Question regarding space for quail

[DFCottage]

I am new to quail, but have had chickens for years. I decided to try my hand with these now, and will be receiving 50 eggs (4 different cortunix breeds) this week: Texas A&M, goldens, tuxedos, and tibetan. I'm mostly a white meat fan but wanted to try the others as well. My plan is to keep a few for breeders and process the rest when they're ready this fall. I picked up a nice used quail pen that has 2 doors in the back, wire floor, and sits about 3 1/2 ft off the ground. If split into 2 sections, they would be approximately 2'x3'. Would a breeding group of 4 quails be comfortable in there? I don't have a aviary or anything like that to put them in, but I also want them to be comfortable. I wouldn't mind just keeping/breeding 1 variety, in which case they could have the run of the entire pen (2'x6'). I also have another wire floored pen that is about the same size but has much more height to it. Both would give them security from wind/predators. I guess I could process a few of each variety first and see which meat I like better, but do you think given the space I have I could work with 1 or 2 varieties? Thanks for any assistance.

 

[animal8]

Well, by law you can keep 6-8 birds per square foot, but I think you'll agree that that's not really ideal. Generally, most people work by 1 square foot of space per bird, so if your enclosures are 2'x3', you'll have 6 square foot of space to work with, which I think would be plenty of space for 4 birds. I know someone who kept 5 Coturnix hens in a 2'x2.5' rabbit cage, and all of her birds got on fine and laid on a regular basis

 

[JJMR794]

I Hate To Disappoint You But You Do Realize No Coturnix Are White Meat Right?

 

[animal8]

Quote:
I was told by someone that Texas A&M were one of the breeds that had white meat

Is this not the case then?

 

[DFCottage]

The Texas A&M's are white meat.

 

[animal8]

Quote:
Phew, I thought this was the case

I prefer white meat as well; it's delicious

Think it has less flavour than dark meat, but I prefer it all the same. Does anyone have any good recipes for roasting quail? Still after a recipe to try. I was thinking of mixing together like chicken OXO (or other stock cubes), salt, pepper and some herbs, maybe a pinch of cloves, adding olive oil to the mix, spread onto the quail and roast it. How long would it take to cook in the oven? I was told 20-25 minutes for two quail. Not sure. Any ideas?

 

[Fat Daddy]

Quote:
Phew, I thought this was the case

I prefer white meat as well; it's delicious

Think it has less flavour than dark meat, but I prefer it all the same. Does anyone have any good recipes for roasting quail? Still after a recipe to try. I was thinking of mixing together like chicken OXO (or other stock cubes), salt, pepper and some herbs, maybe a pinch of cloves, adding olive oil to the mix, spread onto the quail and roast it. How long would it take to cook in the oven? I was told 20-25 minutes for two quail. Not sure. Any ideas?

Sorry but all coturnix are the same, none are white meat period!!! You've been lied too!!! the only difference is feather color and size. Once you pull their pajamas off, their all the same. The A&M's are sometimes advertised to be "white meat" birds. This is totally false. As a matter of fact, the white birds you are speaking of are likely just whte coturnix, as in English whites. The True Texas A&M birds have been watered down so much at this point I dont think you could rightfully call them the same birds. Coturnix are good eating birds, just not white meat. Bill

 

[gamebirdboy]

There is no coturnix with white meat. It's not gonna happen, someone lied to you just like they lied to me a good while back. I met some guy at a swap pedaling white meat birds that grow like cornish X's. After I raised those chicks I was upset that they were only 6-7.5 ounces live weight and had no white meat I ate them and got some quality eggs from a REAL breeder. Tons of people are confused by this and people claim they have white meat to sell more. All coturnix taste the same, period. If you still want to raise some for meat I would find a color sexable type such as Jumbo Browns or Goldens. They're all the same brees, there are just different color variations.

 

[animal8]

Quote:
Oh, okay

That shows me, I guess. I've never kept quail myself and even if I did, I don't think I would have the guts to kill them and do all the messy processing stuff. I'm a bit squeamish. I did wonder something about killing quail for meat, though. When I worked with chickens being reared on a farm for human consumption, we used to cull sick and injured chicks by breaking the back of the skull on a sharp edge. Quail aren't much bigger than the chicks we did this to, do you think the same method could apply to them? (Sorry for the bit of a gory topic).

 

[gamebirdboy]

It's much faster to use a sharp pair of scissors and let them bleed out. Sorry about the white meat thing, they're great little birds though.

And very addicting, they're is no known cure for this addiction.