Quitting quail.

[Tex452]

As much as I love hatching and raising them I decided to quit growing quail, I’m just too worn out to take care of them every night.
I thought I could have a market for live birds and the eggs, but it never materialized, even after I knocked the price down.
I was advertising very fertile jumbo brown eggs for $3/dozen and didn’t sell any, I was wanting $5/mature bird, $1/chick and $3.50/ half grown and sold 20 of the half grown ones.
Everyone wants them butchered, for $5/ but I can’t legally do that, so I threw in the towel.
I gave 97 this week including my breeder pens, I have 90 eggs hatching now and will give them away also, the guy said he might trade me for some guinea eggs this spring.
Feed is awful high.

 

[Susan Skylark]

I’m happy if mine pay for feed, that includes a $4 a week allowance for what I would otherwise pay for eating eggs! Unless you live in or near an urban area it can be hard to sell anything, we have 3000 people in our county and are 90 miles from the nearest town of 10000. It can be very hit and miss as well, people want birds when I don’t have them and when I do they end up in the freezer! $5 for a processed bird is ridiculous, that barely covers the cost of the bird let alone your time to process it. I’ve tried selling eggs on eBay too, after shipping and eBay fees I make $5 which isn’t much when I have to raise and process viable eggs and invest in significant packaging. We switched to a large group pen with deep litter, it has really made life easier than cleaning pens twice a month and has certainly reduced bedding costs. Sorry it hasn’t worked for you, they are as much pets as production animals for us. I thought we might phase them out when we got a golden pheasant, but while he’s cool, I like my mini farm and my quirky little knotheads, so much so I just bought more eggs…wish I had another breeder within 5 hours, but I have to ship them! Wishing you all the best but quail are an addiction, can you ever, truly quit? Cue evil laughter and tense music…

 

[Tex452]

I’m happy if mine pay for feed, that includes a $4 a week allowance for what I would otherwise pay for eating eggs! Unless you live in or near an urban area it can be hard to sell anything, we have 3000 people in our county and are 90 miles from the nearest town of 10000. It can be very hit and miss as well, people want birds when I don’t have them and when I do they end up in the freezer! $5 for a processed bird is ridiculous, that barely covers the cost of the bird let alone your time to process it. I’ve tried selling eggs on eBay too, after shipping and eBay fees I make $5 which isn’t much when I have to raise and process viable eggs and invest in significant packaging. We switched to a large group pen with deep litter, it has really made life easier than cleaning pens twice a month and has certainly reduced bedding costs. Sorry it hasn’t worked for you, they are as much pets as production animals for us. I thought we might phase them out when we got a golden pheasant, but while he’s cool, I like my mini farm and my quirky little knotheads, so much so I just bought more eggs…wish I had another breeder within 5 hours, but I have to ship them! Wishing you all the best but quail are an addiction, can you ever, truly quit? Cue evil laughter and tense music…

I’m going to keep hatching chickens and guineas, but I’m going to take a break for a while, I’m planning on retiring next year and maybe then I might start raising quail again.
I have put three people in the business though lol.
For free.