed. I have way to many males even for my fairly large enclosure and nobody wants my males. I think I have atleast 17-20 males that need to go. They are 4 weeks so the ones that aren’t feather sexable I’ve only seen one call. So could be potentially 4-7 more. I wouldn’t have enough feeezer space for all of them and I may have a couple friends I could give some to. So would I be better off just trying to give away these males or feed them for another 2-4 weeks. I’ve never had this many quail so the rate the feed is going is a lot to me. I’ve sold 60$ worth of chicks so far so that’s 3 bags of feed.

 

[Nabiki]

It's up to you. I usually slaughter my extra boys at 6-8 weeks. They could get a bit larger, but by that age, they are big enough and starting to cause trouble by fighting each other and stressing the girls.

 

[NY Coturnix]

I did 4 roo's over the weekend. 3 that were around 9 weeks and one that was 4 months. Once I was done i couldn't tell the difference in size. The 3 were extra's that I had kept in a grow out pen and the other was housed with 6 hens and another roo but the hen's were getting a little roughed up so my wife said I had to lose one. I was kind of surprised that they really didn't get any larger. I know some do it at 6 weeks but I do think you'd see a little more meat waiting 2 more weeks. Just my opinion though. If you need the space or their fighting you have to do what you have to do.

 

[FloorCandy]

Maybe try killing them as you can consume them until they are larger?

 

[410farmer]

Thanks y’all, my friend says he will help me process them and will take 6-8 processed ones. So I’ll do half at 6 weeks and see how things go from there. They are in a 8x10 pen it’s about 45 of them in there now

 

[Ebony Rose]

At 6 to 8 weeks is customary to process your excess quail cocks. Past 8 weeks of age, they will not appreciably increase in size. Unlike chickens, You can also process any elderly quail hens (6 to 9 months), and they'll be just as tender as an 8 week old. Replace your 'spent' hens with younger birds.

 

[410farmer]

I did 4 roo's over the weekend. 3 that were around 9 weeks and one that was 4 months. Once I was done i couldn't tell the difference in size. The 3 were extra's that I had kept in a grow out pen and the other was housed with 6 hens and another roo but the hen's were getting a little roughed up so my wife said I had to lose one. I was kind of surprised that they really didn't get any larger. I know some do it at 6 weeks but I do think you'd see a little more meat waiting 2 more weeks. Just my opinion though. If you need the space or their fighting you have to do what you have to do.

Im going to try and get a close count of the female/male ratio for the ones I can feather sex. If they aren’t fighting at 6 weeks ill only do a couple and wait it out and compare the weights